IDE CD Rom SetUp

[Greymack]

Hi

A While back i asked about setting up my IDE CD rom & writer. I had always used Scsi and was a little unsure how to get the best out of my new IDE set-up.
I was given a lot of good advice and in the end i went with both CD roms on the same cable with the writer as master (I don't do on the fly copying)
But i am still have the same problem i had when i tried putting my cd roms on different cables. Whenever i install a piece of software my pc is unusable it practically locks up until the software is finished installing.
Is this the norm when installing using an ide set up? or is there something i have forgot to do, any help would most appreciated.

Thx

[crossedup]

If you dont do on the fly copying as you said you should be fine.

That does sound abnormal, have you checked to see if you have the latest IDE drivers? Sounds like that might be more an issue here.

If a VIA chipset. http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=300

Post back with o/s and some specs or link to the other thread your referring to so everyone can be on the same page when trying to help.

[Comage]

I did do on-the-fly when I had both writer and cdrom on the same cable, and it did work for me. However it was a very risky process. Couldn't do much work (that would take up alot of CPU or HDD resources), otherwise it would give me a buffer underrun msg (my writer didn't have buffer underrun protection).

By both your optical drives on different cables, I'm presuming that you're chaining one optical drive (cdrom?) with your hard drive. If that's the case, when you try to install any software off the cdrom, of course the hard disk would run slower (possibly slower until a stage where your system practically locks up until everything's finished installing).

[Greymack]

I had the hard drive and cd rom on the same cable but i was getting the slow down so i changed it after getting the advice from the forum so i now have 2 ide cables 1 has the hard drive solely on it the other has the cd writer (master) and cd reader (slave) and i'm still getting slow down when accessing the cd' roms.
It's an MSI delta K7N2 motherboard with the Nforce 2 chipset

[rmanet]

your system shouldn't be slowing when you use one or the other

my pc is unusable it practically locks up until the software is finished installing

obviously installing a program you'll get the typical message to shut down any unnecessary apps running in the background, and you should let it install then go on and do whatever else you want but....

you're saying that anytime you pop something in the cd drives the systems slows - what does that mean, your mouse moves slow, can't tab from one program to another, opening a new program takes a long time?

I'm with crossed up - it could be either your IDE drivers, or your drives may need to be jumpered differently (sounds like you've done that) - maybe try a new IDE cable on the cd and burner? I had a similar problem and had grabbed (got a box full of 'em) an IDE cable that was bad, or wasn't even 80 pin (can't remember)

good luck - let us know :t