Slave CD-R works, Master CD-Rom doesn't

[samphire]

I have no idea what could be causing this problem: I have a CD-Rom set as Secondary Master and a CD-R as the Secondary Slave. Yet, when all I want to do is surf and listen to a CD using the master device, the sound distorts - it slows down to the point where it sounds the PC can't handle doing both tasks. Bizarrely the slave device has no such problems.

I've tried changing cables; I've tried putting in a completely different CD Drive - to rule out a fault with the player itself - but I keep getting the same problem with the master drive.

I've also tried disconnecting the slave, and letting the master drive have the whole IDE 2 channel to itself, but still no joy.

This is fairly recent problem - it used to work just fine.

I'm running XP on an Athlon 1.4 and I have a gig of Ram.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Liquidlen]

You state that everything worked fine before. Before what? Did you change anthing ,add sotware,upgrade, etc. Are the cd roms older? BTW do you mean cd-rw ?Are there any error messages in Device manager,Event viewer?
Are your DMA settings correct for the drives?
Check the master slave settings on the back of the drives. You definitely need more info.
Good luck

 

[XtR-X]

How's your power supply? What size? I don't know... maybe it can't handle a new load from another CD ROM.

 

[KA3]

i would suggest checking the jumpers on the back of the drive, as well as updating drivers for the cd-rom and checking the device manager for any conflicts with the drive. good luck samphire.

 

[Tartuffe]

Hey, I don't know if you tried this yet, but setting up the CD writer as Secondary Master and CD-ROM as Primary Slave is usually the recommended configuration for these drives. However, I don't think it would cause the problem you're having. I'd immediately suspect a RAM issue, but with a gig of it, I can't see that being the cause. If you've followed all the leads so far, and they all sound helpful, I can only come up with a few suggestions. Have you updated the player itself? Is your player looking for CD information on the web as you surf? Is your connection slow?

 

[Rick]

Are you setting the drives to DMA mode in Windows? This is very important and could be the cause of your problems.