DMA drops to multi-read2

[Chewy]

A friend with similar problems always ignored the master rule of connecting to the end of the cable, he said it didn't matter, he even had the cable reversed a time or two.

I always play these out by the book

[rago88]

well,
I'm wondering if the day my heatsink fan crapped out,
and my CPU performance was maxed out at 100% and all red,
[the PC shut down on it's own during middle of a burn at that time also]
that I may have fried some of those 80 wires in the connector?

[ed klein]

@Chewy

The IDE cable master and slave connections are connected in parallel, meaning each connection gets the same voltage across the plus and minus leads which is 12 volts.

The standard rule book says the end connection on the IDE cable is the master location and the middle connection is the slave connection.

Just connecting one optical unit won't make any electrical difference. Connecting two units (master and slave) draws twice the current and has the potential of slowing down the speed of the units on low end computer units.

[ed klein]

@rago88

Im I understanding correctly, you are putting two Plextor 716A, IDE connection, optical burners on the same computer?

I would think you would have conflicts, especially when it comes to firmware updates. With Plextor web-site, firmware updates to your desktop, and then execute the firmware update. The firmware update from Plextor doesn't know which Plextor to update, one or both.

Even if you had one 716A IDE model and one 716SA sata model, the firmware update is the same and I would think that would cause conflicts.

Even if one Plextor is on the primary IDE cable and the other Plextor is on the secondary IDE cable I see a potential for conflicts.

[Chewy]

The standard rule book says the end connection on the IDE cable is the master location and the middle connection is the slave connection.

my friend would reverse this and tell me it didn't matter

I charged him a retainer fee the last time he asked for help, he paid it

2 units on the same power lead has the potential to draw the available voltage down below the minimum

[ed klein]

@Chewy,

Yes, just like you said you want to maintain the rated voltage of the optical units at 12 volts at all four locations of IDE connections.

The power supply of the computer a version maybe 500 to 800 watt power supply. When you plug the power supply into the 115-120 volt AC outlet the output side going to the computer, will be approximately 13 to 13.5 volts to allow for voltage drops, resistance of the wire so that downstream the optical units actually get a full rated 12 volts input potential to operate properly.

All optical units located anywhere in the computer IDE or SATA or hard drives should get a full rated 12 volts to operate properly. And the source voltage supply should be high enought (13 to 13.5) to get 12 volts downstream to the units.

[rago88]

In Plextor Professional main screen,
It shows [ or did until I un-installed the slave] both Plextor units.

When I would click on the master,
all the info plus latest firmware version would be there..
same with clicking on the slave.
There has not been a Plextor update for this unit in over a year since it was discontinued.... 3/23/07 to be exact.

it was much later that I started using a 2nd plextor in my PC.
Could be why no conflict.
never updated firmware for both at same time since the 1st unit,[master] was already installed long ago with latest and last firmware.. make sense???

[rago88]

ok...
so far, so good...
only using 1 plextor for now to read/burn..
holding at Ultra DMA 4.....

May just leave it that way as I noticed the reading of a disc is much faster.....

I assume 1 optical drive will get more rpm power than sharing it with 2 optical drives on the secondary channel
or something to that effect

[Chewy]

it might be there's not enough amps for 2 drives

[rago88]

I did put in a 550 watt PS while ago..

wouldn't that be plenty to go around?

[Chewy]

it would depend on the brand and specs

claimed watts is misleading

[NightTran]

is two identical burners have any thing to do with it?

[Chewy]

I have had matched dvd burners in a few computers, only plextor premium cd burners

Never an issue, I did disconnect one if I was upgrading firmware but not always

[rago88]

well, I sorta plan to enable the slave Plextor..
But as Soprano's Big Pussy used to say,
"maybe". "If."

It really appears to read a disc so much faster just using the 1 Plextor for source/destination..
use Imageburn to write...

my read speeds at times are 1500 mb/s and above..
my slave [same Plextor 716A] never seemed to come near as fast to read when using it as source for on the fly setup...
most times about half the above read speed..