Mac Pro HELP ASAP

[Redneck1089]

I just tried installing a second optical drive in my Mac Pro that I got today. However, after I put everything together and put the optical drive tray back in the computer and turned it on, the computer didn't even register one optical drive! What did I do wrong?????!

I took the tray out and took the plugs out and put them back in. Still nothing. I'm now worried I somehow just broke my new computer...

 

[roland.g]

Have you unplugged the original optical drive from the motherboard or the cable to the drive.

 

[Redneck1089]

Have you unplugged the original optical drive from the motherboard or the cable to the drive.

I don't believe so. I had trouble pulling out the tray originally...and at one point pulled pretty hard. Other than that...there didn't seem to be any other issues with the installation other than getting the black wide cord out of the way.

 

[Fortis]

Make sure the jumpers are set correctly (I think both drives are supposed to be set to cable select rather than master/slave). Also, is the drive supported by Apple (you might have to flash the firmware of a non-supported drive to get it to work)?

 

[Redneck1089]

I just removed the second optical drive that I was installing. Well, the computer is now registering the orignal optical drive again. Hoorah!

However, that still leaves me with a few questions and one less optical drive than I was intending to have. What would cause the computer to stop picking up the original optical drive when the second one is plugged in? Why isn't the second optical drive working? I took the second drive from a G4 QuickSilver dual 1 Ghz PowerMac, so would that have anything to do with it? All the plugs looked exactly the same as the ones that are on my new Mac Pro. I don't understand...

 

[dkoralek]

I just removed the second optical drive that I was installing. Well, the computer is now registering the orignal optical drive again. Hoorah!

However, that still leaves me with a few questions and one less optical drive than I was intending to have. What would cause the computer to stop picking up the original optical drive when the second one is plugged in? Why isn't the second optical drive working? I took the second drive from a G4 QuickSilver dual 1 Ghz PowerMac, so would that have anything to do with it? All the plugs looked exactly the same as the ones that are on my new Mac Pro. I don't understand...

As Fortis said, this sounds like the jumpers are not set correctly. If the jumpers are set incorrectly, then placing the second one in the chain will make it so the computer doesn't see both (the setting diagrams should be on the drive itself, but if not should be in the documentation (may have to go to the manufacturer's website) for the drive.

cheers.

 

[Redneck1089]

I made sure all the cables were in securely before I put the drives back into the computer. I really don't get it...everything was in super tight. I'll just make do with my single internal and my one external burner for the moment until Blu-Ray players come down in price I guess...


Thanks everyone.

 

[stainlessliquid]

jumpers not cables.

 

[Redneck1089]

jumpers not cables.

How do I set those? There doesn't seem to be any settings on the drives themselves that I can change. I'm confused...

 

[fredr500]

Jumpers

Look for pins on the edge of the drive, next to the cable plugs.
Drives can be set for master, slave or cable select. It was mentioned above you want cto choose able select. There is usually a picture on the drive how to set the jumpers, if not, then check the manual that came with the drive orht e mfgr web site.

Fred

 

[MIDI_EVIL]

How do I set those? There doesn't seem to be any settings on the drives themselves that I can change. I'm confused...

It should be a rectangular grid like box with pins. There should be a peice of plastic that you can pull out of the grid and reposition. On the drive there should be a diagram indicating the combinations that you can set the drive.

I am aware this is a harddrive jumper, but it is very similar.

Here is the jumper clip being pulled out to reposition,

Rich.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Incidentally, I had a similar problem when I tried adding an additional superdrive. Both drives were Pioneer and the second drive had been used in a Mac before. After fiddling with the jumpers I managed to get it to register but disks were unreadable in either drive. The device name etc were 'weird', i.e. distorted, a few jumbled letters etc, in the system properties page.
I ended up giving up with the drive and disconnecting it. I replaced it last weekend with a 5th SATA drive instead. I hardly ever use optical drives anyway and had only wanted to put two drives in 'because I could'.

 

[Redneck1089]

Look for pins on the edge of the drive, next to the cable plugs.
Drives can be set for master, slave or cable select. It was mentioned above you want cto choose able select. There is usually a picture on the drive how to set the jumpers, if not, then check the manual that came with the drive orht e mfgr web site.

Fred

It should be a rectangular grid like box with pins. There should be a peice of plastic that you can pull out of the grid and reposition. On the drive there should be a diagram indicating the combinations that you can set the drive.

I am aware this is a harddrive jumper, but it is very similar.

Here is the jumper clip being pulled out to reposition,

Rich.

Thanks a bunch guys. I appreciate it a lot. When I get home later today I will check it out and respond back!


Thanks again!!

 

[mustang_dvs]

My stock SuperDrive shipped set to Cable Select (CS) and most whitebox drives will be set to Master, which could cause some issues, especially with booting from either.

Right now, my SuperDrive is set to Master and my Samsung SH-182M is set to slave with no issues in OS X, LaCie Lightscribe, Toast 7 or Windows XP.

Either both should be set to CS or the bottom one should be slave and the top one should be master.

 

[Redneck1089]

I am looking at the super drive from my QuickSilver PowerMac right now, and there doesn't seem to be any way to tell which is the master jumper and which is the cable select. There's no diagram or instructions anywhere on the drive.

I'll attach a picture of what the jumpers are set to right now. Does anyone know which is master, slave, and cable select?

 

[Redneck1089]

Anyone?

 

[AaronICT]

Experiment. Having the wrong jumper set can't damage anything. With only five settings, won't take long.

 

[mustang_dvs]

Somewhere on the drive's case or label, there is a jumper diagram. Otherwise, Google the drive's model number from the label and the word "jumpers".

 

[trainguy77]

Just look around the drive there will be a diagram somewhere.

 

[dkoralek]

Just look around the drive there will be a diagram somewhere.

I've had drives in the past that didn't have the pin diagram on the case, but if you go to the manufacturer's web site and look for the documentation for the product (or if the drive came with paper docs; not common these days ), you should be able to find the pin diagram. But this does seem like a classic misconfigured jumper situation to me.
cheers.

 

[Redneck1089]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I found which jumper is which. However, what difference will there be if I set the drives to master and slave and cable select? Will there be any?

 

[Redneck1089]

Thanks everyone. I managed to get everything hooked up and working just fine! Lovin' my new Quad!

 

[trainguy77]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I found which jumper is which. However, what difference will there be if I set the drives to master and slave and cable select? Will there be any?

It just changes which drive is "in charge" It doesn't really affect performance, however some people say that the master drive gets slightly better performance then the slave...but nothing thats worth the time and effort of thinking about.