question about USB, converters and optical drives

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jaybird
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question about USB, converters and optical drives

Post by jaybird »

I'v determined that I have to much "stuff" going on on the PCI bus and its' affecting my ability to do high rez video capture (above 640 X 480) so I decided to remove several devices and there cards from the IDE bus.

I bought several (4) IDE to USB 1 & 2 "converters' (plugs into the the IDE cable port on the back of the drives) and a 4 port hub (I have 4 optical drives), I installed the "converters", made sure that there was power to each one and hooked them up to the hub.

I only "see" 2 of the 4 drives in explorer and they don't work properly (can't play music CD's, no sound)!

I know very little about USB, do I need to re-install the devices and their drivers, should I have only hooked up 1 at a time (did hooking up all 4 at once "confuse" my PC?, I know I'm confused! :? )?

Regards,

jaybird
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hyperspace
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Post by hyperspace »

Do you see 4 optical drives in the device manager?
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Dave Rave
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Post by Dave Rave »

did you power the USB hub
without power it will only cope with one device at a time.
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purrkur
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Re: question about USB, converters and optical drives

Post by purrkur »

jaybird wrote:I'v determined that I have to much "stuff" going on on the PCI bus and its' affecting my ability to do high rez video capture (above 640 X 480) so I decided to remove several devices and there cards from the IDE bus.

I bought several (4) IDE to USB 1 & 2 "converters' (plugs into the the IDE cable port on the back of the drives) and a 4 port hub (I have 4 optical drives), I installed the "converters", made sure that there was power to each one and hooked them up to the hub.
Do you have these USB connected to USB version 1.1 (what we have standard on the BP6) then I would definitely not recommend this. USB V1.x only delivers 12 Mbps in theory (and less in practice) so in theory one of those optical drives would be enough to saturate your USB bandwidth. Things get better with USB2 but they are still no substitute for P-ATA or S-ATA.
jaybird wrote:I only "see" 2 of the 4 drives in explorer and they don't work properly (can't play music CD's, no sound)!
Make sure that they are all turned on and make sure that your USB hub doesn't have some sort of restrictions concerning attached components. As for the music CD's, make sure that you got a cable going from your CD player to your sound card. This has nothing to do with your USB connection.
jaybird wrote:I know very little about USB, do I need to re-install the devices and their drivers, should I have only hooked up 1 at a time (did hooking up all 4 at once "confuse" my PC?, I know I'm confused! :? )?
You should not have to re-install anything. Make sure your USB hub can deliver the goods, try alternating the drives (checking if they work in any other type of order). You should also check the two drives that are working to see what they are set to (master, slave or cable select). Then make sure that the other two that you don't see are set up the same.
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jaybird
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Post by jaybird »

Well, I've solved some of my problems! Number 1, the sound went away because my daughter (26, knows everything, dad doesn't know a thing) accidently deleated my sound drivers :roll: !

As far as the USB, this is USB 2, and not a BP6 although I wanted to do something like this on my BP6's.

No, I did not make sure the USB hub was powered up first and no, I did not connect one device at a time, I hooked them all up at once :oops: !

Back to the drawing board :wink: !

Thanks people, this forum has always been helpful even if its' not a BP6!

OBTW, just found a version 1 BP6, 2 500's, heatsinks, 256 meg ram, 64 meg vid card and a sound card (not sure what kind) for under $60 USD with a no DOA guarantee :D !

Regards to all,

jaybird
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purrkur
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Post by purrkur »

Hmmm. Deleting sound drivers has been known to affect sound reproduction from your system. Strange but true :)

Good to hear that things are in order.
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davd_bob
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Post by davd_bob »

jaybird wrote:...my daughter (26, knows everything, dad doesn't know a thing) :roll: !
Mine's only 16 and knows even more.

Jay, I didn't know you were old enough to have a young'un that age!!
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jaybird
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Age, UGH!

Post by jaybird »

Yeah, well I have 3 "childern", 26, 32 & 35, We just passed our 36th wedding anniversary plus I have 5 grandchildren.

My how time flies when 'yer haven fun :wink: !

Hobbies: 'Puters, hotrods, drag racing, fishing an chasen the wife around :lol: !

Regards,

jaybird
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