Running Optical SATA drives on P5WDH

[AceCobra1]

Hello all, I was just wondering if i was doing something wrong... anyway, I have bought 2 optical drives a few weeks ago. It was working fine for a week or 2 but recently seemed to have almost ceased working... I didn't attempt to burn a disk until a few hours ago... anyway, I tried to burn a perfectly fine disk on a RiDisc... I use Nero 8. It says it burns it... even says it is completed 100%.... then when i pop the disc back in, it says blank disc, what do you want to do? Then I can even burn another copy on what supposingly is a 'burnt' disc! ?? Must be something wrong... Anyway, I read the manual and they seem to have suggested there are difference colour of cables which came in the box - red, black and yellow. I am using the Red and Grey cables - donno where I got that from and they seem to be reading my HDD fine... Both are in SATA 1 and SATA 3 respectively. The DVDRW drives are connected one using the YELLOW cable to SATA 4 and the other via a RED cable to SATA_RAID1. I went into the menu on at the bios and I am running it on Standard IDE, enhanced mode... Am I doing something wrong? I notice on ebay I can buy a BLACK cable... would that make any difference? Also, if I wanted to run more HDD and DVDRW, how can I connect more because I understand that I will not be able to connect to EZ_RAID1 and EZ_RAID2 because those slots are only used if you want to use RAID which I don't? I just want to run it as your normal average IDE type setup... No fancy things...

 

[GhislainG]

While SATA_RAID1 should be for a hard disk, it might also work for a DVDRW. Have you tried connecting the second DVDRW to SATA_3 and the second disk to EZ_RAID1 or SATA_RAID1? According to the manual, SATA_1 (Red connector) is for the boot disk (if not using RAID).

Is Onboard IDE Operate Mode set to Compatible Mode?

I have used a couple different DVDRWs on mine without problems, but I only have 2 SATA disks and one DVDRW.

 

[bobbknight]

My P5W DH Deluxe went tits up back in April, and I am still waiting on Asus to get me a replacement for it.
Everyone that they sent had something wrong with it.
From bad caps, they were actually leaking.
To bad power regulators.
Asus, never again. The DFI board I bought to replace it works like a champ. It also has a better south bridge.

 

[AceCobra1]

Yeah, set to compatible mode - but it seem to froze when i booted it up on the bios screen... should i set it to PATA or SATA compatible ? If i connected my HDD to the EZ_RAID1/2, would I need to connect it specifically using a red connector? Also, if i have a HDD @ EZ_RAID1, would I need a HDD at 2 even if i'm not wanting it to run as a RAID ?

 

[GhislainG]

SATA compatible. You don't need to connect a disk to EZ_RAID2 unless you want to use that RAID setup (as explained in your manual). By default, EZ_RAID is disabled.

The color of SATA cables means nothing, but the color of SATA connectors on the motherboard helps one identify which group belongs to each controller.

 

[AceCobra1]

In the bios compatible mode, should I run it in SATA or PATA mode ?

 

[GhislainG]

I Just checked my system's configuration and it isn't setup like the manual suggested. When using Windows XP or Vista, it should be configured as follows:

Configure SATA As [Standard IDE ]
Onboard IDE Operate Mode [ Enhanced Mode ]
Enhanced Mode Support on [ S-ATA ]