What does "Cable Select" mean on Dell IDE hardware

[jaytone]

Hi
I have been building systems for a short while and usually set my hard drives, cdroms, etc to either Master or Slave.

I went to add a second hard drive to a friends DELL and all his IDE hardware jumpers are set to Cable select.

My questions are

1. What does that mean

2. Can the system configuration be changed to setting the jumpers to Master and Slave? If so, do I have to use new IDE ribbons ?

Thanks

 

[majewski9]

my understanding is that the device decides if it is master or slave on where it is hooked up on the ide cable. Usually the top cable ide hookup is master and the bottom is slave.

 

[fluxquantum]

majewski9, thanks for the info. i have been wondering about that too.

 

[thorin]

Yup that's pretty much it if the drives are set to CS then the motherboard (BIOS) decides that the master the the one on the end connector and the slave is the one on the middle connector. (make sure you keep the connectors in the right order....blue to blue on the motherboard)

Thorin

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: thorin
Yup that's pretty much it if the drives are set to CS then the motherboard (BIOS) decides that the master the the one on the end connector and the slave is the one on the middle connector. (make sure you keep the connectors in the right order....blue to blue on the motherboard)

Thorin

BLUE HAS to go on hte mobo or everything goes "WHACKY"

Seriously, if you are having cable-length problems, stick with Master and slave as they will cause no problems...


Obviously, there is nothing wrong with CS....just make sure both devices are set to it.

 

[microAmp]

From what I understood cable select is for manufactures not end users. Stick with Master/Slave.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I've had a problem with Cable Select on an Asus A7V8X, with 2 hard drives on the primary channel. The BIOS would detect both drives but Windows refused to install (booted from CD, loaded the drivers, then when "Starting Windows installation", froze). Changing it to master/slave solved that problem for me. And yes, blue was to blue.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: motoamd
From what I understood cable select is for manufactures not end users. Stick with Master/Slave.

Sorry dude but whoever told you that doesn't know jack sh......

Thorin

 

[aircooled]

I've got a floor full of older compaq deskpros that will not accept harddrives using Master/slave setting. I have to use cable select or they will not be detected by the BIOS. They will accept the master/slave settings on CD drives though.

 

[rw120555]

Originally posted by: majewski9
my understanding is that the device decides if it is master or slave on where it is hooked up on the ide cable. Usually the top cable ide hookup is master and the bottom is slave.

To clarify, on my Dell Optiplex Gx400, master drive is on the bottom and slave drive is on top (you may be right about the cable locations though). Cable select is a nice feature when it works, it saves you some hassle.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: rw120555

Originally posted by: majewski9
my understanding is that the device decides if it is master or slave on where it is hooked up on the ide cable. Usually the top cable ide hookup is master and the bottom is slave.

To clarify, on my Dell Optiplex Gx400, master drive is on the bottom and slave drive is on top (you may be right about the cable locations though). Cable select is a nice feature when it works, it saves you some hassle.

Of course the cable can be connected in a horseshoe type fashion wereby the middle connector would be the top most drive physically and the end connector would be a drive physically lower in the case.

Thorin

 

[lukatmyshu]

Cable Select also requires a certain type of IDE cable to work .... I think what happens is that pin 15 or something is grounded on the center connecter, but it's open on the far one so that's how the device knows where it's plugged into. Not that it should be a problem (I'd hope that all cables came like that) but if you're building a system w/ Cable Select and it's not working for some reason you might have to check your cable. Honestly, though, if you don't have to use it ... don't.

 

[KF]

I have converted to cable select. Before, whenever I rearranged the IDE drives, I had to figure out the jumpers, and then redo them, introducing possible mistakes. Now that is unnecessary.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: KF
I have converted to cable select. Before, whenever I rearranged the IDE drives, I had to figure out the jumpers, and then redo them, introducing possible mistakes. Now that is unnecessary.

Exactly, why over complicate things un-neccessarily? All ATA66/100/133 cables support CS so why not use it.

Thorin

 

[rw120555]

In the past when I've bought HDs, they were always default configured for Master. With the last one I bought, a 120GB Maxtor, it was default configured for Cable Select. Is cable select likely to be universal for all PCs now (and not just dell)? This master/slave bit always seemed a real nuisance.

 

[thorin]

"Is cable select likely to be universal for all PCs now (and not just dell)? "

Yes CS has become the normal and most HD manufacturers have accepted this. Master/Slave was a legacy thing, now that the majority of systems are CS friendly the HD manufacturers have changed their default. At least until we switch to SATA over the next few years in which case you don't have to deal with Master/Slave/CS at all. It's 1 drive per channel and multiple channels per controller (the OS/BIOS treats all drives as master).

Thorin