"CS" or "Master and Slave"?

My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now; once
it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS". The
shop says the manual is wrong.
Does it matter as long as the machine is working? Presumably the nicked
cable was the problem the whole time.
Thanks.

John wrote:

My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now;
once it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS". The
shop says the manual is wrong.
Does it matter as long as the machine is working? Presumably the nicked
cable was the problem the whole time.
Thanks.

If your BIOS has no problem with it, setting the jumpers to Cable Select
(CS) is simply convenient if you swap drives, remove drives, add drives
etc. It just means that you won't have to manually set the jumpers, that
the position (1 or 2) a drive has on the cable determines wether it's slave
or master. There's nothing wrong with setting the jumpers to Slave and
Master respectively, the end result is the same. CS is just easier - if
it's supported by the BIOS. If the manual for your BIOS says to set the
jumpers to CS, then it obviously supports Cable Select, so it would be the
shop who is wrong, not your manual. But either way, it makes no difference
once the system is up and running.

--
I win!

"Yeah dad, we'd rather have a live pussy mincing around the house than a
dead hero anyday!"
- Bart Simpson

John wrote:

My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now;
once it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS". The
shop says the manual is wrong.
Does it matter as long as the machine is working? Presumably the nicked
cable was the problem the whole time.

Neither is "wrong". Whether you use cable select or master slave is mostly
a matter of taste. Cable select can be convenient if you swap drives
regularly but if you do that you should probably go to SATA anyway.

Where was the nick in the cable? For cable select to work one conductor has
to be cut at a certain point. Some manufacturers of cable assemblies do
this by leaving out a contact in the connector, others by drilling a hole
in the cable. If that's what they were referring to then you really should
find a different shop because these guys aren't staying up to date. If
there's a cut somewhere else then that was the problem, not the cable
select.

Did you reseat the cables before you took it in? It's amazing how many
times that fixes the problem.

Thanks.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

"John" wrote in message
My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now; once
it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS".

The shop says the manual is wrong.

The shop is wrong and the manual correct if the
cable supports CableSelect which it probably does.

Does it matter as long as the machine is working?

Nope, Master/Slave is fine too. Cable Select is an alternative that
sets Master or Slave automatically depending on cable position.

Presumably the nicked cable was the problem the whole time.
Thanks.

Where was the nick in the cable? For cable select to work one conductor
has
to be cut at a certain point. Some manufacturers of cable assemblies do
this by leaving out a contact in the connector, others by drilling a hole
in the cable. If that's what they were referring to then you really
should
find a different shop because these guys aren't staying up to date. If
there's a cut somewhere else then that was the problem, not the cable
select.

The insulation was off right near one edge, the conductor was not cut
through. I figured I had caught it in the case when closing it, or
something like that.
My "hypothesis" was that it had an intermittent short that finally went
permanent.

Did you reseat the cables before you took it in? It's amazing how many
times that fixes the problem.

I reseated the cable on the motherboard but not on the harddrive. Should
have...

John wrote:
Where was the nick in the cable? For cable select to work one conductor
has
to be cut at a certain point. Some manufacturers of cable assemblies do
this by leaving out a contact in the connector, others by drilling a hole
in the cable. If that's what they were referring to then you really
should
find a different shop because these guys aren't staying up to date. If
there's a cut somewhere else then that was the problem, not the cable
select.


The insulation was off right near one edge, the conductor was not cut
through. I figured I had caught it in the case when closing it, or
something like that.
My "hypothesis" was that it had an intermittent short that finally went
permanent.

Did you reseat the cables before you took it in? It's amazing how many
times that fixes the problem.


I reseated the cable on the motherboard but not on the harddrive. Should
have...


I suspect replacing the damaged cable would have fixed the problem --
it should work with CS just as well as with master/slave. Setting
master/slave just overrides CS; as long as you don't have another
drive on the cable that conflicts, things should be ok.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

"DanielEKFA" wrote in message
John wrote:

My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now;
once it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS".
The shop says the manual is wrong.
Does it matter as long as the machine is working? Presumably the nicked
cable was the problem the whole time.
Thanks.

If your BIOS has no problem with it, setting the jumpers to Cable Select
(CS) is simply convenient if you swap drives, remove drives, add drives
etc. It just means that you won't have to manually set the jumpers, that
the position (1 or 2) a drive has on the cable determines wether it's slave
or master. There's nothing wrong with setting the jumpers to Slave and
Master respectively, the end result is the same. CS is just easier -

if it's supported by the BIOS.

Clueless.
The bios has nothing to do with it.

If the manual for your BIOS says to set the
jumpers to CS, then it obviously supports Cable Select, so it would be the
shop who is wrong, not your manual. But either way, it makes no difference
once the system is up and running.

In article , lid
says...
John wrote:

My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now;
once it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS". The
shop says the manual is wrong.
Does it matter as long as the machine is working? Presumably the nicked
cable was the problem the whole time.

Neither is "wrong". Whether you use cable select or master slave is mostly
a matter of taste. Cable select can be convenient if you swap drives
regularly but if you do that you should probably go to SATA anyway.

Cable Select also requires a cable that supports it. I think most of
the newer 80-wire do, but many older 40-wire don't.

--
If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law!!
http://home.att.net/~andyross

Andrew Rossmann wrote:

In article , lid
says...
John wrote:

My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now;
once it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the
jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS".
The shop says the manual is wrong.
Does it matter as long as the machine is working? Presumably the
nicked cable was the problem the whole time.

Neither is "wrong". Whether you use cable select or master slave is
mostly
a matter of taste. Cable select can be convenient if you swap drives
regularly but if you do that you should probably go to SATA anyway.

Cable Select also requires a cable that supports it. I think most of
the newer 80-wire do, but many older 40-wire don't.

The second sentence in the next paragraph, which you snipped, was
"For*cable*select*to*work*one*conductor*has to be cut at a certain point."

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Folkert Rienstra wrote:

"DanielEKFA" wrote in message

John wrote:

My eMachine 1860, running WXP, has been flakey on boot for a year now;
once it is on it is fine, but it hands on boot about 20% of the time.
Monday it simply wouldn't come up, hanging on "IOM.SYS" everytime.

I took it in to the shop. They found a cable was nicked and the
jumpers
were wrong. They set them to Master and Slave. Now all is well.
However, I checked the manual and it says to set the jumpers to "CS".
The shop says the manual is wrong.
Does it matter as long as the machine is working? Presumably the
nicked cable was the problem the whole time.
Thanks.

If your BIOS has no problem with it, setting the jumpers to Cable Select
(CS) is simply convenient if you swap drives, remove drives, add drives
etc. It just means that you won't have to manually set the jumpers, that
the position (1 or 2) a drive has on the cable determines wether it's
slave or master. There's nothing wrong with setting the jumpers to Slave
and Master respectively, the end result is the same. CS is just easier -

if it's supported by the BIOS.

Clueless.
The bios has nothing to do with it.


Ah, the socially retarded troll boy! You're such a fool - to think you'd
actually say this, LOL! Oh, I'm glad I somehow failed to add you to my
killfile on the last pathetic ramble you spewed out, otherwise I wouldn't
have seen this. LOL Hee hee hee Ahhhh...

Now let's see if I can get you added to that killfile of mine this time...
Oh yeah, that's the stuff!

PLONK

If the manual for your BIOS says to set the
jumpers to CS, then it obviously supports Cable Select, so it would be
the shop who is wrong, not your manual. But either way, it makes no
difference once the system is up and running.

--
I win!

"Yeah dad, we'd rather have a live pussy mincing around the house than a
dead hero anyday!"
- Bart Simpson

"I pitty the fool who derives self esteem from mocking other people's
clothes!"
- Mr. T