cd writer
 

I just buy CD-R/RW 32x10x40x. What does 32x10x40x mean? Also I have difficulty to do the installation. I inserted the cd R/Rw in my case and installed it. Than I inserted the cable to the cd writer but I don't have a place to plug in the motherboard. What I have to do next?

Thanks

Re: cd writer
 

my cdrw is 16x4x4, this means it reads cds at 16 times the speed of an original standard issue cd drive, writes at four times the speed, and rewrites at four times the speed (for writing again over CDRW disks). As you know, a *one* speed drive takes 80 minutes to read a whole CD.
so 32x10x40 means 32 speed read, 10 speed write and 40 speed rewrite, although i think you meant 4 speed rewrite, 40 is just too wrong, especially given those other numbers!

re: installation, you will need to post info regarding what kind of plugs and holes you have on yr mobo, and yr cdrw, if you don't know what they're called then how many pins, what shape et c?

good luck!

Oh boy, that's pretty basic stuff. But let me try to explain it.

First 32/10/40 means that the Burner can burn CD-ROMs (once writable) with 32 times the speed a normal CD is read. Normal CD speed is related to Audio CD readers which can read about 150 KB/s and is called 1x or single speed. Therefore your burner can write a CD-ROM with a data rate of 32 x 150 KB/s. The 10 is again a multiple of the single speed and refers usually to the speed the writer is able to deliver when you are writing a CD-RW (which stands for Compact Disk ReWritable and can be used like a Diskette, if you have a CD Writer like you do). The last number ist the reading speed of any CD Media you insert with the exception of audio CDs. This means you writer can read CDs with 40 times the speed a normal audio reader could. Note that all these numbers are "best case" numbers and usually are only reached in optimal circumstances.

For your second question: I asume that you have bought an IDE device. IDE is a bus system (or data transport system) used to transfer data from storage devices like hard drives or DVD drives to your system. There are also SCSI bus systems, which basically do the same thing but are more versatile, robust and quicker. SCSI is also much more expensive and not as common as IDE, so i am going to disregard it here.

Please consult the manual of your mainboard and locate the IDE port on it (They come in a lot of flavors but are usually called something like IDE or ATAPI). Modern motherboards usually have two ports but older ones have only one. Each port can manage up to two IDE devices. When you have found the port, figure out how many devices are connected to it. If it is only one (your hard drive probably) you can attach the burner to this cable, there should be an empty plug. But before you do this check the backside of your burner and of the HD. The HD should be jumpered MASTER and the Burner should be SLAVE. There are usually short directions on the devices how to do this. Else consult the manuals. If you have done so, connect the HD back to the outer plug and the CD Writer to the middle one. Usually the plugs are foolproof, courtesy to indentions, but sometimes they are not. Experiment how they belong -- you can note a failure, if a drive light is burning permanently and the drive is making noise, but it doesn't work.

Reboot and the BIOS should recognize the IDE drive. If all of the above is not true, you probably have an SCSI drive. Then you need a special SCSI controller, which is an altogether different story.

Meanwhile, i suggest you try to buy pc magazine for beginners to learn some basics. Regretably, modern PCs are still not easy enough to handle to do so without specialized knowledge. Well, if you don't have an Apple, that is ;-)

Good luck!

EDIT: I took quite some time to type this stuff up. But i guess that my interpretation of the numbers is the right one. My writer is described like this 12x/10x/40x. No offense, of course.