changed cdrom in laptop

bioe007 · 01-12-2008, 01:35 AM

Well my old laptop did not come with a CD burner and I inherited a dead gateway from someone so I'm harvesting parts and thinking - hey this is a DVD burner, so after some tweaking I got it plugged into the i8500.

It seems to be working fine except for two problems:

1) it inconsistently boots from the CD (actually only seems to work after changing the boot order settings in the BIOS)

2) given that it does boot (say a linux install CD) during said installation it always hangs with a bad media or some other error. I presume its not being read correctly ?

specs:
dell i8500
Pentium-4M
IDE/ATAPI HD and CDROM

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset Host Bridge (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)
<snip>
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)

Code:

hdparm -id /dev/sr0 

/dev/sr0:

 Model=PHILIPS DVD+/-RW SDVD8441               , FwRev=PA48    , SerialNo=                    
 Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR<=5Mbs DTR>10Mbs nonMagnetic }
 RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
 (maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
 IORDY=yes, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2 
 AdvancedPM=no

 * signifies the current active mode

Code:

sdparm /dev/sr0 
    /dev/sr0: PHILIPS   DVD+-RW SDVD8441  PA48  [cd/dvd]
Read write error recovery mode page:
  AWRE        0  [cha: y, def:  0, sav:  0]
  ARRE        0  [cha: y, def:  0, sav:  0]
  PER         0  [cha: y, def:  0, sav:  0]
Write parameters (MMC) mode page:
  BUFE        1  [cha: y, def:  1, sav:  1]
  WR_T        1  [cha: y, def:  1, sav:  1]
  MULTI_S     3  [cha: y, def:  3, sav:  3]

my question is basically is there anything I can tweak to make this CD/DVD work 'better' with my laptop?

thanks

Simon Bridge · 01-12-2008, 01:43 AM

Quote:

1) it inconsistently boots from the CD (actually only seems to work after changing the boot order settings in the BIOS)

This is expected... one normally changes the boot order if you want the first boot device to be different.

Quote:

2) given that it does boot (say a linux install CD) during said installation it always hangs with a bad media or some other error. I presume its not being read correctly ?

Probably - you said you had to do some "tweaking"... what kind of tweaking?

If you mean you have to enter the bios for each DVD-boot (make sure it is really a combo drive, and designed to read CDs) then it could be that your BIOS is not reading the drive correctly or the drive roms are bad. OR, maybe it isn't plugged in properly or one of your tweaks didn't take?

bioe007 · 01-12-2008, 09:39 AM

Quote:

1) it inconsistently boots from the CD (actually only seems to work after changing the boot order settings in the BIOS)
This is expected... one normally changes the boot order if you want the first boot device to be different.

no, as in if i leave it selected as #1 boot device it doesn't boot at all from the CD.

If I go into the BIOS and change anything about the boot dev order it works.

the tweaking was all purely mechanical stuff, because the drive didn't exactly fit into the dell's modular CD holder and of course the form factor of the
outer plastic was incorrect, so I removed and replaced it with the i8500's version, then had to add some material because the button design was a bit different.

I am certain it is a combo drive based on (1) it was the only drive in the newer laptop I took it out of (2) the sdparm output shows it is (3) the labeling on the drive cover claims it.

thanks

Simon Bridge · 01-13-2008, 03:57 AM

Quote:

If I go into the BIOS and change anything about the boot dev order it works.

BIOS issue with certainty - update bios, replace nvram, or put up with it.

There is always seeing if it will boot a DVD. And the remote possibility that it is something to do with being non spec... that would be silly but it's been known.