Upgrading early BIOS

----------Original Message(s): Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:49:02 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Upgrading early BIOS On 13 Aug 2008 at 9:12, Eric J Korpela wrote: Is not the operation of "cable select" a function of the cable and not the mobo? If the OP is using a "cable select" IDE cable, he can use CS with no problem. That business with him mentioning CS is what made me wonder if he wasn't also using a UDMA cable (which by the standard also supports CS). (It's starting to get pretty hard to find *new* non-UDMA cables nowadays). If that's the case, then any UDMA-capable drives will be operating in that mode, which will not work with his old system. If he's using non-UDMA drives, then the cable won't matter. Cheers, Chuck ---------------Reply: AFAIK cable select has always been an option with Parallel ATA drives, although it was rarely used in pre-UDMA days; the cable was obviously different (40 conductors with standard connectors vs. 80 conductors and unique special connectors) and the order of the drives was usually reversed (i.e. the slave on the end of the cable). It's the motherboard that determines the cable type and mode from pin 34, which is grounded at the mobo end in a UDMA cable, so if the mobo isn't UDMA-aware I don't think the drives would be, and the cable wouldn't matter. Also, not all drives supported CS. Bottom line: don't use CS with pre-UDMA drives, cables and/or motherboards unless you're certain that all three support it, and even master/slave can be problematic with very old IDE drives. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Drive_Electronics m