I just bought a new computer over the Internet, and it looks like I can't get the cdrw to work. This is a bare bones type, so there is no OS. When I switch it on, the message Sec Master Drive - ATAPI incompatible appears. The HD & CDRW are on separate cables, so 2 masters are allowed, right? The CDRW wouldn't work at all at first, so after opening her up, I discovered the power cable wasn't attached. I thought that would solve it, but after working twice, it wouldn't open anymore. The green light stayed on, though it was consistently on, i.e. not blinking. I swopped it with an old CDRW, and that works, but the message still appears. I fdisc'ed and formatted the HD with an old Win98 floppy bootdisk, but of course there is no D:\ All of my OS's are on Cd's, and I think I've lost my DOS floppies. This is my first AMD mobo computer, (Pro 2400+) but I've never heard of incompatibility problems with ATAPI. The site tech help where I got the computer from just told me to send the whole thing back, at my cost. I was hoping there was an easier way out?

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I just bought a new computer over the Internet, and it looks like I can't get the cdrw to work. This is a bare bones type, so there is no OS.

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Did the cdrw come with the computer? Was it already hooked up?

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When I switch it on, the message Sec Master Drive - ATAPI incompatible appears.

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Odd...

Make sure the jumper is set correctly.
Make sure the IDE cable is not upside down. :) ;D
I hate to say this, but the last time I tried plugging in a dead hard drive (some idiot dropped the case), the message the BIOS spat out at me was "Configuration Error." Maybe the drive is, in fact, dead.

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The HD & CDRW are on separate cables, so 2 masters are allowed, right?

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Yes. It's better that way.

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The CDRW wouldn't work at all at first, so after opening her up, I discovered the power cable wasn't attached.

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Wait. I'm confused. They sold you a computer, with a cdrw, but did not attach the power cable to the cdrw. Hmm...

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I thought that would solve it, but after working twice, it wouldn't open anymore.

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That's very odd. Try reseating the cables again, just for the heck of it.

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The green light stayed on, though it was consistently on, i.e. not blinking. I swopped it with an old CDRW, and that works, but the message still appears. I fdisc'ed and formatted the HD with an old Win98 floppy bootdisk, but of course there is no D:\ All of my OS's are on Cd's, and I think I've lost my DOS floppies. This is my first AMD mobo computer, (Pro 2400+) but I've never heard of incompatibility problems with ATAPI. The site tech help where I got the computer from just told me to send the whole thing back, at my cost. I was hoping there was an easier way out?

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The message still appears even with the working cdrw in? Odd. Very odd. Snoop around in the BIOS setup for anything suspicious. That's really all I can say.

Test the drive in another computer.


~psi42

I got this error after updating the bios on an intel BI440ZX from P03 to P09.  
It was resolved after setting the bios to its original settings, which is recommended
In the update instructions that I originally missed.