> I did try drive 0 as slave and 1 as master - no change, also both as > cable select - no difference. > Is it perhaps a firmware issue, either with the G4 or the non-Apple > drives perhaps?
Early optical drives installed by Apple preferred Master, even though the optical cable is indeed of the Cable Select type. These drives would not work as Slave, just as the early Zips installed by Apple preferred Master, too, which is why the early Beige G3s had SCSI Zips, if the Zip option was chosen by the customer. Or, Apple ordered special versions of Zips which WOULD work as Slaves, until Iomega finally fixed their flawed drives. Today, drives are a commodity, and there is very little difference between them ... all are dual-layer burners and all will work properly as Master, Slave or Cable Select, as is required by the customer, and at the customer's sole option. The optical (and HD) bus cable is Cable Select for the simple reason that the firmware is using H-P's patented method of detecting the presence of a drive, detecting the drive's performance characteristics, and programming the host bus adapter appropriately. However, after POST, the machine does not use Cable Select, it uses Master and Slave. Interested readers can consult US Pat 6,523,071 for the details, which teaches how a specific drive can be placed into a reset state, interrogated, and the host bus adapter (the Mac itself, in this case) can be programmed to best handle the drive. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
