600x compatibility with DVD writer drives

[paulchr]

I installed a new Pioneer DVR-K04L drive in my 600x and it's not being recognized by WinXP. I know my bay is good since it works with original 24x CD and also LG 8080 8X DVD drives. The Pioneer powers and shows an activity LED only when a CD is loaded and the CD even spins up but nothing else. Don't know if it's a bad one one or simply incompatible. It was manufactured in Dec04 and I'm wondering if something about the drive is "too new" to work with the 600x (I have the latest BIOS installed). Anyone have similar experiences with a replacement DVD, or a good experince with installing a DL DVD burner?

[paulchr]

OK, problem solved! I wired in the new DVD into a SelectaDock III bay and it began working. I had prior settings for SelectaDock IDE devices to be enabled in 2-channel IDE mode, where the HD was Primary Master and UltraslimBay P-S, with the Dock being S-M and S-S. What's weird is that the modes stuck even with the 600x undocked where the new DVD did not work. The old CD & DVD readers worked in all cases, so the new drive has demands for being a Master. Sorry about the spam.

[MadeInJapan]

No problem! Glad you worked it out. Sometimes different firmware upgrades have master/slave selectable. You might check both www.rpc1.com and www.cdfreaks.com for info on your particular burner's firmware options if you want to use it somewhere other than in the dock. Anyway, good luck!

[Edward Mendelson]

Just curious - how did you get an ultraslimbay device to plug into a Selectadock III bay??

[paulchr]

Just curious - how did you get an ultraslimbay device to plug into a Selectadock III bay??

I was hoping someone would ask! The SelectaDock III bay is sized to fit a 770 series CD/DVD/Floppy drive. The electrical connector is identical to a 600 Ultraslimbay device only it's mounted in the center (like the 770). I was desperate, so I unscrewed the circuit board in the SelectaDock III as well as the surrounding bracket and was able to move the connector off-center, basically using the the circuit board as a IDE-to-UltraslimBay adapter. It *worked* perfectly, but wasn't pretty. I suppose one could fabricate a bracket to make everything look pretty. This also gave me some ideas on re-working a 770 DVD drive (have one on order for a 770 basket I acquired) with a newer Ultraslim one in case it has trouble reading DVD-R media.

Oh yeah, the DVD burner works great without the dock, just have to be sure the 600x bay is "enabled" (i.e. set to Secondary Master rather than Primary Slave). When plugged into the dock, the Dock PCI devices must also be "disabled" in the Thinkpad Config Utility -- a small compromise. I looked at firmware upgrades but the Pioneer hasn't been around long enough for rpc1 patches, etc. One of the problems is that this was an OEM white-box w/o any instructions. I did find online descriptions for similar DVD burners from Toshiba and Panasonic and some did have "must be set to Master" in the requirement section. I'm thinking this is a requirement for a majority of notebook DVD burners.

[Edward Mendelson]

I was afraid it would be something like that...! ;-) I'll probably avoid the hardware changes, but it's always good to learn more about the IRQ settings, which can be amazing headaches.

Are you saying that when I enable 2nd IDE device in the 600X ultraslimbay (or whatever it's called), the device becomes secondary master? That makes sense to me. But how would it ever be set as primary slave? What setting would produce that result? Wait - lightbulb going on above my head - does this mean that even if I do NOT enable 2nd IDE device in the ultraslimbay, I an use an IDE device that's set as slave? (The question, I suppose, is how do I set such a device as slave - but if this is how things operate, then interesting possibilities open up.)

[paulchr]

It sounds like you're on the right track. Best explanation I found for how all this works is in the 600X User Guide ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... xusrgd.pdf
section titled "Enabling an IDE Device in the Docking Station" page 84 (p. 106 of .pdf file).

[pkiff]

This also gave me some ideas on re-working a 770 DVD drive (have one on order for a 770 basket I acquired) with a newer Ultraslim one in case it has trouble reading DVD-R media.

For what it's worth, I recently (in the past two months) tried to modify a 770 2nd Hard Drive Adapter to fit the 600 series hard drive caddy for use in a SelectaDock III but was unsuccessful. I thought I might be able to cannibalize parts from a 600 series 2nd Hard Drive Adapter and then with the appropriate cutting/sanding/shaving I would be able to fit the 600 pieces inside the 770 UltraBay II unit. But I was unable to do it as easily as all that. Presumably someone with some better re-wiring skills could still make it work.

Modifying a CD/DVD drive should be possible -- there are 770 CD-RW drives available on eBay periodically and I assume that those use slimmer drives than the ones that are standards inside the 770 UltraBay II cases. The screws might even match up, so the tricky part may be getting a faceplate that works and figuring out how to hold a slimmer drive in place in the large bay.

Alternatively (and this is the direction I ended up going) you can use the Portable Device Bay unit which plugs into a SelectaDock III PCMCIA slot and allows the addition of any UltraSlimBay unit inside the "Portable Device Bay" case.

Phil.

[paulchr]

Alternatively (and this is the direction I ended up going) you can use the Portable Device Bay unit

Thanks! Saved me some work here... These appear very versatile. Decided to scout for a couple of these for use with the 600 as well as the 770. Now I know how to run DVD/HD uninterrupted with standard and UltraslimBay batteries in place.

Chris