Fundamentals - Problem: The optical drive appears to play audio CDs, but no sound comes from the speakers.

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1. Make sure the volume/mixer is set appropriately, i.e., the volume is up and CD Audio isn’t muted. There may be multiple volume controls in a system. Check them all.
   
   
2. Try a different audio CD. Some recent audio CDs are copy-protected in such a way that they refuse to play on a computer optical drive.
   
   
3. If you have tried several audio CDs without success, this may still be normal behavior, depending on the player application you are using. Optical drives can deliver audio data via the analog audio-out jack on the rear of the drive or as a digital bit stream on the bus. If the player application pulls the digital bit stream from the bus, sound is delivered to your speakers normally. If the player application uses analog audio, you must connect a cable from the analog audio-out jack on the back of the drive to an audio-in connector on the motherboard or sound card.
   
   
4. If you install an audio cable and still have no sound from the speakers, try connecting headphones or amplified speakers directly to the headphone jack on the front of the optical drive (if present). If you still can’t hear the audio, the drive may be defective. If you can hear audio via the front headphone jack but not through the computer speakers, it’s likely the audio cable you installed is defective or installed improperly.
   
   Few optical drives or motherboards include an analog audio cable, so you will probably have to buy a cable. In the past, audio cables were often proprietary, but modern drives and motherboards all use a standard ATAPI audio cable.

Problem: S-ATA drives are not recognized.

1. How S-ATA drives are detected (or not detected) depends on the particular combination of chipset, BIOS revision level, S-ATA interface, and the operating system you use. Failing to recognize S-ATA devices may be normal behavior.
   
   
2. If you use a standalone PCI S-ATA adapter card, the system will typically not recognize the connected S-ATA drive(s) during startup. This is normal behavior. You will have to provide an S-ATA device driver when you install the operating system.
   
   
3. If your motherboard uses a recent chipset, e.g., an Intel 865 or later, and has embedded S-ATA interfaces, it should detect S-ATA devices during startup and display them on the BIOS boot screen. If the drive is not recognized, update the BIOS to the latest version if you have not already done so. Restart the system and watch the BIOS boot screen to see if the system recognizes the S-ATA drive. Run BIOS Setup and select the menu item that allows you to configure ATA devices. If your S-ATA drive is not listed, you can still use it, but you’ll have to provide a driver on diskette during OS installation.
   
   
4. Recognition of S-ATA drives during operating system installation varies with the OS version and the chipset. The original release of Windows 2000 does not detect S-ATA drives with any chipset. To install Windows 2000 on an S-ATA drive, watch during the early part of Setup for the prompt to press F6 if you need to install third-party storage drivers. Press F6 when prompted and insert the S-ATA driver floppy. Windows XP may or may not recognize S-ATA drives, depending on the chipset the motherboard uses. With recent chipsets, e.g., the Intel 865 series and later, Windows XP recognizes and uses S-ATA drives natively. With earlier chipsets, e.g., the Intel D845 and earlier, Windows XP does not recognize the S-ATA drive natively, so you will have to press F6 when prompted and provide the S-ATA driver on floppy. Most recent Linux distributions (those based on the 2.4 kernel or later) recognize S-ATA drives natively.
   
   
5. If the S-ATA drive is still not recognized, pop the lid and verify that the S-ATA data and power cables are connected properly. Try removing and reseating the cables and, if necessary, connecting the S-ATA drive to a different motherboard interface connector. If the drive still isn’t accessible, try replacing the S-ATA data cable. If none of this works, the S-ATA drive is probably defective.

This chapter is from Building the Perfect PC by Robert Bruce Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson (O'Reilly, 2004, ISBN: 0596006632). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.

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