I have just bought a Freecom Internal CD-RW. The manual says to connect the audio cable to the sound card. I haven't looked yet, but I anticipate that the DVD audio connector will be connected to the sound card. Do I disconnect the DVD sound cable? and put the CD-RW in its place. I have never opened a PC before so forgive any obvious ignorance please. The manual also says to make sure the connections are oriented so that L corresponds to L and R to R but I can't see any little L's or R's on the jacks on the ends of the audio cable that has come with the CD-RW and it isn't clear which end goes into the CD-RW and which end goes into the sound card! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

[This message has been edited by davidgraham16 (edited 01-19-2002).]

David
Welcome To Pc Guide

Your question can have a number of answers depending on the hardware installed in your system
Not knowing the sound card you have installed and what connectors it has limits our ability to give specific answers,

In General however most sound cards have 2 audio In connectors.( Flat 4 wire connector)
One marked cd in the other aux in. This allows for both the cd and the dvd to be connected.
In a few cases they also include a digital connector ( Small 2 wire ) Most often used for the Dvd drive.

The 4 wire audio cable may have a lock clip on one side of the connector,
If so this will help you avoid mis orientation of the L-R (left/right channel) if not you can look for the pin layout diagram for the positive pins for both L+R and match those . To the layout on the sound card.

The worst that can happen .
If you connect the cable backwards the channels will be reversed or In the case of only having 3 wires in the cable one side will not put out any sound. In this case just Unplug the cable turn the cable connector over and plug in back in

In addition why use a CD-RW for playing sounds?
The dvd is designed for playing cd and dvd.
The cd-rw is designed to record disks
In a dual drive system like yours I personally would not even connect the sound cable to the cd-rw

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To ERR is HUMAN
To REALLY screw things UP, YOU NEED a COMPUTER !

The cables will generally be "keyed" so they can only be plugged in one way...if your DVD is already attached to the sound card and your CDRW can't be (meaning the sound card doesn't have another plug, although many have more than one) then all that will happen is you won't be able to listen to audio cds from your burner...no big deal...

I would check the sound card for an extra port and on the PCB for the card it sahould have a + on one side and - on the other, same with the cdrw...+ is positive - is negative...this only matters if the cable isn't designed so it can only be plugged in one way...

And since you say this is your first time opening the case, you have done some research and understand about setting one drive as master and one as slave, right?

Rick beat me...oh well http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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When all else fails, read the instructions.

[This message has been edited by hiredgoonz (edited 01-19-2002).]

Thanks for the advice, the fog begins to lift! From what you say I don't need to bother with the audio cable. I am at the stage were I follow instructions blindly, I did not know that the CD-RW works fine without it(as regards burning, which is all I will do with it)
Yes, I've done my research as regards master/slave stuff and I've found out about the BIOS - basically I set the BIOS to auto so it detects the new drive. Once again thanks, great forum this, keep it up.

If you've not been in side the case before...please exercise the necessary caution to avoid static discharge to the components!

I just noticed at the computer store the other day that a wrist band that can clip to the case was under $3.00 Or, touch the metal on the inside of the case before addressing the components.

Again, it takes 2000 volts for us to feel a static discharge and only 100-200 to damage components. If you're in a winter climate you will want to be on red alert when "going in!"

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman