Multigroup post thwarted. I don't particularly like some of the
participants at one particular newsgroup.

ATA basics. Slave in the middle, master on the end. Using cable select or
master/slave jumpers, makes no difference. There must be a master for a
slave to exist. This is part of the timing aspect for ATA.

There's alot of things motherboard makers don't provide information about.
Most of use muddle our ways through to learn the hard way. Or, stumble upon
a good website to fill that void.

Pcguide is a good website. ATA has no terminations per se like scsi. It is
however a stub, and reflections are a result. Poor explanation provided,
but symptoms are nonetheless accurate.
--
Jonny
"TE Cheah" wrote in message ...
Per www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable-c.html
"Using the middle connector and leaving the end connector unattached
..... leaves part of the cable "dangling". This is called a stub and
creates
much worse electrical characteristics on the cable, due to reflections
from the unterminated ends of the cable wires. It is not recommended."

I 1st ignored this warning, & found my Toshiba cd drive ( using cable
select, & assigned by Award bios as 2nd channel's slave device )
though can play any VCD just as well, cannot pass BCM diagnostic (
blue screen of "fatal error" appears in Win98se ) unless I use the end
connector of this 80 wire cable to connect this drive ( i.e. bios
assigned as master device ) to my ( VIA ) kt266a 's hdd controller.

Does any1 here have a similar experience ? If this warning is valid,
then why does no mboard / hdd / cdd / dvd / cable manufacturer warn
users of this requirement ?