I wanted to offer my thanks to the thread and log my configuration so future web-searchers will be able to find it in their searches.
I have a Toshiba Satellite 2455-S305 which had an internal DVD-RAM (DVD-RW) named SD-R6012. Suddenly, it was able to read and write CDR and read DVD, but got a zebra effect in writing DVD. The writing software(s) indicated no error. The zebra effect was after completion I would have an unreadable disc and reflecting the write-side in the light I could see as if the lazer gave up from time to time and gave a striping effect. Eventually it degraded to not writing at all (after finding out one hour later and seeing no case of written data) and the disk inserted into another computer would be autoplayed as a blank disc.
So, I figured I needed a new drive and I am low on desk space and USB 2.0 ports in my hub. I saw that Toshiba had produced a SD-R6112 which wrote at 2x compared to my SD-R6012. I didn't find any compatibility within SD-R6112 and Satellite 2455, but found the spec of the 6012 and 6112 on the sdd toshiba website. The dimensions and pins looked the same, so I took a chance. I looked online and on ebay. The 6012 was much more common in ebay and much cheaper, but the SD-R6112 was actually cheaper new on computergiants website than the used ones on ebay (or the ones shipped from UK to USA). I went ahead and placed the order and received it very quickly (shipped from Cali to Cali).
I undid the harness on my old broken down wife, err drive, and applied it to the new drive. Windows didn't recognise it hot-swapped, so I rebooted and saw this classic IDE #1 error. I called toshiba sdd tech support who agreed with me it should just work and referred me to toshiba computer support. They weren't able to ensure compat. and referred me to sdd support, so I explained that I'd like to prevent the snake biting his tail circle and request if it is in compatibility list. They couldn't turn up anything, but wanted to refer me to a service center.
Being that my old drive was able to be seen by windows, I ruled out IDE problems, bridge problems, and act-of-God. I declined the service center, upgraded Toshiba BIOS from 1.1 to 1.5 and was not successful in finding my new drive, although I can see it quite readily inserted into it's new home.
The next element was some specific searches to my HW config and didn't turn up anything. Finally, I decided to see what they had to say about the generic problem of IDE #1 error, especially since BIOS did indeed see something in IDE bay #1 using IRQ15. I landed on a sister thread of this where people were asking for emailed photos. There was one referral to this thread, where I excitedly saw familiar photos of my bridge and a DVD connector.
Reading through the thread and taking into account my redbull and alcohol raged shaky hands, I opted not to go with messing up the bridge. However, I did consider buying another bridge from CompUSA to mess with, but that'd take hours in this So Cal traffic, so I was intrigued by bending the pins up and sliding in tin foil.
For the next two hours I went blind doing a much different thing than I had heard would make me blind. I used some nose hair trimmer scissors (trust me, hygeine is important) to pry up the famous pins; I'll call them Beavis(45) & Butthead(47). I followed that by folding a piece of tin foil about 1" square into a piece small enough to span the distance of the two pins, but not too great to usurp the other pins.
After much time working with needle nose pliers, the nose trimmer had been put away at this point, I felt anguish and despair at my futile attempts. So now here I was folding tin foil and I felt it may be more exciting to chew on tin foil and feel that excruciating and numbing pain and I looked at the clock. The traffic was definitely subsided, but if I bought a new bridge I would be spending hours with the solder and inhaling lead fumes and making negative progress. I kept at it, and halted the red bull, and eventually I got a 1 inch piece of tinfoil that was as wide as the two pins. I tucked it under those two boners of pins (beavis & butthead). Using the needle nose pliers I bent the pins back down with the tin between them and the plastic casing. After it looked secure and was not touching the other pins (Dahreah [49] and Wilson [43]) I snipped at the one inch length of the foil to leave a slight overhang. I had used a standard pair of scissors for this activity (If you were following along, you'd have seen I had put away the nose trimmers). This overhang spread a bit when I trimmer it, so I tapered it back to an acceptable width witht he needle nose plier and then bent it down to cover the other side of Beavis & Butthead. They were effectively wearing their tinfoil hat at this time.
I slid in the bridge and plugged it into the computer. Pressed the power button and saw an absent dreaded message. When windows XP started it had found new hardware ! Toshiba SD-R6112!!!! Then found CD-ROM (same guy). After the next 20 minutes while Windows loaded all my USB hubbed peripherals drivers and autostart spam from yahoo, aol, msn, and other, I put in a DVD to burn. So far so good, I think Beavis & butthead are doing their jobs quite well.
Thank you to the thread participants!
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