Can the motherboard on the t690 support an optical drive with a sata connection

it looks like sata

Aspire T690 Specifications

Part Number: AspireT690 Aspire T690
Storage CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD/CD-RW Combo, DVD Dual, or DVD Supermulti (varies by model)
Up to 400GB Hard Disk Drive SATA (varies by model)
9 in 1 Card Reader (selected models)

If your CD / DVD is powered on Ok then you are missing the data cable connection which will be either a SATA (small connector) or IDE (much larger connector) both of which plug in to your motherboard....Look at the CD / DVD and try to identify which type of connector you are missing then look for an unconnected cable of the same type within your case.

Hi,
One end of the Sata Cable is to be attached to the CD/DVD (Optical Drive) or Hard Disk, whereas the other end is to be attached to the motherboard. The Sata connections on the motherboard are located near the CMOS/RTC Battery as indicated below: - (Blue, White, Yellow and Black, at right-hand top corner)


Hope it helps! Good Luck! Thanks for using Fixya!
CreativeTECH

What type of connection does your optical drive have? If it is a SATA drive, use one of the four SATA ports.

If you have an IDE drive, this motherboard doesn't have an IDE connection on board. If you want to use this drive, you need an IDE to SATA converter, for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232004&cm_re=ide_to_sata_converter-_-12-232-004-_-Product . This is for internal use. You could also get a PCI or PCIe IDE controller. Some PCIe examples are here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=ide+pci+express . These will work if you still have one of the PCIe slots available. (Some video cards may block the slots.)

There are also USB to IDE dongles or 5.25" enclosures that will work (best for non-slim optical drives).

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

These are the steps for installing your optical drive:
1. Remove both side covers on your PC case. 2. Locate a free 5.25 in bay on your desktop computer. This is usually located near the front/top part of a PC ATX case. 3. Remove the front/external cover for your chosen drive bay. This cover is usually not screwed in. You just have to pry it open. 4. Screw in the optical drive to the drive bay. You need 4 screws, 2 on each side. 5. Power connection : Locate a SATA power connector from your power supply and plug this into your new optical drive. The SATA power connector looks like this
6. Data Connection - Locate the SATA ports on your motherboard which looks like this
You need to plug in a SATA cable from your motherboard to your new optical drive
SATA cable
SATA power and data ports on the back of the optical drive


7. That's it! Your new optical drive should now work. it's plug n Play so you don't need to install any drivers for this device.

You could connect a PATA HDD to this using the IDE connector, which then means that you would need to either slave your optical drive on the same channel, or obtain a sata optical drive.
The other ( not recommended) solution is to buy an IDE / SATA converter and run the hard drive from a SATA port. I've never had any sucess with these adaptors

Every SATA enabled motherboard has atleast 2 SATA ports. Trace the first SATA cable and you'll find another port closer. If your Optical drive is connected to it, and if you can find an IDE port on your motherboard, buy an IDE to SATA convertor and plug it in.

Hi boss2415,

Well, that depends on what type of optical drives you have. The board (sweet) has 6 SATA ports, if both of your optical drives are SATA drives, then just plug them both into the next consecutive SATA port. Now, if you have a PATA drive, my suggestion is to get a dual PATA cable to connect to the board. Make the one you'll use the most the Master and the other the Slave. And Bios and Windows will automatically setup the drive letters for you.

Good Luck

Mark

The drive you are installing is a SATA drive. The system came with a PARALLEL ATA or PATA optical drive, The motherboard has a SATA controller and the HDD is a SATA drive. So you need a SATA data cable and connect it to the SATA 1 port on the motherboard. There should be a SATA power connection inside the chassis that is not being used, that you can connect to the drive. Then go to system setup (F2 at boot) enable the SATA 1 controller and disable the PATA controller
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim3100/en/sm/parts0.htm#wp1043338

Yes, since you are using two IDE drives on One flat ribbon cable, you need to set the harddrive as a Master drive, and the optical, (DVD), drive as a Slave drive.

When two IDE drives are installed on one cable, BIOS needs a way to find the drive that has the O/S, (Operating System), then the optical drive.

Would recommend you buy a SATA optical drive, as soon as you can afford it. SATA DVD burners aren't that expensive.
Your motherboard is set up for SATA, and SATA is WAY faster than IDE. (IDE is also referred to as EIDE, ATA, and PATA)

Then of course a SATA harddrive, and a fresh genuine copy of Windows in the future.
SATA doesn't care where you plug in a drive, and doesn't care which drive connects to what SATA header. It will find that drive. You can connect any SATA drive, to ANY SATA header on the motherboard.

Having two IDE drives such as an IDE harddrive, and an IDE optical drive on the same cable, S-L-O-W-S your computer down! BIOS has to look to see which drive has the O/S first, then it will look for the optical drive.

Thought I would include two links that tell you, and show you how to set jumpers on the jumper pins, on an IDE harddrive, and IDE optical drive,
1.Harddrive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwbboeMO7b8&feature=related
2.Optical drive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lldXwgPabhE&feature=channel

Should my solution have helped you, feel free to rate it.