w141234

Good suggestions, I will try. In case anyone else is reading this in the future, I'm using the StarTech 18" 80 wire IDE cable and have a Hitachi - LG DVD drive. I do already have the adapter set to Master, and Cable Select has the same issue fwiw.

Everything you suggested might be true. Nonetheless it still seems odd that the StarTech SATA adapter boots to a black screen, but opening the DVD drive afterwords causes it to boot normally.

I didn't really expect it to make a difference, but I tried a second StarTech adapter (to rule out a defect in my original one) and I see the same issue. I'm also going to try a variety of other cheaper adapters. Tried one so far and it's just about as slow as the Kingwin adapter. Would I maybe have better luck with an IDE hard drive? Do they even make them anymore?

I'm using a new 120GB SSD, this StarTech IDE2SATA2 adapter, this Kingwin knockoff adapter and this 80-pin cable. The stock 40-pin cable gives me error 13 with both adapters (which is expected).

Thanks for the reply. I clocked both adapters, here are my results: Kingwin 23 seconds from the end of the flubber animation to when the Microsoft logo appears (with or without a disk in the drive) 8 seconds from the microsoft logo to fully booted into UnleashX StarTech 1 second from the end of the flubber animation to when the Microsoft logo appears (with or without a disk. also, it doesn't hang if there's a disk) 12 seconds from pressing Eject twice to fully booted into UnleashX This is with nothing additional except the softmod installed on the drive, by the way. I chose a SSD because it's quieter and has a longer life ahead of it than an IDE HDD, and many people seem to swear by the StarTech adapters. I wonder if there's something wrong with my setup, my config, or if there's a bug in the software somewhere.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I'm having a similar issue to OP with similar hardware. I have the StarTech adapter, as well as a Kingwin I found on Amazon. StarTech only works after an eject cycle, but the Kingwin works normally. It's exceptionally slow to boot though, so I'd rather find a way to get the StarTech working if I can! I have a Hitachi/LG DVD drive, not Samsung.