Abit NF7-S2 and Win98SE

[niall]

Edit: Two down, more or less. Keep the advice coming, and I'll make a pointer in Operating Systems to this post as well.

Edit 2 (6 August): For diagnostic purposes see photos of the BIOS screens here.

First, any advice boiling down to "Get 2k/XP", while appreciated, won't help me. Thanks, but I currently still wish to use 98. I'll upgrade when I'll know what I'm doing and getting into.

Rig:
- Abit NF7-S2 (nForce2 Ultra400 , MCP chipsets)
- AMD 2500+
- 1 gig OEM DDR400 ram (2.5-3-3-7 at 166FSB)
- onboard audio (regular AC97 codec)
- Asus V9280-S2 Ti4800SE video
- WD Caviar SE 40GB (3 partitions: C:, E:, F
- WD Caviar SE 80GB (1 partition: G
- Antec 3700AMB case
- Zip 100 internal (seen as D
- LG 8481B 48x CD-RW (should be H
- 3Com PCI modem
- Dlink DFE-530TX Lan card with ADSL modem connected to it
- Floppy drive (currently in dos mode)
- Windows 98SE

Before updating from my Soyo KT400 DragonLite (VIA KT400/8235 chipsets), I deleted the following "software" in Control Panel: Asus Display drivers, Canon i250, Creative PCI Audio Drivers, Dlink DSC 350 (a cheap digicam), Nvidia WDM drivers, PCI Audio Driver. Then I took out the proper registry keys (VxD and Enum), and cleared the INF/OTHER files under c:Windows\. Went into msconfig and took out what few hardware startups I could see.

After the update, I installed the following:
- flashed the bios with Flashmenu to NF7215 from Abit;
- nForce_4_27_Win98ME_international from Abit;
- V-2.1.10 USB2.0 drivers from Abit;
- ABITEQ 1.210 from Abit;
- NVSU 1.04 from Abit;
- nVidia Forceware drivers 77.72 for Win9x from nVidia;
- nVidia VIVO WDM drivers 2.26 from nVidia;
- latest cd-rw driver from LG.

Windows installed a whackload of "new hardware", including aboud 21 "PCI Holder for IRQ Steering" thingies (which only show under Safe Mode).

From Fern, I got a sound codec update (Q242937.exe) which at least got rid of the MMSYSTEM032 and 004 errors I was getting, but Windows still can't see the onboard audio chip, and therefore can't play sounds.

Problems:

1) The cd-rw can't be seen or accessed; at first it was hanging in Windows Explorer when I clicked on the (local drive) H: icon before telling me it was unable to access the detachable drive. I found the particular cd-rw driver from LG, which did nothing until I also installed the "DOS" driver (which had all Korean characters throughout). Now it kind-of sees it; at least in WE the icon is of a cd-rom, and in DOS I can see the contents of a CD, but it now creates an additional I: drive of a File System "CDBLANK". Hunh?? This of course means that I can't re-install other things like my ADSL modem or my printer from the cd-rom.

The only time the system would see the cd would be on startup - putting my Win98 CD, it asked if I wanted to boot from CD or from hard disk. After installing the dos drivers, getting into Windows Explorer freezes my ststem for about one minute. Upon bootup, the BIOS sees the drive just fine and displays its properties quite happily.

I tried this morning to do what I did to fix the sound and cd problem on my last upgrade (from P5A to Soyo KT400), which was to reinstall Windows on top of itself. That didn't work. Windows started the setup, then mysteriously added a primary partition on my 80 gig drive (secondary IDE), tried to format it, and then couldn't find the CD anymore. Now my 80G drive under dos and Fdisk is only listed as 10G or so. Windows still sees the whole 80G, thank goodness. I'm not trying this again.

2) Under Device Manager, there are still two properties with a ! in front of them: Standard Floppy Disk Controller (should search online for a driver) and PCI Ethernet controller. The Ethernet one asks for a driver, I can't find one anywhere. And yes, the LAN is enabled in BIOS.

3) FIXED As I said above, no sound. Under Multimedia in Control Panel, Audio shows "No playback devices". Under the Devices tab, Audio lists "Audio for nVidia nForce Audio". The same for MIDI devices and instruments. Under Device Manager, Sound controllers lists "nVidia nForce Audio Codec" and "nVidia WDM Video Capture (universal)". Is something missing?

EDIT: I decided to uninstall the nVidia drivers, and it asked me which part of the drivers to uninstall - so I only did the audio and ethernet ones. I kind of forgot what else I uninstalled/undid, then reinstalled the specific audio portion of the driver, and only after all this did I reboot. And suddenly ta-da, sound works! One down.

4) 56k MODEM FIXED I also have a PCI 56k modem (3com). I managed to install it from its drivers found online from 3Com; it now works, kind of. I can connect to a local freenet service, give name and password, and it shows connection established. But I don't seem to have a socket enabled anywhere for any Net software to communicate. Browser, telnet, eudora: none work. Firefox says any website can't be found. Telnet says "Error 0 in function Connect (socket)". The mail just says it can't access the server. The installed ADSL modem from Dlink isn't seen anywhere - trying to connect to it says "E0041: Failed on create device: NTSPPP3". And as I said, I can't re-install that program without a CD drive.

Under Device Manager's network adapters, I see "Dial-Up Adapter" and "MicrosoftTV/Video Connection". Under Control Panel's Network, I see "Client for Microsoft Networks", Dial-Up Adapter", "Microsoft TV/Video Connection", "TCP/IP -> Dial-up Adapter" and "TCP/IP -> Microsoft TV/Video Connection". Primary network logon is through the Client for MS network.

EDIT: Sometimes the simple solutions are the best. Googled for a possible fix, and found (and remembered) the Winsock2fix program. Ran that, then uninstalled all but the tv/video connection in device manager and Networking, rebooted, then manually installed in Networking the Client for MS networks, then the three adapters: Dial-up, the one for my lan card and the one for my adsl modem. At least now trying to start my modem gives me a different error: "E0051: Failed to load Tap". A quick check on my EnterNet help page says I should change the tap drivers, but that does nothing. I suspect a simple reinstall will work - once I can get my CD drive to work so I can reinstall.

EDIT 2: Now my 56k internal modem connects AND my internet programs (Firefox, telnet) connect somewhere. Though I'm actually at 40k. Kinda slow... but I can do a few things from home now.


...help? I've exhausted all my meagre knowledge by now. Is this another case of the fabled nVidia-98 incompatibility? Because I heard of others (Fern included) who managed to marry the two properly and get everything to work.

 

[Fern]

Hi Niall,

Looks to me as you have now changed mobos twice w/o a reformat/reinstall, I would think therein lies much of the difficulty you are experiencing.

Is it not possible to break down and do a reformat & reinstall? 98se works fine as I have several boxes with that OS and chipset. I'm not as brave as you, so I do the R&R. (In fact, I just installed 98se on a NF3 board with an a64 cpu, nice and snappy!)

The FDD driver on my nearest machine (I'm at the office and can get at the device mgr on it) has the standard 98se drivers. I say "standard" cuz it seems all the drivers provided within 98se seem to carry a date of 4/23/99. Accordingly the FDD driver is from the MS 98se disk.

I beleive it's the same for my cd-rw. Although the machine doesn't have one ATM (I removed it for use temp use elsewhere), I am pretty sure it's an MS 4/23/99 driver.

The LAN, or Network adapter as it is called in device mgr uses an nVidia driver. This comes with nForce chipset package. Mine shows "unavailable" for the date.

The onboard audio also uses an nVidia driver, and again reflects no date.

Don't worry about all the "PCI Holder for IRQ Steering", that sounds normal for a manual install of chipset drivers.

My first instinct was to suggest a reinstall over top of existing, but I see you have done that.

I'm a wee bit troubled by the flashing of BIOS. Not clear to me how that was accomplished with all these problems (unless they didn't appear until after that? a clue perhaps if so).

Also, seems to me if fdisk is having a problem seeing your entire HDD, well I dobn't think that's indicative an OS problem as it fdisk shouldn't have any thing to do with 98se AFAIK. OTOH, I seem to recall fdisk not initially showing the correct size of a HDD anyway (noticed that yesterday, but it was a new unformatted HDD).

Can you double check to make sure you flashed to the correct BIOS?. It is easy to confuse the NF7-S v2 and the NF7-S2. Its been done many times before


Back to the reinstall question - do you have a spare HDD lying around? You could try a fresh install on it and confirm what it should look like. If it doesn't work, well that may possibly indicate a "bad" mobo to begin with, or a problem with the flash.

Lemme how I can help, I'll be happy to look up anything of interest to you on the rig in my sig.

Fern

 

[niall]

Thanks Fern. The bios flash was the very absolute first thing I did, and it worked fine, no problems there. In fact, it wasn't until after I flashed it that windows started seeing new hardware to install. I doubt it's the problem.

As I said, I tried to reinstall 98 but it won't let me, not on top of itself. By doing so it created this primary partition on my 80g disk, where there wasn't before. And before it did that, fdisk and dos did see the full 80 gigs, now it sees 10 or so. Doesn't seem to impede problems. I did delete the bad primary partition on that disk with fdisk at least.

I'll see if I can subtract only the audio driver from the nforce exe, but I doubt so. Maybe uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers may be needed.

And I can't format and reinstall, since, as I said last year (link above), at least half of my small programs I use are installed and I don't have, nor can I find, installer files for them. I had only a 10-gig drive back when I got most of them, and there was no space for them.

I really should make a directory of nothing but installer files for everything I have. Or a cd-rw.

I'm not sure I have a working hdd lying around that isn't spoken for or already formatted (i'm rebuilding a 486 for playing old dos games).

Thanks for the tips so far.

 

[Fern]

Hey, forgot to address something...

Since your cd isn't working, nor your LAN I see how it's a problem to try and install (re-install) chipset drivers. So, can you hookup yourr slave HDD to another PC and d/l the driver install proggies to it (ya know "save to disk" etc). Then hook it back up and give it a go?

If while it's on another rig, you might wanna try to copy the 98se install disk to a folder on the HDD. Then point to it when "reinstalling" the FDD & cd drivers etc.

 

[niall]

Unfortunately, no other rig I have is actually complete - it's all in various stages of assembly, but not near working capability.

And I do have the win98 files copied. Still not helping.

Should I mention that the Properties tab of System shows that the A: drive is working in DOS mode? And the cd-rom drive too,despite not being seen as a cd-rom. The floppy controller driver is listed as the win98 one with the date you mentioned.

At least I got the sound working now. See first post for details...

 

[Jeff7]

Did you install the SW IDE drivers from nVidia? You might want to uninstall those. I've had nothing but trouble with nVidia's IDE drivers.

 

[Varun]

You really should reinstall Windows if you make such a major change. I once got away with a motherboard swap, but it was a KT133 to a KT333. Going Via to Nvidia is a pretty major change.

I don't mean reinstall Windows on the partition - I mean format C: and reinstall. It's a lot of work, however it seems like the only logical way to get Windows straight.

 

[Fern]

Hi niall, Been wondering how it's going.

Some comments:

After the update, I installed the following:
- latest cd-rw driver from LG.

( Let me double check my rig tonight, it's at home, before attempting this. I'll post back tomorrow)I'd suggest unistalling the cd-rw, then install using only the standard MS drivers that come with 98se. I use a Lite-on cd-rw perfectly fine in my NF7-S v2 + 98se rig with just the MS drivers. I'm thinking the 3rd party drivers may be a problem.

And

2) Under Device Manager, there are still two properties with a ! in front of them: Standard Floppy Disk Controller (should search online for a driver) and PCI Ethernet controller. The Ethernet one asks for a driver, I can't find one anywhere. And yes, the LAN is enabled in BIOS.

Same as above for the floppy

The ethernet driver is in the unified driver package from nVidia. Did you d/l the 4.27 unified drivers from the nVidia site? If so, might try disabling the LAN in BIOS, reboot and enable then reinstall from the nVidia folder on your HDD. Seems to me disabling in BIOS blows out all drivers and settings with regard to the LAN/ethernet controller.

Hope you get either the ethernet or cd working soon. That'd help a lot.

Fern

 

[niall]

Jeff7: I don't believe the IDE drivers were from nVidia, they're listed as the same in Device Manager as they were in the old setup (which was a Via chipset). And if the IDE drivers were at fault, wouldn't I have trouble with the toehr three IDE devices, i.e. my two hard drives and my zip drive? Yet all three work flawlessly.

Varun: There are two reasons I want to avoid a full reinstall. Mainly, a number of my programs can't be reinstalled if I wipe the c: drive and the whole registry. Not because they're bootleg, but because they're old shareware or freeware and I don't have the installer file anymore, and it's no longer available online anywhere. Also, I did try a reinstall on top of itself as I did in my last upgrade, but without the cd-rom recognised by Windows, it can't install anyway...

Fern: Not much luck still. Uninstalling the PCI ethernet driver, and even trying to get it to look at any and all the nvidia installation subfolders as well as the windows ones makes it come up blank for a driver.

Uninstalling the floppy driver makes it find it and install it automatically without asking me where to look for one, so I suspect it's the windows one. But I may have found a possible angle to the problem I hadn't thought of, will try tonight when I get home.

The cd-rw driver doesn't have a ! next to it, though I've uninstalled it and as for the floppy, it reinstalls it automatically. How do I force it to install from the 98 drivers?

Yes, I did dl the 4.27 unified drivers from nVidia's site. I've now tried disabling and reenabling the LAN option to no avail. In my previous rig, the onboard lan didn't work so I bought a DLink NIC whcih went smoothly. I may be able to reinstall it smoothly... if my cd-rw could be seen by the system. This really is the central weak point of all my problems right now. I fix that, the rest gets fixed by reinstalls from my CDs.

I tried last night to take out the main drivers other than sound and video, and it reinstalled a bunch of stuff automatically. USB, IDE, etc. and it's back to what it was, no change.

I feel I'm so close, and there must be a simple little thing I'm overlooking... Could it be an interrupt problem in BIOS? I'll check what the list says on bootup, as it seems to detect a number of things. Then again, it can see the Win98 boot disc and ask if I want to boot from hard disk or CD, and trying fom the CD starts the installation process until the Windows shell starts - and exactly at that point, the cd can no longer be seen. Very annoying.

 

[niall]

Okay Fern, here's more info:

The cd-rw is an LG model 8481B. Upon going to the driver in Device Manager, it lists a Microsoft driver of date 4-23-1999 - looks like I'm okay. (The updated driver I found on the LG site is actually for an older hardware revision.)

Full specs available from the LG site, but include "Data transfer rate: Sustained: Max 7200KB/s, Burst: PIO Mode 4 (16.67MB/s), MULTI-DMA Mode 2" and "Interface type: E-IDE/ATAPI".

Under Settings, however, it lists: Target ID: 0, Logical unit number: 0, Options: Disconnect (checked), Sync data transfer (unchecked), Auto insert notification (checked) and DMA (unchecked). SHould DMA be checked? The specs do mention it being capable of DMA...

Is it of importance that upon bootup, on the second screen, it lists the Secondary Master Disk as "CD-RW, ATA 33"? I can't find the ATA rating on the LG site.

The Properties for the "Standard Floppy Disc Controller" with a ! in front of it says "This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed. (Code 10)" The driver date is also 4-23-1999. Clicking on Driver File Details, it lists two drivers: c:\windows\system\iosubsys\hsflop.pdr (file version 4.10.2222, Microsoft) and c:\windows\system\vmm32\iso.vxd (file version 4.10.2223, Microsoft). As well, under the System Properties' Performance tab, it lists that "Drive A is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system". It did at first on my update last year to the via board, but somehow disappeared at one point. I don't remember how.

Finally, this is the PCI Device Listing on Bootup, with the LAN controller disabled in the BIOS:

Bus No. Device No. Func. No. Vendor/Device Class Device Class IRQ
0 1 1 10DE 0084 0C05 SMBus Cntrlr 3
0 2 0 10DE 0087 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr NA
0 2 1 10DE 0087 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr NA
0 2 2 10DE 0088 0C03 USB 2.0 EHCI Cntrlr NA
0 6 0 10DE 008A 0401 Multimedia Device 10
0 9 0 10DE 0085 0101 IDE Cntrlr 14
1 0 0 10DE 0282 0300 Display Cntrlr NA
2 6 0 12B9 1008 0700 Simple COMM. Cntrlr 5
2 8 0 1106 3106 0200 Network Cntrlr 11
ACPI Cntrlr 9


Does this give better clues?

 

[xgsound]

Before doing any of this, copy all the data you can to another fat32 drive if you cannot replace the data. Also install the win98se rollup at http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html which contains numerous win98se driver updates.

Generally the Nvidia IDE drivers from Nforce are NOT suggested by others on the forum.

On Win98se when I ran into problems with ide devices (ie CD), sound devices, or modem that drivers couldn't cure; I deleted the next higher device and let everything redetect.

So, removeing the PCI bus redetects everything on it upon reboot.

With a motherboard change, I remove the ENUM folders in the registry. Then all hardware is redetected upon reboot. For me this has not changed any programs, only the system drivers.

This will require repeated reboots, with cleanup (for yellow points) several times. This has worked for me on many occasions. (YMMV)


Jim

 

[niall]

Thank you Jim. Unfortunately, all that has already been done; data from the old setup backed up as a Ghost image; two registry folders cleaned out, and the inf/others subfolder emptied; change boards, flash to latest bios, let windows re-detect all hardware, install new drivers.

And inthis case, I did take out the PCI bus a few days ago and had it re-detect everything, to no avail. I think I may have to try an older BIOS and/or older nVidia drivers.

And as I tried to explain, it looks like I have the Microsoft IDE drivers now, not the nVidia ones.

In trying to check for problem explanations, I have come across that 98se service pack site. I may very well have to try it now. Though downloading 16 megs at 44k (best download rate: 5k/sec) will take a while... since I can'd put it on a cd from another PC... hmmm, or maybe I can, if I install the dos drivers, go to dos and copy the file that way...

 

[tcsenter]

Then I took out the proper registry keys (VxD and Enum), and cleared the INF/OTHER files under c:Windows\. Went into msconfig and took out what few hardware startups I could see.

I've never been a supporter of deleting ENUM key, myself, nor are there any "proper" registry keys to delete before swapping motherboards. There are only opinions, and I happen to think deleting ENUM is an inferior method.

I've seen this create problems replacing a motherboard from the same chipset vendor (e.g. KT266 to KT400), resulting in non-detected or non-functioning ATAPI drives, among other problems - the only solution being a clean install. However, moving from KT400 to NFORCE2 without a clean install is overly hopeful, no matter the method.

I've never been disappointed by deleting the entry in Device Manager for "PCI BUS" under System Devices. After the swap, boot into Safe Mode, install the new chipset support (VIA Hyperion, Intel INF, NVidia Platform, etc.), then restart normally and watch the fireworks (new hardware detection and install).

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: niall
Okay Fern, here's more info:

The cd-rw is an LG model 8481B. Upon going to the driver in Device Manager, it lists a Microsoft driver of date 4-23-1999 - looks like I'm okay. (The updated driver I found on the LG site is actually for an older hardware revision.) Yup, confirmed last night that I'm using that standard MS driver for my opticals

Full specs available from the LG site, but include "Data transfer rate: Sustained: Max 7200KB/s, Burst: PIO Mode 4 (16.67MB/s), MULTI-DMA Mode 2" and "Interface type: E-IDE/ATAPI".

Under Settings, however, it lists: Target ID: 0, Logical unit number: 0, Options: Disconnect (checked), Sync data transfer (unchecked), Auto insert notification (checked) and DMA (unchecked). SHould DMA be checked? The specs do mention it being capable of DMA... I do have DMA checked on my system (although seems to me that DMA or not isn't likely the problem) and the other options look right too. I'll print this out and carry home with me to check Target ID and Logical Unit Number

Is it of importance that upon bootup, on the second screen, it lists the Secondary Master Disk as "CD-RW, ATA 33"? I can't find the ATA rating on the LG site. I'll check, but that seems right to me. Opticals can use the older 40pin/40 wire IDE cables because they do run slow. I'll just double check to make sure that its not ATA 66

The Properties for the "Standard Floppy Disc Controller" with a ! in front of it says "This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed. (Code 10)" The driver date is also 4-23-1999. Clicking on Driver File Details, it lists two drivers: c:\windows\system\iosubsys\hsflop.pdr (file version 4.10.2222, Microsoft) and c:\windows\system\vmm32\iso.vxd (file version 4.10.2223, Microsoft). As well, under the System Properties' Performance tab, it lists that "Drive A is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system". It did at first on my update last year to the via board, but somehow disappeared at one point. I don't remember how. Both my floppy disk controller and the floppy disk drive are using the standard MS driver from 4/213/99. I'll check my driver file details and compare to yours. Whats listed as the driver under the floppy disk drive?

Finally, this is the PCI Device Listing on Bootup, with the LAN controller disabled in the BIOS:

Bus No. Device No. Func. No. Vendor/Device Class Device Class IRQ
0 1 1 10DE 0084 0C05 SMBus Cntrlr 3
0 2 0 10DE 0087 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr NA
0 2 1 10DE 0087 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr NA
0 2 2 10DE 0088 0C03 USB 2.0 EHCI Cntrlr NA
0 6 0 10DE 008A 0401 Multimedia Device 10
0 9 0 10DE 0085 0101 IDE Cntrlr 14
1 0 0 10DE 0282 0300 Display Cntrlr NA
2 6 0 12B9 1008 0700 Simple COMM. Cntrlr 5
2 8 0 1106 3106 0200 Network Cntrlr 11
ACPI Cntrlr 9


Does this give better clues? Hopefully As regards the above PCI info I'll carry a copy home with me tonight and compare

See bolded comments above. I'm thinking I'll try to record (in wordpad etc) my system info and provide to you. May prove helpful.

Fern

 

[Fern]

Niall, another ?. How many MS updates does your install contain?

The reason I ask is because I'm wondering about differences we may have. I've ran mine for kicks with just a plain install and no updates (other than DX9) and played games fine.

Usually though, I update mine via the free disk MS was giving out a year or so ago. I though they were just security updates and wouldn't have any perfomance effects. However, when I installed 98se on the a64 nForce 3 rig last week (which btw uses the same chipset drivers as the NF2) it seemed much snappier after the update disk was run.

Noticed the same thing on an install of 98se I did on an older rig the week b4 that too.

Sorry I'm not a better "software guy" (hardware is more fun for me ) When I get problems with the OS I just strip it and reinstall rather than fiddle

Fern

 

[niall]

tcsenter: I've already tried taking away the PCI Bus entry in System Manager. And as I said, under Device Manager, the cd-rw drive is there, installed, Microsoft drivers, the whole works - Device Manager is happy that the drive is there. I go in Windows Explorer, and I get a "removable drive" description next to a local drive icon, not a cd-rom icon, and clicking on it gives me a blank entry on the right side instead of the listing of items on the cd-r. Most puzzling.

Fern: I'll check tonight for the actual floppy driver. The weird thing is, despite that ! and the "drivers badly loaded", I've had zero problems using the diskette drive. The cd-rw shows properly installed and won't work. Thank you Microsoft. And as I said before, I can't reinstall without losing a lot of old software for which I can't find replacements yet.

Mind you, another solution presented itself: maybe I should just install a new drive, like the LG 4163 cd-rw/dvd-rw multi-drive... maybe that'll get rid of this problem. But if I plug that in without yet installing all the dvd decoders and the like, will it behave like a regular cd-rw drive at that point? If you know...

Thanks for all your help, though.

 

[tcsenter]

tcsenter: I've already tried taking away the PCI Bus entry in System Manager. And as I said, under Device Manager, the cd-rw drive is there, installed, Microsoft drivers, the whole works - Device Manager is happy that the drive is there. I go in Windows Explorer, and I get a "removable drive" description next to a local drive icon, not a cd-rom icon, and clicking on it gives me a blank entry on the right side instead of the listing of items on the cd-r. Most puzzling.

I meant deleting PCI BUS instead of deleting ENUM key, not in addition to. I'm 99% certain you are sunk without a clean install.

 

[niall]

Ah. Too late to kinda try that, I think.

Hmm, I don't know if this constitutes an improvement: I've installed the Windows 98se "Service Pack". No problem there - but no changes in Device Manager. However, there is ONE change: I can now see a cd-rw! ...but only a cd-rw. And only if it's been inserted before I boot, as it's seen as a "detachable drive". And once it's seen it, I can't eject the CD, the button does nothing. In DOS, strangely, if I have a cd-rom, it will say there's no files and put in 679,477,248 bytes free... no matter what's in it. I put in the cd-rw, it suddenly sees all its files, and won't let me eject until I reboot.

Not much of an improvement... but something different!

 

[Fern]

Niall,

Followup to yesterday:

Re: cd the target ID and logical unit # appear correct. I have same settings (and yes I have DMA checked)

Also cd s/b ata 33, so it's correct as well

Re; floppy disk controller: the driver file details appears correct. Only diff is both of mine are version 4.10.2222

Of course, I don't have the DOS stuff listed under the performance tab

Finally, this is the PCI Device Listing on Bootup, with the LAN controller disabled in the BIOS:

Bus No. Device No. Func. No. Vendor/Device Class Device Class IRQ
0 1 1 10DE 0064 0C05 SMBus Cntrlr 10
0 2 0 10DE 0067 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr 11
0 2 1 10DE 0067 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr 5
0 2 2 10DE 0068 0C03 USB 2.0 EHCI Cntrlr 10
0 6 0 10DE 006A 0401 Multimedia Device 5
0 6 0 10DE 006B 0401 Multimedia Device 11
0 9 0 10DE 0065 0101 IDE Cntrlr 14/15
2 0 0 10DE 00045 0300 Display Cntrlr 10
2 6 0 12B9 1008 0700 Simple COMM. Cntrlr 5 - I do not have this
0 4 0 10DE 0066 0200 Network Cntrlr 11
ACPI Cntrlr 9

The above has been edited to reflect what's on my system. I may not have the "device no." quite correct. Mine are in numerical order, yours are not.

Looks like you don't the USB drivers installed.

Not sure of the significance of the "vendor #", but your network controller should reflect 10DE I would think? And why no IRQ assinged to display controller?

Also, and I'm guessing here, I notice your IDE controller has only one IRQ assigned. I'm running my HDD and DVD-R on seperate channels. Under your device manager can you see both the primary and secondary controllers? OK, just re-read your post above. Looks like you set each to master on diff channels. Wondering if this diff indicates where the problem is for your cd?

Fern

 

[niall]

I do have the USB installed, I wouldn't be able to use my mouse otherwise.

Primary IDE master is my 40 gig drive, Primary slave is my 80 gig drive.
Secondary master is my cd-rw, secondary slave is my Zip drive.

The floppy controller I'm less worried about since it can read and write floppies perfectly.

The no controller for display is interesting; but my display drivers work fine. My network controller might reflect that it's improperly installed, or that the lan is disabled in bios. My network can't show as working until I reinstall it.

And yes, I have all IDE controllers visible without problem in Device Manager, and all on Microsoft drivers.

I'd try spending a quick $35 on another cd-rw, but all they're selling at that price here are other LGs, which may be the problem...

 

[Fern]

Well, I'm mostly wondering if for the two IDE channels your having only one IRQ assigned (and I have two) is a problem? (I really need to learn more about this stuff. I'm assuming you're way ahead of me here )

I'll have a look under system devices in the device manager this weekend. Maybe something helpful can be found.

(I see your previous post, it looks you're making some progress with the cd though. Not sure I fully understand what you saying. But if you can see the files on the cd, well that seems a step in the right direction. I'm also a little puzzled how you got the MS updates in there?)

Fern

 

[niall]

It's not exactly progress as possibly another indication of the problem. I can ONLY see files if it's a cd-rw that's been prepared by the Roxio EasyCDCreator's DirectCD program to be used "as a drive to drag and drop files on". It won't see cd-roms still.

In order to dispell more possible confusion about my system, I did what I should have done at the beginning:

I took pictures of the BIOS screens sequentially.

On 05, the Advanced BIOS Features screen, there's two lines missing at the top:
"Hard Disk Boot Priority: Press Enter
-Bootable Add-in Priority: PCI Slot Device"

Hopefully this will help in seeing if that's where the problem lies.