Deformed CD unreadable

[Muse]

The drivers and utilities CD that came with my new Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro mobo isn't being read by my NEC ND-2510a DVD/RW burner/player. I couldn't figure it out until I noticed that looking at the disk from the edge, there's some deformity. I'm thinking that if I can flatten it out, I can read it and make a copy. Usually the disk won't read at all, but one time I at least got a list of files and directories on it.

What can I do to flatten it out (in such a way as not to render the data unreadable, of course).

 

[stevf]

do they have an iso you can dl to replace it? or can you grab just the drivers you need from their site? if you want to try and flatten it you could try stacking several heavy books on it or one or two heavy books on it then heavy weights on the book - may do something after several days/weeks

 

[The Bakery]

You can find the BIOS, DRIVERS and UTILITIES here:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=1875

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: The Bakery
You can find the BIOS, DRIVERS and UTILITIES here:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=1875

No, it's actually here:http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=1700

Mine's the socket 754 board, also non-SLI.

I found all that stuff, but I'm wondering if there's some other drivers on the CD because XP Pro's not recognizing my CPU. It's not a giant problem, but was hoping to read the CD.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: stevf
do they have an iso you can dl to replace it? or can you grab just the drivers you need from their site? if you want to try and flatten it you could try stacking several heavy books on it or one or two heavy books on it then heavy weights on the book - may do something after several days/weeks

I haven't seen an ISO of it. I did actually grab all the drivers that I could find for the board before I ever tried to access the CD, and had run the install driver utilities too. I figured that since it's a pretty old board it would be better to do so than install off the CD.

I may try that pressure thing and see what happens. I'm guessing that somehow the mobo was in a warehouse for several years and the temperatures had gotten so high in there that the CD got misshapen. I think the seller (ebay) was in Texas. Bet it gets mighty hot in Texas.

 

[bruceb]

Try Driver Genius Pro .. it should tell you all the drivers installed on your computer
currently, and offer a way to back them up to a file or a cd. At least that way, you will
have 99% of all that is currently installed. And check with Gigabyte, they should be
able to send you a new driver cd (free or for a small fee) .. Your POST Screen will
tell you what BIOS version you are presently using so you can download it.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Try Driver Genius Pro .. it should tell you all the drivers installed on your computer
currently, and offer a way to back them up to a file or a cd. At least that way, you will
have 99% of all that is currently installed. And check with Gigabyte, they should be
able to send you a new driver cd (free or for a small fee) .. Your POST Screen will
tell you what BIOS version you are presently using so you can download it.

Thanks. The really odd thing is that the BIOS version shown on the POST screen (F14) is not the same as the ones reported by both AMDCPUinfo tool or Everest, both of which report F11, the original BIOS on the board. I flashed both the main and backup BIOS chips when I first posted the board, before installation in the case or installation of XP Pro. The MB is supposed to support only F14 with my particular CPU. I called AMD tech support today and asked them about the Unknown Device ! in Device Manager today, and the guy said it was probably nothing to concern myself about. Still, if I could get rid of that, I'd like that.

 

[bruceb]

There is a program out there called Unknown Device Identifier
It may be of help to you.

http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: The Bakery
You can find the BIOS, DRIVERS and UTILITIES here:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=1875

No, it's actually here:http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=1700

Mine's the socket 754 board, also non-SLI.

I found all that stuff, but I'm wondering if there's some other drivers on the CD because XP Pro's not recognizing my CPU. It's not a giant problem, but was hoping to read the CD.

wat?
you dont need a m/b driver for cpus. i think you have to reinstall windows if you upgraded from single to dual core

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: The Bakery
You can find the BIOS, DRIVERS and UTILITIES here:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=1875

No, it's actually here:http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=1700

Mine's the socket 754 board, also non-SLI.

I found all that stuff, but I'm wondering if there's some other drivers on the CD because XP Pro's not recognizing my CPU. It's not a giant problem, but was hoping to read the CD.

wat?
you dont need a m/b driver for cpus. i think you have to reinstall windows if you upgraded from single to dual core

Ah, well, I did a reinstall of Windows. Actually, what I did was unusual for me. I installed Windows in a partition where I had a previous install of Windows that was on another MB. Generally I format a partition before I do that. The result was interesting in that a lot of my information was preserved, a good thing... things like documents and settings info for my users. It created a different user for me, distinct from my pervious user account (the one I generally use). However, I had the same CPU in there, although on a different MB.

Yes, the AMD tech I talked to today affirmed that no driver is necessary for a CPU, however there is something like that just to properly identify the CPU. So, it may be that the only thing wrong is that the OS didn't properly ID the CPU. I don't really comprehend this, because in Control Panel/General, the CPU is properly named and the speed is properly displayed.

Edit: The CPU I have isn't dual core:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754, FSB1600, E6, Venice, 90nm, L2-512KB), 2.2 GHz

 

[0roo0roo]

hm, as long as you have all the windows updates it should always correctly identify your cpu. can't expect much from sp0 of course.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
hm, as long as you have all the windows updates it should always correctly identify your cpu. can't expect much from sp0 of course.

The CD was SP2 and I did Windows Updates until all recommended updates were installed, early on.

One of the main reasons for my concern is that I had a sort of system melt down in early March, and that CPU was in there. After a hair raising week, I determined that the mobo had gone haywire. I had no video, and I replaced the video card and got no response from the on button. Putting in a different PSU, the new PSU went up in smoke in literally less than a second, giving off a strong smell of burnt electronics. The second video card turns out to have been killed too. At that point I knew my mobo was the culprit. Everything else in the system AFAIK survived the assault, but there's no certainty of that. So, that message in Device Manager has me wondering if anything happened to the CPU. However, the messages I'm getting would seem to indicate a configuration/driver issue, not a hardware problem, but who knows?

Right now I have the CD in a typical CD sleeve and under some of the heaviest books you'll find. An 8 pounder beneath, 10 + 10 + 4 pounders = ~24 lb on top. I'll leave it there a while, maybe a week and see if it will read. If not, my thought is to clamp it between two pieces of wood and put it in the oven, hopefully controlled somehow at around 105-110 degrees F for an hour or two and allow a slow cooldown. I have a feeling that this would accomplish the flattening required, but temperature control of my oven may be a little tricky.

Come to think of it I do have a thermostat I bought some years ago and have never used. It's designed to turn on and off an electric circuit and I believe it's adjustable. I could hook it up to a hotplate and put it in a chamber. It was designed (I believe) to incubate chicken eggs for hatching. I was planning on using it for one of my somewhat out there kitchen projects (i.e. home tempeh production, which I used to be pretty good at, BTW). I guess I could experiment with that. I have the digital temperature sensors to monitor it... nothing too sophisticated but I have calibrated them pretty carefully.

 

[bruceb]

Not a hot plate. You might be better off with a
Hair Dryer to try and warm it up enough to bend it.
Then press it down. But personally, I think you will
need to order a new cd.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Not a hot plate. You might be better off with a
Hair Dryer to try and warm it up enough to bend it.
Then press it down. But personally, I think you will
need to order a new cd.

Yeah, I was never happy about the hot plate idea. Maybe something like a hot light bulb, something that only puts out enough watts to warm up the space to 120 F maximum would be perfect. For this application the light wouldn't be a problem. I've got bulbs that should work alright. Nice little science experiment.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
hm, as long as you have all the windows updates it should always correctly identify your cpu. can't expect much from sp0 of course.

I solved the problem. In system configuration, problem devices, I saw the problem announced, just as I did in Device Manager, basically:

ACPI\AUTHENTICAMD_-_X86_FAMILY_15_MODEL_44\_0
The drivers for this device are not installed.

I did a google search on the first line and got this direct hit:

Removing Intel CPU support on AMD system gives Device Manager error., Why?

The guy was getting the exact same errror I was getting and he resolved it by downloading and installing an AMD K8 driver. In spite of the fact that CPU's don't need drivers, a "driver" is required for the OS to recognize the processor. These guys are saying that the error is the result of removing Intel CPU support, a peculiar thing. Anyway, I made the following download, ran setup.exe, rebooted, and the problem is now gone:

AMD K8 Processor Driver 1.3.2.0053 WHQL

I'll save that driver for if/when I reinstall Windows with this setup.

Meantime, it's been a week since I put the CD on top of a book and put around 15 lb. of books on top of it. Maybe today I'll see if it's readable and quickly make a copy. I don't know that I need it or will use it but I'd like to have it.

 

[SonicIce]

On another note, do you overclock? I only got my 2800+ newcastle 754 up to 2.2ghz. I wonder how good those 754 venice's are. Or if it's possible to find one these days.

 

[Jax Omen]

I dunno, I bought one of those a year ago for my girlfriend. Now if only her 754 mobo didn't suck incredible amounts of ass and would let me OC it...

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
On another note, do you overclock? I only got my 2800+ newcastle 754 up to 2.2ghz. I wonder how good those 754 venice's are. Or if it's possible to find one these days.

I haven't OCed it myself, but if you're curious go to Newegg and read the reviews. There a scads of them and many of those people have OCed the chip successfully. IIRC, I saw stuff like 25-26 GHz achieved. People really really liked it when I was checking it out almost a year ago. To get one now? I'm sure you could but you might have to buy used, say ebay.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
I dunno, I bought one of those a year ago for my girlfriend. Now if only her 754 mobo didn't suck incredible amounts of ass and would let me OC it...

My 754 board that I bought last May or so died on me beginning of March. It took me a good week to realize WTH was going wrong. First sign was a dead vidcard. Replaced the vidcard and the PC wouldn't respond to the power button, so I put in my spare PSU. That fried in less than a second! Right then I knew the mobo had gone, but it looked pristine and perfect with a magnifying glass. Meantime, it had fried the replacement vidcard. I RMAed the first vidcard (lifetime warranty - BFG), and bought a new mobo -- an actually new Gigabyte K8N Pro, that must have been sitting in a warehouse for years. That's why the CD is deformed, I figure.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SonicIce
On another note, do you overclock? I only got my 2800+ newcastle 754 up to 2.2ghz. I wonder how good those 754 venice's are. Or if it's possible to find one these days.

I haven't OCed it myself, but if you're curious go to Newegg and read the reviews. There a scads of them and many of those people have OCed the chip successfully. IIRC, I saw stuff like 25-26 GHz achieved. People really really liked it when I was checking it out almost a year ago. To get one now? I'm sure you could but you might have to buy used, say ebay.

26GHz? COUNT ME IN!

wow this is nice find:
http://www.geeks.com/details.a...DA3200AI04BX-N&cat=CPU
I should buy that. now to find cheap good hsf...

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SonicIce

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SonicIce
On another note, do you overclock? I only got my 2800+ newcastle 754 up to 2.2ghz. I wonder how good those 754 venice's are. Or if it's possible to find one these days.

I haven't OCed it myself, but if you're curious go to Newegg and read the reviews. There a scads of them and many of those people have OCed the chip successfully. IIRC, I saw stuff like 25-26 GHz achieved. People really really liked it when I was checking it out almost a year ago. To get one now? I'm sure you could but you might have to buy used, say ebay.

26GHz? COUNT ME IN!

wow this is nice find:
http://www.geeks.com/details.a...DA3200AI04BX-N&cat=CPU
I should buy that. now to find cheap good hsf...

Oh, I have the Arctic Cooling Alpine64, it's cheap, very quiet and keeps my CPU very cool. For instance right now with room temp at 17C the CPU is 25C. I mounted it on the HS with Arctic Silver 3. Read the reviews at Newegg. Spectacular.

Check out the reviews at Newegg for the Venice 2.2 GHz 3200+

One guy said: Pros: Great CPU. Adds life to my socket 754 system. Overclocks quite well, 2750MHz so far. Runs cool at 30C idle 42C load.

 

[vailr]

Try placing the warped CD between 2 pieces of heavy plate glass.
Place in oven and heat at 150 degrees for an hour.
Remove from heat and place under a cinder block or some other heavy weight.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: vailr
Try placing the warped CD between 2 pieces of heavy plate glass.
Place in oven and heat at 150 degrees for an hour.
Remove from heat and place under a cinder block or some other heavy weight.

Yes, I'm also thinking "the oven." One week under heavy books didn't seem to do anything. It still looks warped and was still unreadable in my burner.

I don't know if I have suitable glass. Maybe a couple of pieces of wood and clamped, with aluminum foil in there for the hell of it. Once out of the oven, leave clamped for a day or so in a cool room.

 

[stevf]

oh well - wasnt too certain just weight would do it for you - but my belief is always try the least destructive option first and see if that works

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: stevf
oh well - wasnt too certain just weight would do it for you - but my belief is always try the least destructive option first and see if that works

Yep. That was the idea. It's probably not important. I downloaded most of the stuff on it. Probably newer versions, too. The only thing I see described on the topside of the CD that I figure I don't have is the @BIOS online flash utility, and I've already flashed the board to what is probably going to be the last BIOS for it. The CD has Norton Internet Security 2003, and I don't know what that is.