I am trying to get this old 486 to work with this 32x cd-rom drive i put in it but it will not work :( Why not?

[WyteWatt]

I go in the bios and all i can choose from is like type 1 to 47 and put a cyl. # , Sect. # , Heads # , size, etc but no option for cd-rom or anything. I have 4 gig HD i put in it working fine but its formated and i want to install linux on it from a cd i burned for mandrake 8.1. This computer only had one ide connector that i saw so the HD is master and cd the slave. I had to put in a lot of the numbers for the HD just to get it to work in the bios. I just cant figure out how to get this 32x cd-rom drive to work. It did not have a cd-rom before btw. How do i get the cd-rom drive to work?

Any help appreicated
Please reply
Thanks

 

[VBboy]

Your Master/Slave setup is fine. But you should set the drive type to "Auto" in BIOS so that the system can automatically determine the type of device. Unless you have a "Autodetect IDE devices" or similar option which will recognize the CD-ROM once and for all (like it probably did for the hard drive), you will have to wait a couple of seconds on each boot-up for it to auto-detect it.

Ohh, I forgot to mention: I feel sorry for you - using a 486?! When's your Bday, I'll send you a check so you can buy at least a dual Athlon MP 1900+..

 

[WyteWatt]

VBboy no i have a better computer i am just using this 486 to run linux on. I like running linux on a different computer. VBboy this bios of this 486 does not have no auto at all I dont know what to do.

 

[VBboy]

Are you sure about no-auto? After you loop through 1-47, there is no "User Set", then "Off", then "Auto? (not necessarily in that order)

If all fails, try the Type 47 - I read somewhere it can be used in place of Autodetect...

 

[WyteWatt]

VBboy there is a User Set which is type 47 and a off but no auto. I tried type 47 which is user set with all the values like sect. , cyl. , etc with the value 0. But did not work. Is there any other way? I mean i should beable to get this cd-rom to work on this computer.

 

[neutralizer]

How do you know should be able to get it work? I mean it is pretty old, I don't think it would support it.

 

[VBboy]

Hmm... Seems that you're out of options.

You can buy an add-on IDE controller and connect the drive to it; you probably have ISA slots on that PC. Should cost a few bucks somewhere on Ebay or PriceWatch.com. That will pretty much guarantee that it will work, and will also allow you to connect not just 1 CD-ROM but a whopping 4 drives

 

[VBboy]

neutralizer, are you saying there were no CD-ROM drives in the days of the 486? My Dad used to have a 486-66DX2 which worked with fine with a CD-ROM drive..

Many 386 I had the displeasure of working with had CD-ROM drives, and so did some 286.

 

[WyteWatt]

VBboy you sure there is no other way ? I dont get it. I would of thought it would of worked fine without adding a card. Is there any other way to get linux on this computer?

 

[neutralizer]

No, I was saying maybe it wouldn't support the 32X...

 

[WyteWatt]

I have a 4x or 6x cd-rom laying around here would it work with that?

 

[VBboy]

imtim83, you don't get what?

No one promised you that the CD-ROM drive you have would work on the computer you have. Like neutralizer said, maybe the drive is just not supported by your system.

Take the HD to another PC that does have a CD-ROM drive, copy linux to your HD and bring it back. Install from HD. But I wonder how you will be installing other software on the system - using a floppy?

 

[neuralfx]

the speed doesnt matter, try finding an updated bios for that board, it should work yes, i have never seen a 386/486 that wouldnt work with cdrom drives ..
-neural

 

[neutralizer]

That would be funny... running back and forth between computers with a floppy, although you could try to break the files into smaller pieces with Microsoft Backup or a similar prog, but I don't think u plan on putting Windows on this...

 

[skypilot]

turn the drive to "none" or "off" in the bios... it should work that a way.

 

[WyteWatt]

skypilot

there is only a not installed. But it did not work
I have it set at slave like it should be because HD is master.

 

[Pederv]

If your motherboard only has one IDE port then it doesn't support EIDE (ATA-2) / ATAPI and won't support CDROM's or any other IDE devices. It will only support hard drives.

 

[WyteWatt]

Pederv ok thanks.

 

[RanDum72]

Back in the days of the 486, most CD-ROM drives have proprietary connections like Sony, Panasonic, etc.. Most of them attach directly to the sound card
which they came with. Chances are, the mobo doesn't support IDE CD-drives. An option is to buy an add-on IDE card. It would be cool if you have PCI slots,
if you have VLB, then ISA cards is the only option. Or you can buy a cheap Pentium class mobo and CPU (socket 7).

 

[DSTA]

I'm pretty sure the CD-ROM will work once you have Linux installed.

Don't think the drive is not working correctly just because you can't boot into the Linux installer from it. Booting from CD-ROM is a relatively novel feature for PCs .

Try this:

* Make sure the master/slave setup for the hdd and cd-rom is ok.
* Check the cables
* Tell BIOS about the harddrive
* Make Linux boot floppies on your primary PC
* Boot from those floppies and look at the kernel messages. I'm pretty confident your CD-ROM will show up when the IDE devices are probed.

You don't have to tell BIOS about the CD-ROM, it doesn't need to know a bit about anything other than the boot hdd.

 

[bluemax]

<< If your motherboard only has one IDE port then it doesn't support EIDE (ATA-2) / ATAPI and won't support CDROM's or any other IDE devices. It will only support hard drives. >>


He hit the nail right on the head. I've had this exact problem with a P-120... there was NO way to make this machine run with a newer CD-ROM drive. (An old 4-8x drive just might work.)
A cheap ISA or PCI IDE controller card should do the trick.

 

[spamsk8r]

Um...I noticed that you're planning on installing Mandrake 8.1, can't do that since mandrake 8.1 is only for 586s (ie Pentium class) and above, you may have to go with a different distribution

 

[XeonTux]

spamsk8r, I thought I was going to have to break the bad news about Mandrake.

Anyway he is right. Get Red Hat it is compiled for 386 instructions.

And no your motherboard probably won't support ATAPI CD-ROMs. Consumer Direct has/had ATA/66 cards for $7 recently...50/50 chance they will be a Promise, either that or they will be CMD-648 which I think are also supported in linux. The advantage of the add-in card is, you can put a bigger faster HD in too.

 

[bluemax]

Hey! This thread is over a month old! Spamsk8r dug it up...
Did this problem ever get solved?

 

[XeonTux]

wow, it is isn't it? 486 is probably in the garbage dump by now