K7s5a and CD-ROM problems

[multifacitedonyx]

I bought a duron 950 and an ecs K7s5a from outpost (along with the office depot 40 gig drive deal for 49.99). In any case, when I tried to install the mobo HD and CD-Rom it was as if lucifer himself was thwarting my every move. I got the drive to formate and that is cool, but the CD-ROm will not install right. I can get past the POST, install the cdrom.sys file and mscdex.exe, all is fine till I go to the D drive and try to access any CD. I get an error "CDR103 CDROM not high sierra or ISO-9660 format" or some such. I have tried several drives, several drivers and sys files all to no avail. ANy suggestions?

The strange thing is, while installing the Maxtor drive, at one point I got access to the CD-ROM, but then it crapped out. Also, I am pretty sure it is not a cable issue as I have put the HD as master and CD-ROM as slave on the same IDE cable. I have also tried seperate IDE controllers with different combinations of slave/master setup. I am about to sell my soul. Any help?

Dirk

 

[AkumaBao]

If it worked at one time, I would assume you have them both on the same IDE channel. Try putting them on seperate channels. (IF possible) Make sure the setting in the BIOS are set to "auto", and also make sure your jumpers are set right. If you just installed them from the factory, and they are on different channels, most likely your CD-ROM is set to be a slave.

 

[multifacitedonyx]

Thanks for the suggestions.

THey are on seperate channels right now, both master. I get a messageCDR101: not ready reading drive D

I have have them on the same channel with one as master, the other slave, vice versa, on seperate channels, I have used a cd-rom drive I know works in another machine. Any other guesses?

 

[SilverBack]

May sound silly, but I have done this once
Make sure that the BIOS actually sees the cd-rom drive.
Have it detect or set the option to Auto for master second channel.
Oh yeah, not all IDE cables are pinned the same. Make sure your Pin1 for the IDE matchs the red line or ribbon on the side of the cable.

 

[multifacitedonyx]

thanks. Have done both. I put all to auto detect, tried just CDROM, and checked the pins. Nothin. Now I just broke down and did what I swore I woud never do again I put the HD in a different system and installed an OS. When I went back to the ECS mobo, i got INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DRIVE error, though it recoginized the drive in POST and read enought to boot to safe mode with command line.

LOST

 

[lsman]

<< ....install the cdrom.sys file and mscdex.exe, all is fine till I go to the D drive and try to access any CD. I get an error "CDR103 CDROM not high sierra or ISO-9660 format" or some such. I have tried several drives, several drivers and sys files all to no avail. ANy suggestions?.... >>



what OS you are using? why is it necessary to install cdrom.sys and mscdex.exe?

 

[SilverBack]

multifacitedonyx

I think now in order to get this corrected we need some more information.
What OS are you installing as asked in the previous part of the thread.
The last 4 Microsoft OS's don't need you to add any cd-rom drivers as they do it themsleves, it's seemless.


What cd-rom is it?
Is it bootable?
Have you set it to boot 1st?

BTW I believe thats not a Maxtor drive, but a Quantum. Maxtor bought Quantum out and then replaced the stickers on the drives remaining. Explains the $49 price.

Try this, I always keep my cd-roms off the the same channel of my primary hard drive.
Set both to master, HD has to be primary , cd-rom on the secondary.

I have two of the K7S5A here in the house and they perofrm very well and had no issues at all. These boards are very easy to install.
Let us know what OS and we can walk you through it.

 

[multifacitedonyx]

again, thanks for the input. I don't know what was going on, but here is the story:

It was a new build, and a clean install, so I needed dos drivers to run the CD-ROm to install the OS (win98) which was not bootable. As I said, I tried several different drives, and different drivers to no avail. Finally I pulled an old CD-ROM drive from an old 486, used a boot disk with drivers for that drive on it and it worked. Now that I can install the OS I am sure the new cd-rom drive will work fine.

Thanks again, and if someone has an idea that I did this the hard way, please let me know. I am going to build one more system and if I don't get this sorted out with this board I will go to another one. I like this board other than the problems with the initial CD-ROM deal

Dirk

 

[lsman]

way #1: In the BIOS screen where you set the boot up device/sequence, set one of them to CDROM, (may be other will be Floppy drive and IDE-0) and the option to seek other boot device to ENABLE. Use a BOOTABLE Windows 98 CD(i think all "org" Windows are bootable....). Fire it up and you should follow the process....its done.
way #2: Make a bootable floppy disk from other working, windows 98 PC ('start'->control panel-> add/remove software ->'start up disk' tab) (note: better use the same version of win98. That is use a 98 SE PC if u are going to install with 98SE, use 98 v1 PC if u are going to install 98 v1), boot the PC up with that disk, it should has option for u to choice if u need CDROM support or not, choose yes and let it boot up. If u like, go to the CD and type 'setup'. Or better, copy the CDROM into your harddrive (u can skip some sub folders). Install from there. It will be much faster than install from CDROM and u got a copy of windows in your HD: no need to wait for windows to ask: 'put in your windows 98 CDROM....' again.

It is a good idea to make a small partition (depends on your size of HD, at least enough for the Windows 98 CD, or other OS) at last drive (say E) and save a copy of OS CD folder there. And put most of your data, application on other partition (say D), and put your operation system on the first (say C). Because in my exp., windows always have problem and from time to time, i have to reinstall it. This way, i can easily format only C and install from E. Although i have to reinstall all my application, i can still have the data in D.

Or even better, if u got software like 'Ghost', after u install the windows (with/ without set up driver, your choice), make a ghost and later put it on a CDR.... next time just restore from that image and u are done. No install of windows.... Of course, this is the way many IS guys are doing.

 

[multifacitedonyx]

I like that disk partition idea. Thanks. The ghost idea would only work with identical systems right? I mean, you could not use an image of a clean install from a system with on set of drives and peripherals to diffferent system.

My new CD-ROM is not working. The old drive I pulled from a 486 works fine, but when I installed the new one I get the same problem as before. I hook up the new drive, BIOS recognizes it, it shows up in POST, win98 sees it and says it is working, but when I try to read any data from a CD in it, I get an error "D:\ is not accessible".

Do you think it is infested with a poltergeist? Or is it just because I got the cheapest drive from FRY's and it worthless?

 

[lsman]

sorry, actually i never did the ghost. But most IS department will buy in lot (one time, many computers) and they will be same hardware. may be i will try later: ghost it before install any driver and see if it works on others.
But Ghost will help u for a backup copy of windows anyway. Thats what some co. sell u computers with a "restore CD", no windows CD, they are just ghost image.

i don't know, may be a bad CD-ROM drive afterall. exchange for a another one.