Trouble with a CD-ROM in Win98

[MasterSamwise]

Ok,

Yesterday, I installed a extra hard drive for a friend of mine. Turns out I made an ass of myself. After installing a configuring the drive D:... formated and ready to use, the CDROM drive is no longer avalible.

I cant check it out today because she will be out most of the day. Only possibilitys i can think of are unplugging the IDE cable to the drive or unseating the connection to the motherboard.

Are there any other potential reasons for this problem? Perhaps a software issue? According to what I collected from her no CD-ROM device appears in the device manager. (Why I am leaning towards the IDE cable issue).

If it helps the machine is a DELL. A few years old.

PIII 500 mhz. Thats all I know at this time.

Any suggestions before I return would be appreciated

 

[salsal]

Most likely a faulty IDE cable. I once had a slave disappeared irregularly along with the data in it because I tried to access it in Windows and somehow the process corrupted the data. Turned out it was the IDE cable. Changed it and never since.

 

[MasterSamwise]

Thanks.

MasterSamwise

 

[owensdj]

MasterSamwise, this might not be a bad IDE cable issue. I've seen the CD-ROM disappear on Windows 95/98, and it was an operating system problem. Here's a Microsoft Knowledge Base Article that tells you how to fix this: MS-DOS Compatibility Mode Problems with PCI IDE Controllers

 

[MasterSamwise]

Hmm.

This could very well help.. A lot.

If I check the POST report and it detects the drive then I am going to try this fix. Thank you very much.

MasterSamwise

 

[MasterSamwise]

Any other opinions?

Thanks

Master Samwise

 

[MasterSamwise]

Update,

Collected more info, although I haven't been able to make the hike over to Ashes house.

The Secondary IDE Controller doesn't appear in the Device Manager.. Nor Does the CDROM drive.

The NOIDE key is not present. (see MS Knowledge Base)

Little lost on this one.

Any ideas?

Master Sam..

A little befudeled but determined to get to the bottom of this!

 

[bacillus]

suggest you get a good win98 startup floppy & bootup from it.
at the A: prompt, type fdisk /mbr then hit enter.
remove the floppy then reboot.
keep us updated!
btw I assume a full uptodate virus scan has been done on the system

 

[MasterSamwise]

Actually,

Reguardless of it's condiotion (CDROM and CONTOLLER) the virus software is ancient.. So the system is probably full of viruses. I was thinking of loading XP when I install the new memory module. (256 mb sdram) and see if that fixes the problem.

Although, that would be the more painful route for sure.

If i format the mbr is the mbr recreated by Windows?

MasterSamwise

 

[MasterSamwise]

Also,

Anyone know what the minimum specs are for windows xp? Not the MS ones either!

MS

 

[redhatlinux]

Try booting in SAFE MODE. I've seen this type of problem a couple of times and SAFE MODE would spit out msgs that I never saw in a Normal Boot. Msg may say something about DOS Compatability mode. Winblows will not load the 32-bit protected mode drivers if the MBR is not kosha. Some anti-virus software plays with the mbr. Re-writing the mbr usually fixes this.

BTW, is the secondary IDE controller enabled in the BIOS ??

 

[bacillus]

If i format the mbr is the mbr recreated by Windows?

you can rewrite the mbr by booting up with a good floppy & typing fdisk /mbr at the A: prompt!

 

[johnjkr1]

I worked for dell, so ive seen this a bunch of times. What normally happens is dell ships both primary channels enabled, and both secondary channels disabled. You start with two devices, add one more and one stops working. What you should do is get into the bios and make sure all your necessary ide channels are turned on. also, dells can sometimes be sensitive to cable select devices. I was informed that only cable select was supported as master slave would not always work properly (which i still dont believe)

 

[johnjkr1]

one more thing. If you add a master/slave device to a channel that is set to cable select (like the dell cdrom was from the factory) you can kill the entire ide channel and need to reset it

 

[MasterSamwise]

Originally posted by: redhatlinux BTW, is the secondary IDE controller enabled in the BIOS ??

Don't know. Will check when I take a look at the machine..

Thanks for all the info on Dells. I had a trouble with another dell machine similar. About the same type of problem.. Although this one is more puzziling.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Just one reason why I love this community.