Disappearing C-ROM

[chris18]

Hiya Steve

Another family problem. My duaghter in law has somehow managed to lose her CD-ROM in Windows 98. It was working ok a couple of days ago but now when she tries to access a CD it tells her the drive isn't accessible.

I've looked at the startup and the BIOS detects the CD-ROM correctly (I can't go further into the BIOS becuase someone who did some work on it a few months ago has put a password in and nobody knows what it is).

When I check W98 it says there isn't a CD-ROM. Also when I check Device Manager in System properties it has a question mark against the Primary and Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo.

Any clues as what might have happened and how I get over it?

Thnaks

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Age is a high price to pay for maturity

[BigStu]

Chris,

The IDE controllers are whats causing your problem. Try removing them and rebooting to see if it will reload them for ya. If it dosent, let us know what type of motherboard you have and we will find ya some drivers.

BigStu

[This message has been edited by BigStu (edited 25 October 2000).]

[lynnm]

Hello Dere

Stu is right on the money re the IDE controller issue. You can punt the password on the CMOS by removing the CMOS battery and leaving it out for a few minutes. The downside to this that your BIOS will revert to factory settings. You can however suss out the major settings via device manager.

Before getting too aggressive I would follow Stu's advice and let us know the results.

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It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron Rarely flies upside down in the moonlight.- (Foo Ling ca.1707)

[chris18]

Hiya BigStu and lynmm

Thanks for the info. I assume when you say remove the ide controllers that will be in device manager and then it's just a simple case of rebooting the system (best to have W98 CD handy you think?).

I may need to act as telephone support to my daughter-in-law so I need to be able to give chapter and verse(much easier when I'm there in person as I can play about with things and everyone thinks I know what I am doing, oh foolish people that they are).

I looked at the mobo manual but it's just a couple of sheets of paper and no real info, suspect it's something like PCChips or some other generic type. The PC was built originally by someone selling them privately so I suspect it's the cheapest he could find at the time.

I thought I would propbably need to remove the CMOS to blank out the password but wasn't sure, thanks for the info.

Any idea what may have caused the ide controllers to disappear, and why does the hard drive still work ok?

Will keep you posted.

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Age is a high price to pay for maturity

[lynnm]

Hello Dere

The IDE channels have not "disappeared" per se. Something has happened to corrupt the drivers used my Windows to manage them or,more likely,some device is conflicting with the IDE controller. If any new devices have been added,(or if an existing device has had its settings changed),it is probable that there is an IRQ or I/O address conflict.
The IDE channels BTW are hardwired into the motherboard's architecture. At present they are not working entirely correctly but if they didn't exist the hard drive would not function period.Keep us posted.

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It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron Rarely flies upside down in the moonlight.- (Foo Ling ca.1707)

[chris18]

Hiya Lynnm

Thanks for the last reply. I had a chance to take a brief look at my daughter-in-laws machine again this evening.
When I check system Information it shows the Hard Disc Controllers as Primary IDE Controller (dual fifo), Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo) and VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller. The first two are shown with a yellow explaination mark as decribed earlier.
When I check Properties it says they are either not installed or not working properly and I should Update Driver. When I do this and WS98 searches it says the latest drivers are already installed.
if I try to remove the Primary and Secondary IDE Controllers it won't allow it and says they are part of a mulit-funtction device and I should remove the primary element ie the VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller.
If I check the Conflicts/Shared information it shows IRQ 14 asPrimary IDE and VIA Bus Master IDE with IRQ 15 Secondary IDE and Via Bus Master IDE. There are no conflicts shown.
According to my daughter-in-law no new devices have been added. The problem arose after installing Rugrats Print Shop. I have now uninstalled this but nothing has changed.
I didn't want to start messing about removing the VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller in case this messed up the system even more (As the CD-ROM isn't being seen I couldn't do a W98 reload).
Can you give me an idiots guide of how to proceed so that if necessary I can instruct my daughter-in-law over the phone.

Thanks


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Age is a high price to pay for maturity

[chris18]

Hiya all

Just had a thought. If I used the W98 emergency disc and reinstalled windows would that solve the problem (always assuming of course that the CD-ROM is compatible with the drivers on the emeergency disc?

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Age is a high price to pay for maturity

[BigStu]

Hey Chris,

Did ya get any disk's or a cd with the motherboard? If so there should be a driver for the controllers on them. You could try updating the drivers with the one on the disk.

If it detects the cd-rom at startup you should be able to use a boot disk and it detect it.

BigStu

[This message has been edited by BigStu (edited 04 November 2000).]

[chris18]

Hiya

No discs were supplied with the PC.

If I remove the VIA BUS IDE Controller from System Properties and then do a refresh should this auto detect them?

If this fails I will have to try the emergency disc option.

I'm going to have to talk my daughter-in-law through on the phone and I don't want to make the situation worse for her, hence my needing to check that I understand what needs to be done.

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Age is a high price to pay for maturity

[chris18]

Hiya

Thought I posted a reply yesterday but it doesn't show.

No CD or disc was provided with the PC (it was built by someone doing it part-time about two years ago).

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Age is a high price to pay for maturity

[BigStu]

Yes if you delete the VIA Bus IDE controller and refresh or reboot it should autodetect them and reinstall it. Also delete the IDE controllers before you refresh or reboot. Once you have deleted all three it may ask for you to reboot, if not just click refresh.

When you went to update driver, did you try making windows install the driver it found? This has worked for me a few times.

Also if you can get a look on the motherboard and find a make and model number you should be able to find the controller drivers for the board on the manufacturers web site.

BigStu

[chris18]

Hi Stu

Thanks for the info.

Yes I did try letting Windows update the drivers but it just said the latest version was installed.

Will remove the IDE controllers and do a refresh though I'm still confused as to why they have "disappeared" in the first place.

As I said earlier not sure of the mobo, will have to take a closer look for any marking if it comes to that.

Thanks again and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

PS If all else fails I will disconnect the CMOS to access the Award setup and then reformat and reinstall W98 afresh (making sure of course anything vital has been backed up).


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Age is a high price to pay for maturity

[mike]

Have a look in Regedit for the NOIDE entry:

Goto Start--Run and type in:

REGEDIT

Locate following folder branch:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE--SYSTEM--CURRENTCONTROLSET--SERVICES--VXD--IOS

Look for an entry....
NOIDE
inthe right hand pane.

If it is there,Click on the NOIDE entry and hit delete.
Confirm your deletion and exit Regedit.
Restart computer.

Backup the reg key before deleting....just in case.