Windows98 Problem

Norfork Nights

Right folks got a slight but pain in the ass problem with an old pc running windows 98..... Just got ripwave and went to install the cd when I realised the cd drive is not listed and theres no access to it...
there is an icon on the screen for cd player but when u click it... it reads
''there is no cd player attached to this computer, cd player cannot start''

I check the device manager and there is 2 yellow exclamation marks beside cd-rom drive...

can anyone help ???? :eek:

mike65

Sounds like its not got proper device drivers selected. Unless of course its got no data cable plugged in!

Mike.

dingding

When you click on the yellow icons, does it list an error,

Did the CD drive ever work ?

Norfork Nights

dingding wrote:

When you click on the yellow icons, does it list an error,

Did the CD drive ever work ?

Yeah it used to work a long time ago! I replaced it with a new one then... and that never worked, but now I put the old one back and now the probs....

Yes it all connected at the back properly and it opens and closes... its connect to the ide 2 port on the system board.

It dosnt say what the error is just that the device is not functioning properly....
All i need to do is get the drive working to get the irish broadband software onto the pc... the usb is working fine as is the rest of the computer!

dingding

Have you the master / slave jumpers set OK, i.e. put the same jumper settings on the new CD drive and try to re-install it.

Norfork Nights

jumper ??? not up with that mate?

ive download some firmware from driversguid for the drive so what do i do with jumpers... ps the device is not listed on the my computer screen! or when installing software it dosnt give you an option to install from disc

dingding

If you look at the back of the drive, you will see 2 or 3 pairs of pins with a black clip connecting 2 of them. The label on the drive will show a diagram of the pins and it will be connected as etiher master or slave, (slave if connected to the same cable as the hard disk, Master if connected to the motherboard on its own cable).

Check the replacement drive has the jumper at the same setting

Norfork Nights

okay!!! shoud it automatically appear then back on the desktop after that ?
would a re-install of windows help ?

dingding

Try that first, f it does not work, it may be a bios setting, you will need to get the bios to autodetect ide devices. Installing windows unlikely to solve the problem.

Norfork Nights

i did mess with the bios somewhat!!! how would i go about correcting my messing!:)

dingding

go into the bios, you will have to press a key when the mc is booting del, f1 the screen will usually tell you what key you need to enter setup.

There are different types of bios'es but take a note of the ide drive settings and post them here.

Norfork Nights

right mate.. will do as you can probably guess the pc is not beside me here so ill do it tomorrow!!!
thanks for your hlp!:)

dingding

Try and set as much as possible in the autodetect mode (IDE disks) also note down any settings you change so you can get back to your current config.

PM me when you post settings in case I miss it

cheers

gamer

If u have 1 ,u cud go to netcafe,copy ripwave cd .to a Usbdrive, u,d need at least 256meg, cdroms hold 650meg approx but cd may not be full ,u need drivers files *.sys dlls, *.inf,s etc .or setup program,copy as many files as you can fit in, then insert usbdrive in pc,browse to usb drive ,click setup ,or install.exe , you may need win98se to detect the usbdrive.Check is power cable plugged in to cdromdrive.its easier if cdrom drive set as master drive 1 ,on ide cable 2 .leave hardrive on ide cable 1.most hds have diagram to show u how to setup up drive jumper to master or slave position.Look at boot screen does the cdrom show up as detected?usually drive d: or e:
a slave drive is the second device on an ide cable.
Look at control panel /device manager , do u see usb devices at the end in layout ,hardware screen.

smeggle

dingding wrote:

go into the bios, you will have to press a key when the mc is booting del, f1 the screen will usually tell you what key you need to enter setup.

There are different types of bios'es but take a note of the ide drive settings and post them here.

On nearly all pc's you enter bios via pressing the delete key at start up.

On this case investigate your Advanced cmos settings or the first option generally for ide/optical drives.

As stated if you set both ide and cd-drive on the same cable the settings are ide = master cd-drive = slave.

If on seperate cables ide = master cd-drive = secondary master.

Couple of things to look for here as well - bios battery (Also known as motherboard battery) - is it dying? It will give problems like this.

Un-installing in device manager and letting the computer re-find and install can help - gets rid of old corrupted drivers.

re-installing windows from scratch will fix it. In fact I used to get that pissed at windows 98 doing this it was often the easiest solution but I allways had a slave drive handy/ back-up data/nuke the drive/start afresh/return data/settings from slave.

This was also the reasoning behind partitioning the drive, mainly because the techies knew the bugs that windows had, such as this and you just dumped the data/settings to the d:\ partition and re-installed - same as slaving a second storage drive in..

Check your bios battery first - no harm to put a new one in any way if the machine is 3-4 or more years old and hasn't had a replacement.

check bios settings are correct (NB: DISCLAIMER: FIND AND CHECK YOUR MOTHERBOARD MANUAL. I ACCEPT NO RESPONICIBILTY IF YOU F THAT BIT UP! I'm serious - f the bios - you f your computer!!)

if that fails uninstall the drive completely of any drivers AND registry settings (Corrupted and/or old ones can and do mess up in 98).

That fails - back-up /re-install windows as you'll drive yourself nuts otherwise..

Been there many times mate **growls at memory**:mad: Thank fook for xp pro - least you can fix the mother - sort of lol

Capt'n Midnight

Win95/98 often drop the CD, in which case install the DOS drivers.

Boot the computer from the Windows 98 CD
or make a startup disk by right clicking on the floppy drive to see the CD in DOS

On a very few computers win98 disabled the PIIX controller - all you need then is drivers for it .

Only go near the BIOS if the above fails - but you can check on startup if it mentions the CD or not.

Norfork Nights

Ment to say, got it sorted .... changed the jumpers and re-installed the drivers thanks for all the help!:)