CDROM JUST WONT!!!!

[warbelsnap]

Have a problem with a creative labs 48 cd-rom that just wont be picked up by my system. Have taken this thing to a computer store and they stuck it into 3 different systems and it works fine. Loaded all the drivers for it several times, and no luck. Checked the BIOS and I think??????the settinga are okay. Swapped several patch and power cables, no luck. What should the BIOS settings be for this ABIT BH-6 to read this CD-rom. I also have the ol yellow exclamation in device manager, says not connected or not working properly. PLEASE HELP.

 

[jvanber]

When you say "not picked up by my system," does that mean that it isn't POSTing in your BIOS? This is important, and if you do a search on this board, you'll see another gentlemen with a similar issue (he has a creative 48X also).

I recommended to him that he try increasing his IDE pre-delay in his BIOS. Usually this is for hard-drives, but I have had it work on CDROM drives before. Your BIOS may be trying to initialize so quickly, that it isn't waiting for a response from your CDROM drive. Setting a pre-delay of 5 seconds may rectify this.

We do need more info about what you've tried. Also, it never hurts to make sure that your MOBO's BIOS is up to date.

Joshua

 

[warbelsnap]

Warb here again. Thanks for answering this post. Trying to clear up any fog on this problem. On initial boot up checks are done by the system on A drive and the hard drive, not once does the CD-ROM activiate or have a check done on it. In other words No lights or whirrly whirl noise.(HA!) But in device manager the system knows that the CD-ROM is installed or at least the drivers are. Man this sounds like drunken yiddish I know but this system was fine up until 2 months ago. I will try this 5 second delay thing you talked about in the BIOS. Hell of a way and time to learn computers. Thanks again Joshua for the reply, wish I could give more info but this is so screwy I cant even put it into words.

Torqued off.!!!

 

[Guest]

Something else to try, as your problem sounds very similar to one I was having a month or so ago (CD Rom worked fine forever, then suddenly stopped)...in the BIOS, check for a setting that will look something like "PnP O/S installed" and make sure it is set to "enabled". Damned if I know how, but somehow my BIOS went from "enable PnP" to "disable PnP" and I suddenly started having hardware problems. Enabled PnP in the BIOS, removed CD ROM from the device manager, rebooted, and it redetected with no problems. Might be worth a try.

 

[jvanber]

DJfox hits on something here...

Occasionally your bios may boot, and display an error message (usually something like "invalid CHECKSUM"), and then it will halt. Not thinking much of it, you just reboot and everything's fine. Well, your BIOS usually resets to defaults after this, which means you'll have to reconfigure your setting to match your peripherals again.

I'd go through my BIOS settings, making sure that your pri/slave are ENABLED appropriately (auto is fine). Make sure you're set to PNP os if you're running 95/98/ME/2K/linux. Its not a bad idea to force an update of your ESCD settings while you're at it too.

Hope this points you in the right direction. I highly doubt its a problem with windows, so keep troubleshooting that hardware/BIOS.

Joshua

 

[warbelsnap]

Weeelll! First off thanks for the responses, second I may have made a teeny weeny little mistake. I kinda told the computer to load default settings, and guess what?!? No the CD-Rom still aint working, but now beast from the depths has stated that the "CPU is unworkable or has been changed". I swear I DID NOT even or know how to change a CPU's workings. Got any more ideas folks!??!.

 

[Guest]

Hi, Can you tell us a little bit more about your hardware configuration? What kind of mainboard, CPU,...etc. Second, you have to go back into the BIOS set up and change the CPU speed. You're not doing anything wrong, just learning the cause and effect of your actions.

 

[warbelsnap]

Well the MOBO is a Abit BH6, and I have a Celery 433 on it. This CD-ROM was working 5 months ago. Had some other WIN 98 problems and those were fixed. How can I or what can I check to make sure that the IDE controller is working for the IDE 2 slot on the mother board or wouldnt this cause the problem. Im an aircraft mechanic and have been taught to ALWAYS check for the simpilest things first when troubleshooting. So far these things have been verified, 1). CD-ROM was taken to a Comp shop and checked on other systems. no probs. 2). The patch cable was swapped out with a known good one. no probs either. 3). Patch and power cable connections were checked several times , everything hooked up correctly. 4) Some BIOS settings were verified, PNP, IDE prim/slave etc. Cant think of any more, one last thing the message in Win 98 device manager states "Not connected properly, not operating??? properly or bad drivers. Drivers have been reloaded several times. Thanks for anymore help

 

[Guest]

I know some of these suggestions may sound silly and I'm sure you may have checked them already, but for what its worth...PnP enabled in the BIOS....are you positive after enabling PnP you pressed "F10" (or whatever key is right for your system) to save and exit, instead of just "esc"? In the IDE settings in the BIOS, do you "see" the CD ROM on the secondary IDE port as a secondary master? You should see both the primary master, which would be your hard drive, and the secondary master, which would be the CD ROM. If the CD ROM is NOT listed, you might check in the BIOS for a setting that would enable/disable the IDE ports....make sure that secondary IDE port is enabled. As far as testing the secondary IDE, you can verify the port works by attaching your hard drive to it...if it fires up and is detected in the BIOS then the port works. Some things in Windows to check: in device manager, highlight your IDE controller and click on properties, then the settings tab. Make sure it is the main controller or you won't see the settings tab...once you click on the settings tab, you will see a drop down box that will allow you manually enable or disable the primary, secondary, or both IDE ports...you want this set to "enable both" or "default". Lastly, in device manager, highlight the cd rom driver and click remove. Reboot, see if Windows detects it. I couldn't get my cd rom to work until after I had removed it from the device manager and then had Windows redetect it after reboot. Last thing, just curious....have you tried booting from a floppy boot disk, select "start computer with cd rom support" and then see if DOS assigns the cd rom a drive letter, like D: or F:? If a drive letter is assigned, then DOS is seeing the drive and it is more than likely just a matter of installing a fresh, correct driver so Windows will communicate with it properly.

Good luck and keep me posted on your progress...I'm running into a lot of "disappearing cd rom drives" at the help desk where I work and am compiling a list of things that I've found to work, things that don't work, etc...

Dave

 

[warbelsnap]

Thanks for the reply (again) I will definetly go back a triple check everything again in the bios, thanks for all the tips Im sure one of those ideas will work. If not I a aquired from my place of work 2 items, one being a very large hammer and the second a nice mid sized blow torch! Im sure one way or another Ill get this beast to cooperate!!!!

Warb the snap!