CD-ROM in BIOS

[Vendredi]

Dear friends,

On a left-over mainboard with a Pentium I 100 MHz (do you remember those?) I was trying to install all necessary peripherals. Only the CD-ROM gives problems. That is to say, it is not detected. The board has two IDE-channels to connect a total of four IDE things. The manual recommends connecting the CD-ROM to the secondary IDE. In the BIOS setup, the fixed drive can then be set to "CD". However, the CD-ROM does not show up in the configuration list after startup. It doesn't in any possible configuration: not as a master or slave as any of the four IDE fixed disks. The BIOS does recognise any harddisks I install, though. The CD-ROM is completely OK, it works fine with my 486DX2-66 (NB: that's where this message is coming from. I'm trying to update my computer system...)

I think the CD-ROM should show up in the BIOS configuration list, but is it essential for it to be recognised by OS's? If so, does anyone know what could cause the problem.

Greetings from Holland,

Vendredi

[mjc]

In your 486 machine, does it connect to the sound card?


If so then it is not a standard IDE device (it could be a Panasonic interface or one of several others), and it will never show up if connected to a regular IDE channel. If it does not connect to the sound card then check the cable or replace (the stripe is pin1), jumpers on the drive and, the connectors (for any bent or broken pins).

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[computer_junkie]

Hello Vendredi,

mjc is right on about the older soundcard supported cd roms, I had one of the panasonic drives I was trying to hook up to a standard IDE with no luck, found out months later It wasn't possible without the reveal soundcard it came with. (thank goodness I didn't throw it away)

However I've had a few pentium I machines that never identified or found the cd-rom in the bios.

For example my MSI-5116 motherboard that runs a pentium 133. With the CD-Rom connected as the master on the secondary channel nothing appears in the bios.

If I boot the machine from a Win98 start up disk or a bootdisk with the dos drivers for my cd-rom the drive is detected and I can go about reinstalling windows or whatever.

Sometimes CD detection is an added feature on a bios upgrade that may be available by your system manufacturer, but bios upgrades can be risky so try all other options first. See if you borrow a cd-rom from a newer system as well.

Good Luck
computer_junkie