Faulty CD-Rom Drivers??

[Daniel-Man]

Hi,
I am running windows 98 (2nd edition) my CD-ROM/DVD-ROM works sometimes, but other times when i boot it up the it doesn't seem to be detected in Windows Explorer. Also when I go to Device Manager in Hard disk controllers under secondary IDE controller (dual fifo) it has a yellow exclamation mark on the left of it and it says the device doesn't have all the drivers installed or is not working properly (code 10). I try clicking update drivers but it says the best drivers are already on thhe C drive. Howcome sometimes this device seems to be working and other times it wont work and has a yellow exclamation mark to the left of it?? Can someone help please?

[rahulkothari]

boot into Safe Mode ... right-clcik My Computer > Properties > Device Manager. Remove ALL the drivers under CD an DVD. Restart.

Windows should detect both the drives.

If you face any problems, post back.

[Daniel-Man]

Ok thanks, do u know why I have a third device in hard drives called VIA Bus master PCI IDE controller? do u know what that is? I only have two hard drives (the second has no data on it at all and that was the one that had the yellow exclamation mark on it)

[Sylvander]

Go here
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/set/pciPCIIDE-c.html

then here
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/pci_IDEBM.htm

[Daniel-Man]

Hi, its happening again right now. Every time my CD Rom is not detecting, the Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo) (under hard drives in device manager) seems to keep getting that yellow exclamation mark and error 10.

[Sylvander]

I'm getting a similar problem with a Network Interface Card.
It seems to have something to do with the BIOS detecting the card and perhaps the ESCD [Extended System Configuration Data], but I'm not sure.

If I shut down and restart all is well, resources are allocated and the card has no exclamation mark against it.
If I go to "Start > Shut Down > Restart", it does a WARM REBOOT and the card is then disabled [until I warm reboot again].

Check if your situation is the same.

If this is what's happening it has something to do with Windows and the BIOS not working well together in the way they allocate resources and apparently a [risky] BIOS flash upgrade fixes it.
I've decided to manage it without the upgrade.
I either warm reboot twice or:
shut down, switch off, then switch on.

By the way, are [all] your drives set to auto-detect in the BIOS setup hardware configuration settings?

[Daniel-Man]

Yes, all my drives are set to auto in the bios settings. I can't believe it, I uninstalled my cd-rom drivers hoping the wizard would reinstall them and minutes after i wrote my previous posting and rebooted my computer my bios wouldn't detect ANY of my devices, not even my hard drive. I couldn't even get into windows, it said enter bootup disk and that wouldn't even work because my computer isn't detecting floppy disks when they are put in during the bios startup.

[Sylvander]

I take it POST is completing successfully [as indicated by a single beep]; then display info is shown; then BIOS info: then memory is tested; then BIOS extension info; then the detection of your drives should be displayed but aren't, is this correct?

What happens then?

[Daniel-Man]

thats right, then my virus checker AVG scans my system files then win 98 loads

[Sylvander]

Hello Daniel-Man,

I've been reading ALL your threads posted all over the forum.
This is probably a bad strategy.
These various problems may be, and probably are, the various symptoms of a problem with a common root cause.

This could be a problem with the allocation of resources.

I have read that if two [or more] devices are allocated the same IRQ, for example, you're ok provided they don't both ask for the IRQ at the same time.
If one device is using the IRQ quite happily and working well; when the other device butts in and takes the IRQ the first device fails and you wonder what the *&%$$&* has gone wrong.

That's only one guess at this.
We need to bring ALL the symptoms together.

[mjc]

Yes, keep all the various threads together, there is no need to post multiple copies of the same problem many places in the forums....this thread will be the working one.