Rezzo
07-28-2006, 03:00 AM
Hello all…this is going to be a long post, sorry.
My self-built PC had been running correctly for over a year (as far as I could tell.)
I decided, about 6 months ago, to install an old Wacom Art Pad I had lying around. This required the installation of a Serial Port Connector Bracket that came with the mobo.
The installation of the bracket, the art pad, and the new drivers went smoothly. I used the pad for a few hours, with no noticeable problems, then shut down the PC.
The next morning I booted up the PC and was greeted with a message similar to this “New PCI Device Detected.”
I tried various ways of clearing this up, but every time I rebooted the PC, I received the same message box asking for drivers. I even went as far as to delete the entry from within Device Manager (Unknown PCI Device.) It continued to show back up each time.
I finally removed the Art Pad, uninstalled the drivers, and the Serial Port Connector Bracket. This also did not clear up the message.
I finally wrote Asus about my issues and was advised to reinstall all of my chipset drivers and then do a clean install of XP.
Since I had never messed with chipset drivers before, I decided to just disable the “Unknown PCI Device” inside of Device Manager. This stopped the message, but I knew the problem wasn’t solved.
During this time I received an Ipod Nano for Xmas and decided to go ahead and import my CDs into Itunes before I did the chipset reinstall and the clean install of XP. At this point the PC seemed to be working OK, if you don’t count the (Unknown PCI Device) crap.
Then I started experiencing issues importing songs from the CDs. The DVD-ROM drive seemed to be having trouble reading my CDs and would occasionally lock up, as would my Hard Drive. Both of their access lights would eventually come on and stay on and the PC would basically lock completely up. This required a reboot since ctrl+alt+del would not work.
I thought it might only be the DVD-ROM drive causing the problems, since I had done a search about that particular model and noticed that there were some issue with it. I had purchased it without reading any reviews since at the time it was the only SATA optical drive available, if I remember correctly.
I had another optical drive (EIDE) lying around and tried using it instead of the SATA DVD-ROM, but I had the same issues as before.
I eventually decided to go ahead with the chipset update, reformat, and reinstall of XP since I was now having more trouble with the PC.
Being inexperienced in this area I decided to update the BIOS first using ASUS’ update utility.
Everything seemed to be going fine until later on in the reboot process.
The POST screen reported the correct updated BIOS version, but things went downhill from there, fast.
Seconds into the boot up process I received this message “NTLDR is Missing press ctrl+atl+del to restart.”
I tried ctrl+alt+del, but that did nothing…the PC was completely locked up.
I did several searches on the web, using another PC, regarding this message and tried several of the “fixes” they recommended, but none worked for me.
I eventually decided to try and reformat anyway to try and clear some of this up, but I ran into more problems during the process.
I had complete PC lock ups at various points during both the reformat and XP install processes.
I currently have no idea if the main SATA HD has been reformatted or not considering all of the lock ups.
This was my first PC build, my first time using XP, and my first time dealing with SATA hardware. Considering everything seemed to be working correctly for over a year, I assume something happened during the Wacom Art Pad install. Something is either fried or there is a major software/driver issue.
Seeking help online is my last resort before dropping some dough at a PC repair shop.
I’m sorry for the long-winded post, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible.
Any help or suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated.
You can email me at Not a good idea to include an email address in an open forum, unless of course you like 1001 hourly SPAM messages...
Thanks,
Chris Stafford
-----------------------------------PC SPECS BELOW
Antec Performance Plus PLUSVIEW1000AMG Metallic Gray 1.0mm SECC Server Computer Case
Asus P5GD2 DELUXE Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 915P ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 530J Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Processor Model BX80547PG3000EJ
Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive (main)
Western Digital Caviar 120GB EIDE 8MB Cache (Secondary)
Antec NEOPOWER 480 ATX12V v2.0 480W Power Supply
Corsair ValueSelect 1GB (2x512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit Memory Model VS1GBKIT533D2
Chaintech SE6600G Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 video card
Plextor 16X DVDR DVD Burner Beige SATA Model PX-716SA/SW
Plextor CDRW Model PX-W5224TA/SW R
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 7.1 Channels PCI Sound Card
Samsung Black 1.44MB 3.5” Internal Floppy Drive
My self-built PC had been running correctly for over a year (as far as I could tell.)
I decided, about 6 months ago, to install an old Wacom Art Pad I had lying around. This required the installation of a Serial Port Connector Bracket that came with the mobo.
The installation of the bracket, the art pad, and the new drivers went smoothly. I used the pad for a few hours, with no noticeable problems, then shut down the PC.
The next morning I booted up the PC and was greeted with a message similar to this “New PCI Device Detected.”
I tried various ways of clearing this up, but every time I rebooted the PC, I received the same message box asking for drivers. I even went as far as to delete the entry from within Device Manager (Unknown PCI Device.) It continued to show back up each time.
I finally removed the Art Pad, uninstalled the drivers, and the Serial Port Connector Bracket. This also did not clear up the message.
I finally wrote Asus about my issues and was advised to reinstall all of my chipset drivers and then do a clean install of XP.
Since I had never messed with chipset drivers before, I decided to just disable the “Unknown PCI Device” inside of Device Manager. This stopped the message, but I knew the problem wasn’t solved.
During this time I received an Ipod Nano for Xmas and decided to go ahead and import my CDs into Itunes before I did the chipset reinstall and the clean install of XP. At this point the PC seemed to be working OK, if you don’t count the (Unknown PCI Device) crap.
Then I started experiencing issues importing songs from the CDs. The DVD-ROM drive seemed to be having trouble reading my CDs and would occasionally lock up, as would my Hard Drive. Both of their access lights would eventually come on and stay on and the PC would basically lock completely up. This required a reboot since ctrl+alt+del would not work.
I thought it might only be the DVD-ROM drive causing the problems, since I had done a search about that particular model and noticed that there were some issue with it. I had purchased it without reading any reviews since at the time it was the only SATA optical drive available, if I remember correctly.
I had another optical drive (EIDE) lying around and tried using it instead of the SATA DVD-ROM, but I had the same issues as before.
I eventually decided to go ahead with the chipset update, reformat, and reinstall of XP since I was now having more trouble with the PC.
Being inexperienced in this area I decided to update the BIOS first using ASUS’ update utility.
Everything seemed to be going fine until later on in the reboot process.
The POST screen reported the correct updated BIOS version, but things went downhill from there, fast.
Seconds into the boot up process I received this message “NTLDR is Missing press ctrl+atl+del to restart.”
I tried ctrl+alt+del, but that did nothing…the PC was completely locked up.
I did several searches on the web, using another PC, regarding this message and tried several of the “fixes” they recommended, but none worked for me.
I eventually decided to try and reformat anyway to try and clear some of this up, but I ran into more problems during the process.
I had complete PC lock ups at various points during both the reformat and XP install processes.
I currently have no idea if the main SATA HD has been reformatted or not considering all of the lock ups.
This was my first PC build, my first time using XP, and my first time dealing with SATA hardware. Considering everything seemed to be working correctly for over a year, I assume something happened during the Wacom Art Pad install. Something is either fried or there is a major software/driver issue.
Seeking help online is my last resort before dropping some dough at a PC repair shop.
I’m sorry for the long-winded post, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible.
Any help or suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated.
You can email me at Not a good idea to include an email address in an open forum, unless of course you like 1001 hourly SPAM messages...
Thanks,
Chris Stafford
-----------------------------------PC SPECS BELOW
Antec Performance Plus PLUSVIEW1000AMG Metallic Gray 1.0mm SECC Server Computer Case
Asus P5GD2 DELUXE Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 915P ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 530J Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 Processor Model BX80547PG3000EJ
Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive (main)
Western Digital Caviar 120GB EIDE 8MB Cache (Secondary)
Antec NEOPOWER 480 ATX12V v2.0 480W Power Supply
Corsair ValueSelect 1GB (2x512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit Memory Model VS1GBKIT533D2
Chaintech SE6600G Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 video card
Plextor 16X DVDR DVD Burner Beige SATA Model PX-716SA/SW
Plextor CDRW Model PX-W5224TA/SW R
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 7.1 Channels PCI Sound Card
Samsung Black 1.44MB 3.5” Internal Floppy Drive