Hi guys, nice site.

Here is my problem sorry if its long winded, I have been checking out earlier posts so may sound more knowledgeable than I realy am, but I hope / am sure that you can help-

I have an old Advent PC running 98se that I got secondhand. I have had this a number of years now and have been using it with no problems until this week.

On booting the auto detect cannot find the secondary master or slave.
These are two optical drives, a DVD-ROM as master and a CD-RW as slave, these are connected to the second IDE socket on the motherboard.

Both drives were working fine last week, I was copying discs from the DVD to the CD with no problems.
Now as I say they wont autodetect.

I cant uninstall them, they dont show up in device manager (or bios?).
Both drives are showing front lights so have power, although the DVD light is on constantly.
I have had the case off and checked that all plugs seem firmly seated.

I have not installed any new hardware since first getting the PC, and no new software within the last month.

I have read about the high and low filter problem that can occur if a burner is uninstalled but I havent done any uninstalls either (plus having found the reg. entry the filters dont seem to show up in 98se).

I am begining to thing that the DVD is kaput, it has always been a bit tempramental, and am thinking of taking it out and configuring the CD-RW as the secondary master.

But before I do that I thought I would ask for your advice.

Thanks for you help.

Nukecad

Someone else will more likely offer a better answer here Nuke but just from my own experience have you switched out the IDE cable to ensure its not the cable?

I concur. Eliminate the cable first as the problem. Just switch the motherboard ends. Put IDE2 devices cable on the (motherboard) IDE1, and vice versa.

Boot the machine. If the bios detects the (IDE1) hard disk(s) on IDE2, then those drives, their cable and the second IDE controller are good.

Knowing the first (Primary) IDE controller was good, if the optical devices are not recognized, suspect the cable. Switch the cables (IDE1 & IDE2) completely. (Remove from the hard disk(s) and place on the optical drives.) Connect to IDE1 and boot.

If still not "seen", then try one drive at a time. (Master/Slave jumpers on the drives need not be changed.)

The devices have to be "seen" by the bios first, if they're to be "seen" in any O/S.

Thanks guys

I'll try those later tonight and let you kow how I get on.

Nuke

If still not "seen", then try one drive at a time. (Master/Slave jumpers on the drives need not be changed.)

I should have clarified a bit more...
"If using Master/Slave drive jumper positions, the Master/Slave jumpers on the drives need not be changed. If using CS jumper settings with the 80 conductor data cables, then the drive placement on the cable has to be adhered to. ie; Master on the farthest end, Slave on the middle connector."

Thanks Dan, I had asumed that was what you meant but its nice to have it confirmed.

Still not got around to the job yet, been busy elsewhere.

Nuke.

Sorry its taken me so long to get back.
The problem seems to have resolved itself.
Im going to run a lot of virus and registry checkers just to be on the safe side.

Thanks again.

The problem seems to have resolved itself.

Strange. It (still) may be a flakey cable or controller or drive.

This thread has been resolved and locked to prevent other users from hijacking the thread and to help others know which threads have been resolved and which are still being worked on.

If you started this thread and the problem returns, or, the case has not been properly resolved, please send a Private Message to a Moderator to have the thread opened again. If you have a different problem, please start a new thread in the appropriate forum.

Thanks for reopening the thread.

As I said the drive problem seemed to resolve itself; but then a more serious problem manifested.

I now cannot boot up into windows at all.
When I try to boot in normal or safe modes I get the error message-

' Write protect error writing to drive C
Abort, Retry, Fail? '

and can go no further regardless of which response I give.

I CAN boot into DOS but if I then type in WIN to go to windows I get the longer error message-

'EMM386 has detected error #à6 in an application at memory address 30E0:0FDE. to minimise he chance of data loss, EMM386 has halted your computer.
For more information consult your documentation.

To restart your computer press ENTER. '

Pressing ENTER gives no response.

To try and simplify things I have dissconected the optical drives just leaving the hard disk and floppy drive connected. I have tried swaping the IDE cables and connecting the hard disk to each of the IDE ports on the motherboard, but still get the same errors whichever connection / cable I use.

Any ideas would be very welcome.

Nuke.

EDIT- Ive just been reading a post that seemed to be of a similar (but not quite the same) problem and this has prompted me to add the following info.

I DO NOT have the original Windows 98 CD.
(It is a second hand machine but apparently Advent do not ship the CD with new machines anyway).

I DO have a 'Windows 98 Recovery Disc V1.02' floppy which was shipped with machine.
(I am reluctant to try this at this stage as I want to keep my installed programes if posssible, I DO have all my data backed up so the data is not a problem if I have to go this route).

The laptop that I am posting this from does NOT have a floppy drive, so copying and posting files from the problem machine may be awkward.
(I assume that a memory stick can not be accessed from DOS).

Nuke.

I have had no answer here; may be because its an old post.

I will try putting it into a new post and see what happens.