CD recognised by BIOS but not in Windows

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Richard Webb - 04 Sep 2005 15:22 GMT

Hi
Have an older computer with following setup (used to work fine)

Primary Master Hard disc
Primary slave None
Secondary Master CD
Secondary Slave Zip (100 MB)

All drives above are recognised on the startup screens, but not in DOS or
Windows

Neither scondary drives are shown in Windows or DOS. (from hard disc)

In Device Manager there are Exclamation marks against primary & secondary
drives.
Have tried deleting them for windows to re-install, permission denied
without deleting their host. This was deleted & system re-booted for same
symptoms.

Have tried investigating in BIOS, but all seems OK.

(At an earlier time, CD was not recognised at startup, fixed with a wriggle
of the ribbon lead. worked fine until recently)

Now fitted with new lead with no joy, have also tried another CD drive.

All help will be gratefully received.

Many thanks

Richard Webb

Reply to this Message

Kay Archer - 04 Sep 2005 19:28 GMT

> Hi
> Have an older computer with following setup (used to work fine)
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Now fitted with new lead with no joy, have also tried another CD drive.

My first suggestion would be to update the motherboard/hard drive controller
drivers.

Does the cd-rom drive work with real-mode drivers? Use one of the utilities
at www.bootdisk.com to create a boot floppy and use it to start the
computer. Does the cd-rom drive work then?

Re-check the basics, are the master/slave jumpers installed correctly?
(pull them off and put them back on to clean off any corrosion). Is the
cable (lead) put in the correct way around at all three connections? (pin
one on the cable will usually be coloured and (most often) pin one on the
drive will be closest to the power connector. the motherboard/controller
may be a little tougher to discern, but it shoud be the same direction as
the other cable).

Reply to this Message

Richard Webb - 08 Sep 2005 21:24 GMT

Hi Kay

Thank you for troubling to reply to my query.

1. Drive recognised with a bootdisk.com floppy

2. Have replaced ribbon cable with a new one (thinking old one was
suspect)

3. Master/slave jumpers have been checked & changed backwards & forwards,
together with another CD drive (hardware) tried.

Question:

How do I update the motherboard drive controllers? Have tried deleting the
drives in Device Manager hoping Windows would re-install on a restart - no
joy!

Will try to answer my own question by tracking down the motherboard CD (now
where did I put it, it is some years since it was used), ascertain Make &
model & do a web search.

Many thanks - I was feeling confident this was a software problem after
drive opened with Bootdisk.

All the best

Richard

> > Hi
> > Have an older computer with following setup (used to work fine)
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
> may be a little tougher to discern, but it shoud be the same direction as
> the other cable).

Reply to this Message

Kay Archer - 10 Sep 2005 04:36 GMT

> Question:
>
> How do I update the motherboard drive controllers? Have tried deleting the
> drives in Device Manager hoping Windows would re-install on a restart - no
> joy!

Download the current drivers from the motherboard maker's website. Choose
update driver in device manager.

You might have had better luck deleting the drive controller, rather than
the drives. (I had to do that to get XP to recognize a 5.25" floppy drive
on my Dad's computer)

> Will try to answer my own question by tracking down the motherboard CD (now
> where did I put it, it is some years since it was used), ascertain Make &
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
> > may be a little tougher to discern, but it shoud be the same direction as
> > the other cable).

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