where did the CD-ROM drive go?

[JR1of9]

Formatted and put a single partition on the hard drive. Installed WinME and various gaming applications. Along the way updated DirectX and went into the BIOS a couple of times to tweak settings. After the box being up and running for a couple of weeks I started getting the error msg after boot up:
Rundll32 has caused an error in KENL386.exe
Rundll32 will now close
If you continue experiencing problems, try restarting your computer

Later, when I turned it on, it would go to the blue screen with the msg.
Windows Protection Error
You need to restart System halted
When I restarted, it went into Safe Mode. I then turned it off, then back on. On boot up it was very slow at searching for the boot record from IDE 0, then said "not found" and ask for the boot disk. I used the boot disk to start it; then turned it off again. I started it again, and it booted up OK.

Over the next three days, everytime I'd boot up, it would go through the POST, flash the WinME splash screen for an instant and go into the WinME Startup Menu; the choices, as usual, 1. Normal 2. Logged… 3. Safe Mode and 4. Step-by-step
and the error msg: ( I believe this may be a critical point… )
Warning: Windows has detected a registry/configuration error.
Use scanreg to correct this error.
When I tried to use scanreg and go to an earlier configuration the process would fail. The last problem was that it began to fail to auto-start CD's; then got to the point where it did not even see the CD, even if I went to the CD-ROM icon and tried to start the CD.

So I decided to format the hard drive and just start over. Now the hard drive is newly formatted, and partioned: one primary and one extended with two logicals.
( yields a C, D, & E; F = the MS RAMdrive, and the CD-ROM = G )
I also used the J4 jumper switch to clear the CMOS.
But it still does not see the CD-ROM drive!
I get to the G prompt (CD-ROM) and type in setup.exe; and get the msg.
CDR101: Not ready reading drive G
Abort, retry, fail
The IDE cable is in the number 1 connection on the mobo, the middle connection is plugged into the CD-ROM, which is jumper set to be the slave device; and the end connection is plugged into the hard drive with is jumper set to be the master device. I double-checked it all. The BIOS is set to auto-detect the CD-ROM.
I also put in a different CD-ROM drive in and got the same results.

This wouldn't be a driver problem would it?
Doesn't the WinME boot disk have a CD-ROM driver that should work?

By the way, when I first installed the motherboard, I sent ECS Elitegroup support three e-mails - they did not respond to any of them
Be forewarned, lousy tech support.

[Slugbait]

Couple of things to try or verify:

- Verify in the BIOS that Primary Master and Slave are both set to "Auto". If that doesn't work...

- Change jumper setting on the CD to CSEL (which will do an auto-select). If that doesn't work...

- Change the hard drive to CSEL as well. If that doesn't work...

- Get another cable, hook it into Secondary IDE, connect it to the CD, jumper it Master or CSEL. On the hard drive, jumper that to be the only device (should say on the drive or in the manual for jumper settings). Verify in the BIOS that both Primary and Secondary are available and set to "Auto"

If that doesn't work, come back here and we'll try to troubleshoot some other options, like flashing your BIOS...

[CaterpillarAssassin]

get rid of WinME. That should clear things up.


Are u overclocking?

[JR1of9]

I'm not overclocking.

I did get rid of WinME when I reformatted the hard drive;
but I can't install any OS if she don't see the CD-Rom drive...??

[blade]

When you start up with a boot floppy, do you see a screen that says something like "start computer with cd-rom support"?

If not, you should. If you need a w98 boot dish, get one here. Look on the right side for "FDISk" floppy.

I've never used winME so I have no clue how it's boot floppy is. But a w98 will work just fine to get you started.

That loads a generic cd-rom driver and you need that for the cd rom to be reckognized.



btw, welcome to pca

[FlyingPenguin]

If the CD-Rom is recognized by BIOS, and you have it set up properly, you should be able to boot from the Windows installation CD.

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Does the CD-Rom open and close? I had a problem once where mine was doing what yours is, but it wouldn't open or anything. Found a forum where a guy told me to HOLD the eject button from the time you turn on the computer until the time it opens the CD Tray and that fixed all my problems. But dunno if that's an issue here.. eGo

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Get it figured out yet? eGo

[JR1of9]

I pulled the CD drive out and took the housing off to see the lens...dirty maybe...
cause it appeared to be working fine -
opened and closed when the eject button was pushed, light went on and I could hear the spinning when a CD was inserted; DOS just didn't see it...
So I took a Q-tip with alcohol and lighting wiped off the surface of the lens then blew it off lightly with some canned air.
Put it back in the box and... same damn thing.

I also have a DVD drive with a hardware card which I pulled out, along with sound card, etc. etc. when I decided to reformat the hard drive. You know, strip it down to the essentials and start over -- Anyway, I decided to try the DVD drive, even though I was unsure about not having any driver installed, not to mention the hardware card.
Always before, I would install the drivers and applic for the hardware card (Sigma Designs, Hollywood Plus); then put the drive and the card in, and fire it up.
So I put the drive in by itself, and voila!! DOS saw it! At that point I pulled my WinME boot disk, and put an XP CD in and now have XP on the machine. Now I need to download some hardware/XP drivers.
Guess I'll have to trash that Shuttle CD-ROM drive...

Thanks for your input!

JR1of9