Hi everyone I have to state beforehand that I'm quite a novice in informatics field... Problem: Philips Internal CD-Rewritable (16x10x40, drive interface E-IDE/ATAPI, ultra DMA mode 2) properly detected by BIOS (MotherBoard: PC100 super socket 7 M590) but not recognized by Windows (98 SE). In the device manager, secondary IDE controller of HDD (Maxtor ATA hard drive of 160 Gb) has been unactivated since the installation of the CD-burner. I've already tried to set the devices with every possible combination on the IDE channels (primary/secondary master/slave): no results. Is there anyone who can give me any clue?

You should have your hard drive on the primary master and the cd as secondary master. Check both jumpers are correct. If all is fine here then the problem lies in an old operating system not having the correct drivers i suspect. You'd need to load on the IDE bus master drivers. Oh, also check to make sure that they dont have the same IRQ in your BIOS and then windows.

While you are checking those jumpers can I ask about your upgrading process? You already got a 160GB HD and a new CD Burner...How about throwing in some RAM so that you will be able to use that CD Burner once you get it going. Have you checked the specifications or minimum requirements on the box of that CD Burner to make sure it will work with Win98 and/or your Processor/RAM amounts? Bryan

How many IDE devices do you have? If it's just the two, the HDD should be primary master & the CD burner should be 2ndary master. Set the jumpers accordingly & do NOT use cable select. Adding more RAM is good advice ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

If all the above suggestions do not work, go to this site http://www.mesich.com/ click on troubleshooting, then cd rom missing in windows. had the same problem once installing a cd burner, solution #1 worked for me. larry

Hi and thanks everybody for your replies.. I've tried al the solutions you suggested me (I've set the jumpers in the right way and tried all the solutions found at mesich.com..) but NO WAY. Anyway the cd burner specifications should match well with my O.S. and RAM amounts Maybe my motherboard is simply too old (I can't even find the latest chipset drivers..)and I have to turn to a newer one (with DDR modules, so it's useless to expand my current SDRAM memory). thank you again ......