Everyone:

I have posted here before (about 3 years ago) and the help was great.

My problem . . . I have an IBM PS/1, with Windows 3.11, DOS 6.22, 44 MB of Ram, and 1.3 GB hard drive.

My CD Rom does not work. On the advice of the IBM PS/1 Service Manual: I check the DOS Shell which reads the CD Rom drive letter (F)as does Windows File Manager. I looked inside the PC to make sure the CD-ROM system cable is connected and the Jumper settings are correct (they are).

When I install various CD-ROM software disks (Windows 3.1X)and select drive F on File Manager it says, "There is no disk in drive F. Insert a disk and try again." I have made no changes to my CD-ROM since I brought my computer from the store in 1994.

What should I try next?

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Jose C.

I'd boot back to DOS and see if you can read a CD from there--that will show that the drivers are loaded.

Could be a few things.

The drive is dirty

The drive just plain failed.

Bad cable.

Is it on a separate controller, or an IDE channel?

Can you make (download) a '98 boot disk and see if that will load the correct driver?

I'm not familiar with this old bird, is it an IDE CDROM, or one of those proprietary drives?

Thanks for the advice.

From what you and the IBM PS/1 Reference Manual say the problem with the CD ROM is: The CD ROM Software, CD ROM cable, or the CD ROM is bad. I will reinstall the CD ROM software as a first step.

Since my CD ROM does not work and the original IBM PS/1 software which has the CD ROM software is on a CD I would like to copy the IBM software from the CD to an Iomega Ditto Drive data disk via a laptop with Windows XP.

I would then reinstall the software on my IBM PS/1 using the Iomega Ditto Drive data disk after I format the hard drive. In other words I will reinstall all the IBM software. This is something I was going to do before the CD ROM went bad. Is this a good idea?

Sincerely,

Jose C.

The IBM PS/1 may use a SCSI drive and cable system, like the PS/2. If so, you may need to replace your drive with a scsi CDROM drive. IDE would not work.

From DOS did you look for drives D, E, F?

Did you make any changes to hardware or software before the F drive could not be seen?

If you do have a SCSI CDROM, you may want google troubleshooting SCSI systems.