Hi, everyone. I keep getting this *irritating* message when I boot the computer up, whether I boot it up into Windows or DOS, that says, "ATAPI IDE CD-ROM device driver version V 1.23b 1 drive(s) detected unit 1, MASTER, IRQ 15, I/O address 0X0170". I've tried asking stupid Compaq about it, and I went through two or three techs who told me what to do to fix it, and I followed their instructions step by step, but it's still happening. Things they've told me to do include going to the My Computer icon's properties, which is called the system properties, and going to the device-manager tab and removing the CD-ROM drive, going to the disk-drives category right under that and removing the one called GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE01, going to the floppy-disk-controllers category a little bit under that and removing the one called Standard Floppy Disk Controller, which is the only one that's listed there. I also had a hunch and, when the problem continued to happen, went to the hard-disk-controllers section and removed the one on the bottom called VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller, which ended up requiring two consecutive restarts to do, but it seemed to fix the problem temporarily, but now it's doing it again. Also, another thing that I think is related to this whole thing is that my computer has made me an extra three-and-a-half-inch floppy drive twice now, and it makes it so that the second three-and-a-half-inch floppy drive is drive E, which is the drive that's normally the CD-ROM drive, and the CD-ROM drive is listed as being drive F, and I used to not even have a drive F. The first time it happened I was able to fix it on my own by going to the device-manager tab on the system properties and going to the disk-drives section located near the top and removing the one called GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK, which I remembered not being there before, and then I restarted the computer. Oh, and before I did that, I went to the performance tab of the system properties and went to the file-system thing and went to the floppy-disk tab and rechecked the box that makes it search for new floppy-disk drives each time the computer starts, 'cause I thought that maybe that needed to be on in order for the computer to realize that there was already a three-and-a-half-inch floppy drive installed. I don't know if that needed to be checked or not, but I did just in case, and then I restarted the computer, and that fixed that problem and set the drives back the way they were and got rid of the extra three-and-a-half-inch floppy drive, but now it's doing that again for some reason, and I tried doing the same thing to fix it, but it's not working now. That's really irritating the hell out of me, but the worst thing of all is that damn "ATAPI IDE" message I keep getting. I asked for Compaq's further assistance with this when I told them that what they've been telling me to do isn't working, and the dumb SOBs told me to "contact my nearest Compaq-authorized service center in order to resolve the problem." Yeah, like I really wanna pay a whole bunch of money to resolve an issue I shouldn't even have and that's probably really easy to fix anyway if you know what to do, which they obviously don't. Stupid Compaq... ....Anyway, can someone pleeease help me to fix this? :-(

Here are two little things you could try and have a look at. Open up your computer case and make sure the "ribbon" wires are plugged in properly to the CD-Rom and the hard disk drive. Make sure to double check the connection of the ribbon wires on the motherboard too. If that does not solve the problem, try to swap out your current cd-rom. Check it in a friends machine, and while it is out check another cd-rom in your machine to see if it is the physical device causing the problem or something else. Good luck and have fun. Andrew

Is there something in the config.sys and/or autoexec.bat files that is set to load the CD rom drivers? If so, REM them out and see what happens.

Didn't read your entire post as I was beginning to nod off BUT, the notification that the cdrom drivers are loading is not an error message. It is a consequence of the the drivers being loaded from config.sys. As Will suggests, you can REM out that line and windows will use it's own drivers. However, given that it's a compaq I'd leave it as it is. You may be able to edit the line with a /Q switch at the end. Some drivers will see that as a 'quiet' switch and not post as much info.