Gertrude, the scanreg/restore may work for you if it hasn't been too long since the problem started. Another thing to check, run msconfig and click 'advanced'. Make sure 'force compatibility mode disk access' is not checked.

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Hi, Boot into safe mode. Open device manager and remove the controllers and cd roms. Reboot and if you are lucky windows will find the new hardware and load the necessary drivers. You might need your windows CD or your Motherboard driver CD.

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Ussually this is caused by a errro when installing some software packages. Click start run Type regedit hit enter Go to edit find type in NOIDE click find now If it finds a registry key delete it. Hopefully that will solve ye issue Gertrude

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Hi jibuib, I did reboot the system in Safe Mode and indeed the CD-ROM device and controller were there. I removed them both and restarted my computer. Unfortunately, Win 98SE did not find any new hardware. I did the same thing again, this time removing from the Device Manager another hardware (the modem). I rebooted the system and it did find the modem and reinstalled it automatically. Therefore, for some reason, the computer 'sees' the CD-ROM, but it still doesn't appear in the Device Manager, or as a separate drive letter. What else can I do? Dénes

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Did the dos drivers on a bootdisk see both drives as I mentioned in #4 above? Right click on 'my computer', choose 'properties' and then click 'performance'. Is anything running in msdos compatibility mode?

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Hello Dave, I did what you just suggested. Here is what I've found: "File system: some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility" "Virtual memory: MS-DOS compatibility mode" In the window below the following is written: "Drive C is using MS-DOS compatibility mode system" "Drive D is using MS-DOS compatibility mode system" [My hard disk is partitioned in two, C: and D:] Even I can realize that this is not good. What can I do? Dénes

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Did you try the scanreg/restore I mentioned above? If that doesn't help try reinstalling the 98 motherboard/chipset drivers. They should be on the installation disk that came with the motherboard or on their web site.

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I have the original motherboard CD. However, the problem is how can I reinstall the driver if the CD-ROM doesn't work. The only way I can think of is to somehow find the driver on the internet and download it from there. Is there a point in solving the "Drive C/D is using MS-DOS compatibility mode system" problem? Thanks, Dénes

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Sometimes the scanreg/restore will fix it as that's often due to a registry setting (and it previously was OK). If there's no registry available from before the problem started, the search for NOIDE mentioned above by johns sometimes works. The msdos compatibility can be due to many things but with newer boards such as yours installing/reinstalling the chipset drivers would be the thing to do if the registry restore or NOIDE search doesn't help. If you can post back the motherboard model # I'll check to see if I can find the drivers. The model may show on the cd disk you have.

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It's likely that what's causing the msdos compatibility mode for the hard drive is also the cause of the lost cdrom devices.

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Hello again Dave, I did what Johns has suggested (checking for NOIDE), but the search didn't find anything. I have Norton Works and I tried to restore the older registry, as you suggested, but the software crashed when I attempted to do this (message: regtrk fault). Finally, there is nothing written on my factory Mainboard CD itself, except that it's Version 6.2 VI. However, I checked with Norton Works the main info of my machine and the Processor is GenuineIntel Family 15 Model 0 1.5, while the BIOS is Award Software 06/14/01. I hope this helps identifying the Motherboard No. Dénes

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I'm not familiar with norton's registry restore. With windows you have the scanreg command and it's run after exiting from windows into dos or booting directly into dos. It can't be run from within windows. You can probably download and run Everest to ID the motherboard. Run it and click on the 'motherboard' icon. The model should show under 'motherboard name'. I believe you mentioned above you deleted the 'hard disk controller' entries in device manager and rebooted but it didn't change anything. When you did that did you remove all the 'hard disk controller' enteries, even if no problems were showing? If you open the first controller showing under 'hard disk controllers' and click on the 'settings' tab, the 'dual IDE channel settings' should show 'default' or 'both'. Even if it says 'default' you may want to change it to 'both' just to make sure. Do you know if any of the drives are connected to an add-on ATA card, like a Promise card? It would probably show up in device manager as a SCSI controller.

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Thanks for the Everest link. Here are the data of my Motherboard: Motherboard ID 06/14/2001-i850-W83627-C-00 Motherboard Name ECS P4ITA Company Name Elitegroup Computer Systems More later on. Dénes

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Here's the driver page for that motherboard. The first one, Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility, is what you should try.

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Hello Dave (and all), Unfortunately, that software you gave a link to does not support Win 98SE (only Win 2000 and up). I could not find any other matching software on the manufacturer's site. Where else can I try? Thanks for your continued assistance. Dénes

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Download the intel 850 driver (intel850.zip) from here and unzip it. Unzipping it will create a folder named INTEL850. Within that are two subfolders, INF and IDE. Run INFINST_AUTOL.exe from the INF folder. Then it'll probably have you reboot and you'll get alot of 'new hardware found' messages. When it's done, go to the IDE folder and run INTELATA610_MULTI.exe. The first file may solve the problem but go ahead and run the second one also.

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Just to make sure nothing will conflict with the installation, before running both programs do a CTRL-ALT-DEL and 'end task' everything except EXPLORER. Then run the files.

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Half success! Thanks, Dave, for the instructions. I did exactly what you told and I have now my CD-ROM back. However, the DVD player is still MIA... Is there any way to restore that one too? Thanks for your continuous support. Dénes

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Are the hard drives still in msdos compatibility mode? Do any problems show with the IDE controllers in device manager? Does the DVD show in msdos compatibility mode? Verify that the data and power cables going to the DVD are tightly inserted. It's not absolutely necessary for the bios to see cdrom devices. However since it sees one you'd expect it to see both. Also try booting with a bootdisk and choosing cdrom support. The last few lines that load before the final a:\> prompt will list the cdroms it finds. Does it show 1 or 2? If it shows one, the problem is probably hardware (bad connection, bad drive, etc.) If it shows two then the problem is probably in windows somewhere.

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>>Are the hard drives still in msdos compatibility mode? No, not any more. >>Do any problems show with the IDE controllers in device manager? The SCSI Controllers is marked with a yellow triangle. It says 'Shuttle EPAT External ATAPI Adapter for Win9x. is not working properly', probably the driver is not updated. (Driver's date 4-19-1999). >>Does the DVD show in msdos compatibility mode? It doesn't show at all. >>Verify that the data and power cables going to the DVD are tightly inserted. It's not absolutely necessary for the bios to see cdrom devices. However since it sees one you'd expect it to see both. Will do it tomorrow. Thanks, Dénes

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Is the SCSI adapter for an external Syquest or Zip drive? Since the DVD is connected to the on-board IDE controllers I assume it's not associated with the DVD. I'm thinking there's some physical problem with the DVD. Check the connections and if that's not it, boot from a bootdisk to see how many cdrom devices are seen.

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