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Name: David
What is going on here? My computer has totally lost the plot! I have connected a new CD drive and a new floppy drive, but once i'm logged into Windows the only drive i have the option to use is C: ! And apparently i also have a 'non-removable disk' for drive a: but when i click on 'properties' the disk has 0 gig capacity? Can anyone out there tell me what's going on and how to get my computer to recognise the drives?
I've tried removing the drivers and rebooting but this makes no difference. It detects the hardware and installs the drivers but i still have no cd or floppy drive! Could it be a problem in BIOS? If so, could anyone tell me what the correct settings should be, because i haven't got a clue- never been in BIOS before!
Thanks so much for your time. God bless.
Go to 'performance' in 'system' in control panel and see if anything is running in ms-dos compatibility mode.
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Hi Dave, thanks for your speedy reply. Yes, there is a notice about one of my drives running in MS Dos compatibility mode...is this the problem? If so, have you any idea how i can change it? Thanks again!
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Ok, you're gonna have to help me with that bit, because i'm definitely not an expert,lol! How would i reinstall it? My computer is second hand so i don't have any disks...not that they'd work anyway, because my computer can't recognise the drives!
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I don't know if this is important, but i just noticed that the size of my config.sys file was 0 kb. That can't be right...can it?
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You don't need to reinstall the motherboard. The config.sys is OK.
The ms-dos compatibility mode is the problem. It's happened to me a couple of times and there can be many reasons for it happening. You can do a google search for 'ms-dos compatibility mode' and get a lot of responses.
The only cure I've found is to exit to dos and at the prompt type:
scanreg/restore
and return. Then choose a registry to restore with a date that precedes the problem. Any software you've installed after that date would need to be reinstalled as there would be no reference to it in the registry. The OS only keeps track of the last 4 days registries so this is something that needs to be done before all backup registries have that problem.
I've heard recommendations of running regedit and searching for NOIDE entries and then deleting them. This didn't work for me but it has for others.
Good luck.
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Thanks Dave. This still has made no difference though. It's got me completely confused. I did an auto detect in BIOS for drives and the only one it found was (i assume) my hard disk. However, the cd player opens when i push the eject button and lights up - it just isn't registering on 'My Computer'. This is also preventing me reinstalling Windows as i wouldn't be able to use the CD!
There is a message which states that 'drive a: is running in MS Dos compatibility Mode', but i checked the registry and neither of the values you suggested are in it.?!? Furthermore, 'My Computer' refers to drive a: as being a 'removable disk', whereas it should just be a standard floppy drive.
I'm totally flummoxed. Can anyone suggest anything? Could it be the problem in BIOS and how would i change it? Thanks again. God bless.
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Make sure a: is the first boot device in cmos and then boot using a floppy bootdisk. Choose 'cdrom support' and see if it detects your cdrom. If it does then your cdrom is functioning properly. If it doesn't detect it then either it's jumpered or connected incorrectly or configured wrong in cmos. Make sure both IDE controllers are enabled in cmos. The fact that the tray opens and the light comes on only verifies it's getting power, not that it's operating properly.
Did you try the scanreg/restore?
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Just a thought....
Boot into Safe Mode by pressing [F8] or [Ctrl]key during the bootup sequence, goto the Device Manager, expand CDROM and remove all displayed CD-ROM Drives.
Expand Disk drives and remove all Floppy Disk Drives.
Expand Floppy disk controllers and remove all Floppy Disk controllers.
Click on OK to save the changes and reboot your system into normal mode.Windows detects "new hardware" and starts installing the appropiate drivers.
Hope it's of any help.
Greetz from The Netherlands,
The Count
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