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Win98SE won't recognize CD-ROM

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by saxman642 3 views

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At my office for some strange reason my CD-ROM is no longer recognised by Windows.

I have tried using the Win98SE startup disk and choosing the 'load with CD-ROm support' option but it keeps saying 'drivers not found'. And I still can't access the CD-ROM, and Windows won't start up, but all files are listed.

Otherwise Windows loads fine with out the startup disk, but no CD drive is available. The CD-ROM is a Sony CDU4011. Drivers downloaded from Sony when installed prove fruitless.

I'm considering that I may have to go inside the machine to investigate the cables. Any and all advice is appreciated.

14 replies

by bill cassada

Check your BIOS to see if the CDROM has been disabled in the IDE setup portion. This sounds like the problem since it won't boot from the startup disk. Could also be the cable or even the power connection. If the CD will open/close the power is probably okay. Reading/writing needs the cable connected properly (red pin goes to pin 1). My money is on the BIOS, though.

Good Luck!

by bill cassada

When you go into the BIOS set the IDE detection to AUTO for all but the hard drives. I say this because your hard drives may be set manually and overriding could cause problems. For the IDE devices that show nothing on them set them to AUTO....this should allow it to recognize the CD Rom.

by darb_

Your BIOS does not need to be set to detect the CD-ROM drive unless you need to boot from it. However, you may want to enable this to see if the BIOS does detect it, if not, the IDE cable may not be fully seated in the connector. Open the case and reseat the IDE cable. If your BIOS does detect the CD-ROM, boot into safe mode and see if's listed in device manager. If so, remove it and reboot into normal mode and see if it has reappeared in device manager. If it still does not exist, chances are that the drive is defective. Swap the drive out with another if available and see it it works. If it does, replace the defective drive.
NOTE: Forcing your bios to autodetect increases the time it takes to boot and should be avoided if you know the parameters of your IDE devices.

by gbullers

Assuming the other answers failed, it probably is a bad drive. However one other possibility is the onboard IDE controller, most new boards have 2 if the hard drive is plugged into one & the CD the other you might try attaching the CD to the second plug on hard drive cable. you will need to be sure the CD jumpers are set slave not master

by mzy

First check the BIOS to see if the cd drive is detected. If it is, try to go into windows config.sys and insert this line: lastdrive="z". You may need to restart to see the drive. If not, then check the inside of the CPU, if the wires have been disconnected. And, if all seems okay, you may need to change the cdrom drive, as it could be a bad drive. You may want another technician to look into the cdrom drive before changing it. Hope this works, Maozy

by itsupport

This is one of the most common errors reported to operators on our helpdesk. Here is what we recomend to our field agents:
Carry out the following steps (in any order, but the one below is preferable):
1) open the machine, and check if the cable is connected firmly to the drive and motherboard.
2) download the generic CD driver vide-cdd.sys from DriverGuide (http://www.driverguide.com/uploads/21.html) - username: driver, password: all - and try this. It shoud go in the config.sys file as:device=vide-CDD.sys /d:mscd001.
3) If these don't work, it would suggest that your CDdrive needs changing - before buying a new one, test the machine with one you know works, and the drive on another machine.
Hope this helps!

by saxman642

Best answer I received....haven't applied it as yet, but at least you agreed with my suspicion that the cable may be loose.

by itsupport

This is one of the most common errors reported to operators on our helpdesk. Here is what we recomend to our field agents:
Carry out the following steps (in any order, but the one below is preferable):
1) open the machine, and check if the cable is connected firmly to the drive and motherboard.
2) download the generic CD driver vide-cdd.sys from DriverGuide (http://www.driverguide.com/uploads/21.html) - username: driver, password: all - and try this. It shoud go in the config.sys file as:device=vide-CDD.sys /d:mscd001.
3) If these don't work, it would suggest that your CDdrive needs changing - before buying a new one, test the machine with one you know works, and the drive on another machine.
Hope this helps!

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