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Clean Win ME will not "see" cd-rom

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by joakim.kosmo 2 views

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I've just installed Win ME on a machine at home, that I've buildt from various old and new parts. Windows ME will not mount the CD-rom. I can see/ and use the CD-rom from DOS. The machine has a ASUS motherboard buildt on the Intel 440LX chipset. Both HD and cd-rom use IDE channel 1 (but I've tried using both). In the System controlpanel, both IDE channels are marked with an yellow error 10. Ive found simmilar errors on the net with Win 98. Something about real mode rivers. But all descriptions about how to solve this, basicaly says edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys. But since this is ME, the OS just ignores these files. So how do I solve this in ME? Which tools can I use instead of the files?

11 replies

by rawright

Check first that both IDE channels are enabled in the BIOS, and observe the POST screen at startup to ensure they are correctly detected. You could also have a conflict going between the hard drive and the cd if both are jumpered as Master devices. A better way to install these would be to put the hard drive on IDE-0 as Master, and the cd on IDE-1 as Master - much better performance that way, and no chance for contention.

If these steps don't help, you may have a cd that WindowsME can't interface with. In that case you'll need to obtain the manufacturer's driver and install it. If no protected mode driver exists, you'll need to edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files to install the 16-bit driver and the Microsoft extension MSCDEX.exe. WinME doesn't need the autoexec.bat and config.sys files, but it will use them if they're detected to install older device drivers that don't support protected mode operation. Check the Microsoft Knowledge Base for information about using MSCDEX.exe - you can find it at: support.microsoft.com.

by joakim.kosmo

Seems like ME has problems if the CD-ROM was not explicitly defined in the CMOS when installed. Start up disk and DOS were able to find the CD-rom, but I never were able to configure this from ME. I scratched the whole installation, and did oncemore, and this time ME found CD-rom and installed it during installation. Evrything is OK, but I still think that was easier and more logical in earlier versions of Win.

by mphoffar

You're right in say that ME does ignore the dos stuff....but not totally. I would pop them open and rem a mscdex line in there if I see it.

After that, you'd probobly want to try installing the Intel PCI Bridge Fix &
INF Updater. You can find that at www.windrivers.com and then the bus mastering link (and this in your case the Intel link)

In the past, you would have to install this to setup everything correctly in 95 or 98. To be honest, never had to opportunity to try that in ME, butI would think the same may hold true there.

The other things you may want to look at is Q151911 at the microsoft knowledge base. This may give you some good ideas as to what to do.

Good luck to you

Mark

by joakim.kosmo

I have allready installed the fix. As to the article in the knowledge base, my registry dont not contain the NOIDE variable.

by dcosgrove

I would take the cd off the primary IDE channel. Aside from reducing the performance of your hard drive, It could be forcing it into real mode. I would also try removing the hard disk controller in the sytem menu and letting it reinstall the drivers. You may have to check in safe mode to see if you have multiple entries for HD controller and cd drives.

by jesselou

remove all the statements in your autoexec.bat and config.sys that refer to your cdrom.then enable automatically detect
your cd rom in the bios save put your windows 98 startup disk in your drive and restart computer when prompted if you want to start your computer with cdrom support select this option.

by chuck.leathers

I recently had the same problem on my system at home. Open device manager and click on the performance tab. Does it show Windows ME is using compatibility mode? The reason that my system was doing this was due to a virus "NYB". Try running a topof the line virus program. I say top of the line cause I had Esafe by Alladin software preinstalled and it doesn't find the virus. Hope this helps you.

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