WinME treats all CDs as audio

[DrDave]

My WinME system has started to treat all data CDs as if they were a music CD. A new (data) CD will trigger autorun and bring up Windows Media Player which errors out.

I have a copy of WinXP ready to install but can't use the CD drive. Tried moving back about 2 months using the restore function. The CD drive disappeared. Checking the Device Manager, I found the CD driver flagged with a suggestion that I need to reinstall the driver. Don't know how to install a CD driver and suspect it is part of WinME but can't reinstall ME without a working CD drive.

Suggestions appreciated...
Dave

[NooNoo]

Sounds like a pooched aspi layer possibly

Does it work if you boot from it? Did you set the bios to boot from CD first?

To test it in dos, grab yourself a 98se boot disk .here is one you download, double click the exe with a floppy diskette in (http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml) and it will create the bootdisk for you.


If it works in dos, then you need this (http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverdetail.html?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=%2fOperating+System%2fMicrosoft+Windows+XP&filekey=aspi_471a2.exe) download it, and run the exe. Yes I know it says XP at the top, it is for ME as well

Good luck

[confus-ed]

Sounds like a pooched aspi layer possibly

Or a number of other things, pooched file associations, errant cdr software, blah, blah, blah ... BUT ....

have a copy of WinXP ready to install but can't use the CD drive.

Do you mean you have an 'upgrade' copy .... because a straight copy would of course be bootable, you need to change the boot source is bios.

Upgrading from any o/s to another is not the best way ... you want a clean install, unless you have reasons otherwise, particularly for an upgrade from 9x to a NT based system, so you don't need to bother fixing ME unless you really really want what's already there ....

Which do you want a new shinny copy of XP or your ME install fix-ed :confused: :rolleyes: ;) :D :D :D ???

[DrDave]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Sounds like a pooched aspi layer possibly

Does it work if you boot from it? Did you set the bios to boot from CD first?

NooNoo - sorry about the double post - really a NoNo. I'm still learning...

I have downloaded the boot disk and Adaptec utility. Will give your suggestions a try tonight. I did not set the bios to boot from the CD. What is the potential problem with EasyCD?

[DrDave]

Originally posted by confus-ed
Do you mean you have an 'upgrade' copy .... because a straight copy would of course be bootable, you need to change the boot source is bios.

Upgrading from any o/s to another is not the best way ... you want a clean install, unless you have reasons otherwise, particularly for an upgrade from 9x to a NT based system, so you don't need to bother fixing ME unless you really really want what's already there ....

Which do you want a new shinny copy of XP or your ME install fix-ed?

My copy of XP is an upgrade. I have a software package installed with no access to the install CD. Hope to be able to get to XP without reformatting HD. If you think this is hopeless I may have to bite the bullet and wipe the HD clean. I guess I figure I can always reformat and start fresh if approach #1 is a failure. End goal is shinny new copy of XP.

Thanks for your help,
DrDave

[NooNoo]

Soooo.... does the cd drive work in dos? will it boot from cd?

[DrDave]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Soooo.... does the cd drive work in dos? will it boot from cd?

CD drive does work in DOS. Directory of a data CD was correct. Tried to look at an audio CD. DOS did not see a the CD in the drive and I guess that would be normal.

I did not try to change the BIOS to boot from a CD. Not sure how to make the BIOS change and do not know what CD I could boot from. WinME and WinXP CDs are both upgrades. I assume they are not bootable. I could try my Win98 CD.

Thanks for your interest & help...

[Kineda]

Sounds to me like your cd-rom drivers are screwed in windows, reboot to safe mode and look in device manager. CHeck for multiple drivers and i would remove what ever is listed under cd-rom anyway jsut to have it be reinstalled from scratch on boot...since it works from dos it is a windows issue, i am more than sure you will be able to fix this without the format....let me know what you find:cool:

[confus-ed]

End goal is shinny new copy of XP

So read this - which explains xp setup options (http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm)

If all upgrade disks are bootable .... I'm not so sure .... then just follow the instructions... & we don't need to fix ME .... :)

& edit

Note you can run either an upgrade or clean install this way

[NooNoo]

So did you download the adaptec aspi software?

[DrDave]

Originally posted by NooNoo
So did you download the adaptec aspi software?

Yes, I downloaded and ran the aspi software. No help. Before that I downloaded and tried the Win98 boot disk. Data CD seemed OK from DOS. Unable to view tracks on an audio CD but suspect that is normal. Also tried 4/23 suggestion from Kineda. Found a total of 4 CD drivers listed under Device Manager. Deleted all four and two auto-reinstalled on boot. Old & new CD drivers had "strange looking text" labels. Hard to describe but the characters looked like they had extra garbage attached to the text at random places. I am assuming they may well be corrupted although Device Manager does not flag a problem.

Working now to backup everything and go for a clean install of XP. Some of the great links y'all pointed to indicated my XP HE upgrade CD should boot.

Thanks for all the interest and support.
Dave

[Kineda]

Damn i hate when windows starts throwing in all those extra drivers! sorry that a format will be the end fix but glad i could help point the driver thing out.....usually that fix is flawless :cool:

[format c:]

The XP cd is bootable for both the upgrade and full versions, Keep your 98 cd handy as you will be asked for it as proof of ownership on a previous vesrion of Windows

[DrDave]

I just worked 20 min. on the latest chapter of this saga and attached a .JPG file showing my boot screen. This forum software said the max attachment size was 1 byte. I didn't believe a 1 byte limit and submitted my reply. It was rejected for having an oversize attachment and all the text seems to be lost.:confused: Darn!

Are attachments possible at all?

[confus-ed]

....nope you can't do attachments here ....

Why where you trying t post your boot screen? Does that mean you've finally got xp going ... or not? :confused: (as ever :D )...

[NooNoo]

You can host a pic at your webspace and set it in between img tags.

No webspace?

[DrDave]

Originally posted by confus-ed
Why where you trying t post your boot screen? Does that mean you've finally got xp going ... or not? :confused: (as ever :D )...

XP not going. I will explain when I recreate my last (lost) post. My idea was to let you see a picture of the garbage characters after the Award BIOS Secondary Master & Secondary Slave banner. Also I was so proud of capturing it to a still I just had to share with everyone:D

[DrDave]

So this is try #2 to post the next chapter in my saga. No attachments this time...

After backing up everything and switching the first boot device to CD ROM I used my WinXP HE CD and tried to boot. The CD boot failed with an error message and the system booted WinME from the hard drive. I had the DOS floppy boot disk from the Win98 SE boot disk site you suggested. It had been able to view the files on a CD but now when I start it with option 1 (CD Support) the OAK Technologies banner & copyright is displayed followed by:
Device Name :MSCD001_
(the system hangs with the cursor blinking right after the 001).
The same floppy boots fine and loads the RAM Drive if I select option 2 (No CD Support)

I notice the Award BIOS v6.00PG displays a banner followed by a quick flash of:
Primary Master : WDC WD400BB-00AUA1 18.2
Primary Slave : None
Secondary Master : "garbage mix of symbols & characters"
Secondary Slave : "garbage mix of symbols & characters"

This display happens before any boot device is looked at and makes me wonder if the BIOS or Motherboard has a problem.
Should I be able to download and reflash a new BIOS?

The picture I tried to attach showed the inital BIOS banner and the "garbage characters".

As always, I appreciate any suggestions.

[kato2274]

is this just one particular cd rom that does this? have you swapped drives and / or cables.

If you swap drives and cables and it doesn't work then throw it on a different IDE channel. ie. remove the HD and put it as primary master and see if it's detected properly.

if it's not reset the CMOS, maybe remove teh battery and try again.

[DrDave]

I have both a CD ROM and a CD Burner. Both act the same. A data CD always looks like an audio CD to the system. A music CD works fine as far as I can tell.

My motherboard is a K7T Pro-A from Microstar. I will see if the manual talks about CMOS reset via jumper etc. If not I will remove the battery and let it sit a few hours.

BTW - I just flashed my first BIOS this past week. It was a Dell laptop and it worked with no problems. Should I think of that as a possible solution or is it so risky that it is only a last resort option?

[NooNoo]

Did you load the motherboard drivers (http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2) for your motherboard in XP?

[DrDave]

I have not been able to install WinXP. System system unable to boot or read any CD. I did find the motherboard has a jumper that will allow me to reset the CMOS as soon as I power down.

Do you recommend updating the motherboard driver after I get this problem resolved and install XP?

[NooNoo]

Yes! You have a via chipset - you must install the motherboard drivers whatever OS you are using.

Did you install the motherboard drivers for ME ?

The link is for all windows operating systems. Download, double click and follow the wizard.

[DrDave]

OK, I reset the CMOS memory. On reboot the BIOS message still had "garbage characters" after the Secondary Master & Slave messages. Below the message "CMOS Checksum Error - defaults loaded" was displayed. CD drive still will not read a data CD so this was not it.

Noo Noo... My PC came loaded with WinME so I did not install the VIA motherboard driver. At this point it looks like I need to download and try a reinstall of the VIA driver.

Can anyone tell me what generates the boot message about the Primary/Secondary Master & Slave? The garbage characters must mean that area is corrupted.

[NooNoo]

Yes thats particularly worrying. Did you try to flash the bios before?

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by DrDave
OK, I reset the CMOS memory. On reboot the BIOS message still had "garbage characters" after the Secondary Master & Slave messages. ....
.... tell me what generates the boot message about the Primary/Secondary Master & Slave? The garbage characters must mean that area is corrupted.

See Kato's answer above ....

From what you told us .... the hd is correctly recognised on channel one, the two sets of garbage characters come from either a faulty controller channel, or cable or device ...

So lets find out which....

Swapping the ide cables around will tell you if both channels are working - it will see the disk as secondary master correctly hopefully....

Then try putting the cd on the same ide cable as the hd & see if it sees it correctly - the cable attached to the correctly identified disk should be good....

We need to know the cables are all good (and seated correctly).

Since we've cleared cmos you also want to open bios and check what each channel is set at ... auto is best...

What was the fail message when you tried to use your windows cd to boot?

BTW 'check sum error -defaults loaded' is normal after a cmos reset.....Also re - 'do I need a bios flash ? ' - probably not if the hd is correctly recognised....

[DrDave]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Yes thats particularly worrying. Did you try to flash the bios before? No, I have not tried to flash this BIOS. The first (and only) was a Dell laptop at work. Just came off a "lost weekend" and am at work now. Will get back on the problem tonight.

[DrDave]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by confus-ed
See Kato's answer above ....

From what you told us .... the hd is correctly recognised on channel one, the two sets of garbage characters come from either a faulty controller channel, or cable or device ...

So lets find out which....

Swapping the ide cables around will tell you if both channels are working - it will see the disk as secondary master correctly hopefully....

Then try putting the cd on the same ide cable as the hd & see if it sees it correctly - the cable attached to the correctly identified disk should be good....

We need to know the cables are all good (and seated correctly).

]This level of detail is great! I don't have a clear picture of how the IDE interface works so I need to be sure which cables to swap. Remember, I have a working HD plus CD ROM and a CD Burner. Both the CD drives have the same symptoms so the problem must be controller or cable. Are you telling me to swap cables bewteen the HD and one of the CD Drives?

Since we've cleared cmos you also want to open bios and check what each channel is set at ... auto is best...
OK - Will check

What was the fail message when you tried to use your windows cd to boot?
Will check - forgot to write it down

BTW 'check sum error -defaults loaded' is normal after a cmos reset.....Also re - 'do I need a bios flash ? ' - probably not if the hd is correctly recognised.... [/QUOTE

[kato2274]

How are the drives hooked up to each other.

I'm going to assume to following configuration.
HD primary master / CDRW secondary Master
CD ROM Secondary Slave


yes swap the cable from the harddrive and plug it into one or both of the CDROM drives.

now the computer should find one or both of the CDROM drives on the Primary channel

if the computer sees both without the jarbled text in the autodetect procedure, turn off the computer and move the end of the cable that plugs into the motherboard from the primary IDE connector to the secondary IDE connector. make sure that the red stripe stays to the same side it was on before. (the red stripe indicates Pin 1 and must be lined up with pin one on the connector. newer connectors and cables are notched so you can't plug them in wrong now)

if the test fails when plugged into the primary IDE controller, then you've got one of two problems - bad device or bad controller. It's unlikely though not impossible that both controllers could be bad. . . . so if it fails here - I'd suspect that the Device was bad. . . . see below

If the computer succesfully picks up the CD drives without garbled text in the auto detect screen the the problem was most likely a faulty cable. simply purchase a new on and plug everything back in the way it was. if the text is still garbled, then you've eliminated the cable from the equation and need to focus on hardware - either controller or device. get a known working CD ROM drive and replace one of your existing units. if the garbled text is gone, then you had one or more bad CD drives. If it continues it is probably a case of a bad controller.

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by kato2274
....yes swap the cable from the harddrive and plug it into one or both of the CDROM drives....

Just to amplify Kato's comments (again ! ;) ) in reply to your direct question ....Are you telling me to swap cables bewteen the HD and one of the CD Drives?

I'm saying the HD is correctly identified, so that means the cable is probably good, as is the first controller ...... so we can confirm the other controller is 'good', swapping the ide connectors (the wires) from 'IDE 0' on the motherboard to 'IDE 1', will prove whether the other controller channel is good.....

We can confirm the cable the same way, but this time we need to change jumpers, leave the HD as master and try each CD as slave, on the 'working' cable (you might also want to try the HD on the 'other' connector without anything else connected at all just to be sure).... you could also try the known ok hard drive on the 'bad' cable (the cable currently connecting the cd's) just to prove it.....

All I'm saying, is, use what you have to fathom what bits are definately ok .... but if you didn't know how it worked that might be tricky ! :D

Take note of Kato's comments about getting wires back to front!! (Old style 40 connector wires didn't care which way round they went ... they still worked ... New 80 pin cables can work either way BUT may produce strange symptoms, generally they make everything work - just badly, but some units can behave very peculiarly indeed .... & there's no easy sure way to tell the two types of cables appart - unless someone labels them for you!)....

I've now almost repeated Kato's answer again!;) :D

[DrDave]

Originally posted by confus-ed

What was the fail message when you tried to use your windows cd to boot?

Thanks for the extra troubleshooting detail. Every bit helps. I ran out of time last night and did not have time to open the case to swap cables etc. I did try booting from the WinXP CD and got this message: "Boot From ATAPI CD-ROM ... Failure"

Thanks for all the interest & support. I will report results asap.

[DrDave]

:) Success at last! Following the excellent (and well detailed) advice in the last posts, I opened the case and found the HD on the end of the cable from IDE1. The CD ROM was on the first connector to IDE2 with the CD RW on the end connector.

Am I right to think master/slave status is not determined by connector? It seems to be the device jumper settings.

Step 1 was to disconnect both CD drives and move the HD cable to IDE2. HD was detected followed by a normal boot so I concluded the IDE2 controller was ok.

Step 2 was to connect only the CD RW to IDE2 with the good cable. Got garbage characters on the secondary slave address with none displayed on the 3 other channels.

Step 3 was to connect only the CD ROM to IDE2 with the good cable. Detected the CD ROM with none on the other 3 channels.

At this point I concluded the CD RW was pooched. (a term I learned on this thread:D ) Reconnected everything with only the CD RW disconnected. Normal operation. I tried booting the WinXP CD and it also worked fine. I canceled the XP installation for now. I figure I had better install a new CD RW and more memory before XP since I understand configuration changes can trigger XP to think it is in a new PC.

This may be my last question on this thread...

I assume repair of my Acer 1208A-002 12X8X32X CR RW makes no sense and I need to buy a new and better one.
Can anyone suggest a favorite CD RW model? Prices seem to be rock bottom now and I never thought the Acer was much good.

Thanks to all who helped me with this. Special thanks to Kato & Confus-ed for the detail :)

[kato2274]

GREAT! glad you got it working. great job troubleshooting through it.

Liteon drives are great . . . . and cheap.

plextor drives are widely regarded as the best but they are more expensive.

I think liteon is the way to go. if you are in the us take a look at www.newegg.com

this is probably the winner
Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW Model LTR-52246S OEM $43


thanks for posting back and letting us know it worked out. best of luck.

[confus-ed]

Am I right to think master/slave status is not determined by connector? It seems to be the device jumper settings

Yes, but (there always is one !) if you choose 'Cable select' as your jumper setting, position on the wire is what chooses which is master & which slave, however many units & bioses just don't like this setting & go screwey (another very technical term like pooched ! :D), my opinion - always set master & slave with jumpers .....

I canceled the XP installation for now. I figure I had better install a new CD RW and more memory before XP since I understand configuration changes can trigger XP to think it is in a new PC.

More memory is definately good for xp, it loves it!, the more the merrier your machine will be ! Just a quick note about changing hardware within an xp install, when xp came out a lot was made about making 'substantial' changes to the inards of a pc & its impact on XP - The theory is make more than 3 changes & XP is gonna want re-activating (so xp home, not the other versions) ... well I still ain't seen it do it yet, not to say it won't, but I've swapped motherboards, hard disks, video, blah,blah,blah, not a sausage !(another technical term! :D) .... As long as you have a 'real' copy of xp this just isn't a problem, a couple of toll free phone calls, at worst, or another windrivers thread at the very worst...;)

As for what you should choose to replace the 'pooched' cd, (I think we can be certain - garbage characters & your unit not reading the windows cd from dos) wait for it ... see Kato's answer ! :D

I'll add LG(E) - Lucky Goldstar(electronics) - these are cheap & cheerful like lite-ons but work bloomin' good (Another technical term! :D )

However methinks you already have one cdr, so why do you want another ? Perhaps a CDR/DVD combo ... lets put something else in it to confuse it somemore ! No - it won't be any more difficult than a cdr ;) , but for another $25 or so you can have DVD too (assuming your video is up to it)....

Good luck with it anyways :)

[DrDave]

Funny you should suggest an upgrade. It was the CD RW that took a dive so I need a new burner. I was looking at newegg.com (thanks Kato :) )and noticed they offer combo CD/DVD burners.

I already have a Firewire interface, Adobe Premier and DV camcorder. I want to learn how to convert my endless hours of home video into something people can watch on DVD & DVD burner prices seem to have dropped to an affordable level.

Can you suggest a combo CD/DVD burner or is it better to stick to seperate units?

[confus-ed]

Aww so now we want a dvd burner .... cue questions on DVD standards....;)

All DVD burners (to my knowledge) are also capable of CDR burning ... how well they do that is another story ...

Have a scout about ... I dunno where you are .. get a flag young man! ... but £135 or about $200 ought to be your 'guide' price... if you can beat that go get it ...

Writing video to DVD mightn't be your answer, 'cos there's all that DVD+/- business (two competing standards- some DVDs want one, some the other) You can make things called SVCDs, which are CDs but work in any DVD .... morethan adequate for home movies, so unless you have more than an hour of video it'll be fine... Look at this page for better advice than I can manage ... (http://www.dvdrhelp.com/) ;)

[kato2274]

Originally posted by confus-ed
Aww so now we want a dvd burner .... cue questions on DVD standards....;)

All DVD burners (to my knowledge) are also capable of CDR burning ... how well they do that is another story ...

Have a scout about ... I dunno where you are .. get a flag young man! ... but £135 or about $200 ought to be your 'guide' price... if you can beat that go get it ...

Writing video to DVD mightn't be your answer, 'cos there's all that DVD+/- business (two competing standards- some DVDs want one, some the other) You can make things called SVCDs, which are CDs but work in any DVD .... morethan adequate for home movies, so unless you have more than an hour of video it'll be fine... Look at this page for better advice than I can manage ... (http://www.dvdrhelp.com/) ;)

SVCDs are definately cool, but not all home DVD players support SVCD and playback quality varies greatly among models that do support it. case in point, we had a crappy Apex player (paid $58) that played SVCDs like a champ. but on our newer progressive scan player with 5.1 decoder built in SVCDs are often times choppy in places despite a firmware update that was supposed to address this issue.

and if you are encoding stuff in high quality SVCD (like S-VHS quality) you aren't going to be getter an hour on a cd. more like 30-40 minutes tops. I encoded our wedding DVD which was right around 26minutes or so, and it took up almost an entire 80min CDR.

DVD+R(W) has pretty much won as far as the standards war goes. most home players especially newer ones, have no problem playing DVD+R(W) disks. So I'd go with the DVD burner if you have the cash. And there are even some nice drives out there that burn both +R and -R. . . . you pay a little more but you have piece of mind. I'm actually planning on buying one, if I win a bid (service not auction) on some computer work. I'm going to go with the +R(W) variety.

[confus-ed]

SVCD stands for "Super VideoCD". A SVCD is very similiar to a VCD, it has the capacity to hold about 35-60 minutes on 74/80 min CDs of very good quality full-motion video along with up to 2 stereo audio tracks and also 4 selectable subtitles. A SVCD can be played on many standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs, on a SVCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with background audio. The quality of a SVCD is much better than a VCD, especially much more sharpen picture than a VCD because of the higher resolution. But the quality depends how many minutes you choose to store on a CD, less minutes/CD generally means higher quality.

From my link above... How much you get is gonna depend on what quaility you encode at, so Kato's experience (which is more than mine with DVDs) may be a better 'guide' ... ;)

[DrDave]

Originally posted by confus-ed
I dunno where you are .. get a flag young man!


Thanks for the young man line...I get the same rush when people mistake me for my 10 year old grandson's dad;)

Never noticed the missing flag with all the rush to find my bad CD RW. Flag should be flying. Also added homepage etc.

I run a 3 channel (internal) cable system from our school's Electronic Media Center. We also have a TV Production Dept. that has created a school promo video on DVD. They use all MACs but the technology is all the same. Looking forward to learning from them as well.

Guess I need to look for sections in this forum that focus on video topics.

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by DrDave
Thanks for the young man line... They use all MACs but the technology is all the same...

You are welcome, I aim to 'entertain' whilst informing & sometimes confus-ing;) ....

I will say though there is a fundamental difference between a MAC & a pc environment .... Windoze ! Mac versions of software tend to work :D