Win98SE with NEC DVD not recognized

[AtWitsEnd]

Hello All.
I have been trying to solve a problem with a NEC DV-5500A DVD for two days. I have been to many sites, but yours seemed the most knowledgable, so I have joined in hopes that you can help me and I will help you in return, if I can. I think I've read all your OLD posts, but I haven't found a solution.

Micron 733 MHz (out of warranty, of course!), primary has 2HD, secondary has DVD and CD. My NEC DVD is the secondary master. In BIOS (Award v 1.06) is not found (nor is Phillips CDR - but I think that's ok.). At boot both are 'found' as CDR. Then blaster is loaded. More or less good. MS 98SE sees NEC as CDR, not DVD. (is that good?) Is using DMA. NEC is on original cable, original settings.

Long story short. I know this is OLD tech, but my (sorta) newer XP died and I have to use this one. The old HD died on THIS machine but thanks to Phoenix (God bless them!) I recovered all the files to another disk. And back in 2004, put on another 20GB (!) HD - to replace the original. Which worked/works. So I think I have any files I might need, I just don't know if it's a driver, .inf or setting or what.

I've tried removing NEC in DevMan, but it always comes back as CDR. I've looked at MS no-support 98 (how CAN they says so much and give no real help!!), other driver sites, firmware sites, other tips sites. I've found lots of requests for drivers for this hw, but NEC Denmark (US says not our problem!) says no drivers needed. DevMan has no conflicts, says everything is just hunky dory.

This is ALL OLD tech, so it ought to work still. What HAVE I missed?? I know 98 is passe, but I can't afford to buy anything else right now.

I can get more info if needed.

I would certainly appreciate any help or practical advice. Better still, I can reciprocate with other (old :-( ) stuff, though I realize it may not be helpful.

Thanks,
me

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers atwitsend.

Please click start, run and type in
sysedit
click ok.
A window with 5 sub windows will open...
can you paste your autoexec.bat and config.sys files into a post?

Does device manager report the correct model number in the properties for the optical drives?


Boot to safe mode, how many and what devices have more than one entry in device mangler?

What burning software is installed?
What dvd playback software is installed?
What make and model is the motherboard?

There are a number of things that can cause this, be patient, if the hardware is good, we will get there. One thing to note is that a DVD rom that plays CDs are in fact two drives in one. It is often the case that the DVD side of the drive dies, but the CD laser lives on. Checking for this problem is difficult unless you can remove the drive and put it in another computer. If you have the same symptoms in another computer then the DVD laser died.

[AtWitsEnd]

Dear DEAR Noo Noo!
First, let me say thank you for replying - and so quickly! - and for the encouraging words. I rather thought you would answer, since of the MANY pages I read here, you consistently stepped up to the plate and helped out.

Second, the problem is sorta solved. BUT, if you're not too busy, and to help any others out there, I still have some answers for you and questions and a problem.

Your requests:
Config.sys was blank.

Autoexec.bat has items:
C:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG7\BOOTUP.EXE
SET BLASTER = A220 I5 D3 T4
LH C:\WINDOWS\AU30DOS.COM
rem - By Windows 98 Network - C:\WINDOWS\net start

(I have Aureal software and Cambridge hardware. How I did that - I do not know. :-) )

Device Manager looks fine with the correct items, manufacturer names in Win98SE.

I am attaching a bitmap (if this is possible) showing DevMan report in safe mode. There ARE some things that look like duplicates.

The burning software is Roxio EZ CD Creator 5. I have not tried to use this yet.
The DVD playback software is Intervideo WinDVD version 1.2.
The motherboard is a Tazer II - Tyan S1854 VIA 133A 4X.

I bought this machine Dec. 1999. But at least it's still running!

This just goes to show - the next time I buy a machine I will keep all original purchase docs, take hardcopy pics of the back (ALL those cables!) and hardcopy all DevMan/System settings. What else?? ;-(

So, problem sorta fixed. As I said before, there's all sorts of conflicting advice out there. But I am using NO driver and the device type says CDROM. Cables checked, jumpers checked, BIOS checked (not found in IDE HDD Auto Detection) but somehow 'found' at boot.

Most unbelievably, it turned out that, while in WinDVD, nothing was selected to play. I remembered reading something you said earlier about the files in the Video_ts (or something like that) so I went in and hand selected them. I never had to do that before. Just slip the DVD into the drive and miraculously it worked. But THIS time, once I had selected everything that ended in vob then selected Play, it WORKED!

Of course, I thought that was lagniappe, so I tried again. Got movie, no sound (but this time I'm connected to Internet, so that may be the problem).

So, the current problem is why does WinDVD not pre-select and just run? I don't have an association defined, so that might be it. And maybe you don't do specific s/w troubleshooting. Second sorta problem is, should I do anything about the safe mode devman ghosts?

So, I say THANK YOU again. Truly, if I can help you in any way, or maybe post any software I have (legally), make a checklist of stuff to check or whatever, you have only to ask. Also, if you DO know the WinDVD's solution, I would appreciate hearing it.

All the best to you,
me

P.S. Why do I always have to sign on twice to this site? It accepts the first one, then I go to post my missive and it tells me I'm not logged in. THEN I have to log in, and REwrite my post! AARGH!

And bmp was too large. Let me know if you'd like to see it anyway and I will type it in. THIS post is long and boring. :-(

AND last but not least, I LOVE your postscript. SO TRUE! Also, "I'll just try this one last thing...."

[NooNoo]

Sign on... did you tick the box to remember you? If so, it may be time to "clear cache". Go into internet explorer, open the tools menu and select internet options. You then need to click the button to delete files. This will clear out old temporary internet files. You then click delete cookies, this will clear out old cookies (which remember who you are on a website). Restart your machine, then try and log in to windrivers again.

As for WinDVD, 1.2 is soooo long ago and I don't have a copy around any more, but you need to tell WinDVD to play a disk - it's an option under configuration somewhere... You could also give www.videolan.org a whirl. It's a free dvd player.

As for the mislabelled DVD drive.... right click here and save target as (http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/VIA_4in1_443v.zip) to a directory you can find again. You need to unzip the files and then double click the setup.exe. This will install the chipset drivers... amongst other things they are responsible for driving your hard drives and optical drives. If I remember correctly, you get a check box for each type of driver. Make sure you tick IDE driver to be installed.

If you are on dialup, your modem and sound may be sharing resources, so yes it is possible that your sound won't work right when on line. Prove it by trying again disconnected.

Device Mangler ghosts - which ones are duplicated? Send the bitmap as an attachment to NooNoo at gmail dot com

That's enough for the minute... one thing at a time!

[AtWitsEnd]

Dear NooNoo (or is that Noooooo! noooooooo!) :-)
I do have DSL on this machine. But somehow, you are prescient. When I disconnected the modem/router/whatever, sound was fine. I didn't THINK they were sharing, but I can go out and look.

Thank you for the advice about the sign ons. I am kicking myself!

Most important, do I have a mis-labelled DVD? I didn't think so.

And another good one I'm fond of saying: before you can do anything, you have to do something else!

me

[NooNoo]

Did you install the drivers yet?

[AtWitsEnd]

No, I haven't. I did install the 442v last week. Unless you say otherwise, I will install this version tomorrow. I have Fri. 7pm right now. I see your post was at 3:54 am, but is that your time or mine? :-)

me
"I'll just try this one last thing...."

[NooNoo]

The times are always shown in the time shown in the user control panel. If the system worked out where you are correctly, it will show you the correct time. I posted (according to my view) yesterday at 8.54am and you posted afterwards at 11.55pm

On your device manager - it shows you having two generic hard drives. If the proper IDE drivers are installed, you should see the correct model numbers for the drives. Do you know if you have two physical drives?

[AtWitsEnd]

Hey!
Yes, I do have two physical HD, but I haven't tried yet to format and partition the second one yet. My primary master drive is an IBM Desk something 20GB, the primary slave is a Western Digital 120GB. We will probably end up talking about it in another forum. :-)

Your explanation on time. So, it shows the writer's time zone. Right now it's Saturday, 7pm Eastern Daylight Savings time. So you are 4 hours ahead of me?

Should I still go ahead and load the Via 4in1 v443 utility you sent? Haven't done that yet.

me

[NooNoo]

UK is usually 5 hours ahead of EDT except of course when BST and EDT are out of step...but we are 5 hours apart.

Please do load the v443 drivers yes.

[AtWitsEnd]

NooNoo, you are THE MAN!

I have been trying to select disk (rather than file in WinDVD), BTW, it's a radio button in Playlist. It would never stay selected. So I tried the VIA 4in1 you sent, but nothing seemed to have changed. So YOU got me thinking. I tested DirectX, no problems. I looked for a config file or an ini file - nothing.

I looked at DevMan. The drive letter had been reset to D:, so I changed it. I also selected autoplay (which I don't really like). Still no joy.

Went back into the options on WinDVD. I just happened to notice there was no region set. So I set that too.

Voila! You are my HERO! Thank you for ALL the help, quick replies, willingness, and graciousness. You can stamp THIS one resolved!

I still have to get the second HD working, get rid of Java VM (if it's there), and get the USB working correctly (who knows?! You may have already solved this one!). I also seem to have an intermitant problem with IE6SP1 freezing up. I think that might be M$ KB891711. And I would like for DevMan to see the HDs for what they are - not generic. A tall order.

I don't think this thread is the place, or is it? I looked around for rules but didn't find them. So, unless I can address one of the remaining problems here, I'll probably see you on another forum (hope so!).

Thanks ever so much!
me
Sure is nice when there's someone in your corner.
I'll just try this one last thing ...

[NooNoo]

We have a forum to cover all of those topics.

Java VM you need to change for the Sun Java one, rather than getting rid of it, otherwise half your web pages won't load right. www.java.com and click the download button.

The HDD identification is somewhat more fiddly - it is partly to do with the bios and partly to do with windows. Some never show up correctly, but work fine. Now you have the chipset drivers installed, you can forget this one for a while... it's not that important.

If you go to the main forum index http://forums.windrivers.com you can choose the forum you need for the rest of your problems. I would put them all under windows since most of the stuff is 98 related and not a hardware problem as such.