burner keeps being autodetected as a removable hard disk

After reading through similar threads in here trying to find a solution to my own problem, I thought I'd better post here cuz mine seems to be different from the others.

Running a P2 400MHz sys with 384MB SDRAM on Win98 (original version, not SE) with an Aopen AX6BC mobo. Upgraded firmware for my Pioneer DVD-A03S DVD-ROM drive and after booting back up into Windows, my Ricoh MP7060A burner has now somehow changed into a Generic IDE Disk Type80 (Removable) within Device Manager. Have removed both drives from Device Manager and rebooted, but it still comes up with the same configuration (DVD detected correctly, burner still as a Type80 Removable HDD). Have reinstalled Win98 over the current installation (as I've heard from friends who have had the same problem that it should fix itself via that). Still no luck. DVD detected fine, burner still as a Type80 Removable HDD.

And the worst part about it is that I know that it needs to use the standard ATAPI CD-ROM drivers that Windows uses for the Ricoh, but I can't install a CD-ROM Drive through the Add New Hardware Wizard...

Upon bootup, BIOS correctly detects E: as the Pioneer DVD drive and F: as the Ricoh MP7060A, it only appears to be Windows that seems to think not.

Can anyone help? If so, would be greatly appreciated 'cause I want to get this burner back into my system again.

Try booting into safe-mode, go to device manager, CD-Rom drives, remove all CD-ROMs, and than reboot. That should cause windows to redetect your burner.
I’ll have to check on the registry hack for that let me know if that helps <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Oh, make sure the cable is in the correct way!!!

sly, cheers for that

i've gone into safe mode a number of times today and done exactly what you've suggested, but windows still keeps detecting it as a type80 disk drive...and yes, i have checked the cable, and it is in correctly :) ...this still baffles me...have checked further around on the net and some guy went so far as to remove the bus master from device manager in safe mode and then let windows redetect it on reboot and then apparently his worked fine...am not that game to do that though...

registry hack? what registry hack?

Have you tried physically removing the cdrw altogether, running the machine a few times and then reinstalling it?

Also you could try replacing the dvd rom with the cdrw - so that the cdrw is installed where the dvd was. If it then still detects as a type 80 then at least you know its not the cable or the ide port that has gone screwy.

If you are not happy about removing your ide controllers and mucking with the registry, that is the best I can suggest at the moment, but it does rather sound like the registry has corrupted. Removing the cdrom altogether and rebooting a few times might straighten it out and then it might install under windows correctly.

Have you tried setting the BIOS to Plug and Play OS=no?

You could delete the enum key and start fresh as well. This would force windows to re-detect ALL the hardware.

If you consider it to be a registry error you might consider using the scanreg/fix or scanreg/restore commands at the dos prompt.
You might also try the CDR without the DVD to see if it has any effect.

noonoo->i have physically removed the cdrw drive (after removing it from device manager) from the system, booted the sys up with only the dvd drive in it, then shutting down and the putting it back in, but windows still keeps redetecting it as a type80 after putting it back in

docpc-> i dunno about whether the mobo has that function in the bios, if it has, i'll check to see whether it's set correctly or not, and what enum key? (i have edited the registry before, but i'm not clear about what you mean by that)

archer-> i get the impression that it is a registry error, but what exactly will scanreg/fix or scanreg/restore fix or restore my system to (again, I'm unclear as to what you mean by that)

if worse comes to worse, i'll have to do reinstall windows again to a new directory and start afresh again (and if that fails, i can always ring one of my mates up to dump all of the stuff i have on my hard drive to his before i wipe both partitions clean with a full format and start from scratch again)...cheers for the suggestions everyone who's replied so far :)

have you tried downgrading the firmware back to a point where everything worked? If you were not experiencing any problems before the firmware update, it would make sense that unless something else is wrong, downgrading the firmware should do the trick.

Here is the MSKB article relating to the
<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q184023" target="_blank">registry command line tool</a>
/restore : Displays a list of available backup files, sorted by the date and time the backup was created.

/fix : Repairs any damaged portions of the registry, and optimizes it by rebuilding it without unused space.

Can't remember where it is exactly in 98, but I believe it is HKLM/hardware/ENUM.

Deleting this key will remove all devices from the machine.

thanks for more of the info there everyone...will be taking up some of these suggestions after my exams are all done with

damned angel-> i'll be going and dl'ing a copy of the firmware i had before the update and downgrading it back to that (if it allows me to) and seeing what happens...

docpc-> thanks for that...will do that if the other suggestions all fail

archer-> thanks for pointing me to that link...could come in handy

The only other thing I can think of is you have upset the aspi layer somehow, or need it.

<a href="http://aspi.radified.com/" target="_blank">This Link by Radified</a> you might find useful.