BenQ DVD-ROM drive not recognised by WIN98SE

I don't know what the "40 & 80 type" IDE cables are but I have a grey ribbon cable with black connectors (40 pin).

I plugged the DVD-ROM into the same plug that my old faulty Atapi CD-ROM drive (it was recognised properly) came from, so I don't think its the cable.

The IDE controller correctly identifies the other devices; the hard drive, zip drive and the Samsung CD-RW drive.

I did find the updated motherboard driver and installed it but with the same result. In fact, after I installed the new driver, on boot up, Win98SE found another "unknown device" as well as the unrecognised DVD-ROM drive on my system. What that device is I don't know. Tsk! Tsk!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by confus-ed

If the cable is 'good' for the hard disk, then most likely its good full stop ... however some ATAPI units don't like 80 sense cables, 40 sense is 'most likely' to be fully compatiable.

Since we've tried two units now & got the same symptoms, it would appear to be either windows weirdness (just what I can't think ... as I said earlier this is a 'new one on me') or perhaps the IDE controller is either faulty or the motherboard bios isn't 'doing its stuff' & identifying ATAPI devices ... we said earlier try a motherboard bios flash ... did we ever find one? - If not, that looks the 'best' plan of attack from here.

---

I'm still 'shooting in the dark' with this [sigh] :rolleyes: ... nevertheless I shall persist ;)

Firstly can I ask whether this is 'all patched up' so we've been to windows update & this beastie has all the appropriate 98se patches ? If not, do so ;)

Second, I too, can't find your board on the Gigabyte website, I can find a series of motherboards grouped as 'GA-8ID 2003' which I suspect is it ... Lookee here & confirm please ... - IF that's the right one apply the chipset patches (& the IAA as well I suppose - IAA=Intel Accelerator Application = 'Enhanced' IDE drivers).

& again IF its the right board apply the bios update too (Make sure it is 'right' or you may stuff up your motherboard 'most bodaciously', you might gather I'm a fan of Bill & Ted!).

So that's the general advice out of the way, just to make sure you are where we expect you to be 'at' ... saves complications later, since this looks like being a saga !

Now a little missive on IDE cables, they are all 40 pin, but the new ones are 80 sense as opposed to the 'old' ones which are 40 sense, very quickly described newer IDE devices work so fast that signals get garbled just using the 'old' arrangements, by allowing some of the cables to be used as a ground, interferance is dramatically reduced & everything can go full whack, sadly though because of the method used some IDE units don't react well, which is what all the 'stuuuuuuupid' questions are about with the cabling ;) - generally all ATAPI units (so cd rom etc) like 40 sense 'bestest' :) (almost always 'new' cables are labelled as such, & either have a red or blue connectors or some other distinguishing feature, like ata 100 compatible written on them ..)

That's a lot of explanation with no real suggestions ...

So my best 'shot' is that your IDE zip drive is the culprit ! & this is your windows 'weirdness' - I have a particular dislike of internal zip drives, as does windows ! I guess I'm gonna have to say pull that for now (& most especially any associated s/w) & try again ...

BTW your 'unknown device' will be as a result of your chipset patches ... windows will have 'discovered' something which it either thinks it has already or is some 'child device' - one which is 'really' part of another. This wants investigating, most definately ;) - what shows up in device manager ?

Another chance to do a pun ! :D ... windows is just confus-ed on what hardware its supposed to be on & running, & that's your problem ! ... once we sort this out I'm fairly confident all will be well ....

Yes zip drives cause lots of upsets - uninstall your zip drive then shut down and remove it. What happens to the cdwriter now?

I've just gone ahead and reformatted my C: drive partition and re-installed Win98SE.

Guess what; the problem is gone!! The DVD-ROM drive is now correctly recognised under "CDROM Drives". All I can say is that it must have been some weirdness between my Intel 845 chipset motherboard and Win98SE.

Thanks once again for everyone's helpful comments/suggestions. Bye for now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by confus-ed

I'm still 'shooting in the dark' with this [sigh] :rolleyes: ... nevertheless I shall persist ;)

Firstly can I ask whether this is 'all patched up' so we've been to windows update & this beastie has all the appropriate 98se patches ? If not, do so ;)

Second, I too, can't find your board on the Gigabyte website, I can find a series of motherboards grouped as 'GA-8ID 2003' which I suspect is it ... Lookee here & confirm please ... - IF that's the right one apply the chipset patches (& the IAA as well I suppose - IAA=Intel Accelerator Application = 'Enhanced' IDE drivers).

& again IF its the right board apply the bios update too (Make sure it is 'right' or you may stuff up your motherboard 'most bodaciously', you might gather I'm a fan of Bill & Ted!).

So that's the general advice out of the way, just to make sure you are where we expect you to be 'at' ... saves complications later, since this looks like being a saga !

Now a little missive on IDE cables, they are all 40 pin, but the new ones are 80 sense as opposed to the 'old' ones which are 40 sense, very quickly described newer IDE devices work so fast that signals get garbled just using the 'old' arrangements, by allowing some of the cables to be used as a ground, interferance is dramatically reduced & everything can go full whack, sadly though because of the method used some IDE units don't react well, which is what all the 'stuuuuuuupid' questions are about with the cabling ;) - generally all ATAPI units (so cd rom etc) like 40 sense 'bestest' :) (almost always 'new' cables are labelled as such, & either have a red or blue connectors or some other distinguishing feature, like ata 100 compatible written on them ..)

That's a lot of explanation with no real suggestions ...

So my best 'shot' is that your IDE zip drive is the culprit ! & this is your windows 'weirdness' - I have a particular dislike of internal zip drives, as does windows ! I guess I'm gonna have to say pull that for now (& most especially any associated s/w) & try again ...

BTW your 'unknown device' will be as a result of your chipset patches ... windows will have 'discovered' something which it either thinks it has already or is some 'child device' - one which is 'really' part of another. This wants investigating, most definately ;) - what shows up in device manager ?

Another chance to do a pun ! :D ... windows is just confus-ed on what hardware its supposed to be on & running, & that's your problem ! ... once we sort this out I'm fairly confident all will be well ....

---