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CD-ROM not recognised in BIOS?

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Novexx

Technical User
Nov 8, 2003
95
GB
I have the pleasure of fitting a replacement CD-ROM into a Packard Bell Pulsar PC (PII 233Mhz Win98Se).

I notice that the current drive (LiteOn) is not recognised
in BIOS, & has a driver loaded during boot. The BIOS appears
not to support CD-ROM.

Is the driver that is loaded some sort generic Win98 one, and should I be able to simply swap the LiteOn drive for a current bog basic Matsumi Drive without any further intervention?

Thank You.
 
If the BIOS has Master and Slave designations for both the Primary and Secondary channels, then there's no reason why you cannot install a new CD-ROM drive.
Sometimes CD-ROM drives are not listed in BIOS after they are installed. I had an older system that did not list the CD-ROM drive in BIOS, and the drive worked fine.
Just make sure that the new drive supports Win 98SE. If so, then the O/S should have the necessary drivers for it.
Also, make sure that the new drive is correctly jumpered(Master or Slave), and it's IDE cable is installed correctly.
 
Look in Device Manager for CDROM and if it's an IDE, not SCSI, it'll be controlled by the Busmaster(supports UDMA) Host Controller under Hard Disk Controllers as "secondary" usually...If it's IDE Your BIOS should be set to "AUTO Detect" for all IDE and then Disable the ones that don't detect anything later and make sure the jumpers are correct.
The HDD should be Primary Master and the CDROM is usually "Secondary Master" although not always, depending on the amount if HDD and CD/DVD/CDRW devices (4 tops altogether)...Oh yeh, In BIOS set IDE to "Use BOTH CHANNELS" and also set it that way in Device Manager> HardDisk Controllers "Intel 82371 AB/EB PCI BusMaster IDE Controller"(usually, though a 233mHz may have a diff. model#)

Also Compaq/PB are notorious for having "proprietary" (their own special) drivers...Again, If it's an IDE, usually a "driver" _wouldn't_ be listed under CDROM in device manager for the device cause the Controller is controlling it. Win98 uses/incorporates CDFS and VCDFS in 32bit mode, IFS Manager(Installable File System), and UDF(for DVD).
An SCSI CDROM would connect to the Mobo or PCI SCSI CARD and Have an ID0-7 i think...don't know much about SCSI

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.
 
I notice that the current drive (LiteOn) is not recognised in BIOS, & has a driver loaded during boot. The BIOS appears not to support CD-ROM.

Just saw...Older CDROMs needed a DOS driver to load at boot. A line in Config.sys would load the driver, like
DEVICE=C:\DOS\IBMIDECD.SYS /CD001

a line in the Autoexec.bat file saying
LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX /D:CD001 or similar
would load the MicroSoft CD EXtensions and
is indicative of this.

This may/may not help

If a line says
rem - By Windows Setup - LOADHIGH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:CD001
then the Win98 32 Bit CDFS has taken over control.

a lot of times the dos driver would sit in the Adapters Card's memory (SCSI)...newer ATAPI IDE CDROMS from around 1998-99 and up don't have this issue, though I'm not sure how those HP Bell/Compaq's are setup.
Be Careful
Alot of older Compaq's/HP PBell have a non- dos "hidden" partiton, with which they'd use to "restore" all their system specific drivers and 98 image from. Only with a Restore CD from them could you access it.

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.
 
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