DVD drive can't recognize DVDs

[marquitico]

Had a bad crash lately, after which Win98 recognizes my DVD drive as a CD-ROM drive instead of a DVD-ROM drive. Hope someone in this wonderful forum can help.

The crash was odd (in my own experience). It occured while surfing, and caused a reboot all by itself. My PC is password-protected at the CMOS level; the password had been wiped. Scandisk then ran, and found a gazillion errors. When Win98 loaded, it needed to rebuild the driver file.

Everything works fine, except that the DVD drive is recognized as a CD-ROM drive instead. In the Device Manager tab, it is listed properly as "IDE DVD-ROM 16X", but it no longer reads DVDs, returning the error message that the drive is not ready.

Windows98 apparently has lost the ability to tell that this hardware is what it is. Can a DVD drive lose partial fuctionality, and be left capable of reading all other media? In theory, Windows98 is supposed to be able to support this kind of drive without a special driver, right? Because the stuff that came in the box with the computer didn't include third-party driver files for the drive, and the drive itself has no brand name, sigh.

I have never had a crash alter BIOS info, especially wipe out the password! Perhaps those of you familiar with BIOS issues can guide me: if the crash wiped my CMOS password, could it have done something else? Is there a setting there that can prevent the OS from reading the drive that got wiped?

I am stumped. Am considering a full wipe, reformat, and reinstall of Win98 (blech), but if a little tweak somewhere that I have missed will help, I'd rather hold out for that!! I have several diagnostic tools, including the Belarc Advisor and Nero InfoTool, and I can provide what details are needed for you to help me. But for now:

Computer is generic PC compatible.
AMD Athlon 1.1 Ghz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 05/06/2002
256 Mb RAM
Generic IDE HDD (Primary Master), 20 Gig
IDE DVD-ROM 16X (Secondary Master)
(no brand name, but firmware revision ver 3.10)
LG CD-RW CED-8080B (Secondary Slave)
Adaptec ASPI 4.60
Windows 98 SE 4.10.2222 A

Cheap system, I know. I can hear you laughing clear over here. Thank you in advance. Could really profit by your expertise.

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[seetie]

Mark,

Thanks for the response, and I'm wondering if I could ask you which drive you bought. I'm not an expert at computer equipment and feel a bit lost when shopping. However, I am a proud geek, love gadgets, and would be bummed to learn that I unknowingly bought a slug. If it's not against the forum's rules, can you namedrop a bit (don't leave out the technical details, please. (Who needs shoes when there is a new DVD drive to buy?)

Thanks, Lynn. (seetie)

 

[marquitico]

I bought myself a SONY CD-RW/DVD-ROM. The model number is CRX320A (on the box, that is. But after installation, it self-identifies as a CRX320E. Go figure). It's beautimous!! Highly recommended. Approx ninety bucks at my local CompUSA, but has a twenty-dollar mail-in rebate. I didn't even install the software that came with it (lots of Nero this-n-that). The stuff that was already on ny system is compatible (Roxio, PowerDVD, et cetera). Reads almost every format out there, including the Dual (or Double) Layer DVDs (also called DVD-9 format). Doesn't burn in the DVD formats, however, although I think SONY does have a DVD burner if you want one.

Mark ("marquitico")