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")

 

[TekTippy4U]

First go into BIOS - under IDE Config and make sure "Use Both IDE Channels" or similar is showing. Choose the DVD (SecMaster) Parameters to make sure it's on "Auto" detect as far as device type and settings....check with all drives

Have the 98 CD handy and do this
try the old trick of removing the IDE controller from Device Manager >> Hard Disks >> Intel BusMaster Controller....boot into Safe Mode to do this....remove and reboot. Have the 98 CD handy.



TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[marquitico]

Thanks for the tip: reading between the lines, you mean remove the IDE controller so that Win98 should detect it as new hardware on reboot, or something like that?

Just so I know what's what:

I have three entries in my Device Manager:
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller

Do you suggest that I remove them all? Or just the last one, as being analogous to the Intel Bus Master Controller that you wrote about?

And what do I do with the actual Win98 CD? Sorry to be slow. If I understand you correctly, I should reboot into safe mode to remove the IDE controller, and then reboot. At this point you wrote, "Have the 98 CD handy." Is this a just-in-case precaution, or will this procedure call for it specifically somewhere along the way?

BIOS settings are already as you described, so that's OK.

Thank you for your time and help!

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[TekTippy4U]

you understand just fine;

Have you checked Device Manager >> CDROM >> choose your DVD >> properties >> is DMA checked?

Instead of Intel....remove the VIA BUS MASTER in Safe Mode - this will remove the Primary and Secondary as well in one shot.
I say have 98CD handy in case the appropriate CAB files and/or INF is not on the HDD...If you have OEM Restore CDs, search them for more Recent Machine.inf UIDE.inf files relating to the IDE folder, as this will be more updated - or visit the Mobo manu or OEM site for updated drivers. (can't hurt to d/l any you think maybe necessary and have handy - either burned to CDR or stored on HDD - view the Readme.txt files for install procedures). My point here is you may need VIA 4in1 chipset mobo drivers (of which I know very little).

Possible the ASPI layer got munged in the process of crash too.
use ForceASPI

http://radified.com/ASPI/forceaspi.htm

props to cdogg or carrr or both/and maybe others i think

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[marquitico]

Boohoo [sniffs]

Procedure worked perfectly but didn't fix the problem, sigh.

One of my original questions: has anyone heard of a DVD-ROM drive to lose PARTIAL function, and be unable to play DVDs but still work like a CD-ROM drive? Friends here are srongly suggesting that my drive is failing.

I found out that it is probably an Afreey drive, a brand name that accounts for a majority of "IDE DVD-ROM 16X ver 3.10" drives. A cheap manufacturer that doesn't even put its name on the front.

Thanks to TekTippy4U: been reading your posts on other threads. As Christine Baranski said to Cybill Shepherd, "I bow to you."

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[TekTippy4U]

now you cut that out now marquitico...
I suggest trying another drive obviously...maybe even pull the old one from that system and see how it does in another. It is quite possible the motor win't spin up to the highr DVD-ROM speed...Maybe it's just missing the Codec necessary for DVD playback...do you get any software errors when tryingto view a movie?

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[marquitico]

I do believe that you are right regarding spin speed. Is that how Windows checks to see what kind of drives it has? It spins them on startup and then clocks them? Or perhaps it doesn't even have to do that: since it's not using a vendor-supplied driver, it just spins the drive as fast as it can when I throw a disc in it and sees what it gets? This would tend to support the theory that it is losing functionality little by little.

It played DVDs like a charm (with a slight hiccup on the 8.5 gig dual-layered ones, but hey...) for a year and a half until a week ago. Then DVDs simply stopped working, after the crash that I described in starting this thread (see above).

When I put a DVD in the drive now, I cannot access it at all. If I click on it in "My Computer", I get a drive-not-ready error message. If I start up DVD movie software, depending upon the software it will either hang, tell me that the drive is empty, or complain about an unreadable disc format.

Just today something new happened. A game I'm playing (Syberia) now will not read from the drive, even though it is a CD and not a DVD, which further supports the idea that it is losing spin speed, because the CD is simply crammed. It seems to be winding down to CDs with less and less capacity, and perhaps the crash was nothing but a coincidence...

Yes, you are probably right and I've been blaming poor Windows98 all along. I see a new drive in my future.

BTW (off topic, I know) do you know anything about the ill-fated Storm LINUX? Thinking about installing it, so will probably start a new thread on that topic after doing a little research.

Thank you, and my best to you.

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[TekTippy4U]

In System Properties, what does Performance Tab say?
"Drive D:\ is using MSDOS compatability mode"
or
"Your system is configured for Optimal Performance"

Any [!] exclamations or [?] in Device Manager? or "Other Devices" listed?

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[Rick998]

marquitico,

My understanding is that the operating system gets the hardware info (make, model, characteristic) from a controller chip embedded in the drive electronics. It matches this to any corresponding .inf file in C:\Windows\Inf (or sub-directories) or from a driver file supplied with the device.

If there isn't a specific .inf file which tells the OS what to use then it uses a generic .inf that loosely describes the function of the device, e.g. CD. This info is then inserted into the registry in sub-keys of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\SCSI.

If the registry is corrupted, e.g. after a bad crash, then the OS may mis-interpret the device.

Follow TekTippy4U's advice, especially the bit about Device Manager (which is just a GUI to the ENUM section). Expand the CDROM section and remove all devices in there plus any unknown devices then re-boot. If the registry isn't damaged then it will force a new hardware enumeration.

If the DVD is not re-recognised correctly then this may indicate either controller failure, a corrupt .inf or missing .inf file or problems with the registry.

To check:

1) Do 'Start > Run > Regedit'.
2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\SCSI and see if your DVD drive appears there.

Hope this helps...

Rick

 

[marquitico]

TT4U: No dice. I have "Your system is configured for Optimal Performance". Also, no exclamation points, question marks, or "Other Devices".

Rick998: No dice, either! Sigh. Removed both drives, and rebooted: back to same situation. It SAYS it's a DVD-ROM drive, but the drive just won't ACT like one.

Oh, TT4U, back to an earlier thought of yours: if a codec is corrupted or missing, what would have installed it to begin with? The drive came with no software, as cheap 16X-speen DVD-ROM drives of this type are usually detected and supported by Windows 98 at the kernel level, yes? So if I've lost a codec (in the crash, for example), where would it have come from in the first place? My puter came with CyberLink's PowerDVD software pre-loaded; would the DVD playing software have provided it, and not the drive's manufacturer? Just brainstorming.

Best,

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[TekTippy4U]

Yes!
usually it's a software DVD decoder, instead of a hardware decoder card, as rick998 says - this is where the SCSI interface comes into use - down at the miniport level of data streaming transmission, using the *IOS, *NTKERN and *CONFIGMG, as auto - configured in the VMM32.VXD file (that beast of a monolithic driver.)
You say "pre-loaded" - have you uninstalled the software in Safe Mode and Rebooted into Normal and reinstalled?
Check the \Enum\SCSI key in the REG as rick998 suggests
whatcha got?

There are 2 other ways I can think offhand to "try" and resolve this without a reinstall.

[1] One involves a willingness on your part to "forget" the last few days ever existed for your PC (data saved over the last few days will be lost).
I want you to try a Scanreg /restore from the command prompt - and choose a Date that PRECEDES the crash and it MUST SAY "STARTED" when choosing (meaning that reg backup is a known GOOD copy.

[2] Replacing the system.dat (C:\windows) with the system.1st file found in C:\ (is it there?- let me know - approx 400-500kb?).
more info if necessary.

Tell me do these exist in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS ESDI_506.pdr, Scsiport.pdr, and Hsflop.pdr???

try to answer all these questions above...but FIRST try the uninstall/reinstall of DVD software
uninstall and reinstall DirectX too while you're at it

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[marquitico]

What is a pdr file, anyway? Yes! All three exist.

Yes, uninstalled PowerDVD and put it back already, didn't help. Sigh.

Also beat you to scanreg. Double sigh.

And just in case, ASPI layer is new.

Oh, system.1st is approx 664kb.

\Enum\SCSI key has my two drives enumerated properly, although only the CD burner behaves as expected. DVD-ROM drive still acts like a CD-ROM drive.

So I began to wonder: how is a DVD drive supposed function in DOS? Out of curiosity I went to the house of a friend of mine with two DVDs: one was a movie, and the other was a data disc (the game "SCHIZM: Mysterious Journey", as a matter of fact). He has a configuration similar to mine: HDD as Primary Master, no Primary Slave; DVD-ROM as Secondary Master, CD-RW as Secondary Slave.

Anyway, I attempted to access my two DVDs from the DOS prompt, and they read just fine. Now, out in DOS, the PC has no way to DO anything with what it finds on those two DVDs, especially the movie, but the drive still can read OK for directory listings. On MY box I get "drive not ready; abort, retry, fail?" error. I even pulled out some old MS-DOS 5 discs, made a system disk, booted into DOS 5 from a floppy, and tried again, both on his good drive and my bad one. Same result. None of this has much do to with Windows 98.

I'm really beginning to smell hardware failure. So, question: is there a freeware diagnostic out there that will check drive spin speed? Since the drive reads CDs, I can still get it to read a few things...

Many thanks,

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[TekTippy4U]

[1] PDR = Prot Driver
[2] May need the DVDROM driver loaded thru Config.sys and MSCDEX.EXE loaded in Autoexec.bat
You may need a proprietary specific driver needed in config.sys nut for now we'll try the win98 generic one.

find Oakcdrom.sys and Mscdex.exe on your HDD or Win98CD.....make sure there's a copy of each file in \windows\command folder

start > run SYSEDIT
in CONFIG.SYS add
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\OAKCDROM.SYS /d:mydvd1

in AUTOEXEC.BAT add
LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSDCEX.EXE /d:mydvd1

File >> Save

Reboot - try acces in DOS
Post Back

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[TekTippy4U]

marquitico;
ooops PDR = PORT DRIVER(not Prot)

while in SYSEDIT;
Check for these entries;

CONFIG.SYS
--------------------------
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:ON /V
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM /V
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\TAISATAP.SYS /d:mscd001
---------------------------
if not there - place them there in the exact order above - you'll notice my DVDROM driver as the last entry


AUTOEXEC.BAT
--------------------
LH C:\CDROM\MSCDEX.EXE /d:mscd001
--------------------
you'll notice my MS CDrom driver EXtensions entry, which actually has a REM (remark) in front of the LH (Load High)...because they're not needed once Win is up and running.

much more after you post back with results

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[marquitico]

May need the DVDROM driver loaded thru Config.sys and MSCDEX.EXE loaded in Autoexec.bat

My disc drives have always loaded out in DOS. The reason is that I have I have a lot of legacy software (games, mostly

). You know my description of testing my DVD drive out in DOS? That's how I did it.

Actually, neither loading nor not loading and mounting the drive out in DOS has made any difference to Win98.

The driver that came with my system is actually called vide-cdd.sys, but as an experiment I tried the oakcdrom.sys that you suggested, as well. Same result.

In your second post you have:

while in SYSEDIT;
Check for these entries;

CONFIG.SYS
--------------------------
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:ON /V
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM /V
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\TAISATAP.SYS /d:mscd001
---------------------------
if not there - place them there in the exact order above - you'll notice my DVDROM driver as the last entry

Is the TAISATAP.SYS driver in your post simply an example from your own system, or do you mean that I ought to have this specific driver? Otherwise my config.sys file has these lines just as you specify, clear down to the verbose swithes on HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE!

Best,

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[TekTippy4U]

I thought you cold get it seen in DOS at friends but not yours - that's why I posted all the DOS stuff.

Yes thats's ONLY AN EXAMPLE of a different driver - replace it with yours.

So;
DVD drive funeral soon?


one last thought - I once had a DVD software proggie (IntervideoDVD?) or somesuch Hijack my system OEM software....and I guess it overwrote system DLLs and asscociated with ClassIDs that it shouldn't have.....well after cleaning it out My DVDROM wouldn't play a movie for SH%$ - I tried a 100 diff things and reinstalled the software many times - well - it took a reinstall of the whole OS


TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[marquitico]

TUM TUM ta-TUM TUM ta-TUM ta-TUM ta-TUM (Chopin's funeral march)

Yes, drive died last night. Won't read anything. So there you are!! That was about the slowest drive motor failure I've ever experienced, how about you?

I feel like I owe you an invitation to the wake.

Best wishes,

Mark ("marquitico")

 

[TekTippy4U]

Just sending it to the Big Ol' Scrap Heap in the sky should be enough....but if you wouldn't mind using it for a little baseball practice, that'll be fine too.

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[seetie]

This message is for Marquitico. I am having a problem quite similar to his and I would like to know if he bought a new DVD drive and, if so, is his problem solved. I do not have the expertise that the posters to this forum have, so I can try only some of the suggestions. If buying a new drive would solve my problem, that's what I'd like to do. (My drive is an AOpen 12xDVD-ROM; it is original to the system, which is about 4 years old. I am running Windows XP. I realize that this forum is not for XP, but Marquitico's problem is the most similar to mine, hence my posting here.)

 

[marquitico]

Yes, it turned out to be a drive going bad bit by bit, in my case. A new drive worked right out of the box.

Best,

Mark ("marquitico")