HDD only uses real mode drivers after USB hardware installation w98se. 2

[andrewgrant]

After installing a usb nisis g3 graphics pad and mouse, my windows 98 se installation was trashed.
When the mouse part of the programme was installed.
(The Mb is a ms - 5169 ami bios, aladdin chip set so I did not expect any of the VIA USB problems).
The sound driver needed reinstalling, video driver,the system would only work in safe mode.
I downloaded the removal programmes from nisis, the latest drivers, followed the fixes they suggested.

I reinstalled w98 from windows and eventually everything worked again including the graphics pad (without mouse.
However the HDDs now uses real mode drivers, the CD drives are only available after using MCSDEX set up in the the autoexec.bat.
Neither are visible from control panel , system.

I suspected registry problems, I've ran registry repair but found no errors.

Does any one have any suggestions as to the likely problems and suggested cures - I am trying to avoid wiping the C drive and starting again.

Regards Andy

 

[paulwood]

If you're having problems with both the HDD's and CD drives then it suggests a problem with the ide drivers. Are there any indications in Device Manager such as exclamation marks, or only one channel being reported?

 

[andrewgrant]

Thanks Paul - No everything in the system table is free from !, the IDE channels specifically are fine.
The thing that is unusual is that the HDD and CDROMS are not visible at this point.
Windows states that the problem is that the real mode drivers are being used and I should load the HDD driver from the manufacturer. It was not necessary to do this when I installed w98, it plugged and played. Whilst I can get something from FJ I don't think this will solve the problem.
The CDs are still invisible - I can only see them from explorer.
The CDROMs - CD plus Rewriter are now intermittant. The Rewriter is only visable/ usable as a CD adaptec easy CD says it can not see a suitable device.
Regards Andy

 

[paulwood]

Something I have done in the past is to remove the hard disk controllers from device manager and reboot. Windows will then reinstall them with suitable drivers. Trouble is, I'm a little loathe to suggest this in your suituation as I don't know what is specifically causing the problem, and therefore whether a conflict will stop Windows recognizing the controllers at boot up. Maybe it's a last resort thing!

With regards to real mode, it's generally only used because 32 bit drivers are not available, or are conflicting with something already loaded. Have you looked at Bootlog.txt in the C root directory to see if Windows is failing to load any specific drivers? I agree that using manufacturers drivers is unlikely to help.

Also have you used scanreg to restore a previous version of the registry. Boot to Dos, run scanreg and choose a previous version to reinstall.

 

[cgwright]

There is something that can happen with Win95 (I don't know if it applies to 98SE) that the system gets stuck into using real mode drivers after a problem. There is a NOIDE entry made in the registry which makes it always use real mode drivers, and not try to initialise the proper drivers. The fix is a registry hack.

I can't remember the details, but go to the MS Knowledge Base and search for NOIDE.

Hope this helps

 

[andrewgrant]

Thanks to you both , the noide sounds like a real good lead.
I'll also have a look at the bootlog.txt
I've done all the normal scandisc things - I'm not sure how far back the last registry will take me but will look at the creation dates.
Thanks guys some points to investigate.
Regards Andy