New Dell with WindowsMe not recognizing DVD properly...

[Guest_imported]

If anyone can help me with this, I will sacrifice a herd of black goats in your name...

I've got this shiny new Dell Dimension 4100 system and everything is acceptably ginchy save for the fact that the DVD and CD-R drives are recognized only one bootup in about 15. The hardware seems fine (the fact that it works *some* of the time would seem to indicate it's at least connected all right,) the drivers are as current as I can find 'em, and futzing in the BIOS doesn't seem to ameliorate the situation (which the device manager blames on a messed-up ide). I'm thinkin' it may be the OS. I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Dell, who seemed pretty stumped, and then failed to call me back after "further investigation" as promised.

So my question is more along the lines of "does this sound familiar to anyone?" If it does, or if anyone has any suggestions, I will strew rose petals in your path and name my firstborn after you. Thanks.

 

[edfair]

Where are they hooked up in the chain? How about trying them one at a time with the system?
If they are together, a flaky master will also wipe out the slave.

Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[lgebhart]

Ed is right and after that I'd also try to use different variations of master slave configurations on the cables. ie, CD ROM with DVD on same cable, DVD with Hard drive, CDR with Hard drive, DVD-CDR on same cable, etc. Make sure your connections are pushed in all the way and the power cables are also pushed in all the way.

Make sure you change the Master Slave jumpers on your IDE devices to do this, remembering the hard drive needs to be Primary Master to boot the machine.

Some devices like to be master and some like to be slave..go figure!

By the way, have you downloaded all the updated ME drivers for your devices? Guess I should have asked that question first. This might be the problem without moving any cables around. Even though the system picked up your devices, it doesn't mean they will work properly without the updated ME drivers. Go to your devices manufacturer site(s) and look for ME drivers.

Hope some of this helps!

Lori ggebhart@clover.net
I hope I never get too old or arrogant to learn something new!