Secondary IDE Controller disabled and network card issues

[Shadow38x]

A quick disclaimer: I normally do systems maintenance on the Macintosh computers, but a layoff of a fellow employee means I get to try my hand at the PC side of things. If replying to my question, please don't assume too much knowledge on my part.

OK, the problem: We have a computer running Windows 98 on which the secondary IDE usually gets the yellow warning flag in Device Manager. There is a ZIP drive and a CD-ROM drive on the secondary IDE. Occasionally, the ZIP drive will show up in the devices listing after re-starting, but more than often not. The CD-ROM never shows up, and is always disabled when running Windows 98.

I have read through the forums and have tried the "NOIDE" tip to no avail. I have also tried various BIOS setting changes to no avail, although I admit I'm not too sure what I'm doing along those lines. I've also tried de-installing the controller software and letting it replace itself upon startup, but that has not corrected the problem.

One thing of interest is that the CD-ROM and ZIP drives are fully functional when in DOS mode. I have read a couple of postings about changing the BIOS to User Type HDD instead of Auto to disable certain DOS settings, but have not been able to figure out how to accomplish this.

Another note is that there is a network card installed in the machine that is also causing problems--sometimes booting up with the yellow warning (maybe 50% of the time). Unlike our other PC's on the network, this computer doesn't start up with a log-on prompt, and in order to access the network, the user must "log off" in order to get the "log on" screen to come up. I have also read through forum posts on this issue, but have not been able to solve the problem. For all I know, there may be a connection between this and the CD-ROM issue.

If it helps, the PC was put together by Tiger Direct, and came with the CD-ROM and ZIP drive in it, and with Windows 98 installed. We apparently added the network card.

I'm not sure exactly when these problems began occurring, because, as mentioned above, our PC systems person was layed off and the employee who was using the computer after that unexpectedly passed away a couple of months ago. However, I'm pretty sure the problems weren't there when the computer was purchased. I'm thinking perhaps Windows 98 or the network software was reinstalled somewhere along the line, causing the problem to develop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[paulwood]

If you look under Device Manager and double (left) click on the IDE controller in question, what conflicts does it report on the resources tab? Also what IRQ setting does the network card have (Interrupt Request under the Resources tab)?

With regards to the login issue you could check to see if the following key exists in the Windows registry. If it oes, delete it.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Network\Real Mode Net

AutoLogon=xx

If you're uncertain of using the registry editor, regedit, then it's probably best left alone for the moment. Just in case you don't know, the registry is the central database for Windows, made up of system.dat and user.dat files. If it goes pear-shaped, so does Windows.

 

[Shadow38x]

Sorry for the delayed response on my part--I appreciated your quick reply.

To answer your questions, no conflicts are being reported. The secondary IDE controller reports the generic message, Code 10 device not present, NOT WORKING PROPERLY, or does not have all the drivers installed. (emphasis mine)

The IRQ setting is 14 for the Primary controller and the "VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller" (whatever that is), 15 for the secondary controller, and 9 for the network card.

I had an AutoLogon 00 line in the registry, which I have deleted. However, I have as yet been able to determine if it helped because:

While I was in DOS mode, I was using the boot floppy with CD support to try re-installing things. While in the middle of it, the system began going through the necessary reboot stages until getting to a point where it was launching Windows from the hard drive, which still disables the CD-ROM player, which meant it could no longer get to the files it was in the middle of installing.

I've seen some mentions in the forums about disable the ms-dos compatibility in Windows, but have no idea how that is supposed to be achieved.

Where to from here?

 

[Comtech]

If this is a clean install, you'd probably have no troubles.
As an update/upgrade/overinstall, take a look in autoexec.bat and config.sys files for anything to do with the CD-ROM, and REM the lines (temporarily) to see if that helps. Also look in the dosstart.bat file for anything.
You should download and install the newest VIA 4-in-1 bussmaster drivers (at least). That may solve the whole thing.

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10108-100-1513956.html

The NIC being on IRQ 9 is not a good sign.
If possible, boot to safe mode, and remove the NIC, and all com ports in device mangler. Restart, go into BIOS setup, and disable com 2 (you're probably not using it for anything anyhow).
Restart, and let the com port reinstall, then the NIC should install, hopefully using a different IRQ. If it's still on IRQ 9, remove it (safe mode) from device mangler, try putting the NIC in a different slot on the motherboard, and restart. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[Shadow38x]

Thanks for the suggestions. I downloaded and installed the VIA drivers. Didn't solve the problem, and now I get a startup DOS message that viagart.vxd can't be found. Removed the com ports, disabled com 2 in BIOS setup, restarted and got network log on box, but connections failed. NIC still on IRQ9.

Nothing related to the CD-ROM within the autoexec.bat or config.sys files as far as I could determine.

The only Windows I'm looking for at this point are ones I can throw this computer out of.

 

[Comtech]

The VIA drivers are NOT installed correctly if you get the error message. Try again.
Did you try the NIC in a different slot? Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[Scotsdude]

Had this problem with several HP Brio's running 98 with internal ZIPs. Our solution was staggeringly simple....

the ZIP drivers were not essential, so they got unplugged from the IDE channel.

No problems since then.....

Scotsdude
When all else fails, a decent hammer is the next logical step....

 

[Shadow38x]

Wow, this thread has been resuscitated after a year! I'm not sure I can remember back that far. I did finally get everything working (including the ZIP). As I recall, I finally did some sort of BIOS resetting, although not to the startup sequence.