Very strange behavior with CDROM

[fenix]

This one is a real pickler !

I'm working on another 'put on the shelf until you get to it' old computer. Generic box with a K6-II 350. It came with no OS installed. I installed 98SE but this is a bios issue.

CDROM plays audio disks, and can also open all other data disks. It won't autoplay an installation disk.

I want to install my PCI D-Link Air Adapter to link up to my home network. I can open this disk and see all the folders, but it will not autorun from the folder on the drive, from clicking on the drive icon under My Computer, or from the run box. In all cases, a Window opens to start the installation, but there is nothing there except a title bar. Here's where it gets weird. This disk DOES auto run in 2 other computers, an XP and another W98SE.

When I received the computer, the CDROM was slaved to the HD on the Primary. Now more weird: even though it seemed to be working normally, (except for the installation disk with autoplay), in the bios setup, it was not detected as a slave ! It read all zeros. I tried all three jumper postions and with no jumper, and it still wasn't there. This was with a new generic cheapo CDROM installed, but that was installed but the original CDROM that it came with did the same thing. (The generic CDROM doesn't have the jumper positions labeled. It just says slave and CSM in a block above the socket so that's why I tried all postions.) It would open all cd's, including the installation disk, but it wouldn't autorun the installation program, even though autorun worked on the other computers. BTW, it was using the cable select type ATA ribbon cable with the extra grounds.

So I thought I was getting close to the answer thinking that maybe the Primary Controller was faulty. I installed it
on the Secondary with a regular IDE cable and it still wasn't detected in the bios. BUT, the OS boot did 'recognize CD drive' in DOS on start up.
Same issue. It wouldn't auto run the installation CD. I then tried a
cable select cable and it froze the computer. Wouldn't even go into the POST. Blank screen. Hard shutoff
finally powered it down, but when I let go of the switch, it tried to restart. Had to yank the plug in between. I went back to trying a regular cable and the computer froze again, except a hard shutdown did work this time. Removed the cable completely, and same thing. Blank screen, no POST. I guess whatever the problem was finally did it in.

Winding this up, does anyone have any explanation for this behavior ? Is this something that you will run across when a controller goes bad or some other motherboard component ?

The guy that sold it to me sent me a free motherboard to try so I'll get to that next unless someone has some other ideas.

I just can't see why it would work at all in the first configuration without being recognized as a slave on the primary where it was..

Now I remember why it was on the shelf.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Go to properties of the cdrom in device manager. There you can turn autorun on. As for the other im not sure about and csm is cable select mode.

 

[garebo]

I think the bios had trouble with the cd reader because its defective. I think either the laser inside or the chip inside that interprets the reading is defective. Either way, it seems fair to say the cd reader is bad.
If not then the motherboard is defective.
The only way you are going to find out is to try a different power supply and different cd reader to see if you can get the unit working properly.

As for the bios, some bios dont see or give much detail on the optical drives inside the bios, they only show up outside the bios in the boot screen, but that is fairly normal with those older mobos and older bios.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[fenix]

Hi, yes auto notification was turned off. The autorun I was referring to was the actual clicking on the D: drive to start the installation from the Linksys CD icon. It tried to start, but it only produced a blank window. In one of the folders, there was an icon titled autorun which produced the same frozen blank window.

Same symtoms with 2 different CDROM drives, the original and a new one out of the box.

I didn't know that CD drives sometimes wouldn't show up in setup on the older machines. That explains the one issue.

About the defective reader theory, it just seems odd that it would read folders and files on different cds, but it wouldn't run an installation on this one particular disk.
It's just not logical. As I mentioned, this Linksys cd works on other computers.

I'll try the mobo since I have one and reply at that time.

Thank you for the inputs.

 

[jkl0]

This sounds suspiciously like a power supply or memory issue. If you have some extra parts, try switching out one or both.

 

[fenix]

tried new memory, no help
tried new p/s......no help
called Dlink and asked them for any input on why 2 of their
cd's (router and wireless nic setup disks) would not open up setup on this particular machine, but would work on others. I tried it on another machine's CDROM (PII) and it ran fine, so I took that same cdrom drive and put it in the problem K6-II machine, and it still wouldn't play. Remember, all other disks worked in the problem machine, and the faulty DLink set up disks worked in 3 other machines.

Well, hate to say this, but it WAS the damn software on the cd.

Still doesn't explain all the whys, but I should have suspected the software first. The troubleshooting facts just weren't logical. Blame the coders !

I downloaded a setup from their website, burned a disk, installed the wireless nic and software, and now have a pretty snappy and fully dusted shop computer.

 

[mainegeek]

fenix,
Does the K6 meet all the minimum system requirements for the PCI D-Link Air Adapter install?

 

[fenix]

Hi mainegeek, yes the min sys req is a "32bit PCI slot, at least a 300 mhz processor and 32 MB of memory". It's a 350 and I have 192 MB of RAM installed.

It's running excellent and it was a good investment for $40 plus the hours setting it up. (ebay). I get a webpage built in about 1-1.5 seconds.

I'm trying to get the last dead one going, but I'll post a question I have in a new thread.

Thanks for the input.

 

[mainegeek]

fenix,
Try putting the cd-rom drive back on as primary slave and in the bios set it to NONE.
Forget about weather or not it shows up in the bios as the OS will pick it up if it is cabled and jumpered correctly.
Boot in safe mode,go to device manager and remove all cdrom drives that are listed. Reboot in normal mode.Find the cdrom drive in My Computer and right click and select eject to test that it is communicating.

As far as the auto run, forget about that too. Just put the
PCI D-Link Air Adapter install cd in and ook for the SETUP or INSTALL executable and click on it.

Some older systems such as Packard Bell for example were notorious for loosing the autorun feature, in fact they had a downloadable patch for it. Not all cd's have an autorun.ini file on them either.