>>>It would prove that both your IDE controlers and cables are working. Isolating the problem with the CD ROM.
oh... and exactly! This is the first thing I would do...
>>>It would prove that both your IDE controlers and cables are working. Isolating the problem with the CD ROM.
oh... and exactly! This is the first thing I would do...
Blue
This doesn't really serve any productive purpose right now, but why didn't you just put something in autoexec.bat? Or could it not be done with a really really ridiculously good looking DOS prompt command?
I would not install Windows on the HD then change machines, as changing the hardware, particularly the MB, will make Windows very unstable. It will also ask for the CD to update the drivers (problem if you do not have a the CD working). If you can, 1Gb may not be enough (for both the CAB's, the swap file and the Windows intall), copy the Windows CAB's to the HD, on your friends machine, put it back in yours, run the set-up.
I always copy the OS CD to the HD and install from there. Is faster from HD than CD, and when Windows wants to update it just looks on the HD, no need for the CD.
"Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars......the rest I squandered."
George Best
"If you are going through hell....keep going."
Winston Churchill
The best way is to just remove the cmos battery for a while and then put it back in.
Oi Oi Oi!!!!
Well actually thats not always true. On my first Compaq the bios couldn't see the CD rom but windows picked it up without a problem.Originally posted by Betazep
Nope... if it isn't in your bios... it isn't available on windows. It my not be an autodect cdrom. Can you set the setting as CDROM manually?
Wow you are getting alot of strange advices.
One thing you could try is to pull a different CD-rom and try in your compaq. Other then that just keep on trying. sounds like yo have the trouble shoting technic down pretty well. And be careful about resetting the bios. Doesn't sound like that would help you at all. And you are taking a risk when you are doing that. When I did it on previous mentioned Compaq my MB fried.
ever since I got this computer, the hard drive for some reason has been set to slave....I dont know why....but it is. On the label it says that if the hard drive has no jumper on it...it is set to slave...and it has no jumper....so i need to get a jumper for it...but it is not a normal jumper, like normal ones have two pins vertically...this one has 1 pin vertically...so its all weird...so i need to buy a jumper for it and set it to master...but i dont think that that is the problem...
Is there any way I can get a better BIOS for this ghetto comp? I hate this F10 BIOS that I had to download from Compaq's website. I want something like Phoenix BIOS....
I managed to get Windows on the HD at my friends house today...but the CDROM is not being detected....and BIOS still sets it to disabled every time I try and enable it...
>>>Well actually thats not always true. On my first Compaq the bios couldn't see the CD rom but windows picked it up without a problem.
[sigh] You have to have your bios set to either autodetect or to state a device is there. If you have an ide controller disabled, I guarantee windows will not pick it up. You must be mistaken... It doesn't have to recognize the device (you are right), but it has to know that a device will be available there (not disabled... anything other than disabled) in one form or another. Many cdroms of that era do not have bootable characteristics and do not supply their information on ACK from the bios. It is little suprise that the cdrom isn't recognized in the bios, even if it is functioning correctly. Many bios have an ide option of "CDROM".
He doesn't need another cdrom to test the controller. He has extra hard drives.... use one of those to test whether or not 1) the bios saves changes to the second IDE and 2) whether or not the cables, the controller, etc are working correctly. (as correctly recognized by novacain) At that point is all about finding out whether or not the cdrom is functioning properly. Using the ultimate startup disk mentioned in his previous post on this matter should prove or disprove proper cdrom operation.
>>>Is there any way I can get a better BIOS for this ghetto comp?
Unfortunately compaq is very proprietary, so I highly doubt it. The cmos application written for your computer mainboard is what you have to work with.
>>>I managed to get Windows on the HD at my friends house today...but the CDROM is not being detected....and BIOS still sets it to disabled every time I try and enable it...
There is no suprise.
If your hd can only operate in slave mode due to a jumper missing, then do that. Set the cdrom as master, and put both on the same IDE cable. See if your cdrom will stay enabled as a Primary master when you save changes in the bios, your HD should come up and save as primary slave....
Blue
>>>And be careful about resetting the bios. Doesn't sound like that would help you at all.
The bios/cmos on his compaq is stored on the HD (pretty strange huh?)... paperclips, machettes, handgrenades, etc do nothing but damage. You can only remove the bios by erasing the partition holding the bios/cmos.
Last edited by Betazep; 05-30-2002 at 02:49 PM.
Blue
Oh, I forgot to write this in my last post. I have tested two CDROM drives with the IDE cable, and this is the result:
CDROM Drive #1, 8x, set to slave:
computer boots up normally....CDROM not recognized by Windows, DOS, BIOS, etc.
CDROM Drive #2, 2x, has no place to even put a jumper, cannot be set by a jumper to slave, master, or c-sel:
computer cannot find any fixed drives on the computer, computer only able to boot to floppy drive.
CDROM Drive #1, 8x, set to slave:
How can you have a slave device without a master?
You have a slave hard drive... you need a master along with it. With two devices, you should have no need to run anything on the Secondary cable.
Simple instructions:
Take CDROM Drive #1, 8x and set it to master. Connect top of ide ribbon cable to CDROM Drive #1, 8x. Connect middle of ide cable to slave hard drive. (or any cdrom that can be set to master)
Boot to bios.
Set Primary Master to "CDROM" or "Auto" or "Auto Select" or anything other than a hard disk or disabled.
Set Primary Slave to your hard drive.
This configuration does not utilize the Secondary controller.
Exit saving changes.
Reboot into windows.
Note: You should not and most often can not run a drive as either a slave or a master if there isn't another device on the cable. A slave hard drive is not supposed to be run by itself just as much as a master hard drive is not supposed to be run by itself. If you run one drive on an ide cable, you have to select 'single' with appropriate jumper settings.
Still... since you disregarded everything I said before. This is the final time I note this: If the proposed configuration does not work and you want to use the secondary IDE controller, in order to properly test your cable and IDE controller on the Secondary IDE position, you have to test it with a known good device that can be set to 'single'. Another hard drive is a good way to test it and you stated you have extra. The problem is, we do not know what is good. You have to start eliminating some of the good using common sense. Your still in a situation (from what you divulged) where the BiOS save feature might be bad, the Secondary IDE controller may be bad on board, any number of your cdroms may be bad or improperly configured, your secondary IDE cable might be bad, and your hd is set to slave and cannot be changed without a special jumper thereby needing a master for everything to run properly.
Checklist
Can BIOS configurations be saved?
Is secondary IDE controller working with a single device (not master or slave)?
Is IDE cable working (swap cables to verify)?
Do you have a device that can operate as a master to slave hd?
Blue
