missing cd/dvd at startup

[flanzig1]

This is an old problem that I have lived with so thought to see if anyone has a fix.

Ever other power up my cd-rw and dvd don't show up on windows.

My set up: w98SE,Soyo SY-6VBA 133 mobo,P111 450 with HD and ZIP drivr on primary IDE and CD-rw and dvd on secondary ide.
The system works fine when the cd drives are detected, just a pain to start the computer twice each time I want to use it.

[DrZaius]

Hi flanzig1,

Go into the BIOS and make sure the drives are set to auto-detect. You could also try a new IDE cable for the drives.

[GaryRouth]

Just out of curiousity: does your system also experience lockups at odd times? Or display the "New Hardware Found" wizard at startup? If these describe your situation, check out Pam123's experience, especially her last post in that thread "promised update" . . . http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=49479

Also (following along with Dr. Zaius' idea) If that DVD is Ultra-66 capable, it might prefer an 80wire cable, and might prefer to be the Master drive.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[flanzig1]

Dr. Z & GaryR: I checked the things you mentioned. Drives in the bios are set to auto,DVD is set to master(have tried both ways),DVD is a Samsung SD-606(instructions say use 40 pin cable. Also when the computer stops, it gets only gets to config.sys screen and not to windows. If I let it get that far, I have to do a hard power off. Did notice in the bios that the PNP OS is set to manual/is this to be set to auto?

[GaryRouth]

I haven't seen that particular setting. Usually PnP OS is either Yes or No. See if there is a "Yes" answer (or try auto).

Regarding the cable, sounds like the DVD player stops at DMA-33 for the 40wire. No problem, I haven't actually seen any performance difference between the DMA-33 and the DMA-66 players. They usually play well or poorly depending more on the quality of the video card.

. . . Gary

[hmm . . . and since you're stopping/hanging at config.sys, try typing msconfig in the Start/Run box, and for a Selective Startup, have it bypass your config.sys and autoexec.bat files. And perhaps look in on them - do they refer to devices or programs that are no longer present?]