Hard Disk Controllers

[girovend]

A m8 of mine is having bother with his pc running windows 98se

Basically his pc doesn't recognise his cdroms anymore,
if he goes to hard disk controllers in system properties
his primary ide controller (dual fifo)
and secondary ide controller (dual fifo)
both have yellow exclamation marks next to them
but the
via bus master pci ide controller is ok

he has tried 3 different nortons ghost images he had made previously
but all have the same result

would a fresh install of windows fix this? or is there maybe an easier way
to fix it?
I think its kinda weird cause all the ghost images were verified as being
ok and I've never had a prob restoring an image.

 

[roadworker]

Remove the via bus master pci ide controller,reboot,and let windows install it's own after the reboot,instead of using via's...

 

[girovend]

Tried that, and when its restarted its just the same,
thing is windows doesnt try to install anything, the pc
just starts up the exact same as it was before uninstalling
the via bus master controller, really strange.

when I tried the 3 ghost images the 1st time they all installed ok but
when booting up I got an invalid system disk warning and
it went no further ,
the motherboard came with a restore option (cant remember the name)
but when I used this Thats when i was able to boot into windows
but with it not recognising any cdroms

the windows drivers should have been ghosted at the time of the
original ghosting, so why weren't they reinstalled(they should have been)

I'm starting to think it's a m/board prob

 

[jmtrash]

I had a similar problem years ago that was due to a virus attack on the bios. perhaps try making a boot floppy on another machine with an updated bios and flash in the new bios.
Just a thought.
However, if you have a ghost image nothing will be lost in doing a fresh install to see if everything comes up.

 

[girovend]

Tried flashing the bios aswell, still the same,

It reads from the cdroms in dos though, as I went for the clean install,
everything went fine untill it booted into windows then couldn't read from the cdroms to complete installation,

Tried again with the ghost images, this time before ghost loads I
get a (required system component not installed) so when I finish
loading the image I cant boot into windows

tried changing IDE cables as well still no luck,
anybody any other ideas or does he need a new m/board

 

[jmtrash]

The windows drivers that install with win98 are fairly basic, if you have tried the cdrom drives on a different machine and they work fine, and have updated the bios loading defaults, the problem is narrowed down to the controller on the motherboard. Get a pci controller or a new motherboard.

 

[LTR12101B]

Could it be a boot sector virus? - that can screw up getting into the protected mode drivers for IDE.

VIA 4 in 1 / Hyperion drivers are avaialable from www.viaarena.com - a slightly older set are actually suggested for Win98, but the recent history still includes some (minor) fixes for Win98.

It would be bizarre if the motherboard had failed in such a way that the controllers still worked, but not in Windows?

Either virus scan, or make sure you can get known clean boot floppies and REALLY start from scratch.

Find a utility to zero-fill the hard disk (or at least zap the first few sectors), so that no virus can be hiding - even if supposedly "clean".

Clear the CMOS (motherboard jumper) and start by loading Optimum or Setup defaults.


Less aggressively, try a FDISK/MBR from a Windows setup/emergency floppy of the same version.

 

[girovend]

started from scratch

used clean startup disk
used fdisk to clear all partitions
reformatted
ran hdd regenerator
cleared cmos
reinstalled windows 98 from cdrom
everything went fine untill the last steps of installation when system reboots
and tries to install remaining drivers
at this point cdroms are no longer recognised so remaining drivers cannot
be installed & i have to keep cancelling driver installs untill eventually
windows starts ,but without any cdroms

Installed the via 4 in 1 drivers, still nothing
only thing I missed was to zero fill the drive ,what utillites can do this
and after all I've done would it really be any good

does anybody else think it could be the m/board, before I go
get one

 

[Duracell]

everything went fine untill the last steps of installation when system reboots and tries to install remaining drivers at this point cdroms are no longer recognised so remaining drivers cannot be installed & i have to keep cancelling driver installs untill eventually windows starts ,but without any cdroms

boot onto a Win98 boot floppy,
partitioning your HDD into 2 partitions one for Windows and one for a copy of your Windows-CD,
in DOS copy your CD's WIN folder to the 2nd partition,
eject the CD,
format and activate your 1st partition,
boot onto the Win98 boot floppy again,
run Setup.exe in WIN folder at your 2nd partition,
==> so you will be sure Windows setup find all drivers and setup files because nothing is needed from CDROM;


Greetings from
Duracell

 

[LTR12101B]

http://www.microstorage.com/Harddriveinfo.htm

ZAP, from here, is the IBM drive tool that clears the first 128 sectors - seems to be ok on most drives - not a secure delete, but a quick way to to ensure the previous partition and MBR info are gone.

Trying a CD-distro of linux - eg Knoppix or something a bit lighter, may also prove something.

I'm still leaning towards there being a boot sector virus - on the HD, and quite likely on any floppies you've exposed to it.

Make a startup floppy from another machine (same version!) - actually, I think it does it from the CD, so you can make one that way from any machine.

Then boot this one from it and do FDISK/MBR - that should take out ANY boot sector virus.

 

[girovend]

LTR12101b ,I forgot to mention that I did try fdisk/mbr
but I've downloaded the zap utility and I'm going to give
it a go ,
I'm in 2 minds just can't figure out if it's a virus or not

Duracell ,that sounds like a good idea too but can you
give me the commands to transfer the windows folder
to the 2nd partition ,I dont know how to copy files in
dos
and I'd like to try that after zapping the mbr.

 

[Duracell]

Duracell ,that sounds like a good idea too but can you
give me the commands ...

let me try to remember:

- create a boot floppy on a runnig, virusfree W98SE-PC,
- go sure the files "smartdrv.exe" and "xcopy32.exe" are stored on your floppy; if not automatic happened, grab them from "C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND" folder;
- boot onto the floppy by using "with CDROM drive support"
- check the drive letter of your CDROM (let's suppose "E:")
- your second HDD partition would be "D:"
- type in "a:\smartdrv"
- type in "a:\xcopy32 e:\win d:\win"
- eject and remove the CD
- boot again onto the floppy this time by using "no CDROM drive support"
- type in "d:\win\setup"

Anyone anything to add?

 

[girovend]

Tried installing from D,looked ok but after install still no cdroms.
tried new m/board no difference,
tried new 80gig h/drive, now it get stranger.

Fdisked and formatted new drive but when I checked the size it was only
12gig - the same as first partition on old h/drive
and when installing windows ,scan shows C and D drives the same as was on old hard drive at the beginning
although when booting up and in the bios 80gig is recognised??

Think it must be a VIRUS but how do u scan for viruses from a floppy on a system without an operating system
Tried resetting cmos and using zap utility ,still no joy.

Also when booting up system seems to freeze a lot
Spoke to the guy in the pc shop he didn't have a clue either,just
suggested using partition magic not sure what for

 

[fffclub]

If it is a virus, it could be resident in your memory.

Try some different memory, or use some rescue floppies that can scan the memory.

 

[VIPER_1069]

@fffclub if he has rebooted then i doubt its memory resident as virii cannot survive once the memory is flushed ..... and i doubt the virii be physically be written to the ram chips !?

 

[girovend]

I was just starting to think it could be the memory,

VIPER_1069 are you certain it cant survive once flushed,
I just dont know .I have tried just about everything except
a virus scan

 

[Duracell]

i don't think it's a virus, maybe a faulty drive/cable/conector which mess up all ATAPI devices;
but this is only a thought, not really knowledge;

 

[VIPER_1069]

can bios see the drives !?

can you set the drives to auto detect in bios when booting !?

Also check the jumpers on the backs of the rom drives the cdroms should be set on the very end most connectors of the ide cables followed by the hard drives the hard drives drives should be set as MASTER with anything else such as the cdroms , cdrw's should be set with the jumpers as SLAVE unless a cdrom,cdrw is on a cable by its self then in that case set the single cdrom as MASTER with the other hard drive and rom combination as HD MASTER and ROM as SLAVE

try this and let us know how you get on

 

[Duracell]

have something to add to Viper's counting:
connecting ATAPI devices (CDROM/CDRW) via 80-wired IDE cables could causes problems too;

 

[girovend]

I dont think it's the set up cause it's been ok for about a year, the fault
only appeared this week
and I always have my burners on the same Ide channel (secondary)
with H/drive and any remaining drives set on the primary channel

and I just virus tested all the 98 startup disks on my pc with my anti
virus software right up to date and their all ok(thought that had it been a virus
it might have infected the startup disks as well).

Been thinking about whar Duracell said about faulty connectors,cables
so 2morrow I'm going to try all the cables along with only the h/drive
connected and see if I can find anything out like that,

In the meantime if anyone can think of anything else please say,
My head hurts and I've pulled out nearly all my hair.