HELP! is this a cd rom issue?

I have an AMD K6 2-450 with an ASUS P5A motherboard currently using a Maxtor 30 Gig drive which I just installed- prior to this I had my Lite-on LTN526 running as a slave to a removable drive. I switched my old hard drive to run as a slave to the new bigger one and removed the removable drive. - thus I changed the CD to a Master (with the jumper) and it now runs on its own tape.(as the secondary master) However- now when I boot I get a message that the CDROM was found-LTN526 and then it takes about 5 minutes for it to move on and go to windows-I'm assuming the lag is due to the CD but in fact I'm clueless! Any thoughts?

 

Sounds like you have a driver loading at startup. Edit your config.sys and autoexec.bat files and take the lines out loading the driver.

 

It is my understanding that windows doesn't need them anymore and in fact they are empty so do youy know of any other place it might be told to go load?

 

So as of right now you have this?

Primary ide channel
Maxtor 30GB as Master
Old hard drive as slave

Secondary Channel
CDRom as Master
nothing as slave


Just wanted to make sure.

What happens when you disconnect the CDRom?

With your old hard drive, did you just switch it to slave, or did you wipe it out, create a partition and logical drives? Fdisk may reveal that both your new and old hard drive are both active partitions when only your maxtor is and should be. Some conflicts can happen in that situation, but not usually and this probably isn't your problem, but I thought I would mention it. I had a computer that I tried to setup like that. It just wouldn't have it with 2 drives that had and os on it and were set as active partitions. I went in to fdisk and reset the active partition to the newer hard drive and then my problems were fixed.

Again not saying that is your problem.

But I would see what happens when you disconnect the CDrom to make sure it is causing the delay.

Also, how did you check the config.sys and Autoexec.bat files?

Don't use msconfig to check them. It doesn't always report all the info in the files. Windows doesn't normally need them, but they can be used.

 

I reformated the d drive( a quantum fireball), unplugged the cd rom and all to no avail- it still hangs up - Now, its not that everything doesn't work like a charm once it gets there- but the delay is between the time it finds the cd ( or doesn't if its unplugged) and when it lists the drives and the pci devices- I think thats before it goes to load windows.... WHAT THE HECK IS IT LOOKING FOR???????

Further to your question about the auto exec bat and the config sys files - I've done everything I can think of - I've looked through programs like sissoft Sandra and have been starting it after unchecking the files in msconfig so it shouldn't even be loading them ( she says thinking she knows what she's talking about) there are a couple of country code type commands which it doesn't seem to be processing so I believe it isn't looking????

thank you by the way for your reply.....

 

Try this. In the BIOS change the secondary master setting to none as well as the secondary slave. Windows should still recognize the CDRom without having to wait for the BIOS to detect it. Next go to Device Manager and expand the CDRom heading. highlight your CDRom,click on Properties/Settings. Place a check mark beside DMA and uncheck Sync Data Transfer if it is checked. Also while you are in the BIOS be sure to enable the quick or fast boot options and set the boot process to the hard drive first. Let us know the results. Good luck. KW1

 

I think kilowatt1's post will work for yah.

your puter is probably looking for a hard drive and doesn't find one.

the reason it is looking for one is because the bios is still setup up for your previous config.


I definitely backup kilowatt1 on this one.

Hopefully that works!

 

That is definitely where it is hanging up because when I make the primary slave NONE it whizzes by like nobody's business- of course it also does not recognize the slave drive at all within windows... now I can cope with that for the time being, however can I flash the bios or something to fix it so I can use the second drive??

PS -thank you both so much for the help ( I am making all this up as I go along and so hearing from people who actually KNOW things makes me feel much better)

 

I'm afraid that you lost me, Zach. Did you set the SECONDARY master and slave to "none" ? I assume that the CDRom is cabled directly to the second IDE port. Do you have another device connected to the second IDE port in addition to the CDRom? This is my understanding of how you have things connected:

PRIMARY MASTER: New HardDrive (Set BIOS to Auto)
PRIMARY SLAVE: Old HardDrive (Set BIOS to Auto)

SECONDARY MASTER: CDRom (Set BIOS to none)
SECONDARY SLAVE: N/A (set BIOS to none)

Is this correct? You lost me when you said that you set the PRIMARY SLAVE to "none".

 

Same question as kilowatt1

so you went into the bios>standard cmos setup and set the "primary ide slave type" to none and everything loaded fast except the the slave hard drive of course????????

If so then you basically disabled the old hard drive which might be causing a problem.

double check you jumper setting for the quantum drive. (you may need to use some kind of special jumper setting for whatever known reason.

also you said that you already reformatted the quantum(old drive). so since you don't have any data on the hard drive, you might want to use fdisk (using a boot floppy) to delete all partitions and create 1 extended partition with 1 logical drive using 100% of the drive. Then format /s to put system files on it. That way you know the drive is set up correctly

just remember, "to create one partition on a drive is not partitioning the drive" To create more than one partition on a drive is partitioning. IN both cases people usually say partition the drive. so just making sure you understand that part cuz that can be confusing.

of course when you put the "primary ide slave type" to auto, you have to get the computer to detect the hard drive first before you can use fdisk. If it cannot detect the drive correctly, which might be the problem, you may have to change jumpers settings on the drive or remove the jumper completely.

 

Yes I tried setting the Primary slave to none and it fixed the problem-
BIG LAG=
PRIMARY MASTER: New HardDrive (Set BIOS to Auto)
PRIMARY SLAVE: Old HardDrive (Set BIOS to Auto)
SECONDARY MASTER: CDRom (Set BIOS to none)
SECONDARY SLAVE: N/A (set BIOS to none)
NO LAG=
PRIMARY MASTER: New HardDrive (Set BIOS to Auto)
PRIMARY SLAVE: Old HardDrive (Set BIOS to none)
SECONDARY MASTER: CDRom (Set BIOS to none)
SECONDARY SLAVE: N/A (set BIOS to none)
When I reformatted the old drive I tried to make a partition with FDISK and it said it only wanted a partition on the C: ( the new Maxtor) When I tried to make and extended partition it said no way jose- so I gave up and just used FORMAT D: ( to at least get rid of the windows files) it left me with just one windows file on that drive- It has always listed it (the old quantum as the primary slave and seems to detect it just fine- it works once I'm in windows - it just takes forever to get there-
The CD is on the second IDE cable by itself-
Should I just try completely removing the jumpers on the old drive ??
I hope I'm not dirving you people nutso and I do really appreciate your help!!

 

ok so if you enable the old (primary slave) hard drive, your computer takes forever to load up, but when it finally does, you can use the hard drive right?

You can try removing the jumper, but it might not work. It won't hurt anything. If it has a problem your computer won't boot and you will just have to put the jumper back. It is worth a try. or you can go to your manufactures website (for the hard drive) and get the manual to make sure you got it right.

assuming there is nothing wrong with the old hard drive and it is setup correctly your problem may be with windows.

first try this.

turn the primary slave back on to auto detect. Let it take forever to load into windows. Then right click on my computer>properties>performance. Is anything running in compatibility mode? Like your d drive??????

also check in the device manager and see if your d: (old drive)drive is listed anywhere in there or if there are any exclamation points.


your old hard drive esdi_506.pdr driver might not be loading right.


also do you have win98 or 95 or ME, If I missed that before, sorry.

gonna check a few things on your mobo.

 

also about the fdisk thing. when you load fdisk from a boot floppy, and attempt to delete partitions of your old drive, but can't, just remember that you have to use the option to switch to the older slave drive. Then you can mess with the drive. The option I think is #5, but don't remeber for sure, but you would no.

once you switch to the second hard drive, you can then display partition info for the slave drive, delete partitions, logical drives, etc.

remember to delete an existing extended partition, you have to delete all of its logical drives first. then you can delete the partition and any other partitions. Then restart and go back in, switch to the second drive again and create an extended partition using 100% of the drive(old slave drive) and then create a logical drive "d" using 100% of the extended partition.

that should clear up any problems you might be having with the quantum drive. I assume the drive is a little be older. If it is big enough(bigger than 512Mb), use fat32 (large disk support) when using fdisk

 

here's the link to your motherboard if you didn't know

http://www.asus.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/pentium/p5a/index.html

It has an ali chipset. I have had problems before with those not recognizing hard drives correct untill you get special drivers.

also try disabling dma for your cd drive just to make sure that isn't causing anything weird.

If you slave old hard drive does appear correctly in the device manager, try disabling dma if there is an option.

once you figure this out it's probably going to be something simple. sometimes the simple things are the hardest to solve.

 

this may be a cause in one way or another

http://www.asus.com.tw/Products/Techref/Tech-report/qa-mb1098.html#ali-dma



plus you can look for drivers here. just make sure that if you do download one, make sure it is for your board.


http://www.asus.com.tw/products/motherboard/driver.html