Another CD ROM dissappearance

First, I would like to mention that I HAVE read other posts on this issue, but none of those solutions that I tried worked.

Here is my problem: My CD-ROM drive exists after boot up and is detected by Windows XP. However, when I put a CD in the tray, there is some hard drive activity and Windows conveniently removes my CD ROM (and all other external drives) from the device manager. Upon reboot, the CD ROM drive will return, but Windows thinks it's empty.

This just started today and the only system update I've had in about a week or two was that I got the critical IE security update. I think the problem is related to a SCSI/RAID controller that's on my computer, which I don't think does anything. Every time I uninstall it, Windows wants it back. But for the life of me I can't figure out what device on my system wants this driver. I tried getting a new driver for it from Windows Update, and the driver name is "Windows XP Promise Ultra 100 (tm) IDE Controller" (odd that it's an IDE controller, I thought).
Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

 

ide

good god man, the promise control is running in a pci slot to hankle a Raid array no doubt. Where did you come by this box? What is the main board? If the cdrom is on the array, well who did this anyway? Only hard drives work on raid arrays. leave the cdrom as a slave on an ide channel. raid arrays are also known as "SCSI" dumb I know coz it's really not a true scsi however windoz is dumber, it can't til the diff

 

reply

Well, to answer your question, it was made by someone I know who apparently didn't know too much about what he was doing. The motherboard is MSI K7T Turbo.
I just have one question about your fix. Did you mean make it so the CD is slave on the boot, or re-wire the IDE cables? I'm not too good on the hardware side of things so I need a little more help (I'm assuming you meant cables, but I don't want to muck around inside my box unless it's necessary). Thanks, you've been a great help.

edit: clarified message.

 

ok

You do have the manual? This board is KT133A, Athlon/Duron/XP, 4XAGP 6PCI 1CNR 3DIMM UDMA100, Promise 20265R On-Board: Support IDE RAID 0 or 1.
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/manual/manual.php?model=K7T+Turbo+Limited manual

 

so far so good

I haven't fixed it yet, but I think with this information i should be able to fix it by tomorrow. If I haven't, I'll try and post what my error was . Thanks so much for your help Rancher. I only wonder why nothing went wrong earlier... I've had this computer for a year and this is the first problem!

 

problems arise...

It seems I was premature in my elation. The CD ROM (and ZIP) were already on IDE 2. The Raid IDE slots (3 & 4) are empty. On the bootup I have
Primary Master: Hard Disk
Primary Slave: None
Secondary Master: ZIP
Secondary Slave: CD-ROM

BTW, I don't know what I changed cuz I thought I put everything back the way it was, but now I get an message from the Raid Driver (on bootup) asking me if I want to build an array. I tried it and it said that no disk was found, so it rebooted. I don't see why my computer thinks I'm using Raid even though it says I can't use it . Anyway, at least there is one improvement: trying to access the CD no longer removes the drive.

PS- Rancher, the manual you linked to is slightly different from mine. The only difference I noted, however, was that the manual you linked to had support to disable Raid from the motherboard while mine has no such jumper. Otherwise, the two board layouts were identical. Maybe I have an earlier version motherboard... if that is even possible?

 

raid

go into the bios then & disable raid. prolly in the advanced chipset features menu, not sure. Be careful in there tho as you can get things skeeerud up. Just look for the part that points to Raid or scsi array blah blah

 

I already looked in the bios for any mentions of Raid or SCSI. The only thing I found was a disk boot order which I changed from SCSI->ATA to ATA->SCSI (there was no option to disable SCSI). There was nothing at all mentioning Raid.

 

ide

Isn't there a first boot=hd0? This would then be your ide hard drive. Hey is there anyone else out here can help this MSI board owner? I'm an IWILL owner w/ALIMagic1 chipset.

 

There were 2 boot order options. There was one that I set to HDD0 -> A:\ -> Other, and then for the HDD there was another boot order which I set to ATA -> SCSI. I am assuming this second boot order was for HDD, but it was on another tab (Integrated peripherals, if I remember correctly). I suppose I should remember that old adage about assuming things.....

Also, Windows is now trying to help me out. I was having some trouble booting up after changing the CMOS boot order, and Windows checked to make sure my drive was "consistent." The only problems it found were some time stamps were wrong. Does this mean anything? I'm sorry if this problem seems to get more complex each time I post, it's just I'm trying to post as much information as possible so nothing gets left out. Any more help, someone?

 

msi board

Polaris, don't be sorry for giving/sharing info! This will help us all. This site http://www.amdmb.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=12 is just what ya might need! These guys all have MSI boards. Wish I had one too but I'm living with IWILL for awhile....good luck \\Rancher//