Error after windows starts up

An error box comes up after windows loads. In the event view the thier are two errors (1) The following boot - start or system - start driver(s) failed to load qic157 (2) The driver detected a controller error on

Can someone tell me what these errors mean and how I can fix them.

thank you
justin

 

QIC157 is a driver for an IDE tape drive. Do you have a tape drive? If so, it sounds like the drive might have failed. However, first remove and re-install the software that came with it. You may need to remove the driver manually (see next paragraph) and/or reapply the latest NT service pack. If that doesn't work, can you install it on another PC and see if it works OK? Tape drives are a little out-moded, so I would take a guess you'll need to use another NT machine for this test. If you can't run this test, or it passes the test, then you should check out the IDE controller it is connected to. Can you attach a known working disk drive to the same controller (with the tape drive disconnected) and gain access to it? If the IDE controller has popped, then can you switch the tape drive to the other controller (you can have a master and a slave device on each controller)? One word of warning - if you connect something broken to something that isn't, you may end up with both things broken, so procede cautiously; if you don't use the tape drive, remove the drive and it's driver (see below) and put it in your box of suspect hardware.

If you don't have a tape drive, first check if there is an entry in Add/Remove Programs which (a) you don't use and (b) looks a likely candidate (eg a backup application). Also, check out Start...Control Panel...Tape Devices. Is there a QIC157 tape drive listed there (check both tabs)? If so then you could try selecting it in the Drivers tab of the Tape Devices dialog and pressing the Remove button (you need Administrator rights to do this), but before you do this ask yourself why you have this driver loaded, and satisfy yourself there's a reason why it was needed but isn't needed now, eg have you just bought a second-hand PC which used to have a tape drive.