AutoPlay

Suddenly and for no apparent reason the AutoPlay feature
for my Zip drive has stopped working. I am running
WindowsXP professional. Until just recently, AutoPlay
worked fine on both my CD/ROM drive and Iomega Zip drive.
It still works with the CD/ROM drive but I get nothing
when I insert a zip disk in the zip drive. Nothing
meaning nothing. The drive light and hourglass flickers
momentarily but I don't get any indication that AutoPlay
is attempting to sniff the disk for content. I have
verified that AutoPlay in enabled for the drive using
TweakUI, I have confirmed the AutoPlay preferences I want
are set in the drive properties, I have removed and
reinstalled the iomegaware, I have removed and reinstalled
the zip driver and restarted the computer so it could find
and setup new hardware, I have checked that AutoDetect is
enable for the drive in the Administrative
Console “Services”. I have confirmed the settings for the
registry NoDriveTypeAutoRun are correct. I have done
everything I can think of but actually change registry
values. I searched the registry for an AutoPlay key and
found some entries that were applicable to a ZIP 100 drive
but making changes without specific guidance is over my
head. Again, AutoPlay works as designed with the CD/ROM
drive. The Zip drive itself apparently works fine. I can
insert and eject, once the disk is in I can doubleclick
and review files, read from drive, write to drive,
everything. Just no AutoPlay.

Well I know I've been long winded, but wanted to provide
all the detail I could think of.

I am afraid this one is going to involve correcting some
corrupted registry files. Unfortunate I don't have a
restore point available before the problem occurred.
Thanks in advance for any help resolving this perplexing
problem.

 

Hello... Perhaps one of this can help:

http://is-it-true.org/nt/xp/atips/atips7.shtml or
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/howto-06.html

 

Not that easy

jmmf,

No luck. CD/ROM works fine it is just the zip drive. I have tried all the low hanging fruit (i.e, intuitive user interface). I think I have have corrupted registry setting or something else high up in the tree. Thanks for taking the time to offer your assistance.

 

Mumble, mumble...

Yeah, I know. But sometimes that same info can be applied to other drives, I.E. if you have a Zip Drive, then if someone asks you to look for a Registry key named:

Code:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom]

... Then try to look for someone other like this:

Code:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ZipDrive]

(or whatever else the name in the Registry be...)

In the other hand, have you "IOmega Active Disk" installed in your system? Open your "Control Panels" folder, and look for it's icon. I think is possible it can interfere in some manner, but really don't know. If you have it, try switching among the 4 options available.

Good luck !!!

 

jmmf,

Luck has left. Tried your steps and even deleted acitve disk as I don't use it anyway. I also deleted imogaware completly with no success so I reinstalled it. I have even gone through in great detail to try to confirm all related registry entries for autoplay using an Article I got from the web "Preparing Hardware and Software fro Use with AutoPlay http:/msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/programersguide/shell_basic. By all indications it should work. I have an AutoPlay Tab on the disk properties the settings I have elected match those for the CD/ROM the registry has a line for the ZipDrive100 in the AutoPlay Key. The drive works perfectly. However when I stick a disk in I get nothing but a momemtary flickering of the activity light and then a brief display of the hourglass on the monitor. Still no indication that AutoPlay is sniffing the disk for content. I have tried both mixed content and specific content disk with no effect. The Zip Drive AutoPlay used to open up the Windows Explorer automatically when I inserted a mixed content disk. Now nothing and I have to manually open the disk to view contents. Granted this is just an inconvienence as I don't stick disk in and out all day, but knowing there is a problem like this and not knowing why just causes me to be uneasy about the whole operation system. What's next.

You are a trooper and I appreciate your help.

 

One last hope...

My last ideas, in no particular order:

-) Open "System" Control Panel. Go to "Hardware ", push (good'ol) "Device Manager ". Delete all references to your Zip Drive, keeping in mind that could be more than one, like the "IMG VP1 ", or the "generic volume ", or so... Now DON'T redetect hardware changes. REBOOT instead.

-) Phisically disconnect/unplug/remove your Zip Drive. Reboot, use your system as usual, then after a while shutdown and plug it again, so your system re-detetects it.

-) Try changing it's drive letter. Be sure there is a Zip Disk in the drive, then go to Control Panels. Open "Administrative Tools ", "Computer Management ", and go to "Storage" -> "Disk Management" in the left pane. Now right-click on your Zip and do the changes.

-) Take a look at "Application" and "System" events in "Event Viewer" applet (under "System Tools "). Try to insert / eject disks and then refreshing your view. Maybe something more explanatory can show up.

(Please note that I NEVER used ANY kind of Windows NT in english, only SPANISH, so it's possible that some names I wrote are incorrect, mostly the new ones introduced in Win 2000 & XP.)

"Maybe the Open Source Be with You... "

 

JMMF,

No joy with step 1, 2 and 3. Although physically removing the drive did force me to do some much needed house cleaning within the computer case!

You might be on to something regarding the event log. I don’t know if this is related or when it even started because I have never used the event log before. This is what is going on.

Each time boot up the computer, I am getting two consistent error reports in the event log. The first error reads as follows:

Source: ACPI
Category: None
Type: Error
Event ID: 4
User: N/A
Computer: HOME-COMPUTER

Description: AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal IO Port address (0x70), which lies in the 070 - 071 protected address range.
This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

The second error is identical with the exception the EventID is 5 instead of 4.

I browsed around the Microsoft page and found a KB article with the following explanation;

The system BIOS attempted to incorrectly access hardware resources concurrently with the operating system. This type of access cannot be synchronized and can cause system instability.

This behavior can occur if your computer's basic input/output system (BIOS) attempts to write to a port in AML [Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Machine Language. This attempt causes Microsoft Windows XP to prevent any access to that port. This feature has been designed to improve the stability of your computer's operating system.

Microsoft recommends contacting the BIOS vendor for an update.

WOW! Could the Zip Drive be using a IO port that WindowsXP has prevented access too? This sounds unlikely as the thing worked fine until last week and I certainly haven’t changed any hardware or the BIOS since then. Also it seems unlikely as WindowsXP doesn’t seem to have any problem recognizing the drive in Explorer or allowing me to view files, copy, rename, delete and everything else my heart desires except the desire to AutoPlay.

It comes as no surprise, but the Vendor "COMPAQ" doesn’t support anything that it sold more than 365 days ago.

I downloaded and ran a utility and apparently I have a S3 Graphics Savage4 Family BIOS chip (if that is the right term for it). I couldn’t make much sense of the results but I believe I have a Chip ID 8A22 installed. I couldn’t find any updates for the chip. In fact the S3 web page stated support was no longer offered for that chip (or something along those lines).

I don’t know how long this error has been occurring or what effect it might be having on my system. As far as I can tell the error is generated every time I boot or log on to the computer and that is it. The no AutoPlay on the ZIP Drive is the only problem I am having and I don’t know if this is the cause.

I fully understand JMMF if you give up on this one. It really is a baffling problem. Thanks for all you time so far. If the system log errors are unrelated but you have ideas on how to resolve them I would appreciate any reply.

By the way your English is excellent.

Greg

 

Henfuzz: Regarding autoplay in Zip Drive, no more idea... I was even thinking in some bad-behaving plug-in for winamp (if you have installed), but really don't know...

About the troubles of your motherboeard: Really I don't think your zip drive can even try to mess with the 0x70 - 0x71 address space. At least in my mobo, the 0x70 - 0x73 address space is the "CMOS RealTime Clock" I/O region, and this is pretty standard in the IBM-PC architecture. Even, I don't think that has something to do with your original problem, but who knows?

Can you tell me exactly WHAT Compaq P.C. do you have? Is a Presario one? And what type/kinf of Zip Drive? You tell me that it was a Zip 100. If it's internal, then... It's IDE, ATAPI or SCSI? If it's connected to the same cable your H.D. is, and your Zip is not an "ancient one ", then I think it's ATAPI. Then again, IDE or ATAPI, it has nothing to do with that address space.

Now, one last missing point: As my own Zip Drive is an "External Paralell 250 MiB. one (don't sure if it's a "PPA" or "IMM" protocol one), I usually have it disconnected. Last night I reconnected to manipulate some zip discs and guess what? I have NO AUTORUN, TOO...

... That tends to make me suspicious about the whole IOMegaWare BloatWare piece that I installed just to be able to protect/unprotect write & read access in my discs and to accelerate the paralell port transfer speed (perhaps mine is a "PPA" one after all) like in Win 95, 98, 200, etc. (but paralell port acceleration seems to be automatic under WinXP)

After I installed that BloatWare piece, I can't remember a single pop-up of autorun from my Zip. Just remember it when at some frind's WinXP P.C. WITHOUT IOWare, and autorun poping up and then...

(I said "BloatWare ", because that same functions are reduced to a little, 30 ~ 40 KiB. command-line utility under LINUX, and the (unsigned) "IOmDisk.sys" drivers seems to bind to every IDE, ATAPI & SCSI device I have (EVEN virtual ones), not only the Zip)

Now, my REALLY LAST HOPE in this "IOMess" would be to write to IOmega's tech support. If you're lucky enough, some real technician could reply to you...

Just be sure, you are not alone in this every day - even more strange world...

 

JMMF,

Don't blame you for jumping ship. Thanks for all of your time and effort. Even if the AutoPlay still doen'st work, I have learned an awful lot just playing around with it. Funny thing is that if the thing did work I would probably end up turning it off anyway. Seems like it is just another bell and whistle that isn't worth the trouble. If I find myself unable to sleep over this, I will do as you suggest and try to engage the wizards at Iomega.

I agree with you that the event errors are probably unrelated. For now they are not causing any problems and I will leave them as they be. One day I will forget about them.

 

Henfuzz

Offering consolation only. I went through exactly what you are although it applied to my cd-rom drive, not a zip drive. Like you, I generally hate Autostart but I wanted it fixed just on principle.

I was at the end of my rope when I clicked on the Help files for some possible answer. Here's the snag, it only works if you have an HP computer. They augment the normal Help Files with some assistance of their own making. Anyway, to make a long story longer, I type in the Search field "Autostart cd" and if responds with four choices. One was, do you want to enable autostart? Another was, do you want to disable Autostart? And two others less relevant. Of course I answer, yes, I want to enable it. I press enter and it responds by saying, "Autostart has been enabled." I doubt that, so checked it out. I'll be doggoned, it was working! Now that's what I can good Help.

I looked at all the setting that I had been through so many times in my futility. Nothing had changed. I can only guess that something in the registry was amiss and this method was able to correct it.

I have a program called Inctrl5 that tracks actions such as this and I'll see if I can use it to find out exactly what the Help feature did and if I'm successful, I'll pass the info along to you here.

 

OK, here's the results of monitoring all drive activity while changing the setting for autostart. The following two keys were changed as indicated:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Cdrom "AutoRun"
Old type: REG_DWORD
New type: REG_DWORD
Old data: 00, 00, 00, 00
New data: 01, 00, 00, 00

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom "AutoRun"
Old type: REG_DWORD
New type: REG_DWORD
Old data: 00, 00, 00, 00
New data: 01, 00, 00, 00

BTW, I'm running XP Home. I don't know if any of this is relevant to zip drives but perhaps it will give you some idea about where to look for the right key to modify.

Good luck.

 

Zehyr, Thanks for signign on. JMMF something tells me you are still around too.

You know that TweakUI offers the same choice to enable or disable AutoPlay, I makes no difference.

I think I am missing a registry value that is causing
AutoPlay not to function on my Zip Drive.

In the registry
HKEY_Local_Machine
Software
Microsoft
Windows
Explorer
AutoPlayHandlers
EventHandlers
GenericVolumeArrival

I have string value name "MSGenericVolumeArrival "

This is the handler registered to the
GenericVolumeArrival event. However, in the
AutoPlay "Handlers" subkey, I have no subkey
named "MSGenericVolumeArrival" Other handlers are
registered here that detail actions that devices should
take upon the arrival of certain media. I think the
absence of this Handler is why AutoPlay is not working on
my machine.

If you or anyone has WindowsXP Pro and has AutoPlay working on your ZIP drive and has the confidence to monkey around in
the registry, would you please check and see if you have
a MSGenericVolumeArrival Handler registered. If not, I
can stop chasing the this trail and quick monkeying around with this or look for other solutions. If you do, please let me know what string values and string data are set so I can try to rebuild
this registry key.

Thanks to all.

 

Zephyr,

Unfortunately your last post doesn't do it. I think AutoPlay on a CD/ROM is quite a bit different than on other removable media. I am not having any problems with my CD.

I have just about exhausted all ideas. Unless someone out there reads my last post and provides the missing link I think I give up. Thanks for your effort.

 

Well to all reading this post I am happy to say it is solved. JMMF/Zephyr cheers to you both. I had convinced myself the problem was in the registry and finally decided to take the great leap and install WindowsXP Service Pack 1. With the exception of long periods of blank screens and fears of the dreaded lockup on a blue screen, at the end the computer booted up and AutoPlay works like a charm. Thanks again to the two readers who provide there valuable time to work on this with me. To everyone else reading this post just remember never give up a solution canm always be found.

 

Great!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you found the problem. Perseverence is the key!

You are one of the few who have benefitted from SP1 changing the setting on his system.

Best regards.

 

Great news indeed. I agree with Zephyr that AutoPlay is not a thing so important nor vital to pull up your hair, but it's just it *has* to be possible to (de)activate as you wich. Supposedly, it's designed to do that.

[OT:] By the way, Zephyr: Where can I buy or download that little utility you referenced, Inctrl5?

I used to use WinZip's "Install/Try/UnInstall" add-on to track those changes, but in latest version it's no longer supported. I miss that a lot...

 

Hi jmmf

You can get Inctrl5 here

You'll notice it doesn't list XP as a supported platform but I use it with it and have not found any fault.

 

Thank You !!!

 

Do I must register in order to download it? No way?

 

Then try here instead.