I have an AMD 2.? Ghz chip. 200 gigs of HD and a Megs of memory. I am running windows 98. Tonight I got a DVD burner. I put it in the Master slot and the CD burner in the SLAVE spot. (I have a kinky computer). As I boot up, I get the usual splash screen, then a winking cursor, then a blue screen telling me there is a terminal error. I have changed the jumpers on the 2 drives, even took out all the CD drives and just made the DVD drive stand-alone. But no matter what I do, with the DVD drive hooked up, the computer just kacks. I futzed 3 ways from Sunday with the BIOS, It always recognizes the DVD drive, (it should its new) but windows 98 just will not boot as long as thing is hooked up. WHY? I don’t have the money to upgrade to XP right now, so forget it. Is there a work around?
There are jumpers on the DVD and CD drive themselves. Are these set to the appropriate positions?
On most systems, the cable actually labels master and slave, but the drive jumpers have to be set as well, (and it’s best if they match the cable position).
Usually drives you buy from a store have the jumper set at “cable select”, but drives that were preinstalled come set to “master” or “slave” (“master” if they’re the only drive on the cable). This combination is incompatible: you either need both devices set to cable select; or one set to master, and one to slave.
Windows 98-era BIOSes are likely very flakey about “cable select” (and may not support it at all), so you’ll want to use the master/slave combo.
Eh? How much memory? Windows 98 won’t run properly if there’s more than 512 meg in there (there’s a way around this). Then again, this problem shows up whether or not you have a DVD attached so I don’t think it’s your problem.
You might want to check your DVD manufacturer’s web site. I’ve seen some devices that have to have device drivers and such installed in some weird fashion BEFORE you attach the device, and failure to do so can hose up your system.
The “pre-install drivers” thingy only applies to USB, it’s a lazy way to get around Windows’ habit of “recognizing” USB devices that it doesn’t, really, and assigning them inappropriate drivers. It wouldn’t generally apply to an IDE device like an internal DVD, but it might be worth a try. Yank the drive, install the drivers, and put the drive back in.
I don’t have any good ideas; the device itself could be bad, it could just not be supported in Windows 98, or your BIOS could not like it. The error message is terminally generic, basically just saying “something went wrong, neener, neener.”
When you say “the usual splash screen,” do you mean the one from your BIOS (which probably says who made the PC), or the Windows 98 splash screen? If it’s the BIOS screen, it’s probably something about the device itself, but if it’s the Windows 98 splash screen, it could be drivers. You also might be able to boot in safe mode (F8 just before the Windows 98 splash screen), which could give us more information.
Also, is it Windows 98 second edition? An awful lot of devices that say they support Win 98 turn out to only support Win 98 SE when you read the fine print.
Do you have access to another machine you can try the drive in, preferably one with a newer OS? That would tell you whether the drive is bad or not.
TimeWinder has some good ideas. I like the first, 'cause it sorta jives with the error message you’re getting. (presuming you actually meant to type VxD)
I would check that all the cables in there are all fastened right, on all the drives, check that the RAM didn’t get bumped crooked, make sure all that simple stuff is right. Then, try connecting the DVD-drive into another computer and see what happens. The DVD drive itself might be bad. …If it works in other computers, then go to the manufacturer’s site and look for a support forum, or do a Google search for the model of the DVD drive and Win98. Any CD-RW or DVD-RW drive should work as a regular CD-read-only drive, even in Win98.
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I wouldn’t buy XP just to get this drive running; there’s no guarantee that would even fix the problem. You might want to just take this drive back and buy a different brand.
Thanks ** engineer_comp_geek ** I will read it after posting this.
Sooooo, I took the unit back to Fry’s ::cue scary music:: and exchanged it for another one. I’m too broke to get the next brand, (30 bux difference), we hooked up the new unit, it works! Then we checked the old unit, its “defective” (ya think?). I came home, installed it, (the new one), and I get the same damn error! I changed the ribbon cable, nuthin. I put it in stand alone, nuthin. I tried each jumper config, nuthin. I even tried it with out a jumper. Still get the blue screen of neener neener.
I am convinced it has to do with Windows 98 though because the BIOS is reading the drive just fine.
It may be something in my config, I took out all the CD drivers to see, nope. Is today the day I format and start over? A clean install might help, but MAN I do NOT want to do that. It would be a MAJOR pain in the butt.
Ok, I read the article. Very interesting indeed. Screwed around with various configs but to no avail (as you predicted). One interesting thing: My BIOS is reading 3 IDE slots, but I only have 2 physical slots on the mama board. If I could figure out how to access that third (virtual?) slot I may be able to hook the DVD there, no telling if it would work because it kacks using the second slot.
You need to understand why I am doing this. It is VITALLY important. I want to install GAMES! I bought a game that only comes on DVD. So now I am stuck with the game AND the drive.
A fool and his money are soon parted. I could just hang on to the stuff till I can afford XP, because The new mama board, chip, memory, hyper graphics and sound card are all wishing for the latest OS.
I’m just a die hard.
But let’s keep the suggestions going! I love problems like this. There MUST be a way! I can’t be the only one on the planet who has had this happen, can I? If I am I should think I am one lucky guy.
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