secondary ide connection issue....

[blaze77]

I have a very puzzling situation.

Dell Dimension 4400
Running Windows XP


When a CD-Rom drive is connected to the Secondary IDE (either master or
cable-select), Windows XP Home Edition will not boot. When it gets to
the Widnows XP logo screen, the computer just hangs for hours and hours.
The computer will not boot into safe mode either.

When I disconnect the CD-Rom drive, everything works fine. I tried
connecting several other CD-Rom drives that I know work and I get the
same result. I can boot from disk with the drive so I know it's
connected, but Windows will not load. I tried a different IDE cable,
same result. I tried connecting a Zip Disk 250 and that works just
fine. The problem is narrowed down to just the CD-Rom drives. I tried
updating the ide controller and that didn't fix it. I also made sure I
was using the most current Bios on my PC.

ANY SUGGESTIONS? This situation seems odd to me.

 

[alan]

Are you certain that your hard drive is plugged in to the primary IDE
connection on the motherboard? If so check your bios for boot sequence and
set your hard drive as first boot device.

 

[blaze77]

Are you certain that your hard drive is plugged in to the primary IDE
connection on the motherboard? If so check your bios for boot sequence and
set your hard drive as first boot device.

Yes, the hard drive is in primary and the boot sequence is

1. Floopy
2. Hard Drive
3. CD-Rom

So it should work.

 

[Anna]

Are you certain that your hard drive is plugged in to the primary IDE
connection on the motherboard? If so check your bios for boot sequence and
set your hard drive as first boot device. --
alan

Yes, the hard drive is in primary and the boot sequence is

1. Floopy
2. Hard Drive
3. CD-Rom

So it should work.

blaze77:
First of all...

Has this problem just arisen "out-of-the-blue", i.e., one day your Dell was
working just fine with your present components - the HDD and the optical
drive - and then the next day this problem just arose?

Or did you make some hardware and/or software changes of one sort or another
just before the problem you describe arose?

Have you tried connecting the optical drive as a Slave on your Primary IDE
channel just to see what happens?

And what about connecting that optical drive as a Slave on the Secondary IDE
channel? Still a problem?

And what do you mean when you say you "updat(ed) the ide controller"?

Have you mentioned this problem to Dell's tech support?
Anna

 

[blaze77]

blaze77:
First of all...

Has this problem just arisen "out-of-the-blue", i.e., one day your Dell was
working just fine with your present components - the HDD and the optical
drive - and then the next day this problem just arose?

Or did you make some hardware and/or software changes of one sort or another
just before the problem you describe arose?

Have you tried connecting the optical drive as a Slave on your Primary IDE
channel just to see what happens?

And what about connecting that optical drive as a Slave on the Secondary IDE
channel? Still a problem?

And what do you mean when you say you "updat(ed) the ide controller"?

Have you mentioned this problem to Dell's tech support?
Anna

I currently have the CD-Rom drive as a slave on the primary IDE since
nothing else seemed to work. But now my computer can;t find the drive
for it. Before it was using the generic drivers that came with Windows
XP. Is there anyway to get the drivers back to factory settings?

 

[blaze77]

I have a very puzzling situation.

Dell Dimension 4400
Running Windows XP


When a CD-Rom drive is connected to the Secondary IDE (either master or
cable-select), Windows XP Home Edition will not boot. When it gets to
the Widnows XP logo screen, the computer just hangs for hours and hours.
The computer will not boot into safe mode either.

When I disconnect the CD-Rom drive, everything works fine. I tried
connecting several other CD-Rom drives that I know work and I get the
same result. I can boot from disk with the drive so I know it's
connected, but Windows will not load. I tried a different IDE cable,
same result. I tried connecting a Zip Disk 250 and that works just
fine. The problem is narrowed down to just the CD-Rom drives. I tried
updating the ide controller and that didn't fix it. I also made sure I
was using the most current Bios on my PC.

ANY SUGGESTIONS? This situation seems odd to me.

I found the solution finally. I had to edit the registry to get things
to work. Now everything works perfectly.

Here's the fix that worked for me:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q314060

Now Windows will boot up with the CD-Rom as the master on the secondary
IDE again! Thanks goodness I finally found a solution that worked!