A question for the hardware gurus please!

[mrc]

Hi there,

This is not FS related but a hardware question!
I recently installed an ADSL PCI modem. This works fine but sometimes when I boot up my computer, drives E and F (CD and DVD ROM drives) do not show up in My computer and they will not work! Some kind of conflict ?? Other times when I boot up everything is OK!
I have checked all my cables etc, to make sure there were no loose connections, also I recently installed a new hard drive, but I know it is not related to this as it was also happening with my old hard drive.

Please can anyone shed any light onto this problem – it has been really annoying me now for about 3 months!!


Athlon 1.3Ghz
512 SDRAM
GeForce 2 Graphics
Win 98SE
40Gb Fujitsu HD
Dynamode ADSL PCI modem

Thanks,

Alex.

[wsieffert]

Are you indicating the ADSL PCI modem is causing the problem or did the problem occur before installing the modem?

Are both the CD and DVD drives on the same bus? If so, try removing one of the drives to see if the same problem occurs. Sometimes two CD drives don't work well on the same bus.

Check BIOS to see how the drives are listed.

W. Sieffert

[mrc]

Hello Mr Sieffert,

Yes, the problem was caused when the modem was installed, the 2 drives worked fine before that.
I cannot understand though why sometimes everything works fine, other times only the modem will work on boot up.

Regards,

Alex.

[wsieffert]

Open device manager and review what IRQs are being used for the NIC and the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Generally, the primary IDE channel uses IRQ 14 and the secondary IDE channel uses IRQ 15. If the NIC is use 14/15 try moving the NIC to a different slot.

You might even want to delete the NIC from the Device Manager menu, shut down the computer, remove the NIC, reboot, and see if the problem arises with the NIC removed. Since it is intermittent, it may be a pain to troubleshoot.

Place the NIC in a different slot, restart the computer and see if it automatically recognizes the NIC. See if the IRQ is now different.

W. Sieffert

[mrc]

Thanks for that info. I will try what you have suggested, but what is NIC?

Regards,

Alex.

[wsieffert]

NIC - Network Interface Card, i.e., your Network on-board or card that you plug your Network cable into.

W. Sieffert

[TheFlightMan]

I've seen this myself with Windows 98 and can tell you that it is not related to the installation of your ADSL network card. Go to Microsoft's knowledge base and look up disappearing drives under Windows 98. You will find numerous articles. Don't go changing IRQ's, you will regret it later. If you can, I highly recommend you start thinking about moving to Windows XP.

TheFlightMan

[wsieffert]

I wasn't suggesting moving IRQs but move the ADSL card to a different slot and see if it used a different IRQ, ONLY IF, the ADSL was using IRQ 14/15, which are the Primary/Secondary IDE IRQs.

W. Sieffert

[zoynyne]

On another note - it is very well known that internal PCI modems for DSL are very problematic and undesirable devices.

Particularly on win98.

But are we sure this is indeed a MODEM, or is this just a NETWORK CARD that connects to an EXTERNAL modem?

If this truly is one of those INTERNAL MODEMS I'd instantly recommend contacting the ISP and demanding an external ethernet modem. For more than a few reasons.

I have never ever seen positive experiences with that type of hardware.

[mrc]

Hi all,

I have tried moving the card to a different slot - when I do this everthing works OK UNTIL you turn the PC off. Then next time you boot up the CD / DVD ROM drives have disappeared again!!

zoynyne : Yes it is a modem, not a network card.

Also I have tried looking in the Microsoft Knowledge base for disappearing drives but cannot find any subject which relates directly to this problem.

Any more ideas folks!

Thanks Alex.