BIOS cannot see CD drives

[slffl]

A few days ago, I installed a CDR program. After I restarted, the comp would hang while loading win98.

I disconnected my CDR because it seemed to hang right after the indicator light went off on the CDR during bootup. After I disconnected it, win98 booted fine.

I tried switching my CDROM and CDR around between master and slave to see if it was a hardware problem. Finally I put it back to the original setup of CDROM - master and CDR disconnected.

The next thing I know, the 2 CD drives are not showing up on the drive list right at the start of bootup. I go into BIOS setup and under the secondary drives, the auto setting is not detecting them (it was before).

I thought it might be a virus doing this, so I scanned, found win95.CIH, and cleaned. Didn't fix it. I also flashed my Dell bios (Dell bios doesn't have option to change autodetect as some ppl have suggested) to the latest, nothing. And I've also put a new cable on the CD drives.

Does anyone here know if my problem is more likely hardware or software (virus? don't think it's a driver prob). If I use this same HD in a new system, is it likely to screw up the BIOS in the new motherboard if the virus is still somehow on the HD?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

[CMonster]

CIH is a nasty virus, it is possible, though not entirely likely, that your BIOS is corrupt and so is your hard drive.

I am not familiar with "Dell" computers so I do not know if they have BIOS extensions on the hard drive, but if so they could be corrupt. I suggest that you get in touch with "Dell" about your problem. There may be other people having the same problem.

[steves]

I have a Dell motherboard and a couple of months ago installed a 10Gb IBM drive. With the IBM drive plugged in (in place of the old drive) the BIOS no longer detects the CD on power-up. I tried flashing the latest BIOS but still nothing.

Win98 still boots fine and I can access the CD from Win98/Win98 DOS box and old DOS 6.2 boot disc, so all is OK and it appears that the drivers do all the work and nothing minds that the BIOS didn't autodetect the CD.

I suspect my problem is because the BIOS only supports <8.4Gb drives and having autodetected something bigger skips the rest of the autodetect (once EZ-drive has loaded all 10Gb can been seen).

I guess the point of all this is try ignoring the fact that it doesn't autodetect the drives. Will Win98 boot with just the CD connected, if so delete and re-install the CDR drivers and try again.

P.S. There were no BIOS extensions on the hard drive on my Dell (although I suppose you could count EZ-drive now).

P.P.S. Is CIH really BIOS resident and/or can it survive a re-flash?