Fitting CD ROM to 486

[Holbrook]

I have been trying to get a CD ROM to work in a 486 DX2 66. I removed an old Mitsumi 2 speed with a CDROM card from another machine some time ago. Tried to put it into another 486 but cannot get it to work. I have downloaded the correct driver for the CD ROM but I get the message on start up that it cannot find the CD. The machine has one card that supports the HDD and FDD plus serial ports. the CDROM card calls itself a 16 bit interface card. I have tried to connect the CD on the same bus as the HDD but that causes complete failure to boot. Do I need a driver for the interface card?

Any other ideas?

[Ed_S]

Sounds like an old proprietary drive & card. Is the card a sound card as well?

Been trying to remember how those were set up. I think you may need a driver for it, or it'll have jumpers that must be configured. If you know who made the card, post it with any numbers on it, & someone will know what's needed!

Did this once as a workaround. Moved the HD to a different machine & copied the Windows install files to it. Moved it back, installed W95 from the HD. It found the card & drive during setup. Worked fine.

[user0005]

Still on the old 486 ey? Try collecting some $$$ and build a new system. And about your CD-Rom problem, it could be power supply or like the other guy said driver/soundcard. If it is the power supply, try unplugging the disk drive or other stuff that takes up the power.

[bdunn]

Those old 2x Mitsumi drives are proprietary devices. They require a particular driver and a special interface which was availabale on some older ISA sound cards or a tiny 8-bit card that came with hthe drive.

Good Luck,
Bruce

[Holbrook]

User0005 - I wish I could save up some $$$. i have built new systems and upgraded old systems. I have old 256k SIMMs and 45 MB hard drives. I can never throw stuff away! This time it was a request from a poor student to add an old CD to a 486 he had picked up for about £25. Took me about 5 hours and I failed. At normal rates that is about £200 ($320?) if I could charge for the time!

Ed_S I have asked him to send me the number of the card if he can find it. It was called a 16 bit Interface card and has two phono sockets for speakers. No Joy stick port.

[Romulus2]

I have one of those old proprietary 2X CD-ROM drives in a 386. It didn't come with its own ISA card so I just connected it to the IDE connector on an old 8-bit SoundBlaster I had lying around. Downloaded the right drivers and it all works fine.

If your "poor student" has a sound card, does it have an IDE connector (the ancient ones often do)? If so, try using that.

You shouldn't need separate drivers for the interface card; just the drivers for the drive should work fine.