IDE Controller not recognized.

[bruceb]

Not sure which version of Power Quest Drive Image you used
but only the 2002 version will work with Windows 98SE

I would seriously try a repair install of the operating system.
If that does not work, then try a PCI IDE Card in the system.
If that functions properly, the motherboard IDE Controller is bad.

[Ol'Tunzafun]

First, could you tell us which controller your harddisk is plugged into? I'm wondering because the harddrive is usually plugged into the primary controller but I know that some of those early Microns had SCSI drives in them.

[Faith007]

bruceb wrote:
Not sure which version of Power Quest Drive Image you used
but only the 2002 version will work with Windows 98SE

Drive Image restored the image file just fine. It is indeed ver 2002.

bruceb wrote:
I would seriously try a repair install of the operating system.
If that does not work, then try a PCI IDE Card in the system.
If that functions properly, the motherboard IDE Controller is bad.

I did try an IDE card. It works fine with no error icons in D.M. when I do.
The secondary IDE controller works fine too.

[Faith007]

Ol'Tunzafun wrote:
First, could you tell us which controller your harddisk is plugged into? I'm wondering because the harddrive is usually plugged into the primary controller but I know that some of those early Microns had SCSI drives in them.

A Promise Ultra IDE card's primary controller. That's faster than using the motherboard's IDE controller, since the PC is so old now. There is no SCSI drive.

BTW, when I did my Drive imaging, the image files were on a hard drive that I temporarily connected via the PRIMARY IDE connector (i.e., I disconnected one of the CD drives). And the image creation went perfectly. In other words, data was transferred from that Hard Drive through the Primary IDE controller to my main hard drive! Yet, once that was done, I saw the error icon on the controller in Device Manager.

[Ol'Tunzafun]

Ol'Tunzafun wrote:
If you again uninstall the busmaster controller, shut down the computer completely and unplug the IDE cable from the motherboard, will the exclamation mark reappear on the second reboot?

Faith007 wrote:
No. There were no error icons and both CD drive icons were there.

How could the CD drives show up if the IDE cable was unplugged from the motherboard? Did you have them plugged in to the secondary controller? In either case, if there was no exclamation mark on the primary controller then this suggests that the problem only manifests when the primary controller is under load. Maybe the transfer of all that data was just too much for the old hardware. It happens. That is the usual explanation for why we see PCI controllers in old computers. You're fortunate to have one in place already. I would just plug the CD drives into the secondary controller and call it a day.

[G Ray88]

It might be time to get a new computer older ones are fairly cheap and you should be able to fine something faster then 200MHz. I have a few older then that but sometimes they just die. Have you checked for bad caps?
Good Luck

[Faith007]

Ol'Tunzafun wrote:
How could the CD drives show up if the IDE cable was unplugged from the motherboard? Did you have them plugged in to the secondary controller?

No (that's on the motherboard too, after all.)
They were plugged into my Promise Ultra IDE card.


Ol'Tunzafun wrote:
That is the usual explanation for why we see PCI controllers in old computers. You're fortunate to have one in place already. I would just plug the CD drives into the secondary controller and call it a day.

Why not keep them plugged into the IDE card? That's faster than the motherboard speed on this old thing anyway.

[Faith007]

G Ray wrote:
It might be time to get a new computer older ones are fairly cheap and you should be able to fine something faster then 200MHz.

Do you know of any web sites that specialize in somewhat dated but still good hardware?

G Ray wrote:
Have you checked for bad caps?

What are they?

[Sterling_Aug]

http://www.badcaps.net

Check ebay.com or ubid.com for new/used/refurbed equipment.

[Imperion1]

Its WIN98se. Boot into safe mode, go into Device Manager, Delete all the IDE controllers. Win98se has a habit of creating ghost entries.
Have your Win98se cd on hand. When 98se boots, it may require the cd to reinstall the drivers.
Or, when asked for drivers, Try sending it to search in C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System

[Ol'Tunzafun]

Why not keep them plugged into the IDE card? That's faster than the motherboard speed on this old thing anyway.

That would be fine but not any faster, as CD drives only run at ATA33 anyway.

[Faith007]

Imperion1:

Thanks. I'll give that a try.