Bios won't read cdrw drive?

I have had my system now for quite some years now. It is probably 7 years old.

AMD Athlon XP 2400
1GB DDRam
320GB Hard DRive
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
Asus K8U-X mobo

Those are my basic specs. Yes it does seem ancient but, 7 years ago it was a top machine. Anyways, a while ago I tried to format my hard drive and it wouldnt let me. A screen kept popping up when i went to delete the partition and create a new one that said "the proper set up files were not installed" so it wouldn't let me format it.

What I decided to do was purchase a new hard drive (its IDE and i got one new for $30 so pretty cheap), and I installed it and fired up the pc and when I went into the bios, the only thing listed in the boot order sequence was the new hard drive. Well nothing is loaded on it and I need to boot from my windows XP cd. It did the same thing with the old hard drive too. Even with the old hard drive in there, if i went into the bios, the cdrw drive was not in the boot order list; but when i used the computer, the cdrw drive works perfectly fine. it burns and reads discs normally. So basically I am not sure why the cdrw drive isn't listed in the bios boot order list? Really hope i could figure out the problem. Thanks a bunch guys.

 

Greetings, Spaniel1287.

Since the system is 7 years old, have you ever replaced the CMOS battery? I suggest removing the battery to reset the BIOS to defaults, and since you've got it out anyway, may as well replace it (if you haven't recently). Any good electronics shop, jewelry store, camera shop, etc. should carry a replacement battery.

 

Thank you I can try that. Any reason as to why my bios isnt reading my cdrw drive??

 

How do you have the HD and CDrw attached to the cables?

The HD on one cable and CDrw on a second cable is the usual setup. (I'm wondering if you have the jumpers set incorrectly and BIOS sees the CRrw as a slave device)

 

Are you saying they should be connected through the same cable or not the same cable? That could be the case. Although I dont think that it matters, the HD is an IDE and there is a cable that connects it directly to the motherboard. Then the cdrw drive has 2 connections off of it, one is the power supply for it, the other is a small connector that goes directly to the motherboard. And there is a slave1 or 2 option to plug into it. Does it matter which one its in?

 

It is the original 500w power supply. It just makes me so mad that I can't figure out why the bios isn't recognizing the cdrw drive. When it boots up, a black screen appears and it shows my sony cdrw drive too. So I'm not sure what to do.

 

Hi,

First, if it the original cdrw that came with the computer and you haven't moved it then it should be fine.

What I am asking is if you have the HD and the cdrw each on there own IDE/flat cable. So for each device one end of its own cable is attached to the device and one end is attached to the motherboard (the middle connector is empty on each cable).

 

The cdrw drive isnt on a flatcable like the HD is. I just took out the CMOS battery and put it back in and same thing happens. I go into my bios and the cdrw drive isnt listed.

 

Well I actually had a new CMOS batt that I just put in there, it did nothing. I actually have a DVD-rom drive that is just as old as the computer that connects via a flat cable like you were saying. The CDRW drive is only about 2-3 years old and doesn't connect via a flat cable like the other 2. Well I plugged in the DVDrom drive through the same cable as the HD, and when i went into bios, the DVDrom drive did show up in BIOS boot order sequence. I put in my windows xp cd to see if it would boot to it, and then a screen came up that said the hard drive couldnt be read.

 

Make sure the HD is set to Master via the jumper on the back of it and make sure the DVDROM is set to slave via the jumpers on the back of it.

 

Edit: Just saw your and Puppywunder's reply. Below is related to the original cdrw not the IDE/flat cable one.

Your CD is SATA so no jumpers to worry about.

I'm not sure why you are not seeing it.

Let me ask what else is on the black screen that shows the Sony cdrw? Is it a BIOS screen that also lists your HD?

When you say the drive isn't listed in BIOS, I guess you mean it is not listed in the Boot menu.

Try going to the Advanced menu>Chipset>SouthBridge>and verify the SATA connector is enabled. (I'm fairly certain it is if the drive works under Windows)

 

ok i booted up and hit the DEL key to get into bios. a black screen pops up with a lot of stuff on it here is some of it that oculd help you:

Auto-Detecting pri master.. ATAPI CD-ROM
Auto-Detecting pri slave.. IDE Hard Disk

Pri Master: IDE DVD-ROM 16x Ver 2.40

Pri Slave: MDT MD3200AAJB-00YRA0 (thnking this is the hard drive)

Then a little lower it says:
No IDE Master H.D.D Detected!
CMOS Settings Wrong
CMOS Date/Time Not set

 

I checked the southbridge options and SATA was enabled. Now I am in my RAID BIOS Setup utility and it shows:

Channel 1 master: TSSTcorpCD/DVDW SATA1
Channel2 Master: none

 

You have to put your HDD as a master. Check the jumpers of your HDD to do it.

 

I'm not sure how to change it. I only have 1 flat jumper cable in the pc. It connects the DVD-ROM and HDD to the motherboard. When it starts up, an AMERICAN MEGATRENDS logo screen pops up that says:

No IDE Master H.D.D. Detected!
Press F1 to Resume

 

Ok, I hooked up my old hard drive. and that same screen came up that i just posted. I clicked F1, and it started to boot into the windows xp installation set up screen (the blue one). I went through and got to the part where you can click "d" to delete partition. When i chose to delete the partition, it says:
Setup is unable to perform the requested operation on the selected partition. This partition contains temporary setup files that are required to complete the installation.

 

Your HDD and DVDR drive should have in their back a small section with pin's. There are the 'jumpers' (plastic plugs with metal sleeves that form a circuit between a pair of pins). You have to check the documentation of your drives to see how to set them to master/slave.

Do you know the brand/model of them?

 

I am sorry if I am frustrating you, i am not new to computers, but when dealing with hardware I am sort of new. What would you like the model numbers of?

 

So it booted up from the hard drive to the installation setup?? or you meant that it booted up from a installation cd?

 

None of that. I'm just trying to help. Yes, the brand (i.e seagate, western digital) and the model. just to check on the internet how to set master/slave jumpers for them.

 

Ok,

The SATA CDROM is OK the way it is hooked up.

Now you have one HD and one IDE DVDROM hooked up. There is a problem with them (jumpers or cables).

How many flat cables are you using? If you are using one flat cable. Then you have to change the jumpers and positions on the cable. Each device has a diagram on it showing the jumper settings for Master(m), Slave(s), Cable Select(cs). You want to set the HD as Master and the IDE DVDROM to Slave according to the diagram on that device(the jumper positions may be different so you can't just use the HD diagram for the DVDROM).



Then put the HD on the connector furthest from the motherboard and the DVDROM on the middle connector. The blue connector goes to the motherboard.

 

Sorry, I have not been refreshing this page enough. I'm going to hold off posting so as not to confuse things. I'll check back tomorrow.

 

I think I understand what your saying, but to connect my hard drive there is long flag cord that plugs into the HDD, as well as the 4 prong power supply for it, but then there is that middle one like you have the arrow pointing to in the picture. I dont see any cords in my entire case that plug into that, and I dont think my harddrive has ever had a plug into that. i was able to boot into windows on my old hard drive. Is there any kind of setting I should look for that is wrong or something since I can get into it now?

And yes the windows xp cd loaded up from my CDRW drive.

 

I finally see what you mean by those. In the picture that white cap can be moved to change the setting, is that correct?

 

Correct. In your hdd should be the diagram (like in the picture from sach2) to set it as master/slave. Setting the hdd as master and the dvdr as slave should solve the problem.

 

Its a western digital S/N WCARW5525078

 

the options are:

Slave, Master w/Slave Present, or Single or Master .....I believe is what it says.

 

I guess I can't stay away. You want to set the HD to Dual Master.

Then you want to make sure the DVDROM is set to slave according to the markings above its jumper pins. The HD goes on the end of the cable and the DVDROM goes in the middle.

 

Yup I did select that. I turned on the computer. And nothing changed at all. here is a question that I find confusing. With my old hard drive plugged in, I am able to boot it into windows. I put a cd in the cdrw drive, and it works perfectly fine. How can the drive work perfectly fine, but it isnt listed in the bios boot order sequence? It doesnt make sense to me.

 

Just see this post.
These are the settings for your hard disk drive:


Use the "dual master" setting. I believe that your hdd have 6 pins.

You are using one ide cable for both drives (hdd and cdwr) right?

 

Yup, I do have the jumper set on dual master. And no, the IDE cable connects the HDD and the DVDrom drive. The sata cable connects my CDRW drive. I do not think that they DVDrom drive works though so i unplugged it. Therefore, the hard drive is connected via IDE cable to the motherboard.

 

So you did set up the hdd as master and the cdrw as slave and put the installation cd into the cdr drive and it doesn't boot up?

What you exactly want to do?
(I'm sorry, I'm a lil bit confused right now hehe)

 

I can't set the CDRW to anything. My CDRW drive is connected via SATA and the back of it only has two things 1. the power supply cord and 2. the sata cable running to the mobo.

So where would I be able to set the cdrw drive to slave?

 

You right. I didn't know. You were talking about 2 hard drives and 2 cd/dvd drives. I got confused and mixed them up and I lost your main problem..

As u said is weird now that you make sure that it is as a master drive..
Also you said that with the old hard drive it recognizes the cdr drive and loads the install disk. Did you try with both hdd drives connected?

or maybe an alternative way to install the OS to it could be from an USB. Do you have any USB of 4GB or more available around there?

 

I have a 250Gb external HD?

 

what operating system do you want to install?

You wanna install it from that external HD? If so, be aware that in order to make it as a bootable windows install device you will have to erase all the data inside.. that's why it's better to do it from a USB.

Anyway here is how to do it: <snip>

 

I appreciate your help, but I don't have the windows xp files on my external hard drive that would allow me to do that. Anyways, thank you so very much for your help. This machine is over 7 to 8 years old and I am ready to just throw it in the trash. For some reason, it will not recognize my CDRW sata drive in the boot order list in the BIOS menu. For the life of me I can't figure out why. Tomorrow I am going to borrow another CD drive from a friend and plug it in and see if it will recognize that and maybe its the CDRW drives fault, who knows. I'm fed up with it and its giving me too big of a head ache. Thanks again guys.

 

I think we got off track in this thread by switching the equipment too many times during the process.

I think a basic step forward would be to disconnect all devices except the SATA cdrw and try to boot with the Windows CD in the drive.

Let's see what happens when there is no choice but to boot from the CD then we can figure out the HD problem.

 

Ok, now when you say disconnect everything...you what do you mean exactly? What about all the chips plugged into the mobo (vid card, sound card) or are you just meaning to unplug hard drive and only keep the CDrw drive connected?

 

Just have no HD or DVDROM connected to the flat cable.
So you only have the SATA (small cable) cdrw connected. Vid cards etc are ok. {We want to work with just the one cdrw to get it to boot--then we can add a HD}

 

Ok, I will do that now and I will post back what happens.

 

ok when only the CDrw drive is connected, when it boots up it goes directly to a black screen that says:

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key

 

I am able to go into the bios however also. When I do, the only thing listed in the boot order is the floppy drive.

 

Ok, found out something interesting. I took my sisters desktop and took out her cdrw drive, i plugged it into my computer and it isnt a sata one, it is an IDE cdrw drive. WHen I fired up the computer without the hard drive attached, it did read my sisters cdrw drive in the boot order sequence in the bios...maybe something is wrong with my cd drive?? I only have 1 IDE cable, and i attatched both the HDD and the CDrw drive to the motherboard and it wouldnt read the cdrw drive with it being connected thru the same IDE cable?? I don't have another IDE cable to plug in via separate IDE cables.

 

Hi,

I'm looking around to see if this is a problem with your particular board and have found several threads where it is duplicated. I have found no solution. It may be that at the time this board was designed it was assumed that the boot device would be an IDE device. I'm really not sure. You can look at this thread which basically explores all the options I can think of and has no solution.

*****
If it were me, I would now try to work with just your IDE DVDROM and the new HD. [Goal is a fresh install of XP on the new HD.]
Let's set the jumpers on those two devices.

What are the jumper options/markings on the new HD?
What are the jumper options/markings on the IDE DVDROM?

 

FIGURED IT OUT! Thank the lord! Well heres what I figured out:

I have my old HDD and the new HDD. I have a DVDrom and CDrw in my computer. I took out both my DVDrom and CDrw drives. and I used the old HDD with my sisters CDrw drive from her desktop. Bios recognized the CDrw drive. Well when i plugged in the old HDD it would only then recognize the HDD. I took the old HDD out, and put in the new HDD with my sisters CDrw drive and both were in the BIOS! Then I set the CDrw drive to be my 1st boot order and then turned it on and it went straight into the windows xp installation and there was no partition. So I just had to create a new one!

I think that solves it. So there had to of been something wrong with my old HDD and my CDrw drives being combined with each other or something of the sort. I just need to get a new CDrom drive and I will be good to go I believe. Thanks a bunch for your help.

 

I'm glad your working for now. I'll give a bit of an explanation.

For IDE devices you have a flat cable with three connectors. Two connectors are slightly closer together and the third goes to the motherboard. Even though the middle one isn't exactly in the middle I will call it that.

So the furthest away goes to the motherboard. The other end goes to the Master and the middle one goes to the Slave.

Now the jumpers have to be set correctly for the BIOS to recognize both the Master and Slave (The reason when switching things about and trying one at a time things worked is because most of your device's jumpers are set as Master.)

You can install Windows the way things are now but you should eventually make sure you have things set for optimum performance. The HD should be on the end with it's jumper set to Master. The IDE CDROM (whichever one you choose) should be connected to the middle with its jumper set to slave.

****
I realize you think your IDE DVDROM doesn't work but it may just be a matter of changing its jumper to slave and connecting it to the middle of the cable. When you do this you also have to make sure your HD is set to master (or if the HD you are using has a dual-master setting use that instead since dual just means that you will be using both a master and slave on the same cable-some do and some don't have the dual-master setting) before connecting it to the end of the cable.
****
One other thought is that once you are done installing your SATA cdrw will work fine in Windows but unfortunately can't be used as a boot device (as far as I can tell).

 

Thank you for your explanation. On my HDD, there isnt a jumper setting for strictly "master" though. It says Slave, Master with Slave Present, Single or Master.

Those are the 3 options on that the HDD says on it.

 

You would set the HD to Master with Slave Present and put it on the end.
Then set the CDROM jumper to slave (it will have markings above the jumper pins) and attach it to the middle connector. Both should be recognized in BIOS and this is the optimum configuration.

 

Great. I can try that with my current DVDrom player, im not sure if it will work. Thing is over 7 yrs old, thats pretty old to still be working. If not, i need to just find a good old CDrom drive.