Computer doesn't "See" my CDROM nor DVD Burner

[lrs52200]

Hi.

Computer is running Windows Me 2000.  I received this computer from a friend, because it wouldn't boot.
On startup, the computer would give a NAV symevnt.386 error and suggested that I reinstall the program.  Couldn't do that since it wouldn't boot up.
I started it in safe mode and removed the offending software (it was NAV 2002 - how old is that?!), then I rebooted and was able to get to windows.
This "friend" called to find out my progress and then mentioned that the computer doesn't "see" either the CD Rom or the (internal) DVD Burner.
I rebooted and on startup, it finds the HDD (master), no slave, and also finds the CDROM and its slave - the DVD, however, when you're in windows and insert a disk - autorun doesn't run.  When trying to get it to run manually via start and entering the drive letter "E" - I am taken to a window having only the "A" and "C" drive options from which to open my program.
I went into CMOS and BIOS.  All 3 drives are shown there.
I thought that perhaps the CDROM was dead, so I replaced it.  On startup, all the lights go on - just like on the other CDROM so I know its getting juice.

The boot sequence is:  A, HDD, LS120

Does anyone have a clue about this issue?  When I was researching the NAV .386 error, I found pages stating that it is often caused by a worm, although symantec says it can also be caused by registry errors.  I wanted to install NAV 2005 but I can't because it doesn't read the drive.  I thought about connecting to the internet and going to the symantec page for assistance, but quickly discovered that the modem had been removed.  I have another one (conveniently) but I can't install it because the computer won't read the CDROM (won't read from the burner either, and I even tried an external CDROM).

[Fed]

Is this computer now your's or are you fixing it for your 'friend'?

[lrs52200]

Yes, the computer is mine now.  Please help me

(by the way, he only gave me the computer, not the OS disk or any of the other disks that came with the computer)  On one of the my other computers, I have Windows XP Home edition and I also have a Win98 disk running around here somewhere - but would uninstalling the OS and reinstalling a new one help???  Just thought you should know in case it came to drastic measures.  

[Fed]

I'd do a clean install with the 98 disk, you never know what problems remain from the previous owner.

[lrs52200]

Windows Me requires that you uninstall from the add/remove programs area - luckily for me, the uninstall option is there.  Will this give me a totally clean drive so that I can simply install windows 98?

(I've never used windows me before)

[Fed]

Follow the advice on this link.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000186.htm

Getting rid of ME is a bonus, Windows98 is preferred and Windows2000 is even better if your hardware is good enough.

[GX1_Man]

Sounds like you have nothing to lose by installing Windows again. I would sugges deleting all existing HD partitions, then recreating and formatting BEFORE doing the new install.

[lrs52200]

 Major problems.  Computer will not boot, won't allow me to enter setup, will not go into safemode - it just beeps and shows a blank, gray/green screen.  The computer has D-Led and shows the 3rd light from the board as red.  The other 3 are green.  Once you power on, the computer begins its incessant beeping and will not shut down via the power button - you've got to pull the plug.

Here is additional information (assuming that anything can be done at this point aside from junking the computer)

Motherboard:  K7Master-S (MS-6341) ATX Mainboard
Chipset:         AMD 761 & VT82C686B
Processor:     AMD Duron Processor with 3DNow (1050 Mhz)

  Can the computer be saved?  

By the way, when I used the uninstall windows Me option in Add/Remove programs, everything seemed to be going great, except that it did something weird when checking the files:

  Suddenly, after it ran through about 26000 files, the screen filled with errors:

"4528 The file C:\_Restore\temp\A1390341.000 cannot be created. Error code 3: Path not found"  This error ran in numerical order (4527 "..........." A1390341.000)    (4526 "........." A1390360.000)  (4525 "....."  A13903459.000)   (4524 "...."  A13903458.000)  and so on          

Then suddenly, it began to count files again (simply showing it counting, with a cursor at the right).

I went to bed at this point because it took more than 4 hours just to get to this point.

When I woke up this morning, and rebooted the computer (it said to reboot), it started with the safemode option.  The following is what happened with each option:

Option 1 - "NORMAL" - computer went to a completely blank white screen with "safemode" written in each of the 4 corners.  The screen was completely blank - not even a cursor or a pointer.

CTRL-ALT-DEL    

Option 2 - "LOGGED" - Registry file not found.  Registry services may be inoperative this session.  XMS cache problem.  Rgistry services may be inoperable this session.  Then it finds new hardware and attempts to install the driver (only reading from the A Drive, it still doesn't see either the cdrom or dvd burner).  Then I get a popup that says:  SURegCreateKey failed (with the header: Enum\HTREE\ROOT\O)  I click "ok" and it goes to a totally blank, white screen - no "safemode" in the corners this time.

CTRL-ALT-DEL

Option 3 - "Safe Mode - immediately goes to that blank, white screen with "safemode" in the corners.

 CTRL-ALT-DEL

Option 4:  Step by Step (in order, here is what I get:)

   Create a startup log file (bootlog.txt)?  I type "N"
   Enable Smartdrv disk cache?  I type "Y"
   Loading & initializaing IFSHLP.SYS driver.  Complete
   Load all windows drivers?  I type "Y"
   Registry file was not found.  Registry services may be inoperative for this session.  XMS cache problem.  Registry services may be inoperative this session.
   Override standard IFSMGR?  I type "Y"

It then begins searching for a driver for the hardware that it just found, then I get the ENUM\HTREE\ROOT\O "SURregCreateKey failed" and then it goes to a totally blank, white screen
If I type "N" when it asks if I want it to override standard IFSMGR it finds hardware and attempts to install the driver, can't find it, I get the ENUM\HTREE\ROOT\O "SURegCreateKey failed error, and then go to a blank, white screen
If I type "N" when it asks to Enable Smartdrv disk cache, it says "Loading & Initializig IFSHLP.SYS driver.  Complete.  It then asks:  "Load all winidows drivers?  I tried "N" this time, and then it said "override standard IFSMGR?  I tried "Y" this time, then it loads to a blank, white screen with safemode in the corners.
None of the 4 safemode options could help me.  In this screen, it also said (after the registry configuation error) "Warning:  windows has detected a registry/configuration error.  Use scandisk/reg to correct the error."  I found this a little amusing since I could not get to the DOS prompt.
I discovered that the jumpers were incorrect for the CDROM & DVD burner, CMOS had the ROM set for slave and the Burner for Master but the jumpers were just the opposite.  I fixed them.  Still didn't "see them" so I shut down.  Later on startup I got this beeping and here I am

This looks like a job for Superman

Update:  I just tried clearing the CMOS (reset the jumpers and removed the battery for 15 min.) to no avail.  Still getting the 1 second beep in 2 second intervals.

Help???

[lrs52200]

Yea!  Somehow when I started it up (for the zillionith time) I got to the startup screen!!!  Okay, I got a Floppy Disk(s) 40 Fail and then it loaded the default CMOS settings.  It gave me the option to either press F1 to continue or DEL to get into setup.  I opted for setup - does anyone know where I should go from here?
Also, on the D-LED thing - I still have that one red light - but I'm not getting the beeping anymore.

Does anyone know what I should do now?  When it started up, it didn't say anything about any of the drives (on startup it always listed the HDD, CDROM and DVD Burner)

I'm a little nervous to do anything at this point because I don't know what will happen if I press F1.....

 

[GX1_Man]

"...when I used the uninstall windows Me option in Add/Remove programs, everything seemed to be going great, except that ..."

You are trying to uninstall Windows ME from some previous operating system? Say this isn't so.

I think that whole installation is FUBAR'ed. Do you have a legal Windows ME CD to reload everything when/if the hardware is fixed?

I believe this is an MSI board so I would go their website and see if you can determine the LED question. It may or may not be a problem. The beep codes should be listed there as well (they should give you an idea where to look.) That is probably an overclocked Duron. I have heard of a 900 and a 1.1 but not the speed you describe.

Again, knowing what happened prior to all of this would be helpful.

[lrs52200]

Thank you for responding!  Again, something weird happened since my last post.  Not only is the "beeping" gone, but the red light returned to green and another light - closest to the board - turned red.  The Motherboard User Manual says this diagram means:  Testing RTC (Real time clock).

Here's what I'm thinking..........sooner or later, scared or not, I'm going to have to exit setup.  I've checked all the jumpers, connections and so on and I am confident that everything is where it should be and firmly seated, as well as the CMOS settings.

I'm not really concerned if the drives fry - I have more.  My concern is the board and frying it.

I figure that nothing I do from this point on is going to place me in a worse position than I am now, so I think I'm going to "save settings" and exit.

any last words of advice before I do this thing?

[GX1_Man]

Real Time Clock is your CMOS battery. This is a small round batery on the motherboard, cheap and easily replaced after a trip to a computer store or even Radio Shack.


After you change your battery, some of those CMOS settings will need to be check, as they will revert to default settings (like boot order, etc.) If the battery is bad, it will not save changes anyway.

So replace the battery and let's start again. What about those Windows questions I asked?

[lrs52200]

This is just not happening.  I know that I'm going to wake up any moment and the computer will work again!!

I went out of setup and the system started up again like before, finding my HDD, CDROM & Burner.  Then I get the Floppy Disk(s) Fail (40) error and am given the options:  Press F1 to continue or Press DEL to enter setup.  Being the adventurous type, I clicked F1.  Nothing.  Just a gray/green screen with a fast-blinking cursor in the upper left corner.

I shut down and the beeping started again.  I checked the D-LED and it reverted to the 1st error (3rd light from the board being red).  According to the user manual, this means "Boot Attempt - This will set low stack and boot via INT 19h"  

 :-?

So now I'm back where I started.  The system powers on, the D-LED runs its little POST scenario, the 3rd light from the board turns red, and it begins beeping - leaving me nothing but a blank gray/green screen...............

I reset the CMOS again by pulling the battery and resetting the jumpers (this is what I did just before I was able to get back into setup), but this time it didn't work.  Of course, it didn't work for the first 10 or so times I tried it before either..........I figure, who knows?  Maybe if I run through this another 5 or 6 times, I'll get back into setup.  But even so, it doesn't solve my problem because it won't boot and won't read from my CDROM so how can I ever install Win98???

Should I change the HDD?   Would that help??  

What does "Floppy Disk(s) Fail (40)" mean, anyway??  The drive powers up - as a matter of fact, so do the CD & DVD drives.......but my computer has become illiterate or lazy so unless it remembers how to read, I'm in trouble!

Superman?  Are you out there? :-/

[GX1_Man]

Post back after you change that CMOS battery. It could solve a big problem for cheap. If not, it was a valiant attempt. Not just remove it - get a NEW one.

We will await your post after that. Without properly functioning hardware, why would you expect anything else to work correctly?

[lrs52200]

I changed the battery.  Still no change