Windows 98 CD-ROM problem

[KneadToKnow]

I'm reasonably familiar with how things work (front-line tech support and network administration off and on for the last 11 years), but this one has me stumped.

I'm working with an oldish PC, a Dell OptiPlex GXa, BIOS firmware A10, Pentium II 266 (Klamath), maxed out at 384 MB RAM installed (I'm not trying to accomplish anything special, I just happened to have the chips lying around and it was easier to install them than keep up with them loose). Two hard drives and one CD-ROM installed as follows: IDE primary master: Maxtor 84320D4 (4 GB), IDE secondary master: Maxtor 91024D4 (10 GB), IDE secondary slave: Samsung SC-140B CD-ROM. The little hard drive has DOS/Windows 3.1 and Windows 98 SE (from a Dell Restore CD) on mutually-invisible primary partitions, as well as an extended partition with logical drives for DOS/Win31 apps and data. The big hard drive (which is also faster) holds a partition for swap files for the two Windows versions and an extended partition with logical drives for 98 apps and data. This was just the arrangement that worked best for what I needed.

Anyway, the CD-ROM works perfectly in DOS/Win31 and well enough to run a variety of Linux boot CDs, albeit with "IDE=NODMA" turned on. I don't know Linux well enough to know if that alone might be a symptom of something. In Win98, though, any CD-ROM put in the drive will result in Explorer not responding and both the CD-ROM and HD lights coming on and staying lit steadily. I can eject the disk to a blue screen and cancel out of that with little apparent ill effect, but I really would like to be able to access this CD-ROM drive in 98. I'm really getting tired of booting to DOS/Win31 to copy files off CDs, then booting back to 98 to use them.

Oh, and I've already replaced the CD-ROM drive once with an identical unit from a different machine to no effect. The previous one showed exactly all of these symptoms.

Last salient points, possibly suggesting a bigger problem with the IDE system: Maxtor's PowerMax diagnostics report that both hard drives are failing in the short test but certifies both error free in the long test. Dell Diagnostics tells me that SMART is disabled or not available on the little hard drive, which doesn't jibe with what Belarc Advisor and SiSoft Sandra both tell me when I look at their info. And last but not least, in the BIOS setup screen, the big hard drive shows up as "EIDE Hard Drive" but the little one (configured and connected identically) shows CHS numbers instead.

Could a failing hard drive bleed over onto a CD-ROM like this?

And I'm sorry, I know I'm presenting this as a hardware problem, but because the symptom is specific to Windows98, I'm really hoping there's an explanation that makes it a software issue.

[GX1_Man]

A lot of those older Dells preferred or demanded using cable select, rather than Master-Slave settings for all drives.

If not done lately, a new CMOS battery might be a cheap thing to try.

Then you might make sure that IDE 2 is set to Auto and None rather than Auto and Auto in the BIOS.

[KneadToKnow]

All very good info, thanks, GX1_Man.

Alas, the CMOS battery got replaced the first time I opened the case (it's a habit when I'm refurbishing old boat anchors like this). I originally had everything set to cable select and then re-jumpered it all to the current master/slave settings, I just forgot to mention that part. Aside from not recognizing the IDE primary master drive as EIDE like (I think) it should, the BIOS is showing NONE for IDE primary slave (correct). IDE secondary shows EIDE on master and CD-ROM on slave, as it should.

I guess one thing I could try that I haven't yet is setting the CD-ROM up as slave on the IDE primary channel instead of the secondary. I was trying to keep it off the channel the operating systems were on, but maybe I should try it and see what happens.