XP can't see most devices

[cyoung311]

I just reinstalled XP Pro on an MSI K7/AMD system.  I can see both HDD drives, anything on USB, floppy and CD.  I can't read from the floppy (says no disk present).  Loading a CD just sits there, trying to look at CD says no CD present.  I installed wireless PCI adapter and it found new hardware and loaded the driver.  The wireless configuration software can't see any adapter.  I have no audio from an audio card.  Device manager shows all devices and everything is "running correctly".  What could be causing this problem?  Anything in common here?

Thanks in advance.

[patio]

Did you re-install the MSI MBoard drivers ? ?

[cyoung311]

No, I haven't been able to do anything.  The system cannot communicate via floppy, CD or internet.  I tried installing some upgrades via USB storage but the upgrades all depended on SP2 and I'm using XP PRO from a CD I bought back in 2002.  Without internet I can't register XP or get updates to it.  Without the floppy I can't create boot disks, BIOS disk or MBoard driver loads so I'm kind of in a Catch-22 situation here.  What else could I try?

[patio]

Didn't you get a Driver CD with that MBoard ? ?
If the CD drive is not working double check your wiring connections.
You don't need to connect to the web to use a CD.

[cyoung311]

It doesn't really matter whether I have a driver CD or not, I can't read any CDs, or floppies, or networks...see previous posts.

[BC_Programmer]

you boot from the CD, just as you did to reinstall windows.

[cyoung311]

I do not have a driver CD.  Unless it's somewhere that I haven't looked yet.  I think I bought it back in 2002 or something... Perhaps I should make another bootable one from another system?

[cyoung311]

All of the MSI drivers sites I've tried want me to download the updater to fix my drivers.  I have no internet connection so I can't connect.

[patio]

Your machine is not working because all the proper drivers haven't been installed...
You have an MSI model # and they have the drivers.
The rest should become self-evident.
Does no-one you know have a PC ? ?

[cyoung311]

OK, I found the CD that came with the system but it won't boot from it.  I put the CD into my laptop and it looks like everything is there.  OBTW, I replaced the PS a few days ago but no help.  It now has a 450W PS.  I'm going to peruse the manuals from the CD amd then retry booting from it.  I went into setup on the MSI system and listed the boot sequence and it only offered HDD1, HDD2 and IOMEGA drive.  No floppy or CD!  Yet I booted the XP installation disk...

[cyoung311]

I unplugged the HDDs and it tried to boot from the IOMEGA.  I killed that and it wants a floppy so it at least it is seeing that.

[cyoung311]

OK, it just found the CD...let's see if I can get setup.exe to run.

[cyoung311]

Drivers loaded.  I have sound again but still no network.  Device manager shows card, linksys setup does not see 54G card.

[patio]

Power down and remove the card physically.
Travel to Device Manager and find the 54G device and uninstall it.

Do a few cold boots.
Restart and go online to the 54G manuf website for their drivers.

Since it's a wireless card i doubt the drivers were on the MBoard CD....the network device that's showing in Device Manager is your Onboard network chip.

Use the website and the cards serial # to locate the proper drivers and install them.
Re-boot and set up the wireless card .

[cyoung311]

I've done this a couple times already but I'll do it again step-by-step.  Device manager shows 2 network devices.  1=VIA onboard chip; 2=Wireless 54G device.  Inspection shows 2 different drivers.