[PHILBO]

Could 'Lack of Ram' drive be stopping my CD rom drive from being recognised in the BIOS? Lost all restore points through 'Lack of memory altghough there is plenty (1 GB ram, small amount used for O/S on 'C' Drive even put 1 on 'D' drive. No DUst, cables all gppd. I have sudenly (2 wks ago) lost my CDrom Drive although it works fine on another computer. Jumpers are fine, cables all good, can connect through the USB, - Cdrom to USB, Operating systm all working but no Drives apart from the Hard drive (SATA) in Device Manager?

Starting to pull out my hair,Could it be a master control failure....Help please. Phil

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Welcome to Geeks2Go!

1GB ram is fine for XP unless you are into regular video authoring.. In any event your restore points (or how many there are at any one time) do not depend on how much ram there is. The number of restore points depends on (a) how much free hard disk space remains and (b) how much of that free space is allocated to System Restore (the default can be changed to a lower percentage by the user). You may want to check this:

Control Panel (classic)-->System-->System Restore (tab)
Click C: drive, then "Settings"
Adjust the slider all the way to the right if you want to allocate as much as possible.

However, even if you set it to maximum this won't help if your free space on drive C: is getting very low.
If the free space on drive C: falls to 200MB, SR will disable itself and all your restore points will be lost.
That's probably why you lost them -- don't confuse 'memory' with 'hard disk space' -- they are not the same in this context.

As for your CD drive, try fitting a new data cable to it. Does the cd-tray eject button work when the PC is running? If not, the power connector from the PSU is faulty. Try a spare connector from the PSU if there is one.

Edited by pip22, 18 April 2008 - 07:26 AM.

[pip22]

Welcome to Geeks2Go!

1GB ram is fine for XP unless you are into regular video authoring.. In any event your restore points (or how many there are at any one time) do not depend on how much ram there is. The number of restore points depends on (a) how much free hard disk space remains and (b) how much of that free space is allocated to System Restore (the default can be changed to a lower percentage by the user). You may want to check this:

Control Panel (classic)-->System-->System Restore (tab)
Click C: drive, then "Settings"
Adjust the slider all the way to the right if you want to allocate as much as possible.

However, even if you set it to maximum this won't help if your free space on drive C: is getting very low.
If the free space on drive C: falls to 200MB, SR will disable itself and all your restore points will be lost.
That's probably why you lost them -- don't confuse 'memory' with 'hard disk space' -- they are not the same in this context.

As for your CD drive, try fitting a new data cable to it. Does the cd-tray eject button work when the PC is running? If not, the power connector from the PSU is faulty. Try a spare connector from the PSU if there is one.

Edited by pip22, 18 April 2008 - 07:26 AM.

[PHILBO]

Thankyou for that, have changed the IDE cables, CDroms are working fine as i have used then through the USB ports to get into the computer. There is a conflict with a CDrom connected through the USB and any CDrom connected as normal through the IDE cable into the motherboard (jumpers changed around to bypass without success so are bring disconnected when the USB is plugged in.

On the BOIS setup, the 'BOOT' screen says that one of the IDE devices has been disabled (i have not altered the settings prior to to computer 'playing up' All setting in the BIOS are set to Default. Hard Drive, Floppy & realtec are recognised - that's it?

In Device Manager, IDE devices, under Advanced Settigs i noticed that the 'auto detection' on Primary IDE Channel Properties, Device 0 is half lit up?

Primary IDE Channel Properties;
Device 0
Device Type 'AUTO DETECTION' (is dimly lit - no access to it)
Transfer mode DMA if available
Current transfer rate

Device 1
Device Type 'AUTO DETECTION' (fully visable)
Transfer mode DMA if available
Current transfer rate

All the other IDE screens are the same, auto detection is 'on' - fully visable? Device 0 & Device 1 all ok.

SO how can i get the auto detection working normally, also no internet recognition -0 says No hardware? many thanks for this. Phil

[Ztruker]

Sometimes, powering off and removing the CMOS battery for 30 seconds or so, then putting it back, booting and going into BIOS Setup to set the clock and other options resolves this kind of problem.

[PHILBO]

Hi, thanks for that but have already tried that to no avail! i just don't know where to go with it! Phil

[Ztruker]

If it doesn't show up in BIOS then this has nothing to do with XP, it's strictly a hardware/BIOS problem.

Does your IDE cable have two or three connectors on it? One to connect to the system board, one to connect to a slave drive and last to connect to the master drive.

If so, how is the CD drive jumpered and which connector is it hooked to? If it's jumpered for master and connected to the last connector (one farthest from system board), try changing it to slave and connecting it to the 2nd connector.

Reboot, go back into BIOS setup and load defaults. Save, reboot and see what happens.

Any other devices (USB, Firewire) connected to the computer? Try removing them.

[PHILBO]

Thankyou for that! But have already done that several times, even changed the ID cable and back again, moved the jumpers around even changed the CDroms and back to the original? Have tried to always go back to the original st up! still nothing - no IDE devices in BIOS set up screen? thanks phil

[The Skeptic]

How many IDE connectors do you have on the motherboard. If you have two, move the flat cable to the second connection and see if it works. If you have only one then it's probably a damaged connector, bus or anything that is related to the IDE connection on the motherboard side.

[Ztruker]

What is the make and model number of your computer? Not something I ordinarily recommend but see if there is a Firmware (BIOS) update available and if so, flash the BIOS to the newer level. Perhaps, and I do mean perhaps, this will bring it back.

Also, have you tried another CD drive in this computer? I know you tried this drive in another but it would be worthwhile going the other way to see what happens.

[PHILBO]

Thanks both of you for that, i only have the 1 connector on the motherboard, so that could be possiable? and yes i have been looking and trying to take in the notion of flashing the BIOS? but on the first splash screen after switching 'on' i can't see anywhere anything about the version no of the computer? its a P.Bell imedia OEM (nearly 3yr old) with a Asus motherboard P5s800 VM/S Revision 0170, 6954470300. Also have tried other DVD rom drive, again only works through one of the USB connectors, nothing goes through any of the IDE cables! I do appreciate your help, all of you, Phil

[Ztruker]

There is a BIOS update for that board on the ASUS site. See here: http://support.asus....SLanguage=en-us

You need to make the selections since there is no direct link to the page that I can find. Just remember it's a socket 775 Motherboard P5S800-VM. It's dated 2007/05/29.

Looks like the tool to install it is the first link on the page once you get there.

[attachment=20081:asus.gif]

Don't know if it will make any difference but it's worth a try.