model 910

"mc" wrote in message
news:Up8qj.49868$K%.9178@trnddc04...
Ben thanks for your time on this..
Some questions:

1. What is the CD-ROM drive's jumper setting: CS, SL or MA? Look on the
back
of the drive.
I'll check back with you on this one??
Ok the setting appears to be MA...

2. What sort of cable connects from the motherboard to the drive? Does
it have
connectors for 2 drives or only one. Does it look like it has lots of
little
wires in the ribbon part of the cable, not as many? Compare with the
floppy
cable. If it looks like it has more wires, it is an "80-pin" cable.
Otherwise,
it is 40-pin.
The connectors are 40 pin for the cd and hard drive. There is a 34 pin for
the floppy.
These are single connector cables at each end, no connectors in the middle
of the cable.

There are 3 ribbon cables that connect to the 3 MB slots, each cable looks
the same...,
which brings up another question, how do I add another device in the spare
slot (DVD reader) since all 3 cables and slots are used?

3. Are the cables plugged in correctly, the ribbon cable at both ends?
The
ribbon cable has a red stripe which indicates pin 1 of the cable. Pin 1
has to
be aligned properly, not reversed. On the drive itself, pin 1 is by
covention
on the right of the drive, next to the power connector, if you are
looking at
the drive right side up from the rear. The orientation of pin 1 on the
motherboard must match the orientation of the hard drive cable, which
operates
properly.
I'll get back with you on this also??
Yes the cables have the red stripes in the proper position. I noticed that
on the mother board
one of the slots you plug into is white where the others are black plastic.
Is the white a conventional colr code?


4. Does the drive door open and close when you push the eject button?
At first the door did open and close normally, but not so normally with
the usb flash drive plugged in.
I noticed that the cd responds slowly to open (20sec), but closes quickly. I
also noticed behind the pb front cover there is another button
and a spin wheel on the cd. These are hidden so I do not know what they
do...

mc


I did pick up a 2004 used cd rom that I can try later (XM-6802B). Will
this newer cd rom work with the cables?

mc

I did pick up 2 remaining IDE ribbon cables with the center connector, so
what would be a safe model and power wattage to use to replace the LiteOn
90w power supply. Oh I also noticed the cd is also made by LiteOn (LTN301).
As a side question it says in the PB library on this computer that 512 MB of
Ram can be installed, I did not know these older machines could handle
that..

mc

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:52:52 GMT, "mc" wrote:

SNIP
There are 3 ribbon cables that connect to the 3 MB slots, each cable looks
the same...,
which brings up another question, how do I add another device in the spare
slot (DVD reader) since all 3 cables and slots are used?

If this is a garden variety motherboard, it has two 40-pin ribbon cables
for IDE
hard disk and optical drives and one narrower 34-pin cable for one
(nowadays)
floppy drive. As noted previously, a 40-pin cable may actually have 80
tiny
wires inside its ribbon, but it still has a 40-pin connector.

The 40-pin cables have one connector at each end, and some have another
connector in the middle, nearer to one of the ends. The two connectors
closest
together are meant for the drives, and the other connector goes to the
motherboard. Some cables have only a connector at each end. If you have
one
or more of this type of cable, you need to replace it/them, assuming that
your
computer's chassis has room for the type of drive you want to add. You
also
need to be cognizant of the power supply wattage. If your system has the
90-watt power supply you mentioned earlier, I know from personal
experience with
a PB system that adding another device can push the power supply past its
rated
wattage. When that happens, either the power supply shuts down the
system
(best case) or it burns out, also potentially burning out the motherboard
and/or
some of the devices. Definitely a worst case to avoid.

SNIP
I did pick up a 2004 used cd rom that I can try later (XM-6802B). Will
this
newer cd rom work with the cables?

CD-ROM drives and all other standard form factor optical drives work
interchangably. In other words, you can replace one with the other with
no
problem, and possibly add more capabilities (DVD read, CD write, DVD
write) in
the replacement drive. So, yes, the XM-6802B should work just fine. On
an
older, slower system, it may never reach its full rated maximum 52x speed,
but
who cares as long as it works reliably... Ben Myers


mc

Ok Ben I've replaced the Bios battery, the old one was at 2.9v, and I've
swapped out the cd-rom drive to the toshiba cd-rom, and I changed the ribbon
to a 2 connector ribbon and plugged the middle one into the cd with the end
connector unused for now.
I still get the error window 'drive not ready' retry, etc, but now it shows
the drive as D: and not Q:.
The drive door opens quickly now and it recognizes the toshiba as the
secondary master in the boot up window. So what is the next move? I wonder
if I need to type something in the msconfig sys tab area to force it to
work?
mc

It's a little odd that you get a drive not ready message from a known working
drive. That's with some sort of CD in it, of course. Drive not ready messages
are the norm if you click on the drive's icon without a CD in it.

Nothing in MSCONFIG will help. Here's my next suggestion to eliminate Windows
as somehow the cause of the problem.

Go to www.bootdisk.com and download the image for a Windows 98 boot floppy disk.
Prepare a boot floppy, boot the system from it, and insert some sort of data CD
in the drive. IIRC, that Windows 98 boot floppy assigns the letter R: to the
CD-ROM drive. From the A: prompt, key in the command R: , changing the drive
letter. Then key in the command DIR . If you do not see a directory listing
for the root folder of the CD, something is still quite wrong with the hardware.
If you DO see a directory list, something is wrong with Windows... Ben

On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:54:59 GMT, "mc" wrote:

Ok Ben I've replaced the Bios battery, the old one was at 2.9v, and I've
swapped out the cd-rom drive to the toshiba cd-rom, and I changed the ribbon
to a 2 connector ribbon and plugged the middle one into the cd with the end
connector unused for now.
I still get the error window 'drive not ready' retry, etc, but now it shows
the drive as D: and not Q:.
The drive door opens quickly now and it recognizes the toshiba as the
secondary master in the boot up window. So what is the next move? I wonder
if I need to type something in the msconfig sys tab area to force it to
work?
mc

What you've described seems normal. Some motherboard manufacturers color-code
the IDE drive connectors. It is more dependable to look closely at the white
lettering etched on the motherboard to see which is PRIMARY and which is
SECONDARY... Ben

On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:31:03 GMT, "mc" wrote:


"mc" wrote in message
news:Up8qj.49868$K%.9178@trnddc04...
Ben thanks for your time on this..
Some questions:

1. What is the CD-ROM drive's jumper setting: CS, SL or MA? Look on the
back
of the drive.
I'll check back with you on this one??
Ok the setting appears to be MA...

2. What sort of cable connects from the motherboard to the drive? Does
it have
connectors for 2 drives or only one. Does it look like it has lots of
little
wires in the ribbon part of the cable, not as many? Compare with the
floppy
cable. If it looks like it has more wires, it is an "80-pin" cable.
Otherwise,
it is 40-pin.
The connectors are 40 pin for the cd and hard drive. There is a 34 pin for
the floppy.
These are single connector cables at each end, no connectors in the middle
of the cable.

There are 3 ribbon cables that connect to the 3 MB slots, each cable looks
the same...,
which brings up another question, how do I add another device in the spare
slot (DVD reader) since all 3 cables and slots are used?

3. Are the cables plugged in correctly, the ribbon cable at both ends?
The
ribbon cable has a red stripe which indicates pin 1 of the cable. Pin 1
has to
be aligned properly, not reversed. On the drive itself, pin 1 is by
covention
on the right of the drive, next to the power connector, if you are
looking at
the drive right side up from the rear. The orientation of pin 1 on the
motherboard must match the orientation of the hard drive cable, which
operates
properly.
I'll get back with you on this also??
Yes the cables have the red stripes in the proper position. I noticed that
on the mother board
one of the slots you plug into is white where the others are black plastic.
Is the white a conventional colr code?


4. Does the drive door open and close when you push the eject button?
At first the door did open and close normally, but not so normally with
the usb flash drive plugged in.
I noticed that the cd responds slowly to open (20sec), but closes quickly. I
also noticed behind the pb front cover there is another button
and a spin wheel on the cd. These are hidden so I do not know what they
do...

mc


I did pick up a 2004 used cd rom that I can try later (XM-6802B). Will
this newer cd rom work with the cables?

mc

I'd feel a lot more comfortable with at least 145w, more preferably. Not sure
which power supply model to recommend, as I do not know its dimensions and the
pattern of the mounting holes. If it is 90w, it has a non-standard shape and
size... Ben

On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:37:03 GMT, "mc" wrote:

I did pick up 2 remaining IDE ribbon cables with the center connector, so
what would be a safe model and power wattage to use to replace the LiteOn
90w power supply. Oh I also noticed the cd is also made by LiteOn (LTN301).
As a side question it says in the PB library on this computer that 512 MB of
Ram can be installed, I did not know these older machines could handle
that..

mc

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:52:52 GMT, "mc" wrote:

SNIP
There are 3 ribbon cables that connect to the 3 MB slots, each cable looks
the same...,
which brings up another question, how do I add another device in the spare
slot (DVD reader) since all 3 cables and slots are used?

If this is a garden variety motherboard, it has two 40-pin ribbon cables
for IDE
hard disk and optical drives and one narrower 34-pin cable for one
(nowadays)
floppy drive. As noted previously, a 40-pin cable may actually have 80
tiny
wires inside its ribbon, but it still has a 40-pin connector.

The 40-pin cables have one connector at each end, and some have another
connector in the middle, nearer to one of the ends. The two connectors
closest
together are meant for the drives, and the other connector goes to the
motherboard. Some cables have only a connector at each end. If you have
one
or more of this type of cable, you need to replace it/them, assuming that
your
computer's chassis has room for the type of drive you want to add. You
also
need to be cognizant of the power supply wattage. If your system has the
90-watt power supply you mentioned earlier, I know from personal
experience with
a PB system that adding another device can push the power supply past its
rated
wattage. When that happens, either the power supply shuts down the
system
(best case) or it burns out, also potentially burning out the motherboard
and/or
some of the devices. Definitely a worst case to avoid.

SNIP
I did pick up a 2004 used cd rom that I can try later (XM-6802B). Will
this
newer cd rom work with the cables?

CD-ROM drives and all other standard form factor optical drives work
interchangably. In other words, you can replace one with the other with
no
problem, and possibly add more capabilities (DVD read, CD write, DVD
write) in
the replacement drive. So, yes, the XM-6802B should work just fine. On
an
older, slower system, it may never reach its full rated maximum 52x speed,
but
who cares as long as it works reliably... Ben Myers


mc

Ben I tried the boot disk but from the A prompt it would only change to C. I
tried R, Q, D, E, etc

So I rebooted and the boot menu gives 3 choices start with or without cd or
help file. So I tried theoption to start with cd and it proceede to load
drivers to what it said was the D drive so I changed to the so called D
drive and saw the directory files.
Any way I rebooted and nothing is happening any different than before.
I do see when I first power up the computer the cd light is flashing
consistently but when it goes to the boot sequence A/cd/c I do not see the
cd ever light up.

I'm still trying to figure out what this red icon in the lower right means.
It only says advance mode and right or left clicking does not open it. It
looks like an upside down submarine with a little blue dot in it?


Any other things I could try?
mc

Okay, you've verified that the CD-ROM drive is working, else you could not see
its root directory and contents. I think this boils the problem down to
Windows. Somehow, part of Windows got hosed. As I am terrible at fixing
complicated things I cannot see firsthand, my only suggestion is to blow away
the contents of the hard drive and reload Windows from scratch... Ben Myers

On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:37:29 GMT, "mc" wrote:


Ben I tried the boot disk but from the A prompt it would only change to C. I
tried R, Q, D, E, etc

So I rebooted and the boot menu gives 3 choices start with or without cd or
help file. So I tried theoption to start with cd and it proceede to load
drivers to what it said was the D drive so I changed to the so called D
drive and saw the directory files.
Any way I rebooted and nothing is happening any different than before.
I do see when I first power up the computer the cd light is flashing
consistently but when it goes to the boot sequence A/cd/c I do not see the
cd ever light up.

I'm still trying to figure out what this red icon in the lower right means.
It only says advance mode and right or left clicking does not open it. It
looks like an upside down submarine with a little blue dot in it?


Any other things I could try?
mc

I'm still wondering if there was previous setup on the external hardware
causing this. They had some coin counting software installed and this
external device on a parallel port (practical peripherals, PM1200SA Mini).
Do not know how it works but it has 10 little switches on the bottom.

Anyway...

Ok I think I'll stick in a used wd 20 gig to do this...I'm wondering though
I did not see a floppy with my cd does any one know if this 1998 cd (MS#
X03-94299, 368-00001-000) had an installation disk, if so could someone
e-mail it to me
thanks mc

A standard Windows 98 CD from Microsoft is bootable, provided the system
hardware and CMOS setup allow booting. If not, go to www.bootdisk.com ,
download the Windows 98 boot floppy image, make up a boot floppy from it. Then
boot from the floppy, switch to the CD-ROM drive letter, and enter the command
SETUP.

The file name you want to download is 98bot10a.exe . If you cannot get it, let
me know and I'll put it where you can download it. The file is 572KB in
size... Ben

On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:25:20 GMT, "mc" wrote:

I'm still wondering if there was previous setup on the external hardware
causing this. They had some coin counting software installed and this
external device on a parallel port (practical peripherals, PM1200SA Mini).
Do not know how it works but it has 10 little switches on the bottom.

Anyway...

Ok I think I'll stick in a used wd 20 gig to do this...I'm wondering though
I did not see a floppy with my cd does any one know if this 1998 cd (MS#
X03-94299, 368-00001-000) had an installation disk, if so could someone
e-mail it to me
thanks mc