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First post, by thenix

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Hello everyone. I have an IBM Thinkpad T23 that runs Windows 98 naturally (It has drivers for it and all on their webpage still) I installed and had windows 98 SE running fine for several days. Several days later I turned it on again and now it doesn't recognize that it has a DVD Drive at all. Even in the Device Manager it doen't show anything. There are a few devices without drivers "Primary IDE Controller" "PCI System Management Bus" but I'm pretty sure that's not them either. Heck I can even physically take the drive out and put it back in and windows doesn't recognize a new device is being plugged in. It does get power and tries to read a CD I put in but Windows 98 doesn't see any of this. Is there something I'm missing with trying to get this to work? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Reply 1 of 16, by darry

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Does it work in pure DOS with DOS drivers ?

That said, if your DVD-ROM is connected to the "Primary IDE Controller" and Windows has an issue with "Primary IDE Controller", it's not surprising it does not work in Windows .

Reply 2 of 16, by thenix

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darry wrote on 2020-06-08, 20:07:

Does it work in pure DOS with DOS drivers ?

That said, if your DVD-ROM is connected to the "Primary IDE Controller" and Windows has an issue with "Primary IDE Controller", it's not surprising it does not work in Windows .

I was wondering if that was the case. The computer has a standard dual PCI IDE controller which has drivers and is working, it also has Primary and Secondary IDE Controller which have a caution sign. Now that I look at it it says it's using microsoft provided drivers even though it's not working. I have the drivers from IBMs website but when I try to install it says the drivers it's using is already the best drivers.

Reply 3 of 16, by thenix

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In just DOS mode it doesn't recognize any other drives either/

Reply 4 of 16, by darry

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thenix wrote on 2020-06-08, 20:33:

In just DOS mode it doesn't recognize any other drives either/

Have you loaded the DOS drivers ?

The simplest way to test in DOS, would be to use Windows to create a bootable floppy . It will have the drivers required for DOS . You will find the option to create such a floppy in Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs --> Startup Disk (tab) .

EDIT : Just to be clear the idea is to find out whether your DVD-ROM has a hardware issue or whether it's just Windows having a fit .

Reply 5 of 16, by MAZter

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Does it recognized in the Bios?

Doom is what you want (c) MAZter

Reply 6 of 16, by chrismeyer6

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If you put a bootable cd in can you boot from it?

Reply 7 of 16, by jakethompson1

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I'm not sure if a T23 is old enough to use it, but do you have the ThinkPad configuration utility installed?
This is the "ps2" command at the DOS prompt, or the Windows GUI version.
Maybe you have something disabled.

Reply 8 of 16, by schmatzler

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Have you put it out of the Ultrabay and back in just to make sure?

Trying to boot from it is the best idea to rule out a software issue.

"Windows 98's natural state is locked up"

Reply 9 of 16, by thenix

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jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-06-08, 21:41:

I'm not sure if a T23 is old enough to use it, but do you have the ThinkPad configuration utility installed?
This is the "ps2" command at the DOS prompt, or the Windows GUI version.
Maybe you have something disabled.

The configuration utility was bigger than a floppy could hold so I couldn't get it over. I did want to try that though.

Reply 10 of 16, by thenix

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schmatzler wrote on 2020-06-08, 22:01:

Have you put it out of the Ultrabay and back in just to make sure?

Trying to boot from it is the best idea to rule out a software issue.

I have pulled it out and put it back in. It wasn't too hard, I did it a few times. There is even a light on the bezzel that shows if it is in and all so that seems to be fine. I'm going to try to boot to cd from it now.

Reply 11 of 16, by thenix

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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-06-08, 20:52:

If you put a bootable cd in can you boot from it?

OK I put in the Win98 cd and it booted to it. I started from the CD and went to dos with CD support and it's able to access the cd drive fine. So it is something in windows.

Reply 12 of 16, by thenix

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MAZter wrote on 2020-06-08, 20:46:

Does it recognized in the Bios?

I've looked through the bios several times now, there aren't any settings for the cd rom besides it's boot priority and setting it's speed in the power settings. I think that's kind of weird but I guess because it's not needed?

Reply 13 of 16, by jakethompson1

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thenix wrote on 2020-06-08, 22:06:

The configuration utility was bigger than a floppy could hold so I couldn't get it over. I did want to try that though.

It sounds like you have at least the hardware part of this resolved, but it's worth mentioning both for this and potentially the benefit of others.

On DOS/Windows it's very easy to reassemble parts of a file into one, e.g.:

copy /b part1+part2+part3 original.zip

Splitting a file into pieces? Linux/Cygwin have a "split"command for that. I don't think there is a built-in DOS/Windows command, but surely there are freeware utilities. There's always Windows Subsystem for Linux, too.

Reply 14 of 16, by thenix

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jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-06-08, 23:10:
It sounds like you have at least the hardware part of this resolved, but it's worth mentioning both for this and potentially the […]
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thenix wrote on 2020-06-08, 22:06:

The configuration utility was bigger than a floppy could hold so I couldn't get it over. I did want to try that though.

It sounds like you have at least the hardware part of this resolved, but it's worth mentioning both for this and potentially the benefit of others.

On DOS/Windows it's very easy to reassemble parts of a file into one, e.g.:

copy /b part1+part2+part3 original.zip

Splitting a file into pieces? Linux/Cygwin have a "split"command for that. I don't think there is a built-in DOS/Windows command, but surely there are freeware utilities. There's always Windows Subsystem for Linux, too.

I can put it on a cd and use win98 boot cd to put it on my HDD and then go from there. Will give that a try

Reply 15 of 16, by chrismeyer6

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If you were able to boot from it then hardware wise everything is fine. It has to be a software or configuration issue within windows.

Reply 16 of 16, by thenix

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after almost 24 hours without knowing what to do I went ahead and just did a reinstallation of Windows. Now I already have a Windows 98 Desktop so I put Windows ME on this laptop which was fun. It went much smoother and it's seeing the DVD drive no problem.