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CD Drive works fine in DOS, crashes hard in Windows 3.11

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First post, by SteveC

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Hi all,

I have an old IBM PC330 486 in which the CD drive works just fine in DOS and OS/2 Warp 4, but if I start up Windows for workgroups 3.11 and try and access the CD (DIR in DOS window or File Manager etc.) then the system locks hard and I need to power cycle the PC.

I've tried the common oakcdrom.sys and the nec_ide.sys from a Win95 boot disk. I'm using MSCDEX 2.23 from DOS 6.22.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Steve

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Reply 1 of 5, by Jo22

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Hi! Is smartdrive loaded? If it is, it maybe needs double-buffering.

Please also try not loading the CD driver high.
Maybe there's some problem. Had this issue with vide-cdd.sys, on an older PC.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 2 of 5, by SteveC

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Jo22 wrote on 2022-10-06, 09:03:

Hi! Is smartdrive loaded? If it is, it maybe needs double-buffering.

Please also try not loading the CD driver high.
Maybe there's some problem. Had this issue with vide-cdd.sys, on an older PC.

Hi thanks for your reply 😀

I've tried disabling smartdrive already. I've just tried the not loading high but no difference 🙁

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Reply 3 of 5, by Jo22

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You're welcome.

I'm not exactly sure what's it then.

Maybe it has something to do with real/protected-mode issues, or memory issues in general.

Windows uses the area between 640KB and 1MB for all sorts of things, for example.

If you like to experiment, you can try doing some more things.
- use MSCDEX and/or EMM386 from DOS 7.x
- use QEMM 7 or higher
- use normal Windows 3.1, try both Standard-Mode (win /s) and Enhanced-Mode

- try the Micro House HDD driver.
It's not related to the CD drive itself, but it may keep Windows from freezing.
http://win31.de/eindex.htm

Good luck! 🙂🤞

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 4 of 5, by DosFreak

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Check the Windows 3.1 Readme.wri file for info on cd drive issues
Try a newer cdrom driver.
Try to running Windows 3.1 in standard mode to troubleshoot.

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Reply 5 of 5, by SteveC

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I can't run Win3.11 in standard mode, it's not supported.

But anyway I fixed it 😀 I tried multiple CD drivers and the results ranged from hanging on boot, to appearing to work but failing to read disks, to working in DOS and freezing Windows to finally fully working.
ATAPICD.SYS is the one that worked!

This is the CD drive I've been having trouble with...

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  • cd1.jpg
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/StevesTechShed
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