Pc won’t read cd or disks \ VOGONS

Pc won’t read cd or disks

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First post, by Xray1281

Posted on 2023-01-04, 11:13

Xray1281 Offline

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So I have had this retro pc for some time but I’ve been stuck for some time. Everything is assembled and in the bios it reads my disk and cd drives but when ever I put something in it does not read. I’m at a loss as to what could be the problem. I know my motherboard needs an update that I have on a floppy and I am trying to install windows 98 se on it but nothing reads. Any ideas or help would be wonderful.

Here is a link to my older discussion on this topic. I had other questions there but this is my main problem.
Configuration questions

Reply 1 of 8, by dr_st

Posted on 2023-01-04, 12:18

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CD drive could be bad. Or the power connector may be loose / faulty.

When you put a disc in - do you notice that it's struggling to read it for some time before giving up, or does it behave as if the tray is empty?

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Reply 2 of 8, by Xray1281

Posted on 2023-01-04, 18:52

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It behaves like the tray is empty. I have two cd drives in there any two floppy 5.25 and 3.5. I’ve taken them out and tried in every order I can think of. I’ve had only one in at a time and still nothing.

Reply 3 of 8, by dr_st

Posted on 2023-01-04, 20:08

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Xray1281 wrote on 2023-01-04, 18:52:

It behaves like the tray is empty. I have two cd drives in there any two floppy 5.25 and 3.5. I’ve taken them out and tried in every order I can think of.

And none of them work?

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Reply 4 of 8, by Xray1281

Posted on 2023-01-04, 20:43

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None. So I think I have something else wrong. I know the bios I have is messed up but I can’t update it because nothings reading. It registers they are plugged in but nothing reads.

Reply 5 of 8, by AlaricD

Posted on 2023-01-04, 21:01

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You haven't specifically said if the drive is assigned a letter in DOS. For a CD-ROM drive, it's not enough that the BIOS enumerates it-- it needs a device driver (such as SBIDE.SYS or CDMKE.SYS or any number of others depending on drive) and a network redirector (the latter typically being MSCDEX.EXE).

What do your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT look like?

Reply 6 of 8, by Xray1281

Posted on 2023-01-08, 04:01

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Sorry for the late response. Not sure what they are. Not the best at this stuff. I’ll try to find out. Thanks for letting me know about this.

Reply 7 of 8, by auron

Posted on 2023-01-08, 05:00

auron Offline

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so did you actually try to boot to DOS off a floppy? a good boot disk, like the ones that can be created in win98, will already have all the CD drivers in place so that you can launch setup off the CD drive. supposedly only the OEM CD of 98SE is bootable, which might be the issue here.

also just in case, make sure the master/slave jumpers on all of your drives are set correctly, and devices are placed correctly on the cable ("lone" end goes to the motherboard, other end master, middle connector slave).

Reply 8 of 8, by Xray1281

Posted on 2023-01-10, 02:33

Xray1281 Offline

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My copy of windows 98 se was sealed when I got it. It only had a cd. But i put the bios update of a floppy to update the motherboard and that didn’t read either. I’m really sorry if I’m doing something stupid here. I don’t know the tech very well but I really want to learn.

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