Thanks Mart, one can never know too much about it or any subject, for that
matter.

Harry.


"Mart" wrote in message
...
Harry wrote :-

Pardon me for butting in, Mart, but I seem to
recall quite some time back running into
trouble when trying to install a new DVD drive.
I didn't remove the old drivers in device
manager before removing the old CD-ROM.
It is important that one does so in order to
avoid complications. Can you verify?

Good point Harry, but 'normally' it wouldn't affect CD-ROM/DVD's because
they all (well - nearly all) rely on the same MS WinMe drivers. (Not DOS
drivers of course - as they're on the floppy disk). However, in this case
I
think bagger has already confirmed that there are no Drivers shown in
Dev.Man in Safe Mode in WinMe as he'd already "Removed" them earlier. But
its not a bad habit to get into.

Whenever I "Remove" hardware using Dev.Man from a WinMe pc, I always do it
in Safe Mode - it lets me confirm that there are no other 'rogue' devices
and their drivers which have been previously enumerated being left lurking
there to cause future issues. (Something you can't so easily do in Normal
Mode. Normal Mode only shows the current 'working' driver.)

Mart



"webster72n" wrote in message
...

"Mart" wrote in message
...
Ah! - Progress!

So, you should now recheck Corday's initial advice :-
Open case and check that all cables (between your CD-ROM and the
motherboard) are in place and tight.

As things stand, your motherboard is not seeing your CD-ROM (so there's
no
way that WinMe would!) So, if necessary, confirm that your CD-ROM is
'Enabled' in your BIOS - but I see no reason why this could have become
'Disabled' from what you have already described. So, sadly it sounds
very
much like a dead CD-ROM - see final para. below.

Now to :-
also, booting with cdrom support before the A: prompt, the following
messages;
The diagnostic tools were successfullyloaded to drive D.
Device driver not found 'MSCD001'
No valid CDROM device drivers selected
There may be a problem with your CD-ROM
Vol in drive D is MS-RAMDRIVE

This confirms the previous comments in that Real Mode DOS also does not
see
the CD-ROM drive.

But be aware, the D: drive that you are seeing is the RAMDRIVE (an area
in
RAM memory temporarily reserved (about 4MB of it, IIRC) by the startup
disk
utility for 'workspace' to enable the various startup program utilities
to
operate in) No operations (at this point in time) take place on your C:
drive so the only place left is the little bit of reserved RAM.

In fact, had your CD-ROM been working, those 'boot messages' would have
advised you that the CD-ROM would probably have been designated E: (not
D:
as I had given as an *example* - my bad!)

So, next step is obtain a new replacement CD-ROM (you may as well buy a
burner - even a DVD burner (and associated software) as they are not
very
much dearer than a CD-ROM drive. Then remove the old and fit the new.
Not
a
particularly difficult DIY task.

Pardon me for butting in, Mart, but I seem to recall quite some time
back
running into trouble when trying to install a new DVD drive. I didn't
remove
the old drivers in device manager before removing the old CD-ROM. It is
important that one does so in order to avoid complications.
Can you verify?

Harry.


Good luck

Mart



"bagger" wrote in message
...
are you saying the tray won't open with the pb and you need to use
the
hairpin technique?

yes, by checking the 2nd time.

the contents of the CD when you use the DIR command in Real Mode
DOS)?

Ah, a closer look, doesn't show the contents of the cd, but the
directory
of
some system files.
also, booting with cdrom support before the A: prompt, the following
messages;
The diagnostic tools were successfullyloaded to drive D.
Device driver not found 'MSCD001'
No valid CDROM device drivers selected
There may be a problem with your CD-ROM
Vol in drive D is MS-RAMDRIVE

So hold fire (for the moment) and clarify the above before you
re-install
WinMe!!

I wouldn't do this until completely understanding the procedure.




"Mart" wrote:

Hold fire!! - Is this the real clue?

Manually as in pressing the button on its front panel?
sorry, i didn't clarify, door won't open with the pb(it did before
the
problem). had to use the hairpin technique.

Now this puts a completely different complexion on things.

Please clarify further :-
1. When in Real DOS mode (i.e. booting from the start-up floppy) and
with
CD-ROM support, at the A:\ prompt, are you saying the tray won't
open
with
the pb and you need to use the hairpin technique?

If so, you certainly have a faulty mechanism with your CD-ROM and
that
issue
alone is just cause for the need of a replacement CD-ROM

However, please also clarify :-
2. If 1. above is true, are you also saying that you CAN
successfully
complete the second course of action in my previous post (i.e you
can
see
the contents of the CD when you use the DIR command in Real Mode
DOS)?

So hold fire (for the moment) and clarify the above before you
re-install
WinMe!!

Mart



"bagger" wrote in message
...
Again thks to Mart & Corday for the time.
History- i know just enough to be dangerous.
this system OEM had a problem 4 yrs ago where a Dell tech had me
install
win
ME over itself where according to Noel Paton & Mike M created
version
soup.
After some painstaking days & with use of Noel's procedure of
reinstalling
IE6, it purred like a kitten. I will say I've been getting some
errors
on
occasion in the last year or so similar to those days, but nothing
like
what
has happened with the cdrom in the last 2 weeks.

(well, quickest and easiest) solution
with me as an operator may not be true

aspi2dos.sys was missing
that is from on making a start up disk from add/remove dialog box

need to create a boot disk?
after the original lockup due to the picture cd, thought it wasn't
going
to
boot normally. took 60 sec between dell logo & windows.

then what were you thinking of doing with the boot disk?
don't know, just stabbing for answers.

as in it didn't restore at all?,
yes, once i booted & found cdrom not working thought to do a sys
restore
to
an earlier date (2). sys restore told me not successful. should
have
created a date & tried from that, but me being a dummy installed
the
patch
which lost all previous dates. After the patch created a date &
sys
restore
worked.

clarify exactly which CD-ROM
the original cdrom that came with the system is read only which
has
the
problem. I tried to purchase from Dell a r/w to replace the read
only
after
about 4 yrs ago. They didn't have a Dell replacement, so I bought
a
periphal
usb connected with burner software (nero) No DVD on this system

Manually as in pressing the button on its front panel?
sorry, i didn't clarify, door won't open with the pb(it did before
the
problem). had to use the hairpin technique.

then it won't show if WinMe didn't re-detect and install it when
you
re-booted (into Normal Mode)
OK, i understand.

Which brings us back to a 'faulty' (damaged or missing system
files)
WinMe
installation.
Any suggestions on procedures to do this?




"Mart" wrote:

Bagger, on the face of it, I have to agree with Corday that clean
install
of
WinMe may be your only (well, quickest and easiest) solution. It
would
certainly appear that your CD-ROM is not faulty if suggestion #2
was
successful and that suggests the problem is therefore with your
WinMe
installation.

However .... several things that you've mentioned in the thread
ring
little alarm bells.

You started by implying the link to aspi2dos.sys was missing - in
itself
is
no biggie, just a little unusual but does raise the question
why.
This
leads to another question in my mind, why did you feel the need
to
create
a
boot disk? - OK, you had a problem with the CD (and CD-ROM) but
if
you
weren't aware of suggestion #2 (which I assume you weren't) then
what
were
you thinking of doing with the boot disk?

Then you pointed out that scanreg /restore was unsuccessful (and
latest
cab.file not started??) - as in it didn't restore at all?, or
just
didn't
fix the problem? You didn't make that too clear (to me).

But then you confuse us with talk of an external cd burner. So
please
clarify exactly which CD-ROM you are having problems with.

Then finally(ish) you say that you tried (several?) KB article
fixes
which
makes me wonder if some of your system files have (since?) become
damaged -
and now with all those little alarm bells ringing, that's where I
start
to
agree with Corday's solution.

But perhaps a little more interesting is in your last reply
suggestion#2, when you said :-

this worked, but had to manually open & close the disc door.

Manually as in pressing the button on its front panel? How did
you
expect
to
open & close it when you were in Real Mode DOS - WinMe would not
even
have
been loaded so how else would you open & close it?

and then :-

Also, the cdrom does not show in the device mgr
in the safe mode after performing #1.

Well as you'd previously "Removed" it in the first part of #1,
then
it
won't
show if WinMe didn't re-detect and install it when you re-booted
(into
Normal Mode)

Which brings us back to a 'faulty' (damaged or missing system
files)
WinMe
installation.

Mart



"Corday" wrote in message
...
NEC made most of the DVD stuff for Dell back in "the day". You
might
try
their website. Hate to say the obvious, but a clean Windows ME
reinstall
might be inorder.
--
I mastered Wordstar graphics!


"bagger" wrote:

Thks, Mart, really appreciate the help.

1.
didn't work.

2. If 1 is not successful,
this worked,

but had to manually open & close the disc door. Also,the
cdrom
does
not
show in the device mgr in the safe mode after performing #1.
Again, from my original post, this all started when trying to
read
a
picture
disc in my cdrom. Later that disc was checked for viruses in
my
external
burner attached to my system. My sys is a Dell 4100 (8 yrs
old)
also
when
booting either normally or safe mode, it takes 60 sec between
the
Dell
logo &
Windows logo which never happened before. Also, lost the sys
restore
function which had to do a repatch to get to work again, but
lost
all
previous restore dates. I've tried all sorts of diagnostics
on
the
system
per kb articles.



"Mart" wrote:

You can't see the CD-ROM in Device Manager!

Hmm .. In Normal Mode?

That might be considered 'strange' .. BUT ..

You can see the CD ROM in Dev Manager in Safe Mode?

Now, that's NOT so strange - although the drivers aren't
loaded
in
Safe
Mode, and the CD-ROM will NOT therefore be seen in Windows
Explorer
etc., it
will normally be shown in Dev.Man in Safe Mode as
'left-over'
from
previous
'good' detection in Normal Mode. However ....

Just trying to determine if the cd-rom is bad.

Two suggested courses of action :-
1. When in DevMan in Safe Mode, "Remove" any/all CD-ROM
(and
controllers)
then re-boot and let WinMe re-detect (pnp) and re-install
it/them.

2. If 1 is not successful, you MAY have a faulty CD-ROM.
Therefore
Boot
using you WinMe startup floppy and select with CD ROM
support
option.
If all
boots well, make a note of which drive letter is allocated
to
your
CD-ROM
(e.g. D and at the A:\ prompt, (don't select, or close
the
Help
Page) try
inserting a data CD. Then change to the CD-ROM drive letter
(e.g. at the A:\ prompt, type D: (D colon) and press
Return.

The A:\ prompt SHOULD change to a D:\ prompt.

If so, then that's a good start.

Now at the D:\ prompt, type DIR and press Return.

You SHOULD see a listing of the CD-ROM.

If all is well, then your CD-ROM 'appears' (from here!) to
be
working
and
WinMe isn't recognising it for some reason.

Hmm.. Again! And re-reading your original post in the
thread,
I
just
wonder if there is "something else, we don't know about".
Let
us
know
how
you get on.

Mart



"bagger" wrote in message
...
OK, did that, there is power to the cd-rom, but still not
in
the
device
manager, however does show in the safe mode (strange).
performed kb245567, system information, no data appears in
the
bios
version
line.
Just trying to determine if the cd-rom is bad.
Reinstalling Q290700 restored my sys restore function,
however
lost
all
previous dates were lost which is understandable.

"Corday" wrote:

Open case and check that all cables are in place and
tight.
Corday


"bagger" wrote:

i jumped the gun,actually i have more problems than
first
thought.
it all started when trying to view a picture CD, the
system
locked
up.
the
CD rom now does not work (appears no power), can't see
it
in
the
device
manager or control panel. did a virus check,
scandisk,
defrag
all OK.
Did a
scanreg /restore, latest cab.file not started, tried
sys
restore,
was
not
successful (2 dates). System takes much more time to
boot
but
does.
printer,
external cd burner, internet mail, local mail all OK.

"Mike M" wrote: