[lbarron]

Hi All,

I am looking at an old computer for a friend it seems to work OK but does not recognise the CD-ROM.

I have checked the cabling and everything seems to be OK, I have also tried a different CD-ROM but that doesn't work either.

The computers BIOS will not find the drive so I thought a BIOS upgrade might be required.

The BIOS is an Award BIOS 4.50PG

ID String = SIS-501-503-2A5IAE12-00

Apparently the E12 is the manufacturer of the board (ECS) I have been to their site and downloaded the BIOS update files but the BIOS won't flash. The computer just freezes during the flash process.

When the machine is turned off and then on again everything is still as it was.

Does anyone have any ideas???

Thanks

Lee.

 

[Djembeplay]

Eh, exactly how old is this computer? Some older ones may not have support for newer drive technologies. Also, make sure you are getting adequate power to the drive. Maybe you could try a different power splitter? Another thing is you could check the master/ slave jumpers on the back of the drive, but this probobly is not the case because the BIOS should still recognize it. Sounds like a weird BIOS not to flash. Maybe you could try removing the CMOS battery for about 15 mins and then trying an alternate flash utility to ensure you properly flash the BIOS (assuming boot record is still functional). You may be lucky the thing still works if it froze in the middle of a flash! Last but not least, you could always throw the CD drive across the room onto a hard surface such as brick, wood, or even steel. Er, scratch that last one

 

[Zvalkor]

Try connecting the cd-rom to the other IDE connection on the motherboard. If the hard drive is plugged into the other port you can temp. disconnect it and plug the cd and then see if the bios sees it. If so there is a bad controller and you will need to slave the cd off the hard drive.

 

[Drupy]

If the computer is to old to have plug-n-play you will need to manualy ( I think I misspelled that) install the drive for it.

 

[Midnight Tech]

I had a board running the same BIOS version as that and it would autodetect just fine. Doublecheck the jumpers on the drive and make sure both IDE channels are turned on. Ummm, the CD IS IDE, right?