Desperately in need of help!!!

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 5:06 am

Last night I installed a brand new "DVD-decoder" card for my PC. It didn't do anything so I uninstalled it and returned it to the store for a refund. This morning I woke up to a nasty surprise...now it seems that neither my "dvd-rom" nor my "cdrw-rom" drive works properly. Both my drives play music-cd's alright but the moment I try to play a data-cd (eg "Baldur's Gate or FIFA 2002) the infamous "blue screen" appears stating something about a vxd problem reported by scsihelp...(which means nothing at all to me) and then the computer just crashes and reboots... I've reinstalled the drivers for the drives but the problem still remains. Does this mean that I will never be able to play a PC game on my computer again?!? Please, someone help me!! Ohh...and a Merry X-mas to you all..

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 6:25 am

Do you still have the drives in?(maybe you didn't have the drives for the DVD?)

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 7:31 am

Originally posted by craig:
Do you still have the drives in?(maybe you didn't have the drives for the DVD?)

Hmm...I'm sorry I'm not really following...?!? I did some messing around among the hardware in the computer...pulled some cables out and put them back in and so on....but this problem couldn't be a hardware problem could it?!? I checked the settings in the "control panel" and there it states that the dvd-rom and cd-rom works just fine...like he*l they do....

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 7:46 am

(had a couple of minutes before I should leave

)

What operating system do you use.
What hardware do you have, what drivers do you use.

I'd imagine it to be a driver problem.
Especially since you mention "The Blue Screen of Death" wich most often is assoicated with drivers.

Could also be your installation of Windows that is the problem.

I doubt it to be the hardware.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 9:38 am

I agree with Xandax that if the drives are playing music, it is a software and not a hardware issue. sounds like corruption of the drives for you optical disk drives. I would consult the manufacturer of your DVD software. They probably have a web site with troubleshooting. If your using a Microsoft OS, chances are this has happened to other people before. Use the Internet as your resource. More than likely you'll find an answer.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 10:26 am

There are a couple of other things you can do if you're using a Windows OS:

Go into the Device Manager and remove the CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives. Then restart Windows. When the computer boots, it will run the Find New Hardware Wizard and reinstall the drivers.

If you are comfortable navigating the registry, see which keys the DVD decoder card altered/wrote and either delete or reset them to their original settings.

If all else fails, you could try reinstalling Windows which should re-write all of the relevant registry keys and re-install all of the necessary drivers.

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 2:30 pm

Originally posted by Xandax:
(had a couple of minutes before I should leave )

What operating system do you use.
What hardware do you have, what drivers do you use.

I'd imagine it to be a driver problem.
Especially since you mention "The Blue Screen of Death" wich most often is assoicated with drivers.

Could also be your installation of Windows that is the problem.

I doubt it to be the hardware.

I run Windows '98...
I've never had anything similar to this before.... The dvd-decoder card that I bought was a "Sigmatics Hollywood magic" (something like that)...the only "magic" it did was screwing up my computer....
Maybe when I uninstalled the card it left some "sh*t" behind that is causing this conflict?!?

@HighLordDave: Seeing as though I've got tons of games and memories and photographs (nothing naughty if by any chance Gruntboy is reading this...

I'd prefer a way without having to clear my entire harddrive.....
Reinstalling Windows means formatting the harddrive as well?!? (In that case doing so will be my last resort)
Think you could explain to me how to navigate the registry thingy?!?

Ohh...and by the way does anyone know where you can get drivers for the "westerndigital" harddrives....seems as though they have completely vanished from the net...

Appreciate all of your efforts to help me...

T'lainya · Post by **T'lainya** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 5:50 pm

Hi K, sorry to hear about the comp problems.
The site for Western digital is [url="http://www.wdc.com"]www.wdc.com[/url]

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 6:16 pm

@K try going into Safe mode (keep Ctrl held down after memory test until it starts to load windows) then look at the devices present under each section in device manager, it might be that the device is still there in the background.

BTW you can install Win98 over the top of your current version, just go to explorer and double click on the setup file on the Windows disk. Make sure you back everything up though

Hope that helps

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 7:27 pm

Originally posted by Karembeu:
@HighLordDave: Seeing as though I've got tons of games and memories and photographs (nothing naughty if by any chance Gruntboy is reading this... I'd prefer a way without having to clear my entire harddrive.....
Reinstalling Windows means formatting the harddrive as well?!? (In that case doing so will be my last resort)
Think you could explain to me how to navigate the registry thingy?!?

If you re-install Windows, it will only overwrite what's in your C:\Windows directory. It will leave all of your Program Files and document files alone. Put in your Windows98 disk, click on Explore and run Setup.

What you absolutely do not want to do is reformat or repartition your hard drive. That will wipe out the contents of your hard drive. However, you should not lose any of your documents, pictures, saved games, etc. by reinstalling Windows.

You will have to talk to some of our more techie friends about navigating the registry; I'm just dangerous to get myself in a lot of trouble and I try to avoid messing around with it. However, if you know which keys to delete/modify, this is probably the easiest way to fix your problems. If you don't know which keys to fix, you should try some of the other suggestions posted here.

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 2:10 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave:
Put in your Windows98 disk, click on Explore and run Setup.

Well that's the real problem...the moment I put the disk in my dvd-drive or cd-drive everything crashes...

@T'lainya: Thanks for the link...

@Mr.Sleep: I'll try the "safe-mode" thing and see where that gets me....hmm...the only way to re-install windows 98 is to put the disk in my cd-drive which crashes the second it starts to read a data-disk?!? There's no other way to re-install windows 98?!? And no I don't have the diskette version...

@all: Thanks for the help everyone...I knew I could count on you guys...cheers...

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 3:14 am

Does anyone know where to download a "windows 98 start disk"...seems mine isn't functioning as it should...(guess that's what happens when it lies in a box collecting dust over a couple of years...)

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 5:02 am

To create a startup disk, go to Start>Settings>Control Panels>Add/Remove Programs and click on the Startup Disk Tab. then click on Create Disk.

Sorry for telling you to put the CD in; I forgot that was your problem. Geeze! I'm not even fable's age and I'm already having senior moments!

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 8:26 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave:
To create a startup disk, go to Start>Settings>Control Panels>Add/Remove Programs and click on the Startup Disk Tab. then click on Create Disk.

It doesn't seem to work...

I press the Startup disk tab but it can't find all the files necessary to create a startup disk...and when I do a "manual" search for the files it can't find (e.g winboot.sys) I still can't find them....

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 8:41 am

@Karembeu - Programmes like McAfees Uninstaller will clean up unused registry entries

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 8:46 am

@K

Posted by HLD -

Go into the Device Manager and remove the CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives. Then restart Windows. When the computer boots, it will run the Find New Hardware Wizard and reinstall the drivers.

Did you try this?

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 9:04 am

Have you checked for viruses or done a scandisk?

You could boot from your win98 CD then Load Computer with CDROM support. Once that has finished write at the command prompt d:\

setup

and that should run the win98 setup, i will expand on this if needed

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 9:15 am

@Yshania: Well I go into the settings/controls/system (I've got Windows 98 in Swedish so I'm not really sure if the search path is correct in English but I'm sure you get me)and check the properties of my dvd-rom and cd-rom units and it says that there are no drivers required or have been loaded for my drives..?!?

@Mr Sleep: I've done a virus check and I can't find anything bad....I've tried scandisk too...but it hangs up and takes loads of time....I'll try to boot with my Windows 98 CD....

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 9:30 am

Originally posted by Karembeu:
@Mr Sleep: I've done a virus check and I can't find anything bad....I've tried scandisk too...but it hangs up and takes loads of time....I'll try to boot with my Windows 98 CD....

Sounds like something on your hard disk might be corrupt. Perhaps just some bad sectors or something. i actually had a similar problem yesterday, in the end i had to delete the entire Windows directory, kept everything else, just lost all of the drivers etc

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 9:54 am

@Mr Sleep: Hmm...I think you'll have to expand on booting up with my Windows 98 CD...

I'm getting sick and tired of this cr*p...I can't create a Startup Disk because some files are missing...and the bootdisk that I download from the net doesn't write properly to my diskette....I haven't had this much trouble since I had a nice visit of the "CIH Chernobyl" virus a couple of years ago...