System will not boot with DVD on ide cable

If there's a more appropriate spot for this query, please let me know where.

System: ecs k7vta3 m/b, v6.0a. Amd 2500+ processor, 512mb ram, win98se,
m/b has VIA KT333 north bridge, VT8235 south bridge.
Made sure I had the latest via atapi and ide drivers loaded.

Here's the story. Had the computer for six months or so with two cd burners,
then decided to put a DVD drive in it after I bought a burner for another
computer. The system started to boot, recognizes drives in bios, etc., loads
stuff, shows the windows splash page, then on the "text-only" screen just
before it gets to where I'd be able to log in, it gets "stuck". And stays
there, never booting. Tried putting it on 2nd ide cable, master or slave or
cable-select, tried putting it on primary ide slave, no change, it
continuously hangs. Changed the udma and pio in the bios, no change.
Take the dvd out of the system, then the machine boots fine.

To get around all of this, I wound up taking an old maxtor ide controller pci
card and connecting the dvd drive on it, the system works fine then, and has
been in that mode for six months. I think eventually I lost the receipt
and/or the m/b is out of warranty or something...
I've tried two other dvd drives in that six months, one reader and one other
burner, and the system hangs just before the windows login page. Yet the dvd
drives are recognized in other machines around here and work fine.
I wanted to give the computer to my daughter but wanted to keep the ide
controller card for myself, but want to get the dvd problem solved first.
Can't understand why the m/b just can't see the dvd drive as a generic drive
instead of hanging. (tried optorite, i/o magic, and hp drives)

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you.

jstlucas at hotmail dot com @delete.thisstuff (Joe St. Lucas) wrote:
System: ecs k7vta3 m/b, v6.0a. Amd 2500+ processor,
512mb ram, win98se,
m/b has VIA KT333 north bridge, VT8235 south bridge.
Made sure I had the latest via atapi and ide drivers loaded.

Here's the story. Had the computer for six months or so with
two cd burners, then decided to put a DVD drive in it after I
bought a burner for another computer.

The system started to boot, recognizes drives in bios, etc., loads
stuff, shows the windows splash page, then on the "text-only"
screen just before it gets to where I'd be able to log in, it gets
"stuck". And stays there, never booting.

Tried putting it on 2nd ide cable, master or slave or cable-select,
tried putting it on primary ide slave, no change, it continuously
hangs. Changed the udma and pio in the bios, no change.
Take the dvd out of the system, then the machine boots fine.

To get around all of this, I wound up taking an old maxtor ide
controller pci card and connecting the dvd drive on it, the
system works fine then, and has been in that mode for six months.
[..........]
I've tried two other dvd drives in that six months, one reader
and one other burner, and the system hangs just before the
windows login page. Yet the dvd drives are recognized in
other machines around here and work fine.

I wanted to give the computer to my daughter but wanted to
keep the ide controller card for myself, but want to get the
dvd problem solved first.

Can't understand why the m/b just can't see the dvd drive as
a generic drive instead of hanging. (tried optorite, i/o magic,
and hp drives)

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you.


How does the DVD drive appear in the boot sequence?
Is it before or after the hard drive(s)?

*TimDan*

jstlucas at hotmail dot com @delete.thisstuff (Joe St. Lucas) wrote in
message news:QlIHd.4202$ry.4126@fed1read05...
If there's a more appropriate spot for this query, please let me know
where.

System: ecs k7vta3 m/b, v6.0a. Amd 2500+ processor, 512mb ram, win98se,
m/b has VIA KT333 north bridge, VT8235 south bridge.
Made sure I had the latest via atapi and ide drivers loaded.

Here's the story. Had the computer for six months or so with two cd
burners,
then decided to put a DVD drive in it after I bought a burner for another
computer. The system started to boot, recognizes drives in bios, etc.,
loads
stuff, shows the windows splash page, then on the "text-only" screen just
before it gets to where I'd be able to log in, it gets "stuck". And stays
there, never booting. Tried putting it on 2nd ide cable, master or slave
or
cable-select, tried putting it on primary ide slave, no change, it
continuously hangs. Changed the udma and pio in the bios, no change.
Take the dvd out of the system, then the machine boots fine.

To get around all of this, I wound up taking an old maxtor ide controller
pci
card and connecting the dvd drive on it, the system works fine then, and
has
been in that mode for six months. I think eventually I lost the receipt
and/or the m/b is out of warranty or something...
I've tried two other dvd drives in that six months, one reader and one
other
burner, and the system hangs just before the windows login page. Yet the
dvd
drives are recognized in other machines around here and work fine.
I wanted to give the computer to my daughter but wanted to keep the ide
controller card for myself, but want to get the dvd problem solved first.
Can't understand why the m/b just can't see the dvd drive as a generic
drive
instead of hanging. (tried optorite, i/o magic, and hp drives)

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you.

Sounds like a kink in the VIA chipset software. Have you tried some of the
VIA forums?
You might also want to uninstall the VIA software (without the DVD drive
attached), turn off the system, attach the drive, and restart. Be fore
warned however that there is a risk of your system becoming unbootable with
or *without* the drive if those VIA drivers are having problems.
--


"I don't cheat to survive. I cheat to LIVE!!"

- Alceryes

Why don't you explain how your complete system is set up, which would
include types of hard drives, where they are as far as master or slave,
which IDE channel, and how their jumpers are set.

I have seen situations where the device that seems to be causing the problem
is in reality just showing up another problem.

Clark