On this computer, I tried to put in a cd burner. In order to do so, I had to swap the ide cables because the cable to the cdrom only had one connector. The hard drive cable had 2 connectors. All the devices are ATA33. Computer worked fine previously, although a bit weird.

After booting up, everything is recognized properly in the bios and appears to be ok. So it starts loading Windows98 and I get the windows protection error. Ok, so I restart and this time I get the invalid COMMAND.COM error and asks for the correct COMMAND.COM file. I restart and this time it just hangs up on the win splash screen. I restart, go into safe mode. Loads up properly and immediatly pops the BSOD, repeatatly. So I restart again and it says that the registry is bad and I should reboot to the prompt only and run scanreg. I do so and it and says the registry is bad, and then it fixes it and says I should restart. From then on when windows loads, scanreg would run automatically, find an error, fix it and tell me to restart.

Since this is a weird computer, I already can guess that once I set things to the way they were before I changed anything it would be just fine. So I reset everything to the way it was, and the computer boots up fine and works just like it did before.

So I would appreciate any information on how I could correct this problem.

Some notes: Previously, I have tried to change the ide cables, but at that time, the computer would not even post, until the old cables were put back in. The cpu, an AMD k62-400, will only run at 450Mhz. If I put in a 350Mhz K62, the computer will not post. Swapping fans or cdroms doesn't seem to affect anything.

System info:
Tomato TX100, via VT82C585VPX
256MB Crucial pc133
AMD k62-400@450
S3 Virge GX
Please ask for more info, if it would help.

i have never heard of that motherboard before of the chipset. is that the northbridge chipset?

also, k6-2's could never overclock worth a rock, i could get my k62 400 up to 448, and it would only work some times.

what i would do is get another hdd and re-install win98 and see if that works ok with the new cd-rw. if it does, then that means you have a bad install of win98. other wise i have no clue except that you should try updating the bios and the motherboard drivers.

good luck!

Wow, this is odd. (Thinking out loud) Reverting back to your original configuration fixed your problem so, to me, it has to be cd-rom related. Here are some of my thoughts for arguments sake:

• I wonder if the computer will boot with a bootable cd-rom and the hard drive disconnected?
  
• Is CS selected on either the hard drive or cd-rom?
  
• Does the hard drive work using the ide cable that the cd-rom was connected to?
  
• Did you swap a different cd-rom to see if that works?
  
• Did you remove any cd-rom related drivers from your hardware manager in win 98 before installing your cd-rom? Any conflicts in there?
  
• is anything loading in your Autoexec.bat related to a cd-rom (look for a MSCDEX command)

Answer some/all of these questions and let's see if we can get to the bottom of this problem.

Thanks for replying. Unfortunatly I'm away from that computer right now, for awile.

I know the cd writer works. I just pulled it out of my computer and replaced it with a cendyne rebaged verbatim, rebaged Lite-on. There are some really good deals on these right now. I'd suggest picking one up if you can.

I've swaped out the cd-rom twice with no problems. I am guessing if I just replaced the cdrom with the cd writer, it would work. I might do this just to back up stuff, but the current cdrom is a old Lite-on and really good, whreas the 4x mitsumi cd writer is probably going to quit working pretty soon, though it's lasted long and was pretty good.

I think maybe the problem is the 400Mhz chip. I got this as a combo from a friend at AMD. It always seemed to run sluggishly. I ended up going back to my 350Mhz, because it seemed like a better, more stable chip. When I told my friend this, she insisted that AMD only gives quality stuff to employees, and there shouldn't be any problems with it. Unfortunatly, selling it to me voided all warranties. But then, why won't my 350Mhz chip work?

The weird thing about the cables is that I've tried a couple different ones on both the cdrom and hard drive. And it didn't seem to work.

I think for now the computer is in a position where it needs to work, so I can't go experimenting, since I don't have a suitable replacement. I am working on that right now, though. So I think I will leave it alone for now, as long as it is working.

Interesting though, I wonder what clearing the CMOS would do? And you're right it's probably a bad install of windows. I'm not sure I want to take a chance at messing anything up by changing the bios or drivers. I got the chipset information out of the manual, which I don't have with me right now.

Wow, that's a lot of typing.

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Road Runner!!!!

Some motherboard information:
Manual
Homepage

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Road Runner!!!!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by amistadcliffman
[B]Thanks for replying. Unfortunatly I'm away from that computer right now, for awile.

I know the cd writer works. I just pulled it out of my computer and replaced it with a cendyne rebaged verbatim, rebaged Lite-on. There are some really good deals on these right now. I'd suggest picking one up if you can.


Wow. And I thought I was the only one who noticed! I bought a Cendyne 16/10/40 CD Writer at Office Max in January for $69, and Knowing it was not really a Cendyne ( a Cendyne I bought a year before, an 8/4/32 was a Ricoh MediaMaster!) I brought it home in hopes it would not be a Teac (cendyne uh-oh)and Lo and Behold it was a Lite-On LTR 16101B. Fastest writer I've ever owned and puts a Plex to shame....almost. This thing is also sold under Suncheer, Buslink, Polaroid,and possibly others.
Nero constantly gives me free updates too which is great, and have never burned a coaster.
Great Drive.

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CCM 2002