Strange problem loading cdrom driver with Win98se bootable cd.

[jaclaz]

Very good  (that the issue is *somehow* solved).

It is not at all "strange", it isn't the first, nor it will be the last of something that "just happens",  it simply needs to be tagged as "voodoo" .

On reboot.pro we have even a smiley for these cases 

jaclaz

[Wunderbar98]

Glad you resolved it 173a, you changed up a few things. Maybe just reseating everything, sometimes this helps with corrosion or just a better connection. Re-assembling on cardboard is actually preferred, it allows properly pushing down the IDE connectors instead of motherboard flex when in the case. Not sure about the GPU change but the RAM change may have been a factor. You may want to run memtest or similar, at least on the removed module, may avoid a future head scratcher.

[173a]

On 2/6/2020 at 9:26 AM, Wunderbar98 said:

Glad you resolved it 173a, you changed up a few things. Maybe just reseating everything, sometimes this helps with corrosion or just a better connection. Re-assembling on cardboard is actually preferred, it allows properly pushing down the IDE connectors instead of motherboard flex when in the case. Not sure about the GPU change but the RAM change may have been a factor. You may want to run memtest or similar, at least on the removed module, may avoid a future head scratcher.

This is a relatively new system, assembled somewhere around august 2019 at the earliest. I've been messing quite a bit with trying few different gpus and cpus and it was good all the way until trying to reinstall windows 98 early this month. I am also always very mindful of the motherboard flex when connecting stuff and shove my fingers between mobo and the case to prevent it, so again I find it very unlikely to have been a case of improperly connected ide cables. Also, during my initial troubleshooting I've tried both primary and secondary ides and these are oriented differently on this motherboard. As for memory, I've gone through 3 different kits: 2x256 (tried 1 and 2 modules), 2x512 (as 1 module) and finally a different 256mb module a couple days later after removing the mobo. My primary dual channel kits were rock stable through hours of gaming sessions and to think that they would repeatedly fail (at least 10 times in a row) a dos driver load is ridiculous. So I guess the only worthy troubleshooting takeaway from this all is to reseat all the stuff.

Edited February 15, 2020 by 173a
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[173a]

It's the gpu, having radeon 9600xt in the system prevents the cdrom driver from loading. Ram makes no difference. Tried it with 2 different PSUs. One of the weirdest pc problems that I've ever run into.

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Just to update this case. Later I've noticed rather low scores on a routine run of 3dmark 2001 in Windows XP on this machine (without any visual artifacts however). On checking system processes with System Internals Process Explorer, we can see high System Interrupts cpu usage, indicating some sort of a hardware problem. Strange issue indeed, bought this card with a bunch of others sold as "problematic" but had no trouble with it until this day.

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by 173a