Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

IT only comes with drivers for windows 98. I also visited the website and it only comes with W98 drivers. It says you don't need drivers otherwise as xp should recognise it straight away.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

There are drivers that should get installed via plug'n'play when the drive is attached. Find out what they should be for your drive and install them manually.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

I can't assert that this will solve anything, but I suggest that - in this order - you:

1) Get the latest bios for your motherboard, and install it.
2) Get the latest chipset drivers (from NVidia, maybe? Via? Whoever made the MB chipset.), and install them.
3) You need to update to XP Service Pack 2 whether or not you you do steps 1 and 2!

I give it a 50-60% chance of success.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Well I have SP2. I don't know if I want to risk mucking about with the bios, I came across a warning not to if I don't know what I am doing. I am sending a message to the manufacturers to find out once and for all what drivers I need to install to make the plug and play work. problem is the page won't load once I submit so i don't know if they are getting it.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

My mistake - Windows can't even correctly identify its own version http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif If you look closely, you'll see the term "Service Pack 1" AND the term "xpsp2" so I guess you can assume that the larger one is probably correct.

Bios upgrades, by the way, should not be considered 'unnecessary'... most mainboards are made in Taiwan (maybe some in Korea), and have REALLY crappy quality. You're actually lucky your capacitors haven't blown up yet, after 3 years. Regardless, the bios that ships with the board often does not offer complete functionality, and is full of bugs. The only software that directly deals with your USB functionality are the motherboard bios (comes from MB manufacturer - they will have detailed instructions on the website, poorly translated from Chinese, but legible), the chipset drivers (come from the chipset mfgr, almost certainly nVidia or Via, and they are much easier to install with much better instructions), and Windows.

It's possible you have bad USB ports, a defective motherboard, or a defective drive. Or Starforce / some other virus is messing up your hardware. But it's just as likely that the bios is the problem, and if you want to use a USB drive, you'll have to update it.

Bios flashes aren't really dangerous - you're more likely to damage your computer by vaccuming near it or knocking a speaker onto it. I've encountered both of those but never heard of a bios-flash that caused unrecoverable problems.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

I haven't had trouble with my usb ports till now. I run my modem, camera and scanner out of them. I wonder if perhaps it can't use them since they are devoted to what I already have, but the modem and scanner share the same port with no trouble, except I have to swap leads depending on what I use.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

here is a bios agent report

I am assuming the motherboard is AMD.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...calResources/0,,30_182_871_2336,00.html

only the drivers available are older than my computer.

I'm pretty certain the chipset is nvidia but their website appears not to have any drivers.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Yes, you have an NForce chipset, but AMD does not make motherboards.

You can get your chipset drivers here:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

But unfortunately I don't know which chipset you have. The drivers are different for nForce 1, 2, 3, and 4. nVidia doesn't seem to offer a tool that identifies it for you and the serial number means nothing to me.

You need to look at your motherboard manual (if you have one) or your computer owner's manual, or your receipt, or something... somewhere it will tell you the exact brand and model of your motherboard and chipset. The motherboard brand will be something like "Asus" or "Asrock" or "Abit" or "Soltek" or "Soyo"; something that a computer might randomly pick when autogenerating names by randomly concatenating phonemes.

If you don't have any of the original documentation or manuals, the name of the chipset and manufacturer are both written on the motherboard, but may be hard to find with all the other words written on it.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

What I assume is the motherboard (biggest board, has all the other stuff plugged in. Gold) has soltek written on it (I recognised the name). The big chip has nForce2 written on it. The only other numbers of note on the board are, SL-75frn2-L, on a connector, don't suppose that's it and t328041A (that one has a strange A. something under it written upside down)

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

silly me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif, totally forgot I had the origianl box under my desk. It says nForce2 Ultra 400. There is also a sticker saying fsb400, AGP 8x Dual channel DDR 400.

What do you know, the box had a couple of manuals. seems SL-75FRN2 was important. There's a manual which boldly says soltek and that number.