OT- DVD drive trouble
 

ok, today I got a bit of a late birthday present, An external DVD drive. Problem is I can't get it to work (oh it opens and closes but it doesn't register on my computer). I plugged it into a USB port but it registers as an unknown device and that it has malfunctioned. It doesn't appear to need a driver, claiming that it should be plug and play. I wonder somewhat if my computer says it doesn't need a driver because it can't tell what it is. I went through the troubleshooter and tried different USB ports (well the other one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)

Although I don't believe it would be a problem my computer is about 2-3 years old, so I assume the USB ports are 2.0. I uninstall it in device manager and then scan for hardware changes which makes my computer claim there is a new usb device...for a few seconds before it says unknown, and it announces there is new hardware with the device manager entry having a yellow triangle/exclamation mark for a few seconds before going back to unknown. Is there something I should try or might it be possible it is faulty?. It is a Liteon SOHW-1693SX.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

You might need to get yourself Nero or something. My machine would only recognize my DVD burner via Nero.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

It came with NERO startsmart and power DVD. the NERO I have only appears to give information on my CD drive. I don't so much want to burn DVDs as install a game off a DVD.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Can you post your system specs? I don't see why it wouldn't work, my machine is three years old, and my external drives work. However I have heard of this before, but I don't recall where or how they fixed it. Sorry Randallw.

Good luck.. (Try the manufacture help line. Assuming there is one available.)

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

I remembered getting system information through something. I think this is it. It's pretty much the same as back then, only I installed sp2 a few motnhs ago.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/27/2004, 23:10:06
Machine name: RANDALL
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp2_gdr.040517-1325)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
System Model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2400+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Page File: 223MB used, 1027MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0902 32bit Unicode

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

From what I see here, your system is better than mine so it should work.

What is the type of DVD drive you have. Manufacture, make and model?

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

As far as I can tell it's a Liteon SOHW-1693SX DVD +/- R, +/- RW drive. the user manual mentions that I should contact the manufacturer if the USB controllers have a yellow excalmation point. As I mentioned that emblem pops up for a few seconds each time I try to install the new hardware. Don't know if that means my USB ports are 1.1 or 2. One thing I have noticed is that the NERO software only seems to give information about my CD drive. Maybe there is some sort of conflict.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Try downloading SiSoft Sandra www.download.com or from their web own web site. It might give you some good info about your system that you don't have. http://www.sisoftware.net/

It is a utility that can tell you just about everything you ever wanted to know about your computer.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Well I'm not going to work on this all night. I'm logging off. I appreciate the help and that of anyone else who has an idea. I'll just point out that it says the device has malfunctioned and tells me to reconnect. When it still doesn't recognise it it says to replace it. I'm starting to think it's broken.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Try manually installing the drivers before you plug it in. You may or may not need to get some off the web, depending on whether it shipped with them or not.

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.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

It isn't possible to have USB ports devoted to a single device.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Ok, so download this zip from Soltek:
http://www.soltek.com.tw/soltek/down...l/75FN220L.zip

It comes with a readme and a flash utility (I looked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif so just follow the directions.


Then reboot, and go here:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

and follow this trail:

platform/nForce Drivers
nForce 1/2
Windows XP

download those and install them.

If it still does not work after that, post again, and I'll tell you how to get rid of StarForce and spyware that might be causing the problem.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Which nvidia driver should I download, U.S english or International?. I am in Australia.

these steps

Step 2. Create a pure bootable diskette by including only the Drvspace*.bin file, Io.sys and the AWDFLASH.EXE onto the diskette. This program only works in pure DOS environment, the utility can not be worked in win95/98/ ME/NT/2000/XP.

Step 3. Insert the diskette into drive A; reboot your system from the disk.

I can find no sign of an IO.sys on my computer to put on a diskette. also, does reboot from disk just mean rebooting the computer while the boot disk is in drive?

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Download the English one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

As for the steps, hmm.... use the flash tool I attached instead. You can flash from Windows; much more convenient.


By the way, if anyone else in the forum has a Phoenix Bios (very common), I recommend this flash tool - much better than booting into DOS. I can't boot into DOS anymore because my motherboard doesn't have a floppy drive port.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

I'll give it a try later. I can say one thing though. I tried it on my brother in laws laptop and it worked, no problem, so obviously it's not broken as I thought. Can you tell me, might my AV software cause a problem? I am fairly certain I wouldn't have spyware and I know nothing about starforce. If it doesn't work I can do a scan to make sure.

Re: OT- DVD drive trouble
 

Antiviruse programs cause all kinds of trouble with software, so I don't use them and haven't since 1997. But I've never heard of one causing trouble with hardware before, so I doubt it.

Starforce is an copy-protection virus that comes on games by some companies like Ubisoft. It hides in your computer and disables CD-copy software like Nero, and it stays when the game is uninstalled. It also interferes with the correct function of optical drives and sometimes damages them.

Wikipedia has an article on Starforce:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starforce

and near the bottom, a link to a removal tool:

http://www.onlinesecurity-on.com/protect.phtml?c=55

I don't know if it tells you "You had Starforce and we removed it" or what, since I've never used it, but I assume it works.


P.S. I doubt that Starforce is the problem, but you never know. Besides, it's not something you want on your computer anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Found it! This even has nice little screenshots.

http://www.glop.org/starforce/detect.php

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

well I had like 3 different versions of Starforce http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif. Removed them all.

I downloaded and installed the nforce stuff. Still no luck

I can't use winflash. It wants a sys file, I assume IO.sys, and as I said as far as I know I don't have it. Is there another sys file I have to use?

I am grasping at straws here, and I apologise for not having any luck. I am mentioning things in case they matter.

my computer's HD is split into a C drive and a D:backup drive. There are is also a floppy drive (A) and the CD drive (E). IS it getting blocked by all the drives ie. no letters left or something. When I use the DVD playing software that came it seems to try to use my CD drive (E). I tried disabling the E drive but it made no difference.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Hahaha... wow... I can't say why that seems so funny to me. Starforce sure gets around; they're like STDs.

No, you can have all 26 letters used for disk drives, maybe more. Sometimes the letters get changed when you add new hardware (e.g. I added a DVD burner and it stole E, bumping my CD burner to F) but don't worry about it.

Winflash: I just gave you the executable, as that is the only file in the directory; maybe the installer comes with the missing file.

You can get the installer here:

http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/bios/winflash151.exe

Plus, it's a newer version, too; not that that matters.


Once you update the bios, now that you've installed the latest nVidia drivers, and now that Starforce is dead... if it doesn't work... take the drive back. Keep your fingers crossed, though.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Odds are good that they were not actually removed, and are still festering.

I suggest backing up your files to another disk (if not a CD, another harddrive is good), then format & reinstall the OS.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

You should. To my knowledge, there is no such thing as Windows without IO.sys (maybe Vista won't have it, who knows). Try showing hidden files in the folder options window (accessible from Tools menu of explorer). It should be right there on C:\. If not, do a search of the Windows (or Winnt) folder for it.

Of course, my C:\IO.sys on Win2k is 0 bytes, and I have a NTIO.sys in System32. Make sure you are reading instructions for XP.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

All I get is a message telling me "Winflash MFC application has encountered a problem and has to close". At least before it asked me for a sys file. Now I don't even get that prompt.

EDit: I guess I'll just have to take it in to be fixed up, or change it for an internal one that will work. As I said it works fine on my brother in laws laptop, which by the look of it is newer than mine.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

I'd like to know. Should the Nvidia stuff be sitting on C: drive or should it be installed somewhere under windows?

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

The latest nvidia stuck itself on the c: drive on my comp, so probably yeah.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Note that none of the games that were protected by Starforce will function anymore, as long as the "protection" drivers are uninstalled.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Well I only play 2 games SE, and SWBF2, and they seem fine.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Is it likely the name of IO.sys might be different. Theres ntio mentioned twice and I think an dbio. On another note, anyone know how hard it is to install an internal dvd drive? I installed a cd drive once and as far as I remember I just put it in the slot and plugged in the cable. I imagine there would also be an installation disk.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

It can trivial; no different than a CD drive. It's only a problem when you have to configure jumpers on the back for "master" versus "slave", or if your case is really cramped inside.

I never use CDs that come with drives, by the way - you shouldn't need to (unless they have a good version of Nero or something).

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

heres something strange. As I was turning on the computer I saw it mention the DVD drive as a mass storage device and the type in the start up screen but it still doesn't work.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Ok this problem is done with. I exchanged the external DVD drive for an internal one. Guy said it probably didn't work for me as I probably have USB 1, despite what the instructions said. Anyway took me no more than 10 minutes to install, so I am good to go.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

Sounds good:) Internals are better and cheaper, anyway.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

I know this issue is, for all intents and purposes, resolved, but I just wanted to chime in my 2 cents.

"heres something strange. As I was turning on the computer I saw it mention the DVD drive as a mass storage device and the type in the start up screen but it still doesn't work."

If the POST screen (the screen that pops up during boot, listing your memory, devices, etc) was reporting the external drive, the problem likely wasn't BIOS related.

The easiest way to get a DOS environment for BIOS flashing (I find), is to boot using a Win98 cd. Win2k/XP can't normally boot into a DOS environment, mainly because they are built on the NT core (which is non-DOS), While older versions of windows (WinME/Win98/Win95) all ran on top of DOS.

Personally I would have suggested re-installing Windows, in the event that that didn't help, you could be almost certain the external drive was defective.

Re: How to detect StarForce in your computer
 

A W S O M E.