Compatability Mode

See if this helps:


http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q130/1/79.asp?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0

Also check your registry for a reference to noide.

Glenn

NESTIAM's reference covers this possibility, but just for clarification only, and not for points, try booting with a clean DOS system diskette, write-protected, and scan for an old boot sector virus.

Another site:MS Dos mode compatibility mode

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q151/9/11.asp?FR=1&LNG=ENG&SA=PER 

The file suggusted by emery800 does list my hard drive controller an Intel 82371 AB/EB PCI-Bus Master IDE Controller but still poses some questions.  I have four drives hooked up. C: (28.6G), D: (12.7G), E: (4G) & F: (CD-Rom).  C & D are the ones that go into compatability mode.  If I understand what I'm reading E would be the one.  Plus, it is not all the time; I might boot up five times OK, then the next compatability mode.  Very frustrating.

Dave, I don;t think its has anything to do with serialization between the two IDE channels because he would have the noide line in his Registry.  In which case, he would be in DCM all the time.
He'd know if the device driver had been manually removed..

I suspect that its somewhere within NESTIAMs URL but iIts not a boot sector virus or it would be on disk 0 and it would be there all the time.

I tend to go for:

An "unsafe" device driver, memory-resident program, or virus hooked the INT21h or INT13h chain before Windows is loaded.

The hard disk controller in your computer was not detected by Windows.

There is a resource conflict between the hard disk controller and another hardware device.

The Windows protected-mode driver is missing or damaged.

The Windows 32-bit protected-mode disk drivers detected an unsupportable configuration or incompatible hardware

Harry
HDWilkins@aol.com

Harry, I concur, however not knowing how machine is configured it can be misleading.
chuckm:
We need to try a couple of things but we also need to know how things are configured
 Is it hooked up this way?
C: (28.6G), A partition on the first harddrive and this is hooked up as primary master?
D: (12.7G), The partition set up on second harddrive and hooked up as primary slave?
 E: (4G), The second partition on first harddrive and set as primary master?
F: (CD-Rom), Hooked up as secondary master?

If the above is correct then disconnect the second harddrive and then boot up the system and see how it operates. This will eliminate a hardware incompatibility problem from the two harddrives with each other.
If this works then try hooking the second harddrive up as a primary master on secondary IDE and change your cd-rom to secondary IDE slave.
My hunch is that the second harddrive is what is forcing the problem. Dave  

If the above test works then there may be a setting in bios that can be made to force the harddrives to work together, but is not always succesful. :>)

I'm going to leave this in your hands LOL good luck.

Harry

The drive configuration is:
C: (28.6G) Primary Master
D: (12.7G) Primary Slave
E: (4G) Secondary Master
F: (CD-Rom) Secondary Slave

Each drive is set to use the full space allotted and has FAT32.  There are three physical drives plus a CD-Rom.

I think the clue is the line in IOS.LOG which says "ESDI data miscompare", but I have no idea what it means or why it is only sometimes.

I've turned off Ultra ATA/66 on drives C: and D: to see if that does anything.  Since it does not happen all the time I'm not sure if it has done anything yet.

I'd disconnect the E drive for a while, and then the F drive for a while and see if the problem goes away.  Its either one of the drives, or the controller.  My bet would be the older 4gb drive.

Harry

From what you have provided I also think the "E" is the first place to start and would disconnect it and see how things run. Then provide feedback. Dave

Are all harddrives made by the same manufacturer? Just wondering if you knew, some do not like interfacing with others and the older ones also from the same manufacturer do not like mixing with each other. Interesting game! Dave

And the 4gb is on a Secondary with a CDR.

Are any of the Drives IBM?

Drives C & D are Western Digital drives.  Drive E came with the computer (new in Jan 99) And I'm not sure who manufactured it. I can take the case apart if necessary to find out.

The CD-Rom is just a plain old LiteOn LTN264 20X max Cd-Rom.  Not a CDR or DVD or etc.

I do appreciate all the help you guys are trying to give.  Many thanks.

Try disconnecting the cd-rom. Where it is not one of the newer (it is not that old I know) type it could be forcing this, I also would still try it without the "E" drive. You may be lucky and can just disable it in bios. Best way is really to just pull the ribbon cable off the back of it. My best shot is it either is one or the other, the other two harddrives are to new and as long as they are configured correctly then they should run fine together. :>)

Disconnecting E: will be no problem.  I only have one program on it, and I won't mind uninstalling it.  The CD-Rom would be a hassle as it would make many programs unusable.

So my course of action is: disconnect E:, change the CD-Rom from slave to master.  Test.  

I'll let you know what happens.

Sounds like a plan, you don't have to uninstall anything right now we are only testing. Just disconnect it for the test if you want. :>)

Hi chuckm,

As you stated: >"I think this started after I installed my Sound Blaster X-Gamer card."

It's a long shot, but it might solve the problem. Go into your BIOS program, and define some time for your computer to kind of "worm-up" before booting. Do this by specifing, say 5 seconds in "delay before boot" parameter.

If I'm correct, it might be possible that your new X-Gamer has to initialize itself before booting. This procedure might hold down the initialization process for your Hard Disks (especialy the bigger ones).

Hope this helps,

Nosterdamus

I checked everything in the BIOS program and found nothing about delaying boot time.

Also guess that I need to ask a question.  Seems like the everyone is agreeing that drive E or F is causing the problem.  If this is so, why don't they go into compatability mode also?

And still looking for an explanation of "ESDI data miscompare"

For your question, I guess they do not go into Compatabilty mode becase they are not big enough, as E is 4GB and F is 600MB.

I do suggest that you look again in your BIOS for the "Delay on boot" or something like that, parameter.

By the way, can you give some specifications of your system (Bios, Mother Board etc')?

Nosterdamus

Some info,
Intersting.

Glenn
http://ivc-dl.ivc.cc.ca.us/SUPPORT/TBS/0624tb.txt

Few other things to check!a) Does device manager display any problems relating to IDE controllers (or, indeed, any other devices)? Some CDs require an IDE controller driver to be installed.

b) It is possible that protected mode disk drivers have been deliberately disabled. Go to 'System Properties' (right clicking on 'My Computer'), select the 'Performance' tab and then 'File System'. Now go to 'Trouble shooting' and uncheck the 'Disable all 32-bit protect mode device drivers' box. If all is well your CD will reappear on start up, and if not the box will be checked once again after restarting.

c) Boot sector viruses can cause this to happen

d) You may have to come up in safemode (hold F8 down on booting up and when you see the menu select safemode) and then check device manager for exclamation marks and resolve them. Possibly a chipset driver is needed.

e) Also worth checking for the line:

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX ...

line in the autoexec.bat and REM it out (assuming its there and not already REM out) to see if this is interfering with Device Manager.

f) Go to Run and type Regedit.

Select Edit>Find and search for "Noide" (no quotes).

If you find any reference to Noide in the Registry, delete it.

(Might be a good idea to back it up first.  Open Regedit, choose Registry>Export Registry)
Dave

Post your config.sys and autoexec.bat files please.

Glenn

I think a review of both the autoexec.bat and config.sys is in order as advised and in addition what IRQ is assigned to the sound card? Also to the controllers. How did the test go when you removed the harddrive? Dave

To answer the new questions in order:

Nosterdamus: BIOS Award 4.51 PG, Motherboard Biostar Intel 440 LX/EX chipset, Processer Inter PII 333,  Computer manufacturer Inteva, 64 Meg Ram, Voodoo3 3000 AGP, Sound Blaster X-Gamer, US Robotics 56K Winmodem.  Did I miss anything?

I'll check the BIOS setup again for the delay boot time.

Emery800: a) When the problem occurs I get an error with the Primary IDE Controller (duel FIFO).  Otherwise not.

b) Protected mode drivers have not been disabled.  I've always had access to the CD-ROM, that has never been lost.

c) Would a boot sector virus be random?

f) "noide" does not exist in the registry.

Autoexec.bat and Config.sys posted below.  The sound card is using IRQ 10, video is 11, Primary IDE controller 14, Secondary IDE controller 15.

Hewittg:

Config.sys
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE D=64
BUFFERS=15,0
FILES=30
DOS=UMB
FCBS=4,0
DOS=HIGH

Autoexec.bat
@ECHO OFF
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
PATH C:\PRESTOPM\.;C:\TRAX;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM;


I haven't removed drive E yet.  As I mentioned a few days ago, I had turned off Ultra ATA/66 on drives C & D and am testing that currently.  The problem has not occured now for about 6 boots.  Now I'm ready to turn back on ATA/66, see if the problem occurs and then disable E and see what happens.  Perhaps it's the combination of drives with ATA/66 & ATA/33??

The latter you are trying is most likely the compatibility problem its creating, if you want to turn the ATA/66 back on then you most likely find one of the drives doesn't support. :>)

That may be it.  I just posted a message on Western Digitals message board to see if that combination might be causing the problem, or perhaps the cable.  Since the system came capable of ATA/66 I may have wrongly assumed that the required 80 conductor cable was in the system.  Without the extra sheilding of the newer type cable perhaps that could cause the randomness I'm having.

Hi chuckm,

This link http://www.biostar-usa.com/Driver/MB/Intel/intel_chipsets_driver_upgrade.htm contains Bios upgrade for your platform. If your Chipset and Bios versions are older then Set-30-1999, then I'd suggest that you upgrade it.

I searched the internet couldn't find a mention of the ESDI error you saw in the log file.

I did see an ESDI update for Windows 95 at the Microsoft web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=12664

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q171/3/53.ASP

Excuse me if this has already been reference above, but I didn't see it.

Related purpose for esdi.pdr update for Windows 95.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q154/4/36.ASP

Found internet references to the unit number 02 error in the log file:

http://www.syquest.com/support/tb5040.html

Information on boot sector viruses and the ios.log

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q138/8/99.asp

PRESTOPM was for a scanner? Did it use a SCSI card, USB, or parallel port scanner? Are the drivers for it still loaded?

More explanations of entries in IOS.LOG

http://www.jacksonville.net/~jaginc/hd_ioslog.htm

The BIOS date is 9/5/98.  I'll check into the upgrade.

PRESTOPM is for the scanner and uses a SCSI card.

I checked into the BIOS upgrade, but am unsure of wether or not to continue with it.  At the bottom of the boot up screen I have:

09/05/1998-i440LX-2A69JB0DC-00.

Somewhat straight forward the Bios is dated 9/5/98, uses the Intel 440LX/EX chipset and the main board was by Biostar.

Here is the problem.  At the top of the boot up screen I have:

TLC0905D.

The TLC tells me when BIOS upgrade to use, I assume the 0905 is the date again, but the Biostar sites says that if the last character is not a 'B' then it isn't theirs and don't use their BIOS upgrade.  All reporting utilities says it is Biostar, except for Biostar.

Somehow I think that I probably do not want to continue with this upgrade.

You shouldn't do a bios flash unless you are positive that the flash you will be using is the correct one. You have great judgement! :>) Try searching other urls, I have found bios updates on other urls that were right on for the motherboard and were newer then what was being offered from the motherboard web page. :>)

Can you try, after unplugging all power cords from the wall outlets,  removing the SCSI card, and see if a conflict with the sound card was causing the problem?

Now there's an odd thing (about the SCSI card), I can't find anywhere in SYSTEM PROPERTIES/ DEVICE MANAGER where it is using any resources.  Strange, the scanner works.

Anyway, I think that with all the questions that you guys asked me, you led me to find the solution.  I think it was from turning on the Ultra ATA/66.  Since I turned it off, I've had no problems.  There were quite a few of you who steadily helped me to find this.  I only have one more question, how do I make sure that you all get rewarded?

Many thanks,

Chuck Michael

Hello everyone,

Reducing points to 50 to allow for split.

chuckm - You can now accept one of the comments in this thread as an answer. To award the other Experts, you can create new questions in this topic area with a title of 'For ExpertName -- 11527119' using the appropriate Expert username.

Remember, the Accept Comment as Answer button is in the header of the comment.

For your convenience, you can use this link to create the new question (right click and open in new window):
https://www.experts-exchange.com/bin/NewQForm?ta=41

Be sure to come back and let the Expert know about the new question once you have posted it.

darinw
Community Support

Don't know if this will work when accepting an answer but ----

How do I get in touch with the other parties?  I can't seem to find anyway to e-mail them.

Anyway, thanks much guys, you all helped me find the answer.  Eternally grateful.

Thanks.

Thanks chuckm! Glad your running!
What Darin was saying is that you post a question "points for and [put the name here] example: points for Johjones and give it the points you want them to have and then just indicate here you have posted points for Johjones. Also just copy and paste the question number from this one as part of the points for Johjones question so they will know what it was for. Its not bad after you do a couple. Later! Dave  

tskelly and HDWILKINS please find your "Points for" questions and many thanks.

chuck