Win98 Startup weird with CdRom(s)

When this happens, does your OS see the CDROM's OK?  That is, if you're using Windows, when you go into Windows Explorer or My Computer, does it show your CDROM's?  Are they in Device Manager?  If yes to both, then I wouldn't worry that they're not showing in POST.  The cold boot is showing them, which is fine.  On warm boots, sometimes various devices are not queried.  Perhaps the tweak software you used tells the OS that rechecking for hardware on a warm boot isn't necessary.  On the other hand, if the drives don't show up in the OS, you have a more serious problem.  Let us know.

try reinstalling the drivers for the cd-rom
and when it ask for the location of the mscdex.exe file point it to the c:\windows\command directory
do that and see if you still have the prob

I dont not have drivers, but i went to a website and got them, isntalled etc... still having problem with the boot up, the onyl thing i saw that when it doesnt recongize my cdroms in windows it only gets one drive D and the other aint ther?

What kind of CDROM's do you have?  Are they both IDE interface or SCSI?  What are your hard drive(s) (IDE or SCSI)?  For IDE's you need to ensure that Master/Slave relationships are set up properly (if you need help doing that, let us know); for SCSI, make sure ID's are set correctly and the chain is terminated correctly (let us know if you need help doing that).

When the drives are NOT detected, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager, and see if you have any conflicts (that is, are there any yellow exclamation points or red X's on any of the devices).  If there ARE conflicts, then that's the root of the problem.  First step would be to "Remove" in Device Manager all those with conflicts, as well as any duplicates (if there are two instances of the same device, of any kind, remove all instances of that device).  Then reboot and let Windows re-detect and re-load.  Try to repeat the problem you had (that is, after boot, check Device Manager for no conflicts, then Restart and see if you still have no conflicts).

One other thing:  make sure that config.sys and autoexec.bat don't have lines added from the tweak program you used.  Go to Start, Run, and type sysedit and hit enter.

We can also go to Start, Run, and type msconfig and hit enter to deselect config.sys and autoexec.bat for booting and troubleshooting.

I know one thing was added to config.sys is stacks=0,0  it said it would speed up perfomance... and i have both memorex drives, one is a cdrw, and the other is 48x. i do not know ide or sci or whatever. sorry.. and these have worked before.. so the master/slave stuff i do not think mattters. since befor ei did tweaking it worked fine. (i think)... :( and whne i looked inside device manager, only one cdrom was shown, no X or !.

Not knowing what "tweaks" were done, it's hard to trace; however, the reason I asked about master/slave and the other hardware type of questions is that some systems are sensitive about what goes together on the same IDE channel, for example.  It may have worked before, yet stop working because the tweaks caused the sensitivity to surface.

The fact that the hardware is not detected points to the hardware setup (although it can certainly be a software problem, that would make me think you'd see a conflict in Device Manager).

Did the tweaking program add a "Last Drive" command so it's not able to see a drive higher than, say D:?

Which drive is not showing up -- the CDRW or the CDROM?  If you have software that came with the drive that is missing, you might try reinstalling that software.  You could also "Remove" the one that is working (in Device Manager) and let Windows re-detect it as well.

When you initially turn the computer on, do both drives show activity (light comes on and flickers)?

I fixed the problem I just un did all the tweaks realted to this problem and well it is fixed. Thanks micro66 I am giving you the points.

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