Hi Mike,
Thanks once again for replying. I apologize for the
delay, but the Holidays are always wild and I've got a
ton of info (some of it conflicting) which I've been
culling through, trying to keep the facts and what
you've asked for separate from other things I've
found.
Most of my posts have been long, but I have a feeling
this one will be unreal...
>--- Mike Whalen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello Ellen,
>
> Actually, the reason you see a Dell logo at >bootup
is because this has been added to the >BIOS. (i.e.
Dell commissioned the BIOS writer >to add their logo
to the code.) This is not >sinister.
> Nearly every OEM does it. The BIOS routines >are on
a chip. So, the logo would survive
>everything except, perhaps, a hammer.
LOL @ the hammer. The Dell logo really doesn't bother
me. I only mentioned it because it had survived the
fdisking & formatting and a Microsoft article I'd read
mentioned it as a possible sign of a drive overlay (as
did the Microsoft link you sent me).
> Before you try to destroy the overlay that >may or
may not be there, why not try to >determine if you
have one running? Most of >these questions cab be
located here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q186057
>1. How old is your system?
It was purchased new from Dell in August 2000, so just
about a year and a half old.
>2. Is LBA expressly enabled or disabled in >CMOS?
LBA is specifically (listed under each specific IDE in
CMOS) enabled in 1) Primary IDE Master (my HD), 2)
Secondary IDE Master (DVD-Rom) and 3) Secondary IDE
Slave (zip). No Primary IDE Slave installed
> 3. If there is no LBA-related CMOS settings, >an
application like WCPUID will help you >identify the
motherboard and manufacturer. >Look up the docs on the
MB manfactuers web >site to see if the MB supports
LBA.
> 4. After executing fdisk /status, does the >sum of
the existing partitions equal to more >than the total
_physical_ hard drive space?
As I wote in my last post, Fdisk /status gives me a
strange reading. Hopefully someone will know what this
means?
My hard drive is 20.4Gb, with one active partition, C:
Disk Drive Mbytes Free Usage
-----------------------------------------------
1 19060 100%
C: 19060
*note 1: the above is with Win98SE installed on drive
C:, but I get the same thing even when there's no OS
installed.
*note 2: this particular Fdisk /status only began
showing up after I had done an fdisk, fdisk /MBR and a
format. Prior to that it had read as 1 Disk, Drive C:,
19069 Mbytes, and with a percentage in the "Free" and
"Usage" areas (ie, one line across - not two)
It also doesn't show my C: usage now. However, when I
do a DIR C:, it says I have about 18.5 Gb remaining,
which is also what Norton Utilities tells me. I only
have Win98 on C: - how can that alone be taking up
almost 2 Gb?
> 5. After executing MEM /C -- after having >booted to
a MS-DOS prompt -- does the >conventional memory equal
less than 655,360?
a. booting to DOS with a Win98 bootdisk and selecting
Command Prompt Only, with a MEM /C (or any MEM
command) I get "bad command or file name"
b. with a boot to DOS from the HD and selecting
Command Prompt Only, MEM /C gets me a whole chart, but
the Total Conventional Memory is exactly 655,360.
> 6. At C:\, can you find *.bin, *.ovl files >other
than drvspace.bin and dblspace.bin?
No. However:
a) Win98 bootdisk boot/Command Prompt Only, and then a
dir /c *.bin, I get: "Drvspce.bin" @ 68,871 bytes.
b) normal boot/Command Prompt Only, dir /c *bin
again, gets "No File Found".
Also, a "c:\windows\*.bin" search from within Windows
brings up 9 .bin files, plus drvspace.bin and
dblspace.bin
>The link also helps you use a Windows 95/98 >start up
floppy to determine if you can access >windows\system.
>
>I think that before you run out and buy >another
drive, I think we should try to >understand what's
happening. I'm not convinced >I've all the facts of
what's happening here.
>
>I'd like to know the following information:
>1. How old is the system? When did you buy it?
Purchased new from Dell in August 2000
>2. Who manufacturered the hard drive(s)?
Maxtor
>3. What is is the primary control method? IDE? >SCSI?
I never received from Dell a complete listing of
what's in my pc, and not knowing any better, I'd never
asked for one. Now when I call, they either don't have
or won't give me the info on my controllers. Both
techs I spoke to said they "assumed" my controllers
were IDE, but couldn't give me any more info. So I
have no definitive answers for you. Device Manager
says they're from Intel.
However, despite the Dell techs "assumptions", I
believe the controllers may be (or SOME are anyway)
SCSI, because of a few things:
1) in Msconfig/Config.sys, General, under "Advanced
Troubleshooting Settings": the "Use SCSI Double
Buffering" line is checked and greyed-out so I can't
change it (no matter what I check or uncheck, it
remains grey-out)
2) I can see Config.sys and Config.dos when I do an
"edit" with them. They're both exactly the same:
(spaces are intentional)
REM [Header]
*
*
REM [CD-ROM Drive]
REM [Miscellaneous]
REM [SCSI Controllers]
REM [Display]
REM [Sound, MIDI or VideoCapture Card]
REM [Mouse]
REM--------------------
*These 2 "blanks" are both checked to load - there are
a number of "blanks" in my system. Even on a normal
boot (with a step-by-step confirmation), 10 "blanks"
load... Similar to the "blanks" on the Fdisk /status
3) In the System Properties box/Performance/
Troubleshooting, if I check-off "Disable write-behind
caching for all drives", click ok, and close the box,
when I open it again (without even a reboot), what I'd
checked-off remains checked, but now on the
"Removeable Disk" page, "Enable write behind caching
for all drives" is somehow checked-off too. If I
uncheck this, I come back and it's checked again: it
always balances what I've checked-off.
And I don't know if this is makes any sense or not,
but it appears I have totally separate drivers (for
Adaptec controllers, not Intel) loading when I boot
into DOS from a bootdisk. This is what loads onto the
screen after the post page:
AIC - 6260/6360/6370 ASPI Manager for DOS
Version 3.68S
©1990-1997 Adaptec, Inc
AIC - 78XX/AIC - 75XX ASPI Manager for DOS
Version 1.32S
©1994-1997 Adaptec, Inc.
PCI Bus Scan Complete
AHA - 1540/1542/1640 ASPI Manager for DOS
Version 3.36S
©1989-1997 Adaptec, Inc.
AIC - 7890/91 ASPI Manager for DOS
Version 1.00S
©1994-1997 Adaptec, Inc.
PCI Bus Scan Complete
ASPI CD-ROM Driver for DOS
Version 4.01S
©1990-1996 Adaptec, Inc.
I did a search on these at Adaptec, but the only one I
found anything on was AIC 7890/91.
It says it's an "Ultra2 SCSI single chip host
adapter". I'm assuming the others are too.
And there are no settings at all in CMOS/BIOS for SCSI
controllers.
> 4. How large is the primary hard drive?
1 hard drive only, 20.4 Gb
> I'd also like for you to answer the questions above
relating to overlays.
>Cheers
>Mike Whalen
There's a question at the link you sent me about
comparing Window system files date and size for minor
inconsistencies. In DOS I found 10 .SYS files in
Windows, all the dates & sizes were exactly the same.
But when I did a search from within Windows for *.sys
files in C:\windows, it came up with the 10 that I
found in DOS, plus an additional 42.
One other thing. I found an icon in my Windows folder
for "MS-DOS MODE FOR GAMES WITH EMS AND XMS SUPPORT".
It took me out of windows to a command prompt, were I
did a MEM /C and MEM /ALL. The results of which were
different than the other MEM commands I'd used. For
example, the original MEM charts had said NO Upper
Memory was being used, while this one showed 4 files
that were. It also showed extended memory being used
and said "EMM386 is using XMS memory to stimulate EMS
memory as needed. Free EMS memory may change as free
XMS memory changes."
And lastly, relating back to the drive & drive
controllers, I mentioned before that my CMOS tells me
no Primary IDE slave is installed. But in CMOS,
1) the setting on my "Boot Configuration" was set for
Floppy, then ARMD-FDD, then IDE-HDD, and last, Atapi
CDROM. I reset them to Atapi CDROM, Floppy, IDE-HDD,
and disabled the last boot device. Then
2) under "IDE Configuration"/"Primary IDE Slave", it
said "[not installed]", but the "PIO mode" (set by the
bios so I can't change it) is set to "[auto]", and the
"type" was also set to "[auto]". I changed this last
one to "[none]", since I couldn't figure out why
something that was [not installed] would have any
settings. And then
3) the "Boot Configuration" was set to boot:
1.Primary IDE Master, 2. Primary IDE Slave, 3.
Secondary IDE Master, and 4. Secondary IDE Slave. I
set the Primary IDE Slave (as it's not installed) to
#4 and the other two up to #2 & #3.
Anyway, with those 3 changes made, when I boot now,
on the POST page, there's about a 4-5 minute wait
between the
"USB Legacy..........Enabled" msg and the final
message of:
Fixed Disk 0: Maxtor 5T020H2
(UDMA=100MHz)
Atapi CD-ROM Samsung DVD-Rom SD-612
A.R.M.D. Iomega Zip 250 Atapi
It's like the pc's looking for something it can't
find, and either finally finds it or subs it? Before
making those changes to the Primary IDE Slave in CMOS,
it used to load immediately.
I also found Winsock 2.2 running, another program I'd
never downloaded or used.
Thanks!
Ellen Williamson
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