----- Original Message (was from) -----
> "Peter Darrach" Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] CD drive not recognized
Snip,snip, snip............
> > > > Anyway, I'm lost! Can anyone lead me out of the wilderness? How can I
> > > > get the CD recognized?

I have been having a problem "similar" to the original question.
Mary Wolden gave a great "history" of ide and eide interfaces
and sound card support for CD-ROM drives, and the ATAPI
standard, etc...
snip -- (The following is about one of the newer standards, the one I use.)
M.W. > The ATAPI (AT Attachment Packet Interface) Standard allows an ATAPI
> compliant CD-ROM drive to be treated exactly as though it were an EIDE
> drive.  Using ATAPI-capable hardware and software drivers, you can mix and
> match different types of drives on the same EIDE controller, thanks to
> EIDE's support for the ATAPI standard.  This allowed for the use of a
> Universal CD-ROM driver which had not been possible with proprietary CD-ROM
> interfaces.  Unlike a hard drive there is no reason for the BIOS to detect
> the parameters of the CD-ROM drive as the device drivers handle this.
> Other ATAPI compliant devices can be installed on the EIDE controllers such
> as ATAPI Zip drives and ATAPI Tape Devices which are also not detected in
> the BIOS.

While there is no need to detect the _parameters_ of a CD-ROM drive in the BIOS,
I have "one" CD-ROM drive that will not work unless it initializes itself properly
and the BIOS detects that it is there. (Which came first, the chicken or the egg?)
When I say "detect" I mean the hard drives and CD-ROMS list themselves
by model number and location (pri-master, pri-slave, sec-master, sec-slave)
on a BIOS boot screen. (This is on a motherboard built-in controller with support
for four "(E)IDE" devices)

I have an Award BIOS dated 5/98. I run Win95B "fully patched".
I set the two hard drives on the first channel to auto. I can set the second "channel"
to auto for both CD-ROM drives or to none, and I can even "turn off" the second IDE
channel  (to "disabled").
None of these settings seem to affect the BIOS detecting the model of the CD-ROM
drives normally (and it usually it does) and the CD-ROM drives should (and do
"mostly") appear regardless of these settings, EXCEPT for the CD-ROM that
"sometimes" fails to either initialize or ID correctly.
(Which "IS" first, the chicken or the egg?)
I am bringing all this up because it sounds like a similar situation that the other
gentleman was trying to describe and one that I have been wanting to ask about
for a long time.
Now the question.
For a BIOS that "normally" "IDs" or detects a CD-ROM, how "bad" is it
when it does not about 25% of the time, (only on "cold" boots)?
This drive that "mostly" appears (and sometimes does not) is an Acer 4x2x32
CDRW and is under warranty.
Is this a problem with the BIOS booting, or the drive initializing, or the BIOS detecting
the model/drive?
I have "quick power on self test" turned off in the BIOS (to do the "long" test.)
Thanks for reading this.  Any suggestions?         Rick Glazier

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