Win XP Pro SP2 fully updated. Turned on my pc yesterday afternoon and found that both my optical drives are missing their drivers (apparently) and do not appear in the drive listing in explorer. Windows cannot re-install the drivers, it says they are missing or corrupted. I have uninstalled both and allowed the hardware detection to find them, but it does not install the drivers. I have been in the usual circles with the supposed windows trouble shooter. It advises me to do what I have already tried, ie re-installing the drives. Now for both my CDRW and my DVD drives to go at once is highly suspicious, they re both on the same IDE channel, so I suspected a loose cable or plug, but they are ok. They are both recognised correctly by the bios and by windows but I do not believe that both drivers were corrupted at the same time. I run Zone Alarm and AVG updated daily.
Of course I cannot re load drivers from the CD since the CD and DVD drives are the problem. Should I try the old original driver on the Win XP discs? I have tried to find drivers on the inet but can only find flash firmware upgrades for the Sony and nothing for the LG The devices are:
LG DVD ROM GDR861B and Sony CDRW CRX210E1
Many thanks

rpaco

I doubt that it is a driver problem, as I would expect the standard Windows drivers to at least make the drives partially usable.

Have you any software installed which could take control of the drives? Have you tried running in safe mode to see if they work?

You could also try disconnecting the drives, booting Windows, shutting down and then connecting one drive to a different IDE channel.

OK, 1) Same in safe mode, dirves recognised ans listed on Device manager but showing E

Sorry about above, (typing in akward conditions) I meant:
1) Same in safe mode. dirves show as "!" on device manager
2) Have swapped ide cables, same result, both optical drives U/S
3) Swapped ide channels and firstly same results ie no optical drives usable but then on 50% of boots my primary drive not found resulting in NTLDER not found.
So its my guess that my not very old ASRock motherboard is knacked.
Please give your opinion.
Also somewhere is the boot log but I cant find the damn thing to see if there is a record of some drivers not loading. Any idea where it is and what it's called in XP Pro?

rpaco

It does look as though it could be the motherboard.

To find the logs, do a search for *.log in c:\ without subdirectories and then in c:\Windows including subdirectories. You may have to check the display hidden ans system files in the view options.

One way to check the optical drives, would be to set the BIOS to boot from your CD drives and insert a bootable CD. Either your Windows installation disk or better still a live Linux disc.

It might be worth making sure that any removable chips are properly seated on the motherboard, and as a last resort, you could re-flash the BIOS, although that has the potential to do more harm than good especially with a dodgy M/B.

Best of luck.

Still as confused as ever.

I am still considering the best and cheapest way to be able to trade while wandering around Europe in a Motor home.

I maybe away a month but last time I said I was going away for a month I returned 9mths later.

I have a wireless Sony Laptop. 1.86 Ghz etc.

When at home I have V21 broadband connection left on all day.

I use it for dealing Selftrade, CMC , Barclays and banking as well as down loading end of the day Sharescope Gold data and Moneyam , E-mail and recently started CFDs and Spreadbets. Therefore scanning the net frequently.

I am considering purchasing a data card for the machine, although impressed by finding hot spots in London and Birmingham, which have allowed me to connect in to the Internet.

I would like to know, approximately how many Gigs of data I would likely to be downloading, if I was working in the same way with a data card abroad?

I dont download music, videos or pictures as such. But occasionally listen to BBC reports.

I noticed that somebody was writing about Pay as you go Simms and wondered if this is possible for a data simms card?

Also, beginning to think there should be a training course in evaluation of payment schemes and contracts for mobile phones, Internet connections etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

Fred

I can't say how much data you would download, although my (very) wild guess would be 30 to 100 MB/Day.

You should be able to get a better idea by checking the status panel for your network connection or by downloading a program that will keep track of your network usage.

An alternative method that I've used (althogh not via a mobile phone connection), is to run my programs on my home computer and use remote desktop via a VPN on my laptop to view and operate the home computer. This method probably would not save any bandwidth, but it does mean that your trading software will not be subjected to problems caused by poor connections and you only end up paying for the time that you are logged into your home machine.

That method also has security implications which have to be handled, and you need to have someone who can reboot your computer if required, but it works well.

rpaco

Seen this a few times and the only way I knew to fix it was reinstall XP which I suspect neither you or anyone else is too keen on?

Now I use

"Start Registry Editor (Start, Run and type in regedit then click)

Find "UpperFilters" and "LowerFilters" (and "UpperFilters.bak" "LowerFilters.bak", if they exist) value under the following key in the registry, and delete it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Quit Registry Editor.

Reboot.
"

That's it fixed

Does anyone have a spare disc of Picture package. It comes with Sony Handycam`s.
Lost mine, so cant load up films on new computer

Iain

Try http://www.ppackage.com/e/index.html

Fred,

Mainly in the interest of breaking the silence on your quest for ideas about travelling Europe in your motorhome I'll mention that there is a good thread running on another nameless forum on the topic of Mobile Internet Connections for Boats.

It was started and is being updated by someone called energyi who may have chums around here.

This is the URL but it may be password controlled:-
http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=6597897

Foregive me for using a dirty word MAM execs, but we don't want to lose Fred when he hitches his horse to his caravan, do we?

Rgds

TP

brianboru

Before I read your advice, I had just flashed my bios, made no difference. It looked so much like an IDE channel I though a flash might just nudge it back to life, it didn't.

Have now tried your suggestion, unfortunately no difference made by deleting the key data value which was "pfd".
do I need to delete the Key as well? or only the data value?

Have other instances of same class in same hive but with ControlSet001 002 003.

do I need to delete all? and keys or just values?

Have done a "find" on "UpperFilters" and found dozens of refs to it all over the registry some with values relatiing to VIA (my MB chipset) and others relating to the device name and models. Some relating to INCDPass and some to GEARAspiWDM. Please state type of value to be deleted. ie number or text or file name or location.
Thanks so far, I was ready to send the motherboard back, to Dabs its only 6 months old.
More info please if poss.
regds

rpaco

What about trying to boot from a CD? This will tell you whether it is the M/B or O/S.

rpaco

Click the REG_MULTI_SZ data type UpperFilters, and then click Delete on the Edit menu. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.

Click the REG_MULTI_SZ data type LowerFilters, and then click Delete on the Edit menu. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.


That's it - Ignore the other entries elsewhere.

Good luck. As I said, it's worked several times for me on various machines.

TP,
thank you had brief look, will peruse it again tomorrow.

I am coming down on the side of datacard and hopefully buying local simms to go in it.

But isn't it b Stupid when the majority of Mobile internet companies are multinational and that when one travels 22 miles across a border you have to change systems and charges and billings and get robbed when you do it.

Funny old world.

The caravan is driven by a donkey so it would be good to have the company of a horse or two.

Fred

If it's any use to you, today I ran a monitor of around 80 stocks, 5 L2 tabs, a couple of charts, BB on a 5 min refresh and CMC Marketmaker. My data download was approx 15MB/Hr, less than that mid morning till 2, more in the afternoon.

I hope that helps you to estimate your usage.

Optimist, Thank you. I think it is time to get off my arse and do something positive.

Fred,

Keep us posted as to what you decide, please.

TP

brianboru/Optimist
Fixed!!!
No it would not boot from CD on either ide channel.
Went back into the reg (have to confess also went to the MSKB and found your suggestion there too) and deleted all instances of Upper and lower filters on the 3 duplications of the Class in other control sets as well.
Many thanks

rpaco

I'm glad that you have managed to fix it. However, if it will not boot from a CD, there must still be a problem with your hardware as registry changes will not effect boot behaviour.