CD-Rom in a Compaq DeskPro Not Detected

[CadMasterAdam]

hi thread!

i have a deskpro 66/m. but with an IDE CDrom drive that is verified working on other machines, however, on this deskpro when i connect to the ide header with the drive as a slave to the master set HDD i can't get BIOS to see the CD rom...


do i need an ESIA or ISA drive controller card?

thanks!

 

[ajacocks]

@CadMasterAdam welcome to the forum.

You might want to check to see if the drive works in dos, when you load a cd-rom driver (for instance, try booting the Windows 98 SE boot disk). Older BIOS versions often don’t show optical drives.

Alternatively, try setting the jumpers for CSEL, and see if that works.

- Alex

 

[Timo W.]

Exactly. The BIOS normally only shows hard disks, unless it's a BIOS that can actually do something with the CD-ROM.

It does not matter, as the CD-ROM is not accessed via the BIOS anyway. Just install a driver in DOS and see if it works.

If possible, connect the CD-ROM to the sound card's IDE port. Having it on the same cable as the HDD will decrease performance a lot when copying files.

 

[CadMasterAdam]

thanks team. so i swapped out the crystal audio card which has an unpopulated IDE header, for an OPT! audio card that does indeed have an IDE header. i'll see if i can load drivers in BIOS config that Compaq usses

anyhow... part of a larger investigation i will keep chasing on my end.

its funny, in 2022 i found this Compaq Deskpro 66M, and learning how to work on this EISA system with no BIOS control outside of the configuration floppy disks is challenging

i'll let yawl know when/how i get the CD drive to work.