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9240 Forum                      Update 6/27/99 pM 6:26
 

On 06/09/99 07:22:07, compaq - john p wrote in answer to my request for help in getting my cd/pd drive working after installation of a zoom modem made the drives disappear. I removed the modem and the story continues...
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On 06/09/99 07:22:07, compaq - john p wrote
> Click on start, run, type in 'sysedit' and hit [enter].

>

> What is listed in both the config.sys and autoexec.bat files there?

>

>OK   OK
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(Written Sunday June 20 pm). Written Compaq several times and still no further response from Compaq. I think Compaq has given up. With no luck getting the internal cd/pd drive working, I purchased an external  $299  Micro-Solutions BackPack cd/pd (model 170550, an old model from 1996) drive and installed it. Problem then getting the cd/pd and printer to work on the parallel port. I bought a Belkin f1u126 Bitronics AutoSwitch kit ($89). I replaced all my cables $$$, some of which were already Ieee 1284 capable, with new ones. Finally I have all working. The new pd/cd drives work and my 1150C HpOffice Pro will print , scan, and copy without error messages. Spent a lot of time on the  Micro-Solutions web page looking at all the possible problems involved and on the the HPOffice Jet Pro 1150C Web Page as well. This paragraph describes efforts which took about 15 hours of test and trials. I still have a "Compatibility paging reduces overall system performance..." message in my Performance tab on My Computer. Details follow:
 

(Written Friday June 18, 1999 am.) I sent much of the below info to John @ Compaq many days ago and still no response. In the meantime I purchased a Micro-Solutions external PD/CD drive and installed it. It worked pretty easily and I downloaded latest drivers and so now for some extra $$ and no help from compaQ I am able to use my PD and Cd disks. Nice to be able to install programs again.  And to have the 650mg per pd disk for storage. I need to get the original cd/pd working as well as resolve the "compatibility" problem.)
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(6/15/99 7:33pm.) I still do not have my cd/pd drive working, I have done what online Compaq and telephone Compaq Tech suggest plus a million other ideas, I lost my com ports and modem for a few days, and  I have a "Compatibility paging reduces overall system performance..." message in my Performance tab on My Computer. Details follow:
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To start this, after receiving above message of 6/9/99 from John @ Compaq on-line support,  I sent John much of this original memo and he did not at first get the config.sys. Later I sent it to him. He said make some changes which I did.

In the process of doing the following and changing things to check progress I lost all three of my com ports. Com 1 is used for a direct connect to another computer, Com 2 is the modem, Com 3 I use to download from a Casio digital camera. My modem was gone for many days and hours of work and trials eventually got it back. So John , that is why you did not hear from me for a few days and now I have not heard from John. Any way, John had said to try the following:

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John wrote on 6/10
So...
 Put the Quick Restore boot disk in the A: drive, and then click on start, run, type in "notepad a:\config.sys"
 and hit [enter].  After that window has opened, then click on start, run, type in "notepad a:\autoexec.bat" and hit [enter].
 Now, once you have those 2 windows open, click on start, run, type in "sysedit" and hit [enter].
 Here's where the fun begins.
 In the autoexec.bat from the A: drive, there are three lines that refer to A:\SCSI. Copy those 3 lines and put
 them in the Autoexec.bat listed in the System Configuration Editor window. You'll need to change the A: to
 C: too.
 Then in the config.sys from the A: drive, there should be a line that refers to the CD-ROM drive. (If I
 remember right, each section is separated and identified in a REM statement.) Copy that line to the
 config.sys in the System Configuration Utility window.
 Again, change the A: to C:.
 Then click on file, exit. 'yes' to save the changes.
 Then close all the windows and reboot the computer.
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Since he did not get config System, I sent to him again and he replied as follows
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Topic:
             Presario 9000
       Subject:
             RE: 9240 PD Drive/Cd Drive Missing
        From:
             compaq - john p
                                                             06/11/99 09:09:21

 Ok. New plan.
 Put the Quick Restore boot disk in the A: drive.
 Click on Start, run, type in "notepad a:\autoexec.bat" and hit [enter].
 Look for a line that references "mscdex.exe /d:ASPICD0"

 Now click on start, run, type in "sysedit" and hit [enter].
 In the autoexec.bat, you need to add a line in that starts with

 C:\windows\command\

 and then place the mscdex.exe and command switches on the rest of that line after the "\".
 

 Then click on File, Exit in the System Configuration Utility window. Click on 'yes' to save it, and then reboot
 your computer.

 To serve our customers better,
 Compaq would like to hear from you.
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I did as he suggested and  In the process of doing the above and changing things to check progress I lost all three of my com ports. Com 1 is used for a direct connect to another computer, Com 2 is the modem, Com 3 I use to download from a Casio digital camera. My modem was gone for many days and hours of work and trials eventually got it back. So John , that is why  you did not hear from me for a few days.

That is where I stood on 6/15/99 1pm with no cd/pd drive and with my Performance tab of My Computer  properties saying "Compatibility paging reduces overall system performance, Drive C: using MS-DOS comp............." (See below)

Another point: now. When I look at the Performance Tab in My Computer properties, it says "Compatibility paging reduces overall system performance, Drive C: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system, Drive D: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system, Drive E: using Dos compatibility mode file system, Drive F: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system, Drive G: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system." This message was a result of running the Compaq Registry Cleanup download (See Bellow). I called the Compaq tech support number and we tried a few things but "need to take it into service repair shop" was the inevitable conclusion

The Autoexec.bat and Config sys are at bottom of this page and I already determined there have been no changes in them over the last few months.

Start of Trouble with a $69.99 Zoom/FaxModem 56K-PCI  Model 2925. All was ok till I tried to install the Zoom modem and it would not work and I removed it. But then the cd/pd drives were gone. Zoom/FaxModem 56K-PCI  Model 2925 tech could not help, in fact I lost a lot of time because they said my cd drive did not need an IRQ; wrong, the combination pd/cd drive works off a scsi card and in my computer it needs an irq. That is where all this trouble started, not being able to install properly the Zoom. With Compaq tech help we removed the SCsi drivers, the zip drivers, the modem , all com and parallel ports, etc from the System icon in Control panel. We rebooted and it found everything except the cd/pd drives.
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(6/27/99: I sent this page to Zoom earlier and they responded:)

All this info is way too much to follow (and not listed in 100% chronological-order-of-occurence -- from latest correspondence to earliest correspondence or vice versa). Summarize this in a nutshell:  If the Zoom
modem is totally uninstalled from your PC  (if a Lucent PCI modem, run
LTREMOVE from the PCI_LT folder on the modem's CD disk, then shutdown/power
off and physically remove the modem from the PC) and then boot and perform
the necessary steps to get this CD/PD drive installed workably, does the
CD/PD now come back and stay installed without disappearing -- yet whenever
you put the modem in, the CD/PD disappears?

(I told him I knew it was terribly organized and that the cd/pd never did show on desk top again and he replied as follows:)

If I were in physically front of your PC, I could apply all my nearly 20
years of computer hacking and troubleshooting to your system and may well
resolve the issue. You need a deep-level computer guru like myself to sit
in front of your PC and work out the myriad problems.
----------------------
 
 

To begin again,  before this mishap I had the original 1.2 plus 1.8 hard drive (the extra 1.8 was installed at time I purchased the PC new) divided into drives A, C (1.2gig), D (380 mg), E(380 mg), F(380 mg), G(380 mg), H (pd), I (zip parallel), J (cd). It has an extra 2 serial ports (total of 3) and one extra parallel (total of 2). I had the memory increased from the 16 mg original to 139mg and I use a Cybervision 21 inch monitor #c112. Long ago with Compaq help I disabled the Compaq Phone Center because of problems with it. I use the serial ports for a Casio digital camera and the parallel ports for two printers. Also have tv tuner, now disabled because it will not work in high enough resolution. All worked great till I thought any one can install a modem; I found out.

The name of the Product is Presario 9240. The Serial number is 6604hvd5p67. It is W95.. A recent case number is 34 00 203.

I have done the above steps suggested by Compaq several times with variations. I also have to sometimes remove the card to get into Windows. I have been into F10 and F8 a million times. I have downloaded sp's from Compaq and no luck.

I think the problem is that there is a conflict on boot up but I do not know what settings I should add for the Adaptec in F10 set-up. If you know them maybe that would be a next step. Most of the Compaq tech did not even know what Adaptec was so there was no way they could tell me the irq or if it needs one, the 1/0, or memory addresses. I have tried lots and nothing works, I get conflicts and then spend time getting it back into windows as I put it back. Also I dread taking it for repair to a shop in because all the repair shops I have called do not know about the pd drive, especially with the warranty just running out.

Added after much of the above:
Depending on where I am in the set-up process, add/remove hardware, and physically taking card out  the computer will hang up after it appears to run the first line in config.sys of C:\scsi\aspI8dos.sys /D /L. At other times it will go through it and say "Scsi present but not enabled/configure PCI Bus Location 00:05."

In set up for the SCSI card it says Adaptec AIC-7850 PCI SCSI, the  IRQ is now 9, the i/o is 4000000-44000 FFF, the I/o is 1000-10FF. At other times this changes; sometimes I can try to change but immediately the F10 set-up tells me there is a conflict.

Sometimes, again depending on what I have changed, it will get to windows, say it has found the adapter, tell me to reboot. Then after reboot it will hang before windows opens.

I also find I have, after using the download program from Compaq to clean up registry, that I get a message in control panel/System saying my various hard drives are using "MS-DOS Compatible Mode file system" and the overall message above all drives is "Compatibility mode paging reduces overall system performance." At the time I ran the Registry clean up program a big blue screen told me "Your multi-function device (opti dual Pci ide Controller) has some child devices using 32 bit drives and others using compatibility-mode drivers. This configuration is not supported, so your computer has been halted to prevent corruption. After you restart your computer, Windows will use compatibility-mode drivers for each child device attached to this multi-function device. If you want to use 32-bit drivers, you may be able to obtain an updated driver for the device that caused the problem by contacting your hardware manufacturer, or you can disable this device." You can imagine my reaction with this big blue message. The computer did boot up but I assume it is not now operating efficiently. I did follow the instruction to reverse the ages the computer did to registry but I still get the compatibility info in control/system. (Added 6/15/99 12:16pm) I now find the results of this change. When I look at the Performance Tab in My Computer properties, it says Compatibility paging reduces overall system performance, Drive C: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system, Drive D: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system, Drive E: using Dos compatibility mode file system, Drive F: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system, Drive G: using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system." I called the Compaq tech support number and we tried a few things but "need to take it into service repair shop" was the inevitable conclusion.

Thanks for looking this over. I have bought 5 Compaqs for my family and friends so I am a loyal Compaq customer. I hope that might mean someone can help figure this out for me. I appreciate you reply and hope all this will help you.

The original autoexec.bat and config.sys files are below although I have now changed them based on John's suggestion partly.

(Written Friday June 18, 1999 am.) I sent much of above info to John @ Compaq many days ago and still no response. In the meantime I purchased a Micro-Solutions external PD/CD drive and installed it. It worked pretty easily and I downloaded latest drivers and so now fo some extra $$ and no help from compaQ I am able to use my PD and Cd disks. Nice to be able to install programs again.  And to have the 650mg per pd disk for storage.

(Written Sunday June 20 pm) Problem then getting the BackPack external cd/pd and printer to work on the parallel port. I bought a Belkin f1u126 Bitronics AutoSwitch kit ($89). I replaced all my cables, some of which were already Ieee 1284 capable, with new ones. Finally I have all working. The new pd/cd drives work and my 1150C HpOffice Pro will print , scan, and copy without error messages. This paragraph describes efforts which took about 15 hours of test and trials.

I need to get the original cd/pd working as well as resolve the "compatibility"  problem. Hope Compaq will respond.

Don Redding 704 527 3510  Charlotte NC (This update 6/20/99 pm Sunday)

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Original Autoexec.bat and config.sys before all these problems:
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Autoexec.bat
@echo off
:rem: 10 16 96 c:\windows\net start
SET PAFCONF=E:\PAF
C:\CPQDOS\SPKSET.EXE
PATH G:\PRESTOPM\.;%PATH%;C:\WINDOWS\CPQWIN;d:\batch;d:\winlynx;g:\wplibrary
SET PATH=C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1;%PATH%
doskey
set $whiz$=cdefg /scdefg
set path=%path%;c:\imci\pctcp
SET PCTCP=c:\imci\pctcp\pctcp.ini
cls
Rem Do Not remove following line, needed for speakerphone operation.
Rem Added via Softpaq SP1508
C:\windows\system\adcadj.Exe
cls
@echo All is Ok....LOADING...50 Seconds......_
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Config.sys

;DEVICE=C:\scandevc.sys /H3
BUFFERS=25
device=c:\windows\himem.sys
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe
DEVICE=C:\SCSI\ASPI8DOS.SYS /D /L
DEVICE=C:\SCSI\ASPIDISK.SYS /D
DEVICE=C:\SCSI\ASPICD.SYS /D:ASPICD0 /L
FILES=100
NUMLOCK=ON
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