Thinkpads Forum

In the process of getting my internal modem to work, I seem
to have lost system recognition of my CDROM drive. It doesn't show up in Win98 SE Device Driver at all.

Is there a separate CDROM driver file? I searched the IBM site for info, but could only fine a driver for DOS/Win 3.1?

Win 98 is supposed to have the driver. Do you know the maker, you can download directly the drivers from their website.

Win 98SE has built-in drivers for CD-ROMs so I'm pretty sure that playing with installing alternate versions of drivers will not make your drive reappear.

Idea 1: Sometimes, when you are playing around with UltraSlimBay configuration in Win 98SE, the system can get confused about whether or not you are using two or three IDE "channels". As a result, once in a while, devices can end up incorrectly configured, and not be recognized. You can fiddle with these settings a bit by enabling or disabling hot/warm swapping in the Windows IBM ThinkPad Config utility -- maybe under "Device Bay"?. You need to already have the Ultrabay utility driver for Windows 95/98/Me - ThinkPad 600, 770 (Bayswap driver) installed.

Idea 2: Sometimes, in Win 98SE, if you "remove" a device from Device Manager (as opposed to just "disabling" it), that device can be hard to get back again. If you did this, then you can normally get the device back again by manually starting the "Add new device" wizard and then Win 98SE should ask you if the device is in a list it provides (which is a list of devices you've manually disabled or removed) before sending you off to select a new device on your own. Try that if you haven't already, and select the CD drive if it shows up in the list Windows provides. Alternatively, you can try starting up in "Safe" mode and looking through the device manager there -- since it should basically list all the devices you've ever installed, regardless of whether they are currently active or not. Then you can try to "enable" your CD drive from Safe mode if possible.

Let us know if none of this helps.

Phil.

Just wondering, does it boot from the CD drive? Mine doesn't boot from the CD-drive for some reason. Just wondering if a common problem.

Saysana13B, try to stay on topic. The original poster's CD drive is not recognized in their system -- so it doesn't boot, doesn't play, doesn't do nothin'. Please start a new thread if you want to discuss booting from CD drives.