Author Topic: Hardware shown in BIOS listings 'goes missing' when WinXP starts. (Read 14597 times)

phowarth · « **on:** April 17, 2013, 08:07:59 am »

Firstly thank you for such a helpful site.
I've tried your software tool to find a missing DVD/CD and the Windows repair suite but without success, so I wonder if anyone has any alternative solutions please?
My PC comprises an Asus P5KPL-AM motherboard running WinXP SP3. Two hardware connection points on the motherboard stop working properly once Windows starts.
Any optical or hard disks I connect to either SATA 2 and/or to the EIDE 'slave' position show up perfectly in BIOS listings during boot-up, but always disappear from the hardware list in My Computer and Disk Management admin tools once the operating system has launched.
I've tried the simple hardware-based tricks of swapping cables and moving the hard drives and DVD-RAMs around (and changing the EIDE hardware from master to slave to cable-select), but nothing has made any difference so I conclude that the problem isn’t the hardware but lies with WinXP.
It all used to work fine, so something I've added or updated a while back may be the culprit. With regret I can't restore the system back that far as I didn't notice it in time before one of the system clean and renovation programs I use wiped away the old ‘system restore’ settings.
Another symptom which may be connected is that on boot I always get the 'found new hardware' notification, but its type is 'unknown' and the system can never find it. I don't believe I have added any hardware for over a year so have no idea what it thinks it has found. If I run Unknown Device Identifier it says that the Compaq NC3120 Fast Ethernet NIC is an ‘unknown device’ – but I believe that’s been part of the system for many years.
Any solutions appreciated with thanks.

Shane · « **Reply #1 on:** April 17, 2013, 12:12:49 pm »

It is always possible it isnt Windows but the ports going bad. Here is an easy way to test that

Download the Ubuntu live cd
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

This will let you boot Ubuntu Linux right off the cd. If the hardware doesnt show up there either then you have a bad motherboard. If they do showup then we know it is something in Windows

Lets go from there.

Shane

phowarth · « **Reply #2 on:** April 18, 2013, 10:32:37 am »

Thank you for your reply and suggestion Shane.
I've now tried the Ubuntu route and all drives are visible and accessible, so a WinXP problem seems to be indicated.
PH
PS Apologies that I forgot to mention that I had previously also tried Windows Fixit tool 'Find missing CD/DVD' with no result.

Shane · « **Reply #3 on:** April 18, 2013, 11:02:48 pm »

OK good

So know we know it is a Windows only problem.

So the first thing is go to the device manager. Do we have anything with a yellow ! or ?

Post a screen shot of the device manager for me.

Shane

phowarth · « **Reply #4 on:** April 19, 2013, 04:07:59 am »

The only yellow symbol is the one mentioned in my first message regarding an unknown device - all otherwise seems fine.
Please see Device Manager screenshot attached.

Shane · « **Reply #5 on:** April 19, 2013, 06:38:40 pm »

What shows up in the device manager under the dvd/cd roms?

Also go to disk management. Do the drives show up there but have no drive letter?

Shane

phowarth · « **Reply #6 on:** April 20, 2013, 02:13:14 am »

In Device Manager, so long as I attach the dvd/cd rom either to SATAs 1,3 or 4 or as Master to EIDE it is visible.
All drives listed in Disk Management have letters attached and there's nothing listed in Disk Management which isn't also visible in 'My Computer' and in Device Manager.

However, as soon as I attach anything either as EIDE Slave or to SATA 2 (whether it's a dvd/cd or a hard drive), it disappears completely - from Device Manager, from My Computer and from Disk Management (but both drives are listed in BIOS and were perfectly visible under Linux).

So in the Device Manager screen shot, there are two further hard drives (one each attached to Sata 2 and as EIDE slave) which are invisible in all management tools and so can't be accessed.

Shane · « **Reply #7 on:** April 22, 2013, 11:17:08 am »

I am wondering if it is a corrupt IDE driver.

I have a strong feeling that this is either going to be a corrupt driver problem or something messed up in the registry.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/cddvd-drive-not-listed-in-device-manager/44cb3f36-9f4d-4d17-b464-af11d681141f

Shane

phowarth · « **Reply #8 on:** April 29, 2013, 04:33:22 pm »

Thanks again - I've been through the list as far as the Mr Fixit tool (which isn't designed to work in XP), but to no avail.

One factor which may be relevant is that the problem definitely isn't with either of the CD/DVD ROM drives itself or its connections, because if I move the EIDE CDROM to Master it works fine (but I lose whatever is attached to slave), and similarly, if I connect my SATA CDROM to any SATA port other than #2 that too works fine.
So the problem seems to lie with whatever part of Windows recognises these two ports, rather than with the attached devices themselves.

Last week I experienced a new symptom: The screen froze, with message "can't play video - change setting to 1680 x 1050@ 60 Hertz" After the necessary reboot I checked and the screen resolution is already at that setting. I therefore used Drivermax to find new drivers and installed any suggested, including Intel Q35 Embedded Graphics Chipset: 6.14.10.5218 2010-01-13
This may have been a mistake! I'm now getting the blue screen of death 3 or 4 times a day with the message: win32.sys PAGE_FAULT_IN_Non_PAGED AREA, with the advice to remove any recent driver upgrades. I tried to use System Restore to go back to April 23 when I installed an 'unsigned' driver but Sys Restore function doesn't seem to work. Therefore using DriverMax itself I'm starting to roll-back any recent driver updates, beginning with the Intel Q35 one.
Any further suggestions much appreciated please.

Shane · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2013, 07:12:48 pm »

I never use driver programs like that lol. I instead download the ones I need based on the model of the device.

PAGE_FAULT_IN_Non_PAGED AREA is a driver error. Can you at least get into safe mode?

Shane

phowarth · « **Reply #10 on:** May 01, 2013, 07:28:36 am »

Yes, there's no problem getting into Safe Mode.
When I do so, everything regarding recognition of storage devices acts the same as in normal XP mode. That is, the same hard drives are listed in My Computer, Device Manager & Disk Management, there are no drives with letters missing and anything attached to the EIDE slave and SATA2 ports is shown in BIOS but again goes missing once Safe Mode has booted.
Similarly, there's still an 'unknown device' listed in Device Manager which Windows can't identify, which I've uninstalled on several occasions but returns on every reboot and for which XP offers to find the driver but always unsuccessfully.

Incidentally, having uninstalled that most recent version of the Intel Q35 driver which Drivermax suggested as an appropriate update, the system now seems pretty stable again with no lockups/BSOD or screen resolution warnings happening yet today.
So again it seems that the glitch is in WinXP's inability to see all of the ports.
Are there other things I can do to narrow down the source of the problem while in Safe Mode?

Shane · « **Reply #11 on:** May 01, 2013, 01:26:52 pm »

Well short of reinstalling Windows lets properly update the drivers

Is your computer store bought? If so what is the make and model and I will go find the right drivers for it.

Shane