Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
16 Posts
0
12761
CD and DVD Drive Names Corrupted in BIOS
During 3 days of troubleshooting being unable to burn CDs and DVDs, I noticed that my drive names were corrupted; randomly, a single bit (always the same one) would be picked (might have been dropped - haven't looked to see which) in various characters in the drive name. "R/RW" would become "P/PW", "DVD" --> "DTD" and "SAMSUNG" --> SAMQULG". I also noticed that those corrupted names showed up in the BIOS listings.
After much registry changing, re-booting, driver installation, drive uninstalls/reinstalls and cable reseating, the names finally showed correctly in the BIOS, My Computer, Windows Explorer, etc. Upon Dell's recommednation, I uninstalled SONIC RecordNow! Plus (which they installed when I bought the system - think I can get a rebate?) and installed Nero, which is now flawlessly burning all the different types of media supported by my drives.
However, I don't have that warm yummy feeling that all my troubles are over.
Here are my questions:
1. Doesn't the corrupted drive name "feel" like a hardware problem"? Or could the SONIC software somehow cause the names to be corrupted? I did note that about 3" of the flat IDE cable looked kind of "crushed" when I reseated all three connectors. Could that be causing the name corrruption? If I had to replace the cable, how would I go about getting Dell to do that - make a normal service call? Is a replacement IDE cable something one can find at a store like Micro Center?
2. As a result of the corrupted drive name, I have a number of registry entries in the /CurrentControlSet/Enum directory that were generated (by whom?) that include the corrupted names. Is there any harm to leaving those in the directory? I can't delete them - I get a message saying "Error encountered when deleting key". (There were also a number of other entries that I could delete, and I got rid of those.)
Thanks for your help!
Majestic
9.4K Posts
0
December 4th, 2005 12:00
Jenkins Ear
16 Posts
0
December 4th, 2005 13:00
Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll relegate the CMOS clear to something to do when I have the cover open the next time. If I clear the CMOS, will I have to reinstall devices, etc?
I may just get a new cable and be done with the uncertainty and doubt.
And I'll visit the windowsxp.software forum to see what I can find out about getting those boogered-up entries removed.
Majestic
9.4K Posts
0
December 4th, 2005 15:00
Message Edited by Majestic on 12-04-2005 11:45 AM
Majestic
9.4K Posts
0
December 4th, 2005 16:00
* Watch the keyboard lights. When they flash, tap the F2 key
* The message, Entering Setup should appear
* Down arrow to Maintenance
* Choose Load Defaults
* Click Continue - Restore factory defaults
Jenkins Ear
16 Posts
0
December 4th, 2005 16:00
Jenkins Ear
16 Posts
0
December 4th, 2005 17:00
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
44.4K Posts
0
December 5th, 2005 17:00
Ron
Message Edited by RoHe on 12-05-2005 11:33 AM