[JohnJ]

Hello All,

I am working on an old laptop. It's a Dell Latitude XPi. The external cdrom (connected via pcmica slot) is a "Slim" drive model number CD224. The dell has no Operating system on it except for basic system files to get to a command prompt. We want to put Windows 98 on it but I don't know how to get the Laptop to see the drive. I have tried boot disks with CD drivers on them but they don't work since it's connected thru the PCMICA slot.

What do I do??!!

Thank you,

John

 

[active95]

Take a look at www.bootdisk.com and get a boot disk which will have "PCMCIA cd rom driver". Basically you need to "tell " the pc that you have a cd rom , to be able to install windows. That can be accomplished by installing a DOS driver.
If you don't find one, then next thing will be to do a search on dell site, and look for a DOS driver for the cd rom ( might wanna look at the www.driversguide.com ). Once you got the drive, make a folder on the hdd and dump that drivers in it.
Then modify the config.sys and autoexec.bat file to "load and enable" the pcmcia cd rom driver. Once you do that , you'll be able to access the cd-rom from the command prompt , i.e. at the c:\> prompt type e: ( or whatever the letter DOS assigns to the cd rom drive) and then type setup to start the install of windows ( from the cd-rom drive of course.
HTH

 

[JohnJ]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try them out tonight hopefully and let you know how it went.

 

[Couriant]

The PCMCIA drive should have come with the DOS Setup disk that you require. What is the manufacturer of the CD-ROM?

 

[JohnJ]

I could not find any solution at bootdisk, driverguide, or dell.

The cd rom does not really state a manufacturer. Just says "Slim CD-Rom drive. Model.:CD224

It too came off of ebay I think. No files came with the laptop or cd-rom.

I can get power to the drive so I tend to think the drive, cable, and pc card are all capable of working.......just can't get it to see it.

Any more ideas?

 

[Jedi_Master]

Howdy folks...

JohnJ...

Can you take out the PCMCIA card and see if it is a USB card, the CD224 appears to be a Teac USB external drive...

Also post the model and manufacture of the PCMCIA card...

 

[Couriant]

The PCMCIA card should have all the details we need.

But since you purchase the laptop and CD-ROM from the internet (EBAY) then really you should try to contact the person that sold you the laptop to try and find out the manufacturer.

Having said that I will try to find out if there is a file for you to download so you can then boot the CD-ROM in DOS / start up.

 

[Couriant]

Try this. This is from a company that makes PCMCIA CD-ROMs:

Q: CD-ROM Device How to drive PCMCIA CD-ROM Drive under pure MS-DOS mode?

A : There are two ways to solve it.

1.Preparing a boot disk, then editing the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT on the disk..

_______ EDIT CONFIG.SYS:

_______ DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS/TEST:OFF

_______ DEVICE=A:\ARICDI.EXE/P:3 /I:9 /D:MSCD001

(The file ARICDI.EXE can be copied from the original driver disk bundled with the CD-ROM's package. The argument I:9 means IRQ:9. It can be 9,10,11,15) _

______ EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT: _

_______A:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /L _

(The file MSCDEX.EXE is provided by Microsoft. It can be copied from MS-DOS or MS-Windows series.)_

2.Or downloading the file: bootdisk.exe _

Preparing an empty floppy disk, then double click on the file downloaded in hard disk drive. It will unzip automatically to the disk. At last, restarting computer from the disk.

It may not work since it's specificly for their CD-ROM but hey

 

[JohnJ]

I have not tried the last idea yet but I will.

There is no USB on the cd-rom or the Laptop.

The PCMICA card says the following:
PCMICA to ATA/ATAPI Adapter
Model No: EIDE2000
SN#: A6104257

The guy from Ebay does not have any documention for the laptop or the cd-rom other than the general instructions about the laptop--nothing useful.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Hmmm...

The model doesn't show any hits with Google...

Is there a mention of a manufacture ?

Also the only hit of a manufacture using PCMICA to ATA/ATAPI Adapter for the search I gould get with Google was Shining Technology...

Their drivers are here...

http://www.shining.com/download.html

 

[Couriant]

Prehaps Dell can shed some light on it. You might want to ask them if the CD-ROM was part of the laptop.

 

[JohnJ]

Well, none of those ideas worked. The cd-rom is not a Dell model (or so I assume) because it did not come with it. It was purchased seperately.

Is there anything else I could try?

 

[Jedi_Master]

Is there anything other than this on the PCMCIA card ?

The PCMICA card says the following:
PCMICA to ATA/ATAPI Adapter
Model No: EIDE2000
SN#: A6104257

Maybe a FCC ID, or anything ( check both sides ) ?

 

[JohnJ]

The only other info on the PC Card is an image of a sun made out of a yellow spiral with green rays coming out of it.
No FCC id

On the drive there is no logo image or FCC id.
However on the very bottom in small letters is LB-SCR242
and on the cable itself is a sticker labeled DS07

 

[JohnJ]

Just found this:
http://www.upgrade-distribution.com/updistweb/Product.ASP?SKU=PCM-CD224
it looks like the same drive!

and according to this pdf file:
http://www.upgrade-distribution.com/updistweb/unbranded.pdf
it does not even support DOS.

So that may be why none of these drivers are working......
Guess this is a lost cause?......

Guess I'll have to find another way to get Windows on the Laptop.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Jedi_Master]

It really depends on the PCMCIA card, still looking for that logo...

 

[JohnJ]

Looks like Jedi Master jumped in there before I finished editing my message. Sorry about that.

 

[Couriant]

The PCMCIA CD-ROM might have been an earlier model. I know that some that I was selling in the UK supported DOS.

Good luck in finding a CD-ROM. Prehaps Dell has one for you.

 

[CarlosF]

I jsut bought the same coputer and it came with the Slim CD player. And I am having he same problem.

I made a bootup disk from Window 98 before I blew the particians and reformated the hard drive now it will not requignize the CD Rom.

While I have been looking through and doing research in the Dell website, I did find a last week that this Slim CD Rom does come with the Dell Latitude XPi

I wanted to reload Window 98 SE.

I still do not know what is going on because I have put new information in the Boot disk under Config and now it is giving mi something wrong in the line where I put the information in the boot disk.

I guest better get back to the Dell web site and find the driver for the Slim CDROM

 

[CarlosF]

here is the web dell web site with the Slim CDROM

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/search