CDRom drive and software instalation problems

[mugwump]

Good day all,

Having problems installing software titles(some...not all) via my CDrom drive (Acer 40X). Installation will progress to a point, apparently random, and the system will lock up tight...have to hit the good ole re-set button. All software has been installed in my system at some point in the not so distant past. Troublesome titles to date: Mcafee VirusScan, Adobe Photoshop LE, and Picture Publisher 8 off the G400 driver Cd.

Trouble-shooting to date has included a format, disabling DMA for the drive in device manager, checking the seating of the IDE cables, cleaning the drives and Cd,s, and spewing a variety of expletives designed to exorcise all manner of computer demons; to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks much.

System specs: Abit BH6 mobo (latest bios); Western Digital Expert 9 GB hard drive; Matrox G400 32mb dual head, Montego-2 sound card; Voodoo-2 SLI setup (currently disabled); 256mbs pc100SDram; Celeron-2 566@850mhz.

Thanks again!
WJC

[RAB]

The only other thing that comes to mind is to turn off bus mastering on your G400 while doing software installations:
Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/Options
Then uncheck the bus mastering box.

Since this will slow down your G400, turn bus mastering back on after installing software. BTW, what IRQ is your G400 on?

RAB

[mugwump]

Thanks RAB,

My G400 is on IRQ 11. BTW, my OS is W98. Unfortunatly, I am at work and cannot attempt your suggestion, but will certainly give it a shot when I get home. Curiously, for any given troublesome software, the point at which my system locks will vary from install attempt to install attempt. For example, Picture Publisher 8 inially installed about 15%, second try got to 95%, third, about 1%. Is it possible the trouble could be viral? Unfortunatly, I cannot install VirusScan to answer my own question. Once again, thank-you for the response. Any other ideas....send them on.

WJC

[The PIT]

Just another thought have you tried the Cdrom on it's own cable with nothing else attached to it.
You may also need to set the CD to cable select.