[jadedhills]

:confused: :confused: hi folks this is driving me nuts Gigabyte 6wmm7 motherboard 1x HD 1Xcdrom 512 ram
goes through post then stops at this message,"Sec slave ATAPI incompatible" I have no secondary device connected tried changing cdrom to cable select , no joy, can't get into setup even after removing battery for 30 min, tried jumper setting by battery still no joy this is for a friend (single mum and broke) please anyone, one of you must be able to help me.
Thanks

[StuMegu]

Have you tried to boot without the cd attached to the system?
Why can't you get into setup - is there a password or just non-responsive?

When you cleared the CMOS setting did you check the motherboard manual to make sure it was the correct one?
http://europe.giga-byte.com/MotherBo...mm7_2003_e.pdf

It might be worth doing a bios update if the problems persist:
http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Motherboa...S_GA-6WMM7.htm

[jadedhills]

Thanks for the post I had no manual with pictures so it was not much help your link is great thanks, will do some reading, back soon, oh I did try booting with no cdrom on still no joy, l8r

[jadedhills]

OK so far could not get into the bios but now I'm getting to a page that is the
f8 screen with an apology and a series of options tried them all safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, start windows as normal and it all goes for a bit then freezes, I have a xp corporate version on the HD installed on another computer, tried xp startup discs because only boot from floppy (no bios access) discs always fail tried pro tried home still no joy I'm stumped, desperately need accesss to my bios which is AMI BIOS and I've tried all the backdoor passwords, seeing its packard bell tried their passsword anybody got a further password list or any ideas?

[StuMegu]

I would now contact Packard Bell for the way to access the bios, if they've set a password for it.

Is the unit within it's warranty period?

It sounds like your system will boot from floppy and HDD but not CD rom and you can't change the sequence.

Also sounds like the HDD installation is corrupted somehow which is why you can't boot. This could also be hardware related if the system has a problem. I would test or swap out the memory first.

I would get the HDD into another machine and back up any files needed as soon as possilbe. Also do a full checkdisk on the HDD whilst in other system.

If you get all the above tasks done and want to re-install the os onto the disk, get a Windows 98 boot floppy and boot to dos, if it recognises the CD rom drive, change to it (use the "D:" command) and type setup.exe to begin installation. If the hardware is OK this shoud proceed, or alternatively, do you have a recovery disk for this system?

[jadedhills]

Thanks for the comprehensive instructions sounds good, I will contact packard bell out of waranty though, formated ntfs so no win 98, excellent advice thank you again

[StuMegu]

All you need the 98 startup disk for is access to the CD - it doesn't matter what the C:drive is formatted as - when you start setup from d: it will recognise it anyway!

[jadedhills]

Wow thanks for that ,I will try tomorrow and let you know if I have any joy

[jadedhills]

You learn something new every day isn't it great