It sounds like something has happened to your system bios configurations. Has anyone been changing hardware recently? Or perhaps you've had some power failures? If you know how to get into your system bios configuration, you can see how it sees your attached drives. The type of floppy is configurable and the cd drives can normally either be configured or set to Auto detect. Most boards use the F2 key or the Delete key to get in. When you restart your machine keep tapping these keys until the Configuration Menu appears. Your system bios contains the information that is handed off to windows when you start your machine, so if it's wrong there, Windows won't work either. If you know what kind of mainboard you have, that would help.

bentkey is right- the yellow exclamation points mean that Windows had a problem identifying/configuring the sound card and secondary IDE drive controller.

More information such as the motherboard model, exact version of Windows, and a description of anything that might possibly have happened just prior to the problem's appearance would help us.

Hi Bentkey,
Thks so much for your help. First, yes we have had a few power failures...everytime we have a storm there is one. A few times my computer has been on during them. I did check the bios but have no idea what this IDE message means. I set everything to "fail safe" hope this is ok.
Haven't added any hardware lately...I just have no idea why it is not recognizing my CD ROMS or the correct floppy drive...and Mom's is doing the exact same thing. I think we had something get through our AV, firewall, etc.

I'm running win 98se, and here is the system info you wanted...amd 1400 thunderbird processor, 20 gig hd,
Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6330
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 11/29/2001, 384k sdram, 19.99 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
11.35 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

WDC WD200BB-18DEA0 [Hard drive] (20.00 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAD21717952, rev 05.03E05, SMART Status: Healthy, controllers: Standard Floppy Disk Controller
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller

Do you know of anyway I can get this computer to recognize the CDROMS other than to do an FDISK and reload everything? What should my bios setting be for the IDE controller that I am referring to..I have it set at auto detect too but win isn't recognizing the setting. Without a CD Rom I can't just go in and reload win, and it isn't recognizing the correct floppy either...So any suggestions are welcomed! Again, thks so much Bentkey..and I apologize for not getting back to you sooner...thks again cheryl :cry:

Hi DMR, and thks for writing...I just posted a bit more info on my problems with this computer...the only thing I can add is that there really was nothing I could tell that happened to it. I can only wonder if something got through my antivirus...I did have a trojan that did get through and past my firewall, same as with moms computer but was able to remove it. I also had a couple of viruses that didn't get through..I was warned and deleted them. But we did have some power failures from storms. I asked a couple more questions just now in my reply to Bentkey. I hope you guys can help me fix these problems on mine and Mom's computers. I truly appreciate all your help! thks again cheryl

Sounds like you two need a UPS -- Uninterruptible Power Supply -- like a battery backup for you computer that also has a surge suppressor.

IDE is your hard drive (don't ask me what it stands for, I don't remember!) It should be set for Auto Detect.

Thks DLH! I do have a good surge protector but not a backup like you suggested...sometimes the power does go off w/o any storms...I trhink I just need to not be on this thing as much! Thks again for your help..abt to go do moms fdisk... :cry: wish me luck! thks again...cheryl

Hi,
My "device manager" still doesn't show any CD Roms and shows an exclamation point on "Secondary IDE Controller dual Fifo"..Is there any way to correct this. I do have it on auto detect in the bios. I have also unplugged the cable from the motherboard and replugged it in. No change. It is also still telling me I have a 5-1/4 floppy which I don't. I can't find any virus, trojan, worm etc. Obviously something is corrupted. Is there any way to make this recognize the CD roms so I can reload win 98 se? Or, am I doomed to fdisk like I did on Mom's today? Thks so much cheryl

Have you just tried deleting that "Secondary IDE Controller dual Fifo" and restarting the computer? Sometimes, doing that will reinitialize the IDE controller, and cause the system to rescan everything. If that doesn't work, it's possible your motherboard's IDE controller is dying on you.

Cheryl,
You really need to know what the bios is reporting to windows BEFORE you do any fdisking. If the bios doesn't see things right, then the fdisk won't fix it either. When the PC first starts and it is going through it's POST tests, this information is normally displayed on the screen. If it's not, the setting to display or not is also in the bios settings. Your floppy setting is in there too. The Award bios is usually pretty easy to read. There is always an option in there for setting everything back to factory default settings. Did the reinstall on your Mom's PC take care of her problems?