Microsoft KB Archive/154117

= No Drive Letter When Using PC-Card Type III Slot =

Article ID: 154117

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51

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This article was previously published under Q154117





SYMPTOMS
When you have a computer with a PC Card type III slot and you start Windows NT 3.51, there may not be a new drive letter and the hard disk does not appear in Disk Manager.

When you start the PC Card tool that comes with the Windows NT Resource Kit and try to view the configuration of the PC Card, the following pop-up dialog box appears:

  PCMCIA.SYS returned invalid configuration information.



CAUSE
The PCMCIA driver in Windows NT has no information on how to deal with a tertiary IDE channel and thus does not configure it for use by a driver.



RESOLUTION
Upgrade to Windows NT 4.0.

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Obtain Service Pack 5 for Windows NT 3.51 (referenced below under STATUS) and then take the following steps:

After you apply Service Pack 5, PCMCIA.SYS reports the device correctly and you can configure the settings for the use of ATDISK manually. Now that you have replaced the driver you should be able to see the configuration of the PC Card hard disk after reboot. It should have an I/O base of 0x160 and an available interrupt.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor can cause serious, system-wide errors that may require you to reinstall Windows NT. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

 Open the Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe). Go to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atdisk On the Edit menu, click Add Key to create the following entry:

Key Name: PARAMETERS

Class:  Open the PARAMETERS key that you created in Step 3. On the Edit menu, click Add Key to create the following entries

Key Name: X

Class:

where X is the number of the additional drive, such as 2 for the third drive. For each additional drive, increment the Key Name by 1. Generally, you MUST specify the starting parameter as 2 or higher. This is so that you do not interfere with the primary or secondary controller that most BIOSes support.</li>  Select the key that you created in step 5; it should be named 2. Using the Add Value option on the Edit menu, add the following three values:

<pre class="fixed_text">     Value Name   BaseAddress Data Type   REG_DWORD String      0x160

Value Name  DriveControl Data Type   REG_DWORD String      0x16E

Value Name  Interrupt Data Type   REG_DWORD String      <interrupt from the PCMCIA applet> </li></ol>

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STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51. This problem has been corrected in the latest Microsoft Windows NT U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

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MORE INFORMATION
Windows NT 4.0 correctly configures a PC Card hard disk as a third IDE channel. Once you update your computer to Windows NT 4.0, you should remove the registry keys created in the steps above.

Additional query words: prodnt

Keywords: kbhardware KB154117

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