Various Hardware Issues; New Bug Fixes

A Highpoint Disk Controller Problem
When you try to install Windows 2000 on the clean hard disk of a computer that has an ABIT BE6-II motherboard and a Highpoint ATA66 controller, the setup utility might not recognize hard disks connected to the Highpoint ATA66 controller. When you try to select a drive or partition for the Win2K installation, no drives appear. This problem occurs because Win2K doesn't include the correct driver for the ATA66 controller; the OS uses the Promise ATA66 controller driver instead. To ensure that setup recognizes your hard disks, you must download and install the Highpoint ATA66 driver from the ABIT FTP site and copy it to a floppy disk. You can install the Highpoint software during the Win2K setup. When the system prompts you for third-party drivers, press F6 to install the driver you downloaded. For more information, see Microsoft article Q306919.

Adaptec/Roxio CD-RW Problems
If you're configuring Windows 2000 systems with Adaptec CD-RW drives and Roxio software—specifically Easy CD Creator 5.01 and earlier or DirectCD 3.01 or 3.01c—you must install updated drivers to ensure that the drives function properly. When you remove either CD-RW software application and try to access the CD-RW drive, you’ll see one or more of the following error messages from the Device Manager: the drive isn't working properly (Code 31), Win2K can't locate the device driver (Code 32), and the registry is corrupt (Code 19).

Microsoft article Q270008 indicates that systems with newer Adaptec CD-RW drives, as well as CD-RW drives from other vendors, might experience similar or identical problems. The article documents error-code-specific corrective action that you can take to restore CD-RW functionality. The steps are too complicated to repeat here, but two of the actions require you to modify the registry. You can download instructions from Adaptec. However, the Microsoft article states that Adaptec's registry modification instructions are incorrect, so read the article carefully before you attempt to correct the problem. If the registry edits don't eliminate the Code 31 error message and restore access to your CD-RW drives, Microsoft recommends that you uninstall Media Player 7 and download and install the latest release from the Microsoft Web site.

A Sound Blaster Blue Screen
A problem with Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live software can cause your Windows 2000 system to hang intermittently and display a Stop code of 0x00000012 with the text TRAP_CAUSE_UNKNOWN on a blue screen. To work around this problem, run the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs applet and uninstall Sound Blaster Live. The sound card should continue to work because the Add/Remove Programs applet doesn't remove the Win2K sound-card driver when you uninstall the Sound Blaster Live software. For a permanent solution, contact Creative Labs. For more information, see Microsoft article Q297088.

An ACPI COM Port Issue
If you're configuring systems with Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), you might encounter unexpected COM port behavior. A bug in the code that scans the system for resource conflicts causes the device manager to recognize a COM port that you have disabled as new hardware. To avoid this problem, don't click Install Communication Port when the Add Hardware Wizard detects the COM port. If you install the port, an additional incorrect COM port appears in Device Manager. You can clear incorrect COM ports from Device Manager by deleting all inactive ports and rebooting. For more information, see Microsoft article Q312291.

Intermittent White Screen Hang
Do any of your Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2) systems occasionally hang and display a white screen during startup? If so, you’ll be happy to know that Microsoft has issued an explanation (the problem results from a memory heap deadlock) and a code fix. Call Microsoft Support Services (MSS) for the code fix, a new version of ntdll.dll. For more information, see Microsoft article Q305227.

A Device Manager Bug Fix
Here’s a problem that occurs only when you uninstall a physical or logical disk device in Device Manager while Windows Explorer is open. If you scan for hardware changes after removing the drive, Windows Explorer displays the contents of the disk you thought you removed and the system prompts you to reboot. This problem occurs because the shell keeps the handle to the newly-added disk that the hardware scan detects, which prevents the system from completing the drive removal operation. Another by-product of the handle to the removed drive is that the shell runs the auto-play option, which opens a new Windows Explorer window and displays the contents of the removed disk. If you're busy with desktop disk maintenance, you probably want to install the code fix, a new version of shell32.dll with a release date of November 6. To successfully implement the update fix, you need to add a registry value entry to the Windows Explorer key that disables auto-play on hard disks. Microsoft article Q306185 includes instructions for creating the registry value entry.

A NetBIOS Bug Fix
Windows 2000 systems that you configure with NetBIOS might hang during system startup and display a "Configuring network connections" message box, potentially for hours. A bug in the netbt.sys code that manages the NetBIOS protocol ignores the NetBIOS scope ID. If you're stuck with NetBIOS, you can eliminate the system hang by installing the latest version of netbt.sys, which Microsoft Support released November 9. You can work around the problem by manually deleting the NetBIOS scope ID from the registry. Press F8 during startup to boot into the Recovery Console (RC) and run a registry editor. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINECurrentControlSetServicesNetbiosParameters and delete the NetbiosScope value entry in the Parameters key. Restart the computer to activate the change. For more information, see Microsoft article Q272262.