BAD HD Controller?

[brendanh]

Ok guys my Uncle gave me his computer to fix and I am stuck. THe thing boots sometimes but other times locks on IDE device detection. Jumpers are OK, so are cables (I think), the CD-ROM seems to always work but when the new HD is placed on the primary IDE it locks... sometimes. Any ideas?

BTW it doesnt detect the CD-ROM when the HD is added either, but shows the mem count etc.

 

[Gunbuster]

Cable select IDE cables?

 

[brendanh]

Hmm maybe so. What would that do?

 

[Gunbuster]

If it's a CS cable you will need to jumper both drives to CS

 

[brendanh]

I replaced the cable. It worked on the first startup but locks now.. it seems to work once every time i unplug/plug it in but never after.

 

[Pennstate]

hehe... nothing a sledgehammer can't fix

 

[brendanh]

Could it be a faulty HD? OK so I got the thing to recognize the HD every time but it does so VERY SLOWLY and after it finds the CD-ROM. It seems to lock after detection but I haven't waited more than 2 mintues or so. HELP!

 

[brendanh]

Hmm doesnt seem to work with any HD

 

[Gruhaminmuffin]

Try unhooking the old HP HDD and hooking your new one up as a master, then boot to your recovery CD's and see if Fdisk recognizes' the drive (at recovery options screen go to advanced options and choose exit to dos)

 

[brendanh]

I did all that. In fact it is the only HD in the system. It booted (once) and i fdisked it. then it failed to boot again. I hooked it back up and it booted and i installed windows 98. then it failed to boot again. every once and a while i can get it to boot. it seems to be completely random.

I think the on board IDE is crap. I'm going to throw in a promise controller and see what happens

 

[brendanh]

Ok I put the HD in another computer and it works fine. Sound like a bad on-board IDE controller to anyone?

 

[theplanb]

could it be that the battery is dying? Could it be that the PSU is dying?
But yeah.. motherboard failing is more likely..