Got a New Maxtor 40GB ATA133 hard drive for an Intel 440BX Mobo--Problems, Please Help!

[Nighthawk69]

Hi there,

I just bought a new hard drive to replace the the 30GB IBM that died in a 600Mhz Intel Pentium II on a generic Intel 440BX motherboard. The new drive is a Maxtor 7200RPM, ATA133, 2MB cache hard drive and I have been unable to get the computer to detect it when I boot. It just says there was no hard drive found on the Primary Master, but I have tried ALL jumper settings and it is hooked up on the Primary Master cable as the old hard drive was, but no matter what jumper settings I select, it still won't detect it. So, I have two questions:

1. Do I need to use an ATA66/100 cable for the drive to work? The board only supports ATA66 (I think... maybe it's only ATA33) but I am not using newer ATA100 cables with it, they are the older ones. Should I be using ATA100 cables with it?

2. Does this motherboard even support a hard drive of 40GB? It worked on the 30GB... Suggestions?

Thanks! I appreciate any suggestions, so feel free to chime in

 

[Boonesmi]

double check that the cable is hooked up right (pin 1 lined up with pin1 on the harddrive and the mobo) also make sure the 4pin molex for power is plugged in all the way

set the jumper for master or single drive

do you hear the drive spin up when power is turned on?

the old ata33 cable will work fine, but the drive will only function as a ata33 drive


also when the mobo starts booting go into the bios and make sure the ide is setup for "auto"

 

[Nighthawk69]

Boonesmi: I've done all of that, actually, and I still get the same thing. The hard drive des spin up, it has power, the cable is in there correct (even tried ALL jumper settings with the cable both right-side-up and upside-down).

Anything else?

 

[Boonesmi]

do you have another system you can use to make sure the hdd actually works?

or another harddrive to make sure your ide controller on your mobo works?

 

[Nighthawk69]

Well, the IDE controller works because it sees the other hard drive in there as well as the Zip Drive and CDRW drive, and I was just using the old hard drive an hour or so ago

I'll check the hard drive in this system to make sure it works.

Thanks!

 

[Barrei]

The cable should be a 80 conductor wire 40 pin cable, this replaces the old 40 conductor wire 40 pin cable, for any ultra DMA mode the 80 wire is mandatory

 

[Boonesmi]

but the 80pin cable is only mandatory if you want ata100/ata66 speeds

i have put 30 or 40 harddrives in older systems in the last year... all of the harddrives were ata66 or ata100 and i always used the old ata33 cable (no need to buy a new cable when the boards were only ata33 boards

 

[ronein]

quick question.

How many jumpers are connected on the HDD?I think there should be two to correct this problem.

I believe there is only one, but you may need to put in another one.

I had a friend who had a similar setup with you(Asus P3 BF BX mobo) and was getting the same problem with you. He said he solved the problem by putting another jumper. I suggest heading straight to maxtors website and check the jumper setup from there.

Odd thing was my gigabyte GA7vxth+ picked up the HDD, no problem. Go figure.

[edit and addendum]

i went to maxtors site and theres something mentioned about an AC limiting jumper...maybe worth a try.

My friend also told me that the drive was recognized only as 32GB...maybe thats a BIOS limitation.
Hope that helps.

 

[Nighthawk69]

Hey all,

I finally got the mobo to detect it as a Primary Slave drive when I put in an ATA66/100 cable, but not as a Primary Master where I wanted it, plus it only detected 32GB of it, as ronein said, so I swapped the 40 for a newer 20 in another computer and will use it like that. Thanks everyone for your help, I really appreciate it!!!

 

[Iron Woode]

Seems that your board has a hdd size limit. Your best bet is to use a drive management program like Max-Blast to set up the drive. It will partition and format the drive and install EZ BIOS so that the drive is recognized properly by the system. Either that or search for an updated BIOS for your board.

 

[Rachet]

I just got my new BX board working with my 60 Gig Maxtor - I had the same problem - system will only see 32 Gig.

The software that came with the Maxtor states my Bios will not support the 60 Gig.

I have a Soyo 6ba+IV

Check with your motherboard Mfg. for newer bios.

PS - I had to install a 3rd jumper to get the HD to work as a primary master - see Maxtor web site

 

[Drsignguy]

Getting your bios updated is the best thing you can do for your buck. I did just that on my older rig. Here is a link. AWARD I think it is self explanitory. I did the check, sent it in and then called them up. For $70, it helped out alot. Check it out, you wont be dissappointed.

 

[PUNKtotalled]

I think you should flash your bios, if you can or get a new one, like DrSignGuy said.




Another solution would be to buy a non-expensive PCI card that will support ATA133, and that card will recognize your harddisk.