"Pimary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed" (FIXED)

[stops81]

My computer kept crashing due to a video card driver failing. It would give me a IRQL error and say the cause was nvmlp.sys. After the latest crash my computer wouldn't boot up. It freezes on the post screen with this message:

"Pimary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed"

"Floppy disk(s) fail (40)"

I had to go into the bios and select 'Halt on nothing' to get my computer to boot up.

What is causing this?? Please help..

 

[meltdown75]

Hmm, you either have bad cables in both cases, wrongly connected cables on one or more channels, or a bad floppy drive. Time to crack open the case and do some cable management - check your jumpers on your hard drives also. Worst case scenario - you have to buy new cables. Not that bad really.

 

[montag451]

try changing the video card with a known working one, just to see if that cures the error.

I would also check your RAM if I were you. Download Memtest and run one stick at a time overnite minimum.
What PSU are you using?

MORE more more details pls -0-

 

[stops81]

I hope your right meltdown, about that being the worst case scenario. This cable arrangement has worked error free for a few months now. I made one change prior to this latest and most severe crash. I unplugged the power from one of my cd drives, because I thought maybe the video card wasn't getting enough power. I've since plugged it back in but the problem is still there.

Montag, the problem shouldn't be with the graphics card because it plays SWG and Battle for Middle Earth with no problem. The only time this crash happened was when I was playing Simcity 4. But obviously, I don't play that game anymore.

Here's the specs on my system.

Athlon XP 2600+
1 Gig of Corsair
Asus A7N8X mobo
XFX 6600GT video
420 Watt thermaltake

 

[jackschmittusa]

You powered down to disconnect/connect the drive, right?

 

[stops81]

You know... I really hope I did, because if I didn't that would just be stupid. But now as I think about it, I probably just did yank out the power from the second drive in an impatient frenzy with the computer on.

Damn it..let's just say I pulled it out with the power on, because the more I think about it, the more likely that seems to be.

I'm not sure if this is clear or not...but the computer does boot windows if I tell the bios to ignore the error messages.

 

[LTC8K6]

Well, do you have an 80 conductor cable on the hard drive? This will limit your drive to UDMA2, not stop it from booting. I have run many computers for long periods with that message. I was just too lazy to get the newer cable. They never stopped booting, they just flashed the message at boot, which I knew they would do because I already knew I had the wrong cables.

Have you tried unplugging the floppy cable?

 

[stops81]

I'll try disconnecting the floppy and see what happens.

I don't know if I have an 80 conductor cable. I just used the two IDE cables that came with my mobo for connecting the primary and secondary IDE devices.

 

[LTC8K6]

The mobo can tell whether you have the correct cable or not. If you don't, it will cut your hard drive down to ATA33 speed to prevent errors caused by sending high speed data over the old style IDE cable.

You could just have a floppy drive or cable problem.

 

[stops81]

Fixed it... man do I feel dumb now. In my frenzy to unplug the second cd rom drive, I knocked off the power plug for the floppy drive. Thanks everyone for your help.