problems detecting IDE drives on startup

[shadowfaX]

hello,

i've had this same problem happen a few months back - i think close to 5 months ago. when i start up my computer, it boots, shows the RAM test, then displays the message "Detecting IDE drives..." (usually, the drives are detected immediately within 5 seconds or less...) and then the computer stalls for about 2 minutes. then it shows the summary of drives - it lists only my primary master drive. i have 2 hard drives on the primary ide channel, though. it won't detect the primary slave drive.

so i unplugged the ide cable, booted up, and of course, my computer didn't detect anything. i plugged in only the primary master and it detected it... after the 2 minute stall. i unplugged that, then plugged in only the primary slave. my computer didn't detect the drive but it didn't stall either.

when i try to boot from a floppy, i cannot access either drive, even though my computer detects the primary master drive. my hunch is that it could be a bad cable, or perhaps my mobo is sorta messed up. the last time i had this problem, i replaced the ide cable and my computer began to work perfectly again. my friend suggested that i try hooking up my drives on the secondary ide channel. i'll be trying that. in the meantime, my rig stats are as follows:

soyo SY-k7vta-b
duron 900 MHz
128 MB pc133 Corsair RAM
256 MB pc133 Crucial RAM
Western Digital 6.x GB (unsure of exact size... i think this is the Caviar series.) - primary
Seagate 9.1 GB - secondary

thanks for any help in advance.

 

[Willoughbyva]

Might try looking for a bios update for yur motherboard. Try on the secondary and see if it will detect it. Could be a bad drive, cable or motherboard problem. Might also try to set the drives as master and slave if they are currently set to cable select and vice versa. Just for kicks try a memory tester like Memtest86

Good luck

Will

 

[Willoughbyva]

Do you ave a 300 watt power supply?

EDIT: If you are over clocking set it to normal and see if it is ok


Will

 

[shadowfaX]

Thanks Will! Actually I found out that it's because I had a jumper misconfiguration... what really makes me wonder, though, is how my system didn't act up before a few days ago, though. *shrug*

I do have a 300 W psu but I don't overclock.

Thanks for your help.

 

[jmorrell]

I had a generic 300 watt power supply go bad on me, and the first symptom that it was bad was my computer exhibited the the same problem as yours: the computer hung on detecting IDE drives. Once I replaced the power supply (I now have a 430 watt Antec TruePower), the problem went away. Apparently the old power supply deteriorated to the point that there wasn't enough power to spin all the drives (2 hard drives, a CDRW, and a DVD), so they weren't being detected.