TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE

airhd823

Member
Jan 2, 2007
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Hey Guys,

My computer was working fine up until I plugged in an enclosure. The enclosure froze my computer on start-up, and ever since it has never been working correctly. I dont use the enclosure anymore. I have a sata dvd rom and a IDE 400 GB hdd. I have the SATA dvd rom set in sata number 3 connector, and the post screen detects it at Channel 1 Master. I also have an IDE 400 GB Hdd set to master. Sometimes my DVD-ROM works fine, BUT SOMETIMES, it disappears on the Post screen, and My Computer. The Post Screen waits a long time..."DETECTING IDE DRIVES"......... and stays there for a long time, then finally ignores it, and boots Windows. When it ignores it, My Computer does not detect my Dvd-rom. HELP!!


SUMMARY: the drive is disappearing on my computer and is not detected under BIOS. HELP!

Lol, Thanks,

John
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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This may seem off-target, but if the IDE HDD is a Western Digital, and if it has a data cable to itself, then jumper it for Single Master, which is when you remove the jumper cap completely and just leave it off. WD IDE drives that aren't set for Single Master when they're solo can make Wierd Stuff happen, including no-POST and slow-POST situations.
 

airhd823

Member
Jan 2, 2007
90
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I have a seagate, any other advice...is it because the DVD-rom is master as well. how do i change the sata since there are no pins to make it a slave.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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I'm not sure it's possible to make a SATA drive adopt a Slave role, since every channel can take only one drive (so far). Not to be Captain Obvious or anything, but maybe the drive is faulty? :confused: You might also take a look at the 5V and 12V voltages in your motherboard's BIOS, hardware-monitoring section, and make sure they're within spec (±5% is good), but that's just me grasping at straws.

One other idea to throw out there: do you have a memory-card reader or a USB memory stick? My home system sometimes refuses to POST, and I'm all :cool: ~ sweet, it died and now I have an ironclad excuse to upgrade!, but then I notice that I left a memory card in the card reader. Take that out, hit Reset, and it works normally.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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Sure, might as well. :)

I just noticed you have another active thread about this problem over in General Hardware. It's generally not permitted to cross-post, so I'm going to edit that one to forward over to here, which is logical since it's more of a Computer Help topic anyway. :)

AnandTech Moderator
mechBgon
 

airhd823

Member
Jan 2, 2007
90
0
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Ok. Thanks. Did not know that, I was thinking to get the problem fixed faster. Thanks for the info.
 

Nocturnal

Lifer
Jan 8, 2002
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Try and remove the DVD-ROM drive completely and test a few times by starting and then rebooting the computer. Let us know if you're able to do so successfully or if you're still experiencing the slow POST time. I would have to say that perhaps it was just a coincidence and that the DVD-ROM drive may be going bad.
 

imported_Baloo

Golden Member
Feb 2, 2006
1,782
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Since nobody's mentioned it, though it should have been in the first reply, try reseating the ide cable on both ends.