What exactly does this mean? no 80 conductor cable installed?

[fallenoncrack]

"ide channel no 80 conductor cable installed"

when I boot one of my comps i get that message from the bios just after the memory count and ide detection.

 

[hominid skull]

You need a 80 conductor cable to connect ATA66 or ATA100 drives to a PC's ide interface. If you use a 40 conductor IDE cable they will work but only at ATA33.

You can get hold of a 80pin ATA66/100 cable easily enough

edit.. They doubled up the number of conductors in the IDE cable to get a clearer signal for the faster ATA standard

 

[fallenoncrack]

thanks !

 

[Edski]

Another thing that you may want to look at is if the cable IS an ultra cable and you still get that error, switch the end that connects to the motherboard....basically just flip it around. That usually happens with cheap ultra cables.

 

[jmorrell]

Ultra ATA cables are color coded. Blue connector on ultra ATA cable goes to motherboard, black connector to Master drive, gray connector to Slave drive. Won't work any other way.