GA-P35-DS3L - IDE channel HDD not recongized

[laidback93]

This past Saturday I had something strange happen with my year and half system.

Specs:

GA-P35-DS3L
Intel Cord 2 Duo - E8400
Kingston Hyper X RAM 2 1gb sticks

Forget what graphics cards and the exact specs of the memory, but I can get it later when I'm home.


So I came home Saturday night and saw strange message on a black screen saying that Windows could not start due to a hardware problem. So I restarted it and it just hung on the splash screen, couldn't even get into the BIOS settings. So I pulled the battery out to reset the CMOS, restarted and was able to get into the BIOS settings. Everything appears to be normal and running, except for both of my HDD which are on the IDE channel of the mobo. They are not recongized by the BIOS which of course won't allow my system to boot.

Any idea why this is happening? I've never had a problem with this rig until this weekend. The only suspect I have right now is the supplied IDE cable that I've been using since I built the system. It was always a funky fit and might have been kinked to the point of shorting.

Beside the IDE cable, does anyone have any other suggestions as to why the HDD are not be seen by the BIOS? They are both getting power and spinning.

Hope someone can shed some light on this issue.

Thanks!

 

[bilbat]

Yeah - sounds like a cable problem to me, too. If it was working, the BIOS settings are the same as they were, and it's not working now, pull it & take a look at it. Much more common (especially for cables that are mechanically stressed) than a short is that the retainer across one of the cables, on the back of the connector, has either come unlatched, or one of the latches has broken. If both your drives aren't working, the logical suspect is the connector that attaches to the MOBO. These are really a cheap little setup (but effective) - each pin in the connector has a tiny 'v' shaped blade coming out on the cable side - all that happens is when the cable is squeezed by the retainer, the 'v' pierces the conductor, and the edges of each blade 'make' the contact through the individual wires. If the retainer has just 'popped', the easiest way I've found to get it evenly recompressed is to put it between two, say 3/8" square by the width of the thing pieces of wood or plexi (the point being that you want even pressure across the width of the connector to avoid snapping it where you 'squeeze'), and c-clamp it until the latches click. If the latches are broken, this may work in the short term, but you'll need a new (perhaps longer?) one for the long haul...

 

[55795642]

This past Saturday I had something strange happen with my year and half system.

Specs:

GA-P35-DS3L
Intel Cord 2 Duo - E8400
Kingston Hyper X RAM 2 1gb sticks

Forget what graphics cards and the exact specs of the memory, but I can get it later when I'm home.


So I came home Saturday night and saw strange message on a black screen saying that Windows could not start due to a hardware problem. So I restarted it and it just hung on the splash screen, couldn't even get into the BIOS settings. So I pulled the battery out to reset the CMOS, restarted and was able to get into the BIOS settings. Everything appears to be normal and running, except for both of my HDD which are on the IDE channel of the mobo. They are not recongized by the BIOS which of course won't allow my system to boot.

Any idea why this is happening? I've never had a problem with this rig until this weekend. The only suspect I have right now is the supplied IDE cable that I've been using since I built the system. It was always a funky fit and might have been kinked to the point of shorting.

Beside the IDE cable, does anyone have any other suggestions as to why the HDD are not be seen by the BIOS? They are both getting power and spinning.

Hope someone can shed some light on this issue.

Thanks!

This could easily be a PSU problem as well. What are you running with now? Can you borrow a PSU for testing purposes?

Alternatively, try disconnecting CD/DVD and floppy drive connectors. If the computer now boots and sees hard drives, this would tend to confirm that the PSU is failing.

 

[laidback93]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.

It could be a PSU problem which is something that I did think of. I'm embarrased to say that I'm currently running a 350w PSU. I'm pretty sure I need something stronger to run this system at optimum specs.

 

[laidback93]

UPDATE


I swapped out the IDE cable to see if that was the issue, it was not.

So I checked out my HDDs again. I could tell that my slave drive was on and spinning for sure, but I couldn't tell about my Master. It didn't seem like it. I unplugged the master and just had the slave connected. Sure enough the BIOS recongized it. But it does not recongize any drive when the master is connected.

So I guess I will be investing in a new SATA drive this week.


Here is my question:

Is it a good idea to upgrade my PSU? Could the low wattage created the problem with my master drive? Or was it just typical HDD failure?

 

[55795642]

To be clear, if only the master is connected (to a known good power connector) is it not recognized?

 

[laidback93]

Yes I tried only connecting the master and used multiple power connectors. Nothing.

 

[55795642]

Sounds like you've got it figured out then; master drive has gone south...

What brand/model is the drive? Any idea as to how long it was in use?

 

[laidback93]

The Master is a 100GB WD Caviar - WD1000BB-00CAA1. Built 5-26-02

My slave is a 60GB Maxtor, don't have the exact specs handy right now. The Maxtor is even older, but has always been a champ.

Both have been used for over 6 years.

The funny thing is that I just received a 1TB WD external for my birthday. I was planning on backing up the Maxtor to the external drive. The Maxtor is currently my backup drive, but I just realized that my MP3 collection might be on the master.

Crap!