P5G41T-M LX3 not detecting IDE DVD drive

[Bealdwine]

Recently replaced a defective mobo with an Asus P5G41T-M LX3 not realising there was no IDE connector.

On boot both my HDD are recognised - one SATA the other IDE with an IDE-SATA converter attached. All good but obviously I cannot boot into Windows at this stage (Win 7 64 pro crashes when it tries - BSOD is too swift for me to read what the error is) and I suspect I need to get the mobo &etc drivers installed... however...

when I connect either of my DVD optical drives using another IDE-SATA converter they show powerup during early boot but are not detected during POST so do not show in the BIOS and cannot be used to either install the mobo drivers or re-install Win 7. Catch-22.

I have tried:
- setting Storage Configuration in BIOS to [Enhanced]/[S-ATA+P-ATA]
- setting ODD jumper to both Master & Slave
- using different SATA ports

now I am out of ideas and nothing I'm finding on Google is sparking the old grey matter any ideas welcome.

(Yes I could just buy an SATA ODD but right now I'm broke and this should be working and that is reason enough for me to keep bashing away at it )

 

[squirrelonfire]

Has you ever run the IDE drive in AHCI mode? Some board doesn't support that.
Also have you tried using the same configuration on another motherboard? May be the drive is bad or the cable is bad, or mobo is bad, or both.

 

[Bealdwine]

Thanks for your comment Squirrel

I researched this one for ages before I found a solution (much thanks to whoever it was noted this):

The IDE<>SATA converters are often cheap mass produced products and as such don't have a). any form of tab or indicator or blocked pinhole to indicate correct keying when fitting, OR b). a properly sized plug for the IDE connection. SO...

a). it is very easy to attach the IDE connector upside-down - which I had done! AND...

b). it is even possible to connect the IDE with it offset by 1 pin either way, especially if you are trying to do the connection insitu with bad lighting and cables everywhere - which I also did! (that's my excuse anyway).

Once oriented correctly and connecting to ALL the IDE pins my ATAPI DVD drive was discovered correctly and usable. Low tech human error problem solved