Author Topic: Tech heads please help. (Read 603 times)

Maverick · « **on:** October 23, 2001, 01:56:00 PM »

I have noticed a problem in my system. Specs posted below.

This is not a constant or regular problem It is not anyhing I can count on and is random.

It will infrequently lose the HD's. I get an error message saying HD's not detected and boot disk failure. I thought at first it might be a bad HD in the slave as when I unplugged the cable the machine booted normally. Later I would reconnect it and all was fine. I also changed the HD cable and checked conections at the HD and MB.

The bios is the latest from the MB manufacturer. All drivers including the vid card are fresh. Nothing new was loaded prior to this stsarting. All virus scans are negative with McAfee. No high temp problems, as this is most likely to happen on the first boot of the day. System is shielded by a surge and lightnig arrester and no storms or elecrtical problems recently of when this started.

Here is the system specs.

AMD Tbird 1.4 gig
DFI MB DDR 2100 only AMD chipset
Award Bios
Bios set with default for almost everything.
No overclocking and auto detect HD and voltages.
512 Megs DDR 2100 RAM
Maxtor 7200 RPM 40 gig HD (new) master
older 6 gig Maxtor 5400 rpm slave
GeForce MX400 64 meg vid card
Win 98 (not SE but updated from MS web site)
New atx case with 300 watt ps
Dual CPU fan and case is open with larger fan blowing into case Temps avg 109 F

Today I switched the HD cable again and the system booted up normally. Any ideas???

Mav

qts · « **Reply #1 on:** October 23, 2001, 02:33:00 PM »

A long time ago, we had a bad batch of disks. They'd used the wrong lubricant, so if the disk was cold, the lubricant didn't lubricate, and the disk didn't spin. I wonder if you have a similar problem? Write to Maxtor.

tofri · « **Reply #2 on:** October 23, 2001, 04:18:00 PM »

Are you using UDMA as protocol for the HD?
If so, check the cable connecting the HD with the IDE-port, it must be UDMA capable.
Normally there is a sticker on the cable, but you can tell it by the double count of cores on the cable.

Many manufacturers save these expensive cables and build in the much more cheaper normal ATA cable. The computer runs with UDMA but is unstable.

bloom25 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 23, 2001, 05:14:00 PM »

Are you using the correct 80 wire 40 pin HD cable?

Gunthr · « **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2001, 08:11:00 PM »

Power supply?

Wardog · « **Reply #5 on:** October 23, 2001, 09:51:00 PM »

Ran into a situation like that with a WD 20gig. As i have been building my own systems for the last ten years, i buy all my parts OEM. No box, very little info.

As well as not identifing the drive at times, the bios was picking it up as an 8gig drive. This was a new PIII MB and i updated the bios so i know it shouldnt have any problems. After going to WD site and looking up there online manual, i found my problem.

There are 2 seperate jumper settings on the HD for Master Drive.

Master/Without Slave
Master/With Slave

Only took a few hours to figure this one out, but it was a pain in the bellybutton none the less. My other drives only had one Master settings for the Jumpers.

Dog out....

Ghosth · « **Reply #6 on:** October 24, 2001, 07:41:00 AM »

Had a similar problem with a 20gig HD in a new system I built for a friend.

Best I could track down at the time was a problem with SB live Value & Via chipsets that effected the HD.

So the 4th time I reinstalled windows I partitioned the HD into 2 10k logical drives first. End of problem.

Maverick · « **Reply #7 on:** October 24, 2001, 04:33:00 PM »

Gent's thanks for the info. It seems I have only the standard IDE cable in the HD. I can't tell if there is anything special at all. I'm afraid I wouldn't know how to tel the difference. I did use the new cable supplied with the HD but had the problem with it. I am now using the old cable I had on my previous P3 system.

As I said, this is not a every time thing. It is random and quite frustrating to trace down.

Mav