IDE Channel Problem 2

[GallopingGhost]

I have an ECS Elite motherboard that seems to have lost its ability to recognize more that 1 device on either EIDE channel. If I have only the CDROM or a single Hard Drive, the bios recognizes the device and if it is a boot disk - no problem system comes up with only the one device. Floppy is recognized.

However, if I try to have the CDROM and the Hard disk on the same IDE channel (master and slave or cable select) or seperate channel (master on primary and master on secondary)the bios can't find them.

My questions is - does it sound like its time for a new motherboard or can someone suggest any diagnostics or things to do inoeder to test if its salvageable.

 

[Freestone]

Perhaps one of the devices is bad. Have you tried other hard drives and CDROM drives?

Do you have another power supply you can try in the PC? Perhaps the current power supply just can't handle the extra load presented by the second IDE device.

 

[xit]

Did you try new IDE cables? Perhaps they are not working properly thus devices not recognized.

xit

 

[GallopingGhost]

Good suggestions - I have replaced the IDE cables and no change.
I discovered the "1 device working" issue when I stuck another drive in with Windows NT loaded. I had pulled the connector of the CDROM and old hard drive and the system recognized the drive and booted. I then plugged the CDROM in and no devices were recognized. I unplugged the hdd and stuck in my Ultimate Boot disk into the CD and restarted. Everything worked fine. I disconnected the CD and reconnected the orginal HDD - everything booted and worked.

I then started trying different setting, ie use 2 devices on the primary channel, then repeat on the secondary channel and switched the jumpers around to force a device to master or slave as well as used the default cable select.
It seems that whenever I have 2 devices using the IDE channels the system will not recognize either deive and will not boot.
I am guessing that the EIDE Host Controller is the problem, bu tis there any other way to test or confirm. I am trying to avoid hunting down an Olde ECS EliteGroup MB

 

[Freestone]

So at one time the system recognized both your hard drive and CDROM/ I've seen cases where the master/slave/cable select jumper itself was bad causing symptoms similar to yours. Another thought is a bad power connector to a device. Try other connectors, if you have a spare or two from the power supply. Remove the IDE cables from the motherboard and ensure no foreign matter is in either IDE socket.

 

[micker377]

Do you have access to a PCI IDE card? This would show if it is IDE port, or other problems. You could also remove the IDE ports in device manager, and let Windows re-install them. In NT, do you have the equivilant of Device Manager/properties to see what it shows for the IDE ports?

 

[ttech]

Have you checked the BIOS to see if the slave channels are set to Auto instead of none?

 

[garebo]

This is not likely the case as you appear to be telling us that all was well at one time, that the system was all fine with all the ide devices showing and working.
What i want to mention is that some drives, especially some cd\dvdrom drives will only work with a 40 pin ide cable and wont work with an 80 pin ide cable. I have seen this many times. But again, apparently all were working at one time?


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[nob1]

Yes, I've also had this problem. All IDE cables have the same connectors but the ones desiged for ATA 100/133 drives have 80 wires. Only 40 are used. The other 40 are to cut down on EMI problems at the higher data speed. 40 wire cables do not work with ATA 100/133 drives in my experience and mixing older drives (HDD/CD/DVD) on these cables can cause problems.

Try the HDD with 80wire cable on one IDE and the CD drive on the other IDE with 40 wire cable.

 

[GallopingGhost]

Thanks for the tips - I do not have access to a PCI IDE card, but it would be an option.

The system did work normal for 18 mos. I am running the system with the orginal 40 GB drive and at least once I had the system boot with 2 HDD ( 40 & 20 GB), but the bios and OS reported 1- 10 GB HDD. I will give the IDE driver delete and rebuild on reboot a try this weekend.

I did check the bios and made sure that the PCI Host was enabled and made some minor changes in the bios settings for plug n' pray.

Again - I appreciate the tips and I just got back to town and now had the chance to review them.