IDE Controller problem???

[scorbin1]

I recently acquired a scoket 478 motherboard and celeron 2G cpu from a friend, who replaced them because intermitten device failures with keyboard and ethernet. I booted up to live distrobution of linux and no problems whatsoever. When I go to install XP the cd starts to boot and says setup is inspecting your hardware, then screen goes blank and computer freezes. After rebooting my hard drive is no longer detected but my cdrom drive is. I let it boot from cdrom without HD detected and the same problem. After several reboots(no specific number) HD is found again. I tried installing Fedora Core 5 and all went well, until I rebooted. Linux starts up just fine, except the acpi error, and I log in. I use Gnome for a while, as a matter of fact Im using it right now, then I switch to the console with Ctl-Alt-F1, use the console no problems, Then I switch back to Xwindows with Ctl-Alt-F7 and I get a black screen and computer freezes. When I reboot my hard drive is again not detected. Also my legacy usb support for my keyboard is not activated. I use my ps/2 keyboard to hit Ctl-Alt-Del and it reboots and now I have legacy usb, but still no HD. I have tried 3 different HDs all will same outcome, and also different cdrom drives and with no cdrom drive. I also tried with lone HD on each controller and same outcome. Also tried different ide cables(40 pin, 80pin, old, new) I tried changing settings in bios but only setting I can change is 32-bit mode enabled/disabled. I have no add-in cards, everything is onboard. This is an intel board out of an HP Pavillion. Please help I am exhausted of ideas.

 

[wolluf]

I'd throw the board away.

Obviously flawed - where would you start to 'repair' it?

 

[scorbin1]

that was my first instinct, but my only concern was whether it was the processor or the baord, I would like to keep the processor as I am on a limited budget.

 

[georgewel]

I don't think the board processor or hard drive are bad. Try this. Reset you CMOS, next when you start the unit go directly into the BIOS and manually set the hard drive to the proper setting. You may have to look up the hard drive's specifications to know what you want. I have ran into this problem several times. The board doesn't detect the proper settings for the hard drive and sometimes for the memory. Manually set these settings in the BIOS and then reinstall the operating system. The re-install is necessary because the master file table will not be found with the new hard drive setting. Good Luck

 

[wolluf]

georgewel - its years since I've seen a board (that's working properly) that doesn't correctly detect hard drives - very unlikely in this case. btw - manual settings should make no difference to accessibility of drive (assuming correct values are supplied).

Also, resetting CMOS is most useful if the board won't boot at all. The sort of intermittent fault reported is almost certainly down to problem on the motherboard (in my experience).

scorbin1 - I'd be surprised if the processor isn't perfectly ok - but obviously you'd need to try it on another board to check.

 

[scorbin1]

I also feel that cmos settings wouldnt make much of a difference but I will give it a try. I just tried using an add-in pci controller and the same thing happened. I booted up and the HD didnt even spin up. I CTL-ALT-DEL a couple times and it would spin up. I checked the power supply with a power supply tester and all lines are ok. I also checked the voltage to the HD when it doesnt spin up and these voltages are also OK. I agree the next step would be to try the processor on another board, so I guess I will start saving my pennies.

 

[scorbin1]

Thank you all for your help!! I appreciate the input.