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IDE Controller Failure

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by swetbak

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While trouble-shooting a "whining" noise in an old DELL (Optiplex GXMT 5133) desktop computer, the power supply was connected ONLY to the power clip on the motherboard. No other components were connected to power. It was powered up for about 30 seconds (until all the beeper were done), to rule out the power supply as the source of the "whine".
After reconnecting all the components, the machine will not boot. It stops halfway thru the POST with an IDE Controller Failure message.
I've double checked the connections and replaced the cables.
Can anybody tell me what might have happened and if this motherboard is now TOAST?

20 replies

by naamor

Sometimes it is just the controllers time to go. In removeing and replacing components, you may have inadvertantly created a short somewhere.

by allan

Bit obvious this but have you checked the BIOS setting for the hard disk, is it set to auto or does it have the correct disk id in there. Try doing an auto detect in bios & see if the BIOS can find the disk. It's possible the whining noise was the hard disk beginning to fail (or it could be my wife again!)

by kenone

I'm assuming that your controller is built into your MB.
A. check cable connections - don't just look at them unplug & replug them - the CD rom drive too!!
B. check the Hard drive setup in bios (autodetect?) and check that bios sees your cd rom
C. Disconnect everything else on the controller and try rebooting.
D. Try another hard drive.

If it works after "A" then Hurray!. If it works after "C" then replug one thing at a time and reboot to find the problem unit.
If it works with another drive, your drive might be fried - Time for the icebox!

by reeree

there are not many times that I get to laugh here, buy Alan made me do just that. Thanks

by reeree

Let me try that again. There are not that many times that I read a question, and laugh.
After reading Allan's last sentence, I did just that, LMAO thanks

by swetbak

Yes, I did try setting the HD detection to auto in the BIOS. I also tried manually setting the HD parameters, but it kept defaulting to 66 cyl whenever I put the correct # in. It is only a 1 gig HD.
Maybe it was affected by the trauma of changing the cables multiple times and it just puked. Do you have any comments on booting the machine with the power supply only connected to the MB? Can you think of any reason why might have caused the problem?
Thanks for taking the time.

by swetbak

The HD is fine. It works in other machine.
The MD doesn't detect anything connected to the onboard controllers (primary or secondary) including the CD. After I get the controller error, it continues and detects my boot disk in the floppy drive, but after booting to DOS, it says drive C is and invalid drive. Any other suggestions?

by zepp

Try unplugging the cd-rom drive from the ide cable then booting up.This happened to me with an optiplex 433d/le.

by swetbak

Oh, how I wish it was that simple. Maybe it is, but it will have to be something else.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I think the witch might be dead, but in a non-profit org. with over 150 WS (some of them 486's) this computer is one of the best so I will have to do CPR on it until I puke. My mouth is making lemonaide so I might be close now.

by reeree

why not start simple? Identify who made the hard drive, go to their website, download diagnostic software, run diagnostic software(by booting to downloaded floppy). Just be cafeful as the extensive test will wipe out hard drive. But there are test in the diagnostic software that will test the hard drive without losing data, and tell you if the drive is bad.

by reeree

after reading you second comment about it working in another machine, first thing I would do is go back into the bios and don't just set the primary master/slave as auto, but actually do an IDE Harddrive detection, is the drive showing up there? Unplug all other drives(floppy, cdrom,dvd etc..) except the hard drive. Are you positive you have the IDE cable plugged into the primary IDE channel and the red stripe on the IDE cable at pin 1 on HD and motherboard?

by swetbak

I've got the drive in another machine and it is working fine. I've tried to boot to a freshly formatted drive also, and still get a contoller failure error. I can "Enter" at this point to get to the floppy drive, but can't see the HD from DOS either.
I agree going simple is ALWAYS the way to start trouble-shooting, but I feel like I have done all simple things (multiple times). I'm wondering if my BIOS got corrupted some how. I'm thinking of a "flash" as a last resort.
I've found somegood Bios sites and am on Dell now.
Thanks

by swetbak

reeree,
Not sure what you mean by doing a Harddrive detection in the BIOS. My choices are either, Auto, Manual (user defined), or one of the 45 predetermined settings. The are no matches in the preset settings, Auto doesn't detect it, and Manual defaults to 66 cyl. No other options for me.
The cables are in correct position, and I've tried others also.

by saihib

If you're drive works fine in another machine that should tell you that the problem resides on your motherboard. Have you tried a different drive in this machine? If your IDE controllers have failed then you may want to consider a MOB replacement.

by swetbak

I'm pretty sure the MB has given up the goose. When I get some free time I will try reflashing the BIOS and clearing the NVRam, but I'm not optimistic about it. I just wish I knew what I did to destroy the controllers.
By the way, I did try another HD ( and everything else) in this machine.
Thanks

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