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Boot Problems -

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4 replies

by connectpc

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Cannot find hardrive(s) and or cd drive:

Symptom -
When I have more then one device (2nd hardrive and or cd drive) installed after a 1/2 day or up to 2 days it works, then my computer tells me it cannot find ANY drive on boot. If I disconnect second drive and reseed ide cable to first drive it responds.

This has been going on for several months.........is it a bad IDE cable(s) or CMOS battery or ?

4 replies

by amr naguib

1st change ur IDE cable, if it work well then u done, if no try to clear your cmos .. and try to put every device in different. or check jumper setting.

by mjd420nova

CMOS battery failure will give you some really strange faults but this just sounds like maybe a mix up with jumpers for first or second, master or slave and where, in what order the data connectors are connected to the drives. There's also the possiblity that you have a bad connector on the drive. The solder can become seperated from the circuit board. Easier to replace than to attempt repair. Sometimes the gorilla's get there before I do and will destroy the cables too, by pulling on the ribbon instead of the connector. Repeated insertions result in bent pins and cracked guides and lockdowns. This is on both ends, not just the drives but motherboard connections too.

by choppit

If not already, try designating Master/Slave rather than using the cable select jumper setting. In my experience cable select doesn't always work reliably.

If you do use cable select make sure you're using an 80 way IDE cable and place the master (boot) device at the end of the cable.

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