Just moved the tower from one city to another. In setting up it won't get past "detecting Pri master press f4 to abort". Pressing f4 does nothing and the computer shuts off. Bought a new power supply cord. Same. Help!

while moving, a ribbon connecting a harddrive to the motherboard came loose

open the case and resnug everything

Thanks! I'll try that.

Well, that wasn't it. Any other thoughts? Everything pretty snug.

What is "Pri master"?

primary master is your computer telling you that it cannot find the first harddrive on the first ide controller...this will occur because either the harddrive is not receiving power, or is not properly connected.

If the power molex (4 wires) and the ide ribbon (80 wires) are both connected to the devices, and the ide ribbon is connected to the motherboard and power wires are connected to the power supply, then see if somehow your bios forgot what kind of harddrive it is


enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del

you should see something about basic setup

look for primary master and use the cursor keys to select. Hit enter, and make sure it is set to automatic

hit f10 to save

Those are generic instructions--to be mroe specific, I would need to know what kind of motherboard you have

When I opened up, I noticed two sets of (I think) 4 wires coming from the power supply that were dangling but couldn't find a slot for them. There was also a ribbon that went, seemingly, nowhere. The computer was built, not off the rack.

I'm having to run to a neighbor's house to get online, so, will try your next suggestion.

Thanks and if it works I'll let you know.

Meanwhile, what do you think about the aforementioned 4 wires and dangling ribbon?

i'd say they should be going into a drive somewhere...though most power supplies have extras

the key is, do any drives NOT have a dangly thing and a fat ribbon?