[deoliveira]

My neighbor has asked my help fixing their computer which they have had problems with. They had asked that i just wipe it and reinstall windows XP.

My first problem was the xp install couldn't recognize the sata hard drive that was attached to it. Luckily i had an extra IDE hard drive so i installed xp onto that. It worked fine i loaded up into XP and all was fine. I opened up device manager and saw a lot of drivers missing so i went to get drivers. I had to get the drivers that came with the board so that the ethernet and some other things worked. I also had to open it up to get the wireless card model to get drivers for that. So i shut it down and opened it up, then proceded to download drivers on one of my comps onto a flash drive. when i returned and restarted the computer (the one im working on) it couldn't detect any IDE devices. I tried replacing cables, different cd drive, nothing. I have tried many things and none seem to work. It doesn't detect them at all, the bios simply says no device detected... with that i seem to have reached the end of my knowledge and could really use help


The computer is a dell deminsion 8400

Thanks for the help,
Scott DeOliveira

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Welcome to G2G

Have you checked the power connections to the HDD?

Is the HDD spooling up?

Try another 4 pin power connector from the PSU

I have a dell that gets finicky and sometimes just works, or quits recognizing the HDD(but no rhyme or reason)

But most of the time if you have all of your data connections "checked" and it still is not showing up then you may have a power problem... or the drive has died...

In that case check with another good HDD and see if it spools up. If it spools up its your HDD: but if not then I would say a bad 4 pin plug or PSU...

Is the HDD and optical drive both IDE

did you jumper the drives correctly?

Master with slave present on the HDD connector 0 and slave on the optical connector 1... that is if they are both on the same IDE cable.

Other wise master or cable select should suffice...

Good luck

Cbarnard

[cbarnard]

Welcome to G2G

Have you checked the power connections to the HDD?

Is the HDD spooling up?

Try another 4 pin power connector from the PSU

I have a dell that gets finicky and sometimes just works, or quits recognizing the HDD(but no rhyme or reason)

But most of the time if you have all of your data connections "checked" and it still is not showing up then you may have a power problem... or the drive has died...

In that case check with another good HDD and see if it spools up. If it spools up its your HDD: but if not then I would say a bad 4 pin plug or PSU...

Is the HDD and optical drive both IDE

did you jumper the drives correctly?

Master with slave present on the HDD connector 0 and slave on the optical connector 1... that is if they are both on the same IDE cable.

Other wise master or cable select should suffice...

Good luck

Cbarnard

[deoliveira]

Yes the HDD power connectors are plugged in correctly and they are supplying power, when power is turned on you can hear the drives spinning HDD and optical

I have tried all three four pin molex power connectors

the comp has one ide cable and both the optical and HDD are connected to it its still doesn't read the optical drive or the HDD no matter which variation of master/slave cable select i use, not even if i only have one of either pluged in

I tested the HDD on another computer and it is easily found by the computer

could the problem be with the motherboard itself?

thanks for the help so far...

[cbarnard]

I'm inclined to say there is probably something wrong with the MOBO...

I will bring in one more set of eyes... Much more experienced than myself... What ever he says will be what you need to do...

Good luck

Cbarnard

[cbarnard]

Ok I spoke with him...

I should have tried this but over looked it...


Reset the current CMOS settings:

a. Locate the 3-pin CMOS jumper (CLR CMOS) on the system board.
(lower right hand corner about 2 inches to the left and half inch from the bottom)
b. Remove the jumper plug from pins 2 and 3.
c. Place the jumper plug on pins 1 and 2 and wait approximately 5 seconds.
d. Replace the jumper plug on pins 2 and 3.
e. Close the computer cover.
f. Connect your computer and devices to electrical outlets, and turn them on.

Try this then boot into the Bios make sure the date and time is correct and set boot sequence then Save and exit...

Let me know how this works...


Here is a link to an online manual of the computer in case you don't have one...it is a link to page one. Contents start on page 4 I believe.

Good luck

Cbarnard

Edited by cbarnard, 02 June 2009 - 04:21 PM.

[deoliveira]

Actually i tried that already sorry should have mentioned it in the original post

If the motherboard is the problem is there a way to check without plugging in a new motherboard?

[cbarnard]

Are all the prongs in the MOBO where the IDE connector plugs in... There should be the same amount of prongs as holes in the IDE connector

I had a HDD where almost all the bottom prongs came out... so it was connected "but not really..."

Do you have a reliable PSU to test in place of the one you have currently?


check in to that maybe its a connectivity problem..

Cbarnard

[rshaffer61]

Sorry to walk in on you Cbarnard. It sounds like the IDE controller may have went out on the MOBO.
To test it if you have another system take the HD and the ribbon you are using and install on another system. If the drive is detected then it's probably a good bet the controller has gone out on the MOBO.