[AcademicElectronics]

Hello,

I bought an HP Pavilion a320n and it wouldn't conect to the internet. I decided to use it for offline purposes. I cleaned it out and made sure that everything went back in o the same place they came from. When i booted the desktop, it said "Please re-boot and select proper boot device". I then decided to go to my BIOS to find out that it wouldn't detect my IDE hard drive. I put the hard drive in another computer that worked, every thing worked again. I then found out how to fix the internet problem, renew the ip. Unfortunently the JPC wont boot now, after i tried to install a win 8 skin pack. I then tried the hard drive in my HP again, same problem, please re-boot and select proper boot device. I tried other hard drive that i have (they all work). still wouldn't detect, you can hear the hard drive going, but it wont detect. i tried other ribbon cables i have and still wont detect, can someone please help me?

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Was this machine working perfectly well before you decided to open it up and clean it out?

When you checked the bios for the HDD did it discover the optical drive?

[Wolfeymole]

Was this machine working perfectly well before you decided to open it up and clean it out?

When you checked the bios for the HDD did it discover the optical drive?

[AcademicElectronics]

Before I cleaned it out, it was working perfectly fine except for not connecting to the Internet, which I now know how to fix the Internet problem. The BIOS does detect my optical drives. It also detects the Floppy Disk Drive

Edited by AcademicElectronics, 09 June 2013 - 09:44 AM.

[Wolfeymole]

Did you make sure that the hard drive was on IDE 0 (older boards) or IDE 1 (newer boards) and connected to the far end connector on the ribbon cable?

[AcademicElectronics]

To be honest, dont really know what you are talking about for IDE 0 or IDE 1, and my IDE hard drive is set to Master or Single, and that the the IDE hard drive is on the very end of the ribbon cable, yet still the same problem

[Wolfeymole]

Below is an example of what I mean by motherboard IDE connectors.




Now the hard drive MUST be on the Primary IDE, (on older boards this is IDE 0 and on newer boards as IDE 1) and the optical drive or drives must be on the Secondary IDE and both ribbon cables must be the right way round if they are NOT notched.

In other words the red stripe on the ribbon must be located to the left, ie; Pin 1.

Make sure that they are correctly located in the correct IDE slot and fully secure and try again.

[AcademicElectronics]

I looked at the motherboard and my hard drives are connected to IDE 1 (newer IDE motherboard). I decided to see if they were loose so I connected them as much as I could, which was already the whole way, still the same problem

[Wolfeymole]

Can you explain what JPC is in this comment please?

I put the hard drive in another computer that worked, every thing worked again. I then found out how to fix the internet problem, renew the ip. Unfortunently the JPC wont boot now, after i tried to install a win 8 skin pack.

Did you make sure that the Primary boot device was set as the first boot option in the bios?

[AcademicElectronics]

The JPC that I was talking about in the quote is another computer that I had. It was old but the IDE hard drive worked. The IDE hard drive doesn't show in the bios.

[Wolfeymole]

If the ribbon cable is fully secure in both the motherboard and hard drive sockets and the 4 pin molex power connector is secure then I suggest that the drive has died.

[AcademicElectronics]

What do you mean by drive? I put the hard drive into another computer and the hard drive worked perfectly fine.

[Wolfeymole]

The "drive" is the hard drive.

Tell me, is the hard drive on the ribbon cable by its self or on a 3 way ribbon with the optical drive?

[AcademicElectronics]

What do you mean by drive? I put the hard drive into another computer and the hard drive worked perfectly fine.

[AcademicElectronics]

It's on it's own ribbon cable

[Wolfeymole]

Try disconnecting the optical drive temporarily and use that cable to connect the hard drive to the motherboard.

Remember you must change the ribbon cable to IDE 1 when you do.

If the hard drive is now detected then the original ribbon cable is faulty.