Hard Drive Problem or something else

wankerjr · Post by **wankerjr** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:15 am

Ever since I put this system together I've had this error message at the initial BIOS screen: "Primary IDE Channel 80 conductor cable not installed." Actually this error message happened right after I had flashed the BIOS to a new one. So looking it up in Google one of the suggested solutions was to check your IDE cables and reseat them. I did that and got the same error. I bought a new set and tried it to no avail. I tried going back to the old BIOS but nothing changed and nothing bad looked like had happened so I ignored the message and everthing worked fine. Now about 3 months later my primary HD is having problems.

My system began to lock up at times usually right after I hear a single clicking sound. Initial thought was OK the HD is about to die. So I start moving things off to the secondary HD and once that is through I decide to download WD diagnostic tools so I could test it out and see about getting an RMA. I run the quick test once and it failed. Easy enough so I run the more extensive test and it passes???

Now I get suspicious. I go to the WD site and download the another tool and run it - the HD passes both the SMART test and in-depth test. So I'm thinking ok what's the problem and just figure I'll just wait a bit and see if it really is the HD.

Now about 4 days have elapsed and my HD is occasionally not even being detected by the BIOS. I have to switch my computer off and turn it back on and hope it gets picked up. When it does I hear that "click" sound (now that I think about it, the noise is closer to the sound of power being switched off then it does to the click of death) and everything locks up and I have to reboot. I am absolutely at a loss if this is really a HD issue or another issue. Anybody have any ideas?

Here are my system specs:

Gigabyte GA-7N400Pro2
1 GB PC3200XL Pro
PNY GF4 Ti4200 128MB
IDE 0 Western Digital 7200RPM 60GB
IDE 1 Maxtor 7200RP 120 GB
Aspire 500W Power Supply
Lite-On 8x DVDRW
Creative 6x DVD
System is connected to a Cyberpower 625AVR UPS

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:24 am

That does NOT sound like an error message.

ATA100 and higher requires 80-conductor (80-wire) IDE cables for signal clarity. It sounds like it's saying that you have it, but ATA133 is not enabled or something. Or maybe you left out a "NOT" in the message?

Biyobi · Post by **Biyobi** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:59 am

I've had this problem on a client's machine. It sounds like you are using an older IDE cable. Like Kasey mentioned, you'll need one of the newer 80-pin cables.

Or are you using an older hard drive??

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 9:20 am

FWIW, a single click emitted from a hard drive is pretty normal. Repeated clicking is bad, grinding is bad, excessive whirring is bad (if your HDD is louder than your CD-ROM when it spins up: bad news). Single clicks are just indicative of bang-bang (full-power, cap'n) seeks hitting the crash-stop, which in the grand scheme of things is no big whoop (I think we do crash-stop life testing with 20,000-impact tests -- very annoying set-up in the lab with 20 drives all chained together going click-click-click-click-click in unison. Of course I've done some of the most annoying testing myself, when I have a drive on the shaker and do swept-sine excitation -- whoop, whoop, whoop -- that test sounds like something out of a bad 60's sci-fi movie).

I'd second both suggestions as to cable type and also enabling your BIOS to handle the transfer rate of your drive. I know very little about this aspect of drives, however, and Faldarian (bless his soul) still posts around these parts, so hopefully he'll be by shortly to make all your problems go away.

~Neal

wankerjr · Post by **wankerjr** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:01 am

Biyobi wrote:I've had this problem on a client's machine. It sounds like you are using an older IDE cable. Like Kasey mentioned, you'll need one of the newer 80-pin cables.

Or are you using an older hard drive??

Yeah.

Oops the message has not in it.

The hard drive is brand new and I used the IDE cable that came with it. After I saw the error message I went out and bought another one. I made sure that they were the newer ones but the message never went away.

Post by **FishPants** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:23 pm

Since this occured after a flash on the bios I would assume the following:

1. It added ATA133 support to your BIOS. As a result it's likely turned on, and your cable is not an 80 wire. When I purchased a cable recently (rounded to increase airflow) there was still an option for both rounded and ribbon cables on 80 wire or not. Are you 100% sure it's an 80 wire?

2. Also since this occured after a BIOS flash, and assuming #1 is not a problem: Reflash BIOS? Is there another more recent update? Reflash with a new/fresh download of the BIOS you just put on? Roll it back to a previous BIOS?

That's what I would do anyways. Oh and don't forget to frown at the PC and shake your fist in the air.

Post by **FishPants** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:27 pm

Another thought that just slapped me in the face:

IDE 0 Western Digital 7200RPM 60GB
IDE 1 Maxtor 7200RP 120 GB

Assuming that these IDE0/1 are both on the same channel? Isn't the 60gb an older (non ATA100/133) drive? If so, and it's primary, couldn't that be messing with your newer 120gb (assuming 100/133)?

Might try taking the newer drive out of the equation (either put it on IDE secondary, or just take it offline for a bit of testing).. That may be the problem.

wankerjr · Post by **wankerjr** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:55 pm

FishPants wrote:Another thought that just slapped me in the face:

IDE 0 Western Digital 7200RPM 60GB
IDE 1 Maxtor 7200RP 120 GB

Assuming that these IDE0/1 are both on the same channel? Isn't the 60gb an older (non ATA100/133) drive? If so, and it's primary, couldn't that be messing with your newer 120gb (assuming 100/133)?

Might try taking the newer drive out of the equation (either put it on IDE secondary, or just take it offline for a bit of testing).. That may be the problem.

I guess I should be more specific with how my drives are arranged.

IDE 0 WD 60GB (Master) Lite-On DVDRW (Slave)
IDE 1 Maxtor 120GB (Master) Creative DVD (Slave)

I'm pretty sure the cable is fine as I actually bought 2 different brands of rounded cables specifying ATA 100/133 support. AFAIK the WD supports ATA 100/133 as it is only 2 years old. I have another cable from a recent HD I bought for my sister I can try as well later on tonight.

Biyobi · Post by **Biyobi** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:57 pm

Hmm, have you tried booting up without your optical drives plugged in? I wonder if the cables are conflicting with those rather than the hard drives.

wankerjr · Post by **wankerjr** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:44 am

I tried a new cord and still get the same message. I even tried just booting with that HD all by itself and that message won't disappear. My HD is still acting up - I hear a "power down" click and about 30 seconds later everything locks up

Any other suggestions?

wankerjr · Post by **wankerjr** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:19 pm

I finally got rid of that error message

I manged to download the latest BIOS version on my brother's system, put it on a floppy and installed it and the message went away!

Now the bad part is that my computer can't get to the point where it tries to load the OS. Now I hear that "power up/down" click at the very beginning after I enter my System BIOS password and nothing happens. I've tried booting off the Win2000 cdrom (yeah I'm a bit behind the times) but it just freezes once it tries to startup win2000. So I switched to a bootable floppy with the WD Lifeline tools and it too just freezes when it tries to start up DR DOS and I hear that ominous "power up/down" click a few times. I'm guessing that somehow the HD is not getting power or it's trying to turn on but can't? This is really starting to tick me off. I really don't want to have to buy another HD but I'm more concerned about losing all my data on this drive.

SirReal · Post by **SirReal** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:42 pm

Disconnect any other drives/cd-roms on the same cable that the HD in question is running on. Make sure the HD cable is properly seated both in the motherboard and drive.