THE COMPUTER THREAD

[kodiakthejuggler]

1st off.. I'd take that Jumper out. Even if the mobo isn't set up for more than 1.5mbs, the Hard Drive should still function normally..

Well, since the manual for the SATA drive specifically stated that certain motherboards won't support over 1.5 gbps speeds, and that the computer might "hang, lock up, or fail to detect during boot", and the computer actually DID "hang, lock up and fail to detect during boot" after the first attempt with the jumper out, and several subsequent attempts with the jumper in, and my Motherboard manual specifically stated that its integrated SATA host controller supports speeds UP TO 1.5 gbps, I'm inclined to go with their advice, and keep the jumper in. 

Though, at this point, I'll try anything to get it to work, so next time I muster up the courage to try it again, I'll take out the jumper. And I do thank you for your advice, so keep it coming!

I think at this point, my main concern is to get the BIOS to detect the SATA hard drive AND the Ultra ATA hard drive, and start Windows normally. Then I can format the new drive and everything should work from there.

[RVR II]

1st off.. I'd take that Jumper out. Even if the mobo isn't set up for more than 1.5mbs, the Hard Drive should still function normally..

Well, since the manual for the SATA drive specifically stated that certain motherboards won't support over 1.5 gbps speeds, and that the computer might "hang, lock up, or fail to detect during boot", and the computer actually DID "hang, lock up and fail to detect during boot" after the first attempt with the jumper out, and several subsequent attempts with the jumper in, and my Motherboard manual specifically stated that its integrated SATA host controller supports speeds UP TO 1.5 gbps, I'm inclined to go with their advice, and keep the jumper in. 

Though, at this point, I'll try anything to get it to work, so next time I muster up the courage to try it again, I'll take out the jumper. And I do thank you for your advice, so keep it coming!

Hmm.. There may be something to that, but all 6 computers have SATA drives and None of them have that 1.5mbs jumper in them..

Infact, after looking over your specs again, I have that same (similar) setup in one of my computers (3.33 GHz Intel Celeron Processor included   Micro ATX form factor   LGA775 Socket   Intel 865G / ICH5 chipset   800 MHz front side bus) and it has a SATA drive for backup and I know that HD doesn't have a jumper on it..

I understand the frustration.. Been there many times..

[kodiakthejuggler]

After mulling the whole ordeal over in my head, I think the broken link in the chain is the BIOS set up. I know for a fact that the physical connections are sound, as the original hard drive works, and the new one was detected before, it just causes the computer to freeze. Since the default setting in the BIOS for my particular motherboard has the SATA host controllers set to "disabled", it must be some sort of conflict between the two hard drives.

Some of the attempts to start the computer showed that both hard drives were detected. Most of the attempts reveal that the system wouldn't detect the SATA, even though it was connected properly. At least one attempt caused the system not to detect the main hard drive, and the computer wouldn't boot up. I ended up clearing the CMOS memory on the motherboard, and that seemed to do the trick. It would then detect the Ultra ATA hard drive again.

I'm hoping the PC Chips people will shed some light on the situation once they respond to my support ticket.

[gbeenie]

If you've got a PCI slot available, maybe you should consider an SATA control card.

[RVR II]

If you've got a PCI slot available, maybe you should consider an SATA control card.

That was gonna be my next suggestion..

[kodiakthejuggler]

If you've got a PCI slot available, maybe you should consider an SATA control card.

Unfortunately, my Micro ATX motherboard is far too small, and even though there are two PCI slots, and one is available, there's just no room for any more cards. Heck, the smallish Audio card is so darn close to the video card that it barely even fits! I'm not too happy with my mobo right now, but I can't really upgrade it for now, so I'm stuck with it.

[Tony]

If you've got a PCI slot available, maybe you should consider an SATA control card.

Unfortunately, my Micro ATX motherboard is far too small, and even though there are two PCI slots, and one is available, there's just no room for any more cards. Heck, the smallish Audio card is so darn close to the video card that it barely even fits! I'm not too happy with my mobo right now, but I can't really upgrade it for now, so I'm stuck with it.

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I was going to suggest a BIOS or driver update but it doesn't look like there's been one recently if ever.

Unlike RVR, I've always had trouble using a 3.0Mbit drive on a 1.5Mbit board without the jumper. Probably depends on the board...

• Anyway, next thing I'd try now is to swap out the SATA cable, and/or move it to the other SATA port
• Failing that, totally disconnect both SATA & PATA drives, reset the BIOS, reboot and save the BIOS.
• Then shut down and add the SATA drive, boot up to see if it's recognized.
• If it is recognized, do it again several times to see if it sticks.
• It's possible that the system might require you to have the SATA drive as primary... you never know.
• Could it be an incompatibility with other hardware in the box? I've seen really weird stuff like this before, and once or twice swapping out or moving something like memory modules worked.
  

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That's all I have. Good luck!

[RVR II]

Unlike RVR, I've always had trouble using a 3.0Mbit drive on a 1.5Mbit board without the jumper. Probably depends on the board...

Really? Wow!

That's interesting Guess I'll count my lucky stars on that issue..

[Tony]

Unlike RVR, I've always had trouble using a 3.0Mbit drive on a 1.5Mbit board without the jumper. Probably depends on the board...

Really? Wow!

That's interesting Guess I'll count my lucky stars on that issue..

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Nah! Truly just a guess on my part. I've had nothing but trouble on older Athlon-based boards (which supported only 1.5Gb) with drives set at 3Gb. Until I changed them to 1.5Gb, that is. I was just surprised you had no trouble with the drives at 3Gb!

I built from scratch since then (about a year ago) and only bought boards that support 3Gb so I can't talk about those. They all work great.

[RVR II]

Ah.. Not a big fan of Athlon boards..

All mine are Pentium based

[kodiakthejuggler]

My friend suggested it could just be a bad drive. I was quite skeptical about his assertion, but he informed me that he used to work for a warehouse that distributed electronic equipment, including computer stuff, and when they would get large orders of hard drives, sometimes there would be about 20 percent of them that were bad out of the box.

Since it's still under warranty, I might just have to do that. I guess the odds are small that I'd get two bad ones in a row. First though, I'll try the second SATA port on my motherboard and see if there's any difference.

[Tony]

Ah.. Not a big fan of Athalon boards..

All mine are Pentium based

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Yep, me too now, except for one old box I'm going to turn into a Linux thing. It was time for a change last year and I'm glad I did it.

[RVR II]

Ah.. Not a big fan of Athalon boards..

All mine are Pentium based

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Yep, me too now, except for one old box I'm going to turn into a Linux thing. It was time for a change last year and I'm glad I did it.

The only AMD chip board i've ever owned is now in Mexico

[Tony]

Ah.. Not a big fan of Athalon boards..

All mine are Pentium based

.
Yep, me too now, except for one old box I'm going to turn into a Linux thing. It was time for a change last year and I'm glad I did it.

The only AMD chip board i've ever owned is now in Mexico

You got something against Mexico? Bad Tokillya or something?

[RVR II]

Ah.. Not a big fan of Athalon boards..

All mine are Pentium based

.
Yep, me too now, except for one old box I'm going to turn into a Linux thing. It was time for a change last year and I'm glad I did it.

The only AMD chip board i've ever owned is now in Mexico

You got something against Mexico? Bad Tokillya or something?

Actually a Big Fan of Tequila (as this forum well knows ) ..

It's my computer I use while on vacation there