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SATA Hard Drive Not Detected by Motherboard
This is my first experience with a SATA drive
I have an ECS Elite Group KT600 A Motherboard with Sempron 2200 CPU,
1 gig DDR 3200 memory in two 512k sticks.The hard drive is a Western Digital CavierSE SATA WDC2500JD.The OS is Wndows XP Professional.
I've installed the VIA drivers from boot up on A drive,when it says click on F6.The POSTwill show the hard drive as WDC2500,sometimes it won't..When I try to boot normally,it boots correctly until I get to the Windows XP logo screen.It finally starts coming up really dim and gradually brightning to normal and that's where the system hangs up.I certainly hope someone can help.I've tried all I know and now I need some help from somone smarter than me! I'm about ready to trash can this high dollar paper weight.
I have an ECS Elite Group KT600 A Motherboard with Sempron 2200 CPU,
1 gig DDR 3200 memory in two 512k sticks.The hard drive is a Western Digital CavierSE SATA WDC2500JD.The OS is Wndows XP Professional.
I've installed the VIA drivers from boot up on A drive,when it says click on F6.The POSTwill show the hard drive as WDC2500,sometimes it won't..When I try to boot normally,it boots correctly until I get to the Windows XP logo screen.It finally starts coming up really dim and gradually brightning to normal and that's where the system hangs up.I certainly hope someone can help.I've tried all I know and now I need some help from somone smarter than me! I'm about ready to trash can this high dollar paper weight.
ASKER
The computer will go through POST and show the hard drive sometimes.Somtimes it won't.If it does or if it doesn't the system will hang up on the XP logo screen or if in Safe mode it locks up on the drivers page.Ican unplug the SATA drive and go into Win XP Pro and load the VIA SATA Raid drivers from the motherboard installation disk or the latest drivers available I've downloaded from Viaarena web site.Reboot.Go into ControlPanel,Device Manager and it will show the VIA Raid controller.Go to Disk Drives in
Device Manager and it shows the WDC2500JD HDD.Now I turn system off and hook the SATA HDD back up,start up and go through POST and the system locks up on the Win XP logo or if I'm in Safe mode It locks up.This is what I've changed and done so far.I've changed the 1 gig of 3200 DDR and tried another know good 512 mb stick of DDR.I've lowlevel formatted the IDE drive and wrote it back to zero.I've re-installed Win XP.I've unhooked everything except the SATA drive and the IDE drive.I've formatted again and Installed Win ME.I finally got M.E. to recognize the drive with the VIA Tool program.The SATA drive didn't show up when I clicked on my computer,so I was unable to format it
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your speedy reply and I apologize for the lengthy explanation.
Device Manager and it shows the WDC2500JD HDD.Now I turn system off and hook the SATA HDD back up,start up and go through POST and the system locks up on the Win XP logo or if I'm in Safe mode It locks up.This is what I've changed and done so far.I've changed the 1 gig of 3200 DDR and tried another know good 512 mb stick of DDR.I've lowlevel formatted the IDE drive and wrote it back to zero.I've re-installed Win XP.I've unhooked everything except the SATA drive and the IDE drive.I've formatted again and Installed Win ME.I finally got M.E. to recognize the drive with the VIA Tool program.The SATA drive didn't show up when I clicked on my computer,so I was unable to format it
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your speedy reply and I apologize for the lengthy explanation.
I believe we can pin the issue down to two points:
1. The BIOS sometimes shows the drive, sometimes not. Simple things to be checked, cable connection, the SATA conenctors can slip loose fairly easily. Check the data connector and the power connector, especially if you are using the SATA power connection point. See if it makes a difference on which of the connectors on the system board you connect to although the system should show a cabling error if you connect to SATA1 before SATA0 is used. If you have lots of interface cards installed, your power supply may be experiencing problems providing sufficient juice for your setup.
2. It sounds as if the sysytem boots with no drive connected to the SATA. If this is true, I would suggest starting at the link below to determnine your specific system board and then downloading the latest BIOS foryour system board, firmware for the SATA interface and drivers for the board and the interfaces.
3. If still no luck, I would suspect that either the drive or the interface is failing. Try another component, whichever is easiect for you to get hold of.
Sorry to have no firm answer. Good luck.
1. The BIOS sometimes shows the drive, sometimes not. Simple things to be checked, cable connection, the SATA conenctors can slip loose fairly easily. Check the data connector and the power connector, especially if you are using the SATA power connection point. See if it makes a difference on which of the connectors on the system board you connect to although the system should show a cabling error if you connect to SATA1 before SATA0 is used. If you have lots of interface cards installed, your power supply may be experiencing problems providing sufficient juice for your setup.
2. It sounds as if the sysytem boots with no drive connected to the SATA. If this is true, I would suggest starting at the link below to determnine your specific system board and then downloading the latest BIOS foryour system board, firmware for the SATA interface and drivers for the board and the interfaces.
3. If still no luck, I would suspect that either the drive or the interface is failing. Try another component, whichever is easiect for you to get hold of.
Sorry to have no firm answer. Good luck.
ASKER
Hello Again Amiurchaudry,
I thank you for your spedy reply again.I've already tried all you say except changing out the hardware, MOBO or HDD.I may have to send this MOBO back.I've been working on this thing ever since Friday of last week.You're the only one that could give me anything concrete to go on.
Do you think perhaps it could be conflict with controllers?Such as the Raid controller and the USB 1.0 controller.They share the same IRQ.Specifically IRQ 11.This is just a guess.Thank you again.
I thank you for your spedy reply again.I've already tried all you say except changing out the hardware, MOBO or HDD.I may have to send this MOBO back.I've been working on this thing ever since Friday of last week.You're the only one that could give me anything concrete to go on.
Do you think perhaps it could be conflict with controllers?Such as the Raid controller and the USB 1.0 controller.They share the same IRQ.Specifically IRQ 11.This is just a guess.Thank you again.
Sata cables can be flaky too, try a different sata cable if you have one
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ASKER
Hello tfjeff and amiurchaudry,
I've tried another SATA cable (both cables were new).
I've tried what you said,amiurchaudry,all to no avail.The ECS motherboard I bought new from NewEgg.com.The hard drive I bought on eBay from a guy that said it was pulled new from a Dell server.I've contacted him to get the service tag from the server.I'll probably have lots of luck on that.To make it short,I'm going to replace the HDD.The system acts like when an IDE drive is bad and locks the system.I'll be sure and let you know what happens.Can you tell me how to end question so you can get the points?You've been so very helpful,I'd really like to see you get the points for this.
I've tried another SATA cable (both cables were new).
I've tried what you said,amiurchaudry,all to no avail.The ECS motherboard I bought new from NewEgg.com.The hard drive I bought on eBay from a guy that said it was pulled new from a Dell server.I've contacted him to get the service tag from the server.I'll probably have lots of luck on that.To make it short,I'm going to replace the HDD.The system acts like when an IDE drive is bad and locks the system.I'll be sure and let you know what happens.Can you tell me how to end question so you can get the points?You've been so very helpful,I'd really like to see you get the points for this.
If not and perhaps even if so:
If you turn the system off and restart, are you shown the "How would you like windows to start" screen and options? This would list Normal, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, Safe Mode with Networking and Last Known Good Configuration.
If not, do you see it if you press F8 before the windows logo shows?
Once seen, can you boot up in any of the Safe Mode options? If so, it is almost certainly a hardware driver or startup program as opposed to corrup disk or installation.
Try unplugging all unnecessary options; go down to keyboard and video; no mouse, cdrom, floppy or any other internal or exterbal addons.