BIOS has decided to quit seeing good drives (HDD and CD-ROM)
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2002 6:26 pm
Using a Phoenix BIOS 4.0 (Core version 4.06) version, Release 6.0.6 BIOS revision 1.05. AMD K6-2/500 CPU (running at only 400, because the slow FSB on this thing won't allow it to run any faster unless I overclock the FSB). Machine was originally a Hewlett Packard Pavilion 6350, but just about everything has been replaced except the motherboard. My 30 gig Maxtor hard drive went out, and I sent it back in (warranty swap) and they sent me back a 40 gig Maxtor. The Phoenix BIOS has a 32 gig problem in WIN 98, but Microsoft has a fix file for that.
http://support.microsoft.com/search/pre ... us;Q243450
I had put in my 20 gig Maxtor backup hard drive, and used it with an ASUS S500/A CD-ROM. When the 40 gig Maxtor came in I placed it as Secondary Master to the 20 gig Maxtor as Primary Master (unhooking the CD-ROM). I partitioned and formatted the 40 gig Maxtor, and moved all my good data to there. Then I unhooked all the drives, moved the new 40 gig Maxtor to the Primary Master position, put the CD-ROM back in as Secondary Master, and rebooted the system.
The BIOS now refuses to see either the 40 gig Maxtor or the CD-ROM. I have pulled the cage that contains the drives and taken them down to the shop to check. They work fine on the computer shop's computer. Nothing wrong with them. I have swapped the cables out with known good cables, even though they seemed okay. No difference. Cables are fine, that's not the problem. 40 gig Maxtor and CD-ROM work fine on a different computer; that's not the problem. My computer will still see the 20 gig Maxtor set up as either Primary Master or Secondary Master, so it's not the connections on the board that are the problem. From all appearances I'd say the BIOS has gotten stuck somehow, recognizing
only that hard drive that was last in it--the 20 gig Maxtor, and is refusing to update.
I've found (on the HP web site) instructions for clearing the CMOS settings, and have cleared them and rebooted and reset the time and such that complained. All drives in the BIOS are set to autodetect. (although I've tinkered around with these settings trying to get it to do something different).
My BIOS settings for the 40 gig hard drive (main page) go like this:
(some of this data appears left over from when I had the 20 gigger in there testing it as Primary Master.)
Type: [Auto]
Cylinders: [ 17475]
Heads: [ 15]
Sectors/Track: [ 63]
Maximum Capacity: 20417MB
Multi Sector Transfer; [16 Sectors]
LBA Mode Control: [Enabled]
32-bit I/O: [Enabled]
Transfer Mode: [Fast PIO 4]
Ultra DMA Mode [Mode 2]
From the Advanced page the settings are:
Installed Operating System [Win98/WinNT5.0] (should be acceptable).
Reset Configuration Data: [No]
PCI Configuration
PS/2 Mouse [auto detect]
Peripheral Configuration
I/O Device Configuration
Large Disk Access Mode: [DOS]
Local Bus IDE adapter: [Both]
(There's another line for setting the video RAM reserve--not relevant I
don't think, and I can't remember exactly how it reads.)
Hewlett Packard appears to be clueless about what to do about this, as am I. I've run out of ideas. Anybody know how to get my BIOS to detect a 40 gig hard drive it used to see, but won't see anymore. One the runs fine on other computers?
http://support.microsoft.com/search/pre ... us;Q243450
I had put in my 20 gig Maxtor backup hard drive, and used it with an ASUS S500/A CD-ROM. When the 40 gig Maxtor came in I placed it as Secondary Master to the 20 gig Maxtor as Primary Master (unhooking the CD-ROM). I partitioned and formatted the 40 gig Maxtor, and moved all my good data to there. Then I unhooked all the drives, moved the new 40 gig Maxtor to the Primary Master position, put the CD-ROM back in as Secondary Master, and rebooted the system.
The BIOS now refuses to see either the 40 gig Maxtor or the CD-ROM. I have pulled the cage that contains the drives and taken them down to the shop to check. They work fine on the computer shop's computer. Nothing wrong with them. I have swapped the cables out with known good cables, even though they seemed okay. No difference. Cables are fine, that's not the problem. 40 gig Maxtor and CD-ROM work fine on a different computer; that's not the problem. My computer will still see the 20 gig Maxtor set up as either Primary Master or Secondary Master, so it's not the connections on the board that are the problem. From all appearances I'd say the BIOS has gotten stuck somehow, recognizing
only that hard drive that was last in it--the 20 gig Maxtor, and is refusing to update.
I've found (on the HP web site) instructions for clearing the CMOS settings, and have cleared them and rebooted and reset the time and such that complained. All drives in the BIOS are set to autodetect. (although I've tinkered around with these settings trying to get it to do something different).
My BIOS settings for the 40 gig hard drive (main page) go like this:
(some of this data appears left over from when I had the 20 gigger in there testing it as Primary Master.)
Type: [Auto]
Cylinders: [ 17475]
Heads: [ 15]
Sectors/Track: [ 63]
Maximum Capacity: 20417MB
Multi Sector Transfer; [16 Sectors]
LBA Mode Control: [Enabled]
32-bit I/O: [Enabled]
Transfer Mode: [Fast PIO 4]
Ultra DMA Mode [Mode 2]
From the Advanced page the settings are:
Installed Operating System [Win98/WinNT5.0] (should be acceptable).
Reset Configuration Data: [No]
PCI Configuration
PS/2 Mouse [auto detect]
Peripheral Configuration
I/O Device Configuration
Large Disk Access Mode: [DOS]
Local Bus IDE adapter: [Both]
(There's another line for setting the video RAM reserve--not relevant I
don't think, and I can't remember exactly how it reads.)
Hewlett Packard appears to be clueless about what to do about this, as am I. I've run out of ideas. Anybody know how to get my BIOS to detect a 40 gig hard drive it used to see, but won't see anymore. One the runs fine on other computers?