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Dimension 8200 - IDE issues
So I reboot my pc to do a low-level format on my hard drive, and the bios starts slowly (because it can't find the drives on the ide chans that it is looking for). I go into the bios and all drives on both ide chans are unknown, all of a sudden. I boot up western digitals diag software, and real mode is slow, such as, if I select 'run test' it takes about a minute for the test to start. The tests came back clean and took the average amount of time. So I proceed to wipe the drive and the low-level format comes up and says 6 hours to complete! (normally takes 13 and half minutes)
My hard drive (WD) is on the 0 ide chan, and my two optical drives are on 1 chan. Both ide chans say the drives are unknown. The WD diag software recongizes the WD drive properly. Since the hd is unknown, it would not boot (before I started wiping it).
I'm thinking that it may be the ide bus. I opened up my pc and the ribbons on the ide chans are secure, they are also secure of the drives. All the jumpers on the drives are in their right settings.
I should mention that everything was fine before I rebooted the first time.
This problem is with real time mode too, thus it is not a OS issue.
Any help that someone could lend would be greatly appreciated.
Majestic
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9371 Posts
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Posted May 1st, 2006 11:00
Given the age of the system I would also replace the motherboard battery. A failing battery can cause boot up problems where the BIOS has difficulty in detecting the drives. A new 3-Volt, CR2032, coin cell battery can be purchased for around $3 (US) and is available at any Radio Shack, computer stores and most discount stores. For $3 it is a very cheap item to rule out as the cause.
If that doesn't resolve the problem then try running the Dell diagnostics on the system including all the drives. Possibly you have a drive that is failing. A bad drive on either IDE port can cause problems for all the drives. If the diagnostics are of no help then try disconnecting all the drives, but one to see if the BIOS recognizes it. You may have to clear the NVRAM after a drive is connected. Try this for each of the drives. If the problem returns then suspect the recently connected drive as being at fault. Also try another ribbon cable as the cable maybe bad.
If all else fails then consider installing an PCI ATA Controller card for $30 and move all your drives over to it. The controller card will then manage the drives rather than the motherboard IDE controller.