HDD + PC problems

[Yussef]

I recently installed a DVD drive in my PC, in conjuction with a CD drive, everything was working fine for a day or so. However one day my PC kept crashing a lot, eventually building up to not being able to load XP up.

I then removed the cables from the DVD drive and re inserted into the CD drive, again the PC began to work, but it later developed more problems. An error message displayed after the IDE devices was basically: Port 80 conduction cable error or so.

This message finally vanished after I tweaked with the cabling and so, I'm not sure how I fixed it however. I cannot boot up XP normally nor in safe mode, it will either reboot, hang or display a blank screen, my HDD is a Maxtor 6L080J4, I have tested this HDD in another PC and it works fine, I have also tested another HDD in my PC which works fine. I'm currently using my hardware in my brother's PC until he buys more parts, I have no idea why my PC/HDD combo is not working anymore as it worked fine before, any ideas?

 

[djpringle]

Odd problem that, the only thing that springs to mind after googling your error message is that you have a damaged IDE cable (40pin 80 conductor) that will semi 'repair' itself when you wiggle it. Have you tried a different cable?

 

[Will]

Sounds like you had an IDE cable loose, its now fixed by wiggling them all, but XP has taken some damage. I'd repair your install (insert CD, choose install, choose to repair the detected install), thich should fix the problem.

 

[Yussef]

I upgraded XP Pro to XP Pro Corp, still no luck, I also installed XP Pro Corp on my brother's HDD, neither HDD's will boot the OS up on my PC, but will on his. I have also updated my BIOS, tested different IDE cables to no success

 

[smurkin]

Port 80 conduction cable error or so.

This probably means wrong cable. There are 2 types of IDE cable...40wire and 80 wire....both have just 40 pins....the 80 wire is, I believe for EIDE, or at least todays faster hard drives.

Is it possible you got the CDROM and the HD drives cables switched when you were messing around ? so the HD was/is on the 40 (in which case it will be underperforming)....

The 40 wire cable is probably ok for the CD drive (not sure about the DVD drive tho), but the 80 should be for the hard disk ....

I dont know if it will fix your os booting problem tho :/

 

[kameleon]

And they are colour coded too

Blue = 80 pin
Black = 40 pin

 

[smurkin]

shit...wish I new that before.....I always count them

Thing is...XP can be set to the faster UDMA modes (speeds)...and this might be the reason all is not well with your pc...

personally, rather than messing with xp, I'd be off to maplin or whatever and invest in new 80 conductor cables....I bought some nice round ones a month ago....iirc they were less than a tenner (from microdirect) and much easier to fit into your case than the ribbon cables...

even if it doesn't fix the problem...theyr a nice thing to have

/edit

tested different IDE cables to no success

ahh didnt spot that....hmmm

 

[Yussef]

Double checked, I do own some 80 wire cables, double tested with that, still no luck. Gonna format my HDD and re install everything after I have burned some of the data on CD, here goes!

 

[Yussef]

Formatted and re installed, the drive works fine, had trouble setting the network up, but that's sorted out, now I have no sound but working on that too

Thanks for the suggestions.