Motherboard problem

[GDW]

Im building a PC for my mate and have run into a problem.

IDE1 connector on the motherboard (MSI K7N2G) just doesn't want to recognise either a hardrive or a CDRW. IDE2 connector is fine and will recognise both, so there is obviously nothing wrong with the cable.

Im I misssing out something obvious or is this motherboard just faulty?

 

[Xavier]

Best thing you can do is reflash the bios to its latest (if it doesn't already have it) and then reset CMOS to defaults.

If the second controller will still recognise devices which the first won't then I'd suggest that yes, it's b0rk3n

 

[GDW]

Thanks Xavier.

Would reflashing the newer bios not invalid the gurantee on the card as its brand new? I wouldnt want the supplier to blame me for the problem by admiting that I updated the Bios

 

[RandomBastard]

*Places bet on b0rked mobo

 

[Xavier]

Hmm, well they can't prove it was you who did it, and to be honest I wouldn't tell them you had, but if you're concerned the best thing to do would be to just reset the bios to its defaults and try with the current BIOS version.

The only reason I could imagine for a board not recognising drives on one controller but working with the other was if some of the CMOS data for one of the channels was corrupted, resetting the BIOS would fix this.

A silly question I know, but are you using the same IDE cable when you try both sockets on the board? Also, which drives are you using?

 

[RandomBastard]

Dunno if this is any help, but on my motherboard i has problems detecting drives because of the jumper settings on the back of the drives. I now have my drives on cable select because of this. My bios still doesnt recognise one of the drives even though its perfectly functional.

 

[Xavier]

Dunno if this is any help, but on my motherboard i has problems detecting drives because of the jumper settings on the back of the drives. I now have my drives on cable select because of this. My bios still doesnt recognise one of the drives even though its perfectly functional.

As GDW has said, both drives work on the second channel of the exact same IDE controller, which is exactly why I didn't suggest this. Drives which have compatibility issues with cables/controllers until put into Cable Select will continue to do so regardless of which channel they're connected to. If one channel sees them fine but not the second then this indicates that either cable, or the physical socket on the board, is b0rked.

Xav

 

[GDW]

Ive tried the same cable and also tried it out with a couple of other cables with the same results.

Cheers Ill retry this tomorrow and let you know how I got on thanks Xavier

 

[fatbusinessman]

Yep, this sounds like the mobo is, to use the technical term, "buggered".

As it's brand new, I'd recommend you just return it and ask for a replacement. Did you order it online or get it from a local store?

 

[GDW]

Ordered online