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Bad IDE Controller

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dan951

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
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85
Location
Lansing, MI
I picked up a old Gateway P5-120 and cannot get it to see any of the drives. It refuses to detect anything. Is there a diagnostics disk somewhere that can check these IDE controllers? I have tried many different drives but nothing works. This is the AT style motherboard. Any ideas or help would be appreciated.
 
What size drives? You might try finding a bios update. I recall having some of the systems be picky with larger drives until I did that myself. I'm not sure of any diagnostic disk that would tell you much more than the bios. You might also check trying master and not cable select or visa verse. That was around the time when that feature didn't really work well in most of the systems I worked with.
 
First, it's not a controller -- it's an IDE interface. IDE controllers are on the drives' logic boards. You should try this IDE card in another computer. If it works there it's not the card.
 
Do the usual tests (as Stone said):

1)Try the drive on another computer
2)Try the cable on another computer
3)Try the controller on another computer
4)Be happy with the diagnostic, and get the parts you need to fix the problem
 
Does the system also have a SCSI controller? On Gateway Pentiums, the SCSI controller will prevent the identification of installed IDE hard disks but will work with IDE CD-Rom or DVD drives.

Gateway does not have BIOS updates but if the motherboard is an Intel, Intel used to provide updates to the BIOS. You will have to modify the OEM code on the new BIOS to match the Gateway code or it won't do the update. I did it about 10 years ago; it only requires changing one character in the BIOS file but I can't find an online reference to point to the right position to change.
 
Try another HDD controller. I mean a whole different brand. My Gateway 2000 4DX2-66E also refused to see any drives with a controller I put in. I had a second one of the same make/model controller board (and it works). Same thing, the computer still didn't see any drives. Finally, replacing it with another controller brand solved the problem. I do not know why, but that specific brand did not mix with the motherboard.
 
Stone said:
First, it's not a controller -- it's an IDE interface. IDE controllers are on the drives' logic boards. You should try this IDE card in another computer. If it works there it's not the card.
Click to expand...

Stone, below link is for you.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_an_IDE_controller

Guys, the IDE controller is integrated into the motherboard. I have tried all the usual tests and the hard drives and cable work fine in another computer. I'm thinking the only fix is a new motherboard or external PCI controller.

Yea there is a IDE CDROM but it will not see it at well. There is even a option to boot from CD in this BIOS which I find some what rare from a computer of this vintage.
 
What is the jumper configuration on the drives? I would recommend disconnecting all the IDE devices and just trying one device at a time. Set it to master first, then if that fails try cable select. Remember if you have two devices both on the same jumper setting (slave, master) and on the same cable they'll conflict and either whichever device responds first will only show up or commonly neither since they both respond and confuse the controller.
 
barythrin said:
What is the jumper configuration on the drives? I would recommend disconnecting all the IDE devices and just trying one device at a time. Set it to master first, then if that fails try cable select. Remember if you have two devices both on the same jumper setting (slave, master) and on the same cable they'll conflict and either whichever device responds first will only show up or commonly neither since they both respond and confuse the controller.
Click to expand...

Yea I tried that no dice. Sucks but I will probably get a drop in PCI IDE controller they are pretty cheap on eBay.
 
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