Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

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tazwegion
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Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by tazwegion »

G'day fellow K6plus'ers :D

I've recently pulled an old KT133A chipset motherboard out of retirement, prior to being mothballed it had a major capacitor 'overhaul' as was a common requirement of components from 'that' era :wink:

It appears to have an issue with the IDE controller, with CDrom & IDE drives not responding to the system/OS 'sporadically' :(

I disabled the on-board IDE controllers & installed an ancient IDE controller card, but the phenomenon continued...

I checked the IDE/CDrom drive on another system... 100% AOK! :D

It really is a most perplexing issue, as I could really use another OC'ed Duron F@H machine right now (being stalked by an Opteron user :P)... I haven't tested either the IDE cable or the PSU (yet) but I figured I would ask here prior to undertaking further fault finding, hopefully with a few more theories/suggestion under my belt 8)

Any thoughts?
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Jim
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RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by Jim »

IDE Cable is my guess. I have had a number of them go bad on account of the contortions I have to put them through to get things hooked up. Check it for scarring, where it may have rubbed the insulation off somewhere. Also if it doesn't have proper removing grips, sometimes the wires get strained internally to the breaking point when they have been installed and uninstalled several times.
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K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
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tazwegion
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RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by tazwegion »

Well that's a good point Jim, as they're all old (40 strand) IDE cables (I seem to have a glut of those :P), and logic dictates that if it's the on-board IC controller... an add-on card should rectify this ;)

Hmmm... to think of it, I remember getting 'that' cable with an old AT server case, I'm slowly in the process of upgrading to 80 strand IDE cables, so I'd better start 'there' first obviously... might set it up for a 'smoke test' :lol:

w00t w00t! one more DC system for my 'armada'
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RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by Jim »

Another point I forgot to mention is that some boards, (like my DFIs), specify that the IDE cables should be no longer than 18 inch. If what you are using came out of a server case, it probably is longer than that. Check your manual to see if your board has any length limitations on IDE cables.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
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tazwegion
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Posts: 349
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:13 am
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RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by tazwegion »

There you go... I'd never heard of that before, thanks ;)
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Jim
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RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by Jim »

You'll get it solved, and have one more "Ant" for your "Army". Did you know that "Army Ants" or "Driver Ants" can kill an elephant? - or opteron for that matter.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
User avatar
tazwegion
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Posts: 349
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:13 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by tazwegion »

LMAO :lol: thanks Jim I've yet to troubleshoot that particular beast... but I have been pondering if the chipset was damaged in some way, wouldn't that also effect the on-board & add-on (PCI) controllers equally? :(

BTW currently outpacing the BETA 64bit Opteron (in Retro style :P) with a mere 4 Athlon class systems Thunderbird, Palomino, Thoroughbred & Barton... all that missing is an Athlon 'Classic' (SlotA) :lol:

I think the 'collective' grunt equals around 6.8Ghz :twisted:
Jim
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RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by Jim »

If you have situations where sometimes the bios is not picking up a drive; and sometimes it is; the first thing to do is change the IDE cable. (Preferably w/ one either new or known good). Have had cases where a scarred shorting cable caused me to lose my partitions. (Data Recovery sessions followed). IF that does'nt help, time enough then to worry about other things.

Edit: Ya otta add at least one K6 to your fleet; then use just that one in your sig. That would drive the opteron operator bananas, being outpaced by a K6 :twisted:
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
User avatar
tazwegion
Veteran K6'er
Posts: 349
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:13 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

RE: Intermittent IDE connection phenomenon...

Post by tazwegion »

Why Jim that's such a devious proposition :twisted: :lol:
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