HD problem (no power to other drive when hooked up to IDE cable)

zero2dash · 01-05-2006, 11:08 PM

I've got a 40g Maxtor ATA drive from work that I can't figure out what's wrong with it.

I tried using it at work in one of our other computers and didn't have any luck, so I brought it home and tested it here and wound up with the same problem.

For some reason, when the drive is hooked up, the other device on the IDE cable does not work and has no power. I've tried this with the drive being both a master and a slave, with both a second hard drive and a cd drive. Now, when the computer boots, the bios does recognize both drives being connected, and properly labels the master as master and the slave as slave. But for some reason, once the PC posts and starts to load Windows, the other drive on the IDE cable will not work anymore.

At work I tried it with this (faulty?) drive as a slave and the master as the boot drive with Windows 95, and in that configuration, the boot drive was not found (and Windows wouldn't load), not even in the bios. At home I had a little more luck, hooking it up on the secondary IDE channel with my dvd burner, set as a slave drive to the dvd burner being the master. The bios recognizes both, but hangs for a good 15-20 seconds on the "Load from cd drive" part (where it checks to try and boot from cd), and then Windows will load (off my primary IDE -> master drive which is my XP Pro drive), but in Windows, only the faulty hd shows up but not the dvd burner...and if I hit the eject button, the tray will not pop out (and the dvd drive does not appear to have any power).

With the power cord plugged into the faulty hd but the IDE cable removed, it will receive power and the dvd burner will receive power, and everything loads like normal (but obviously the hd isn't recognized as anything since the IDE cable is unplugged). So because of this, I'm thinking it's an IDE problem of some sort.

It's done the same thing on 2 computers with 2 different setups and 2 different IDE cables. I thought at first maybe it was a psu issue but I've got a 500w psu (plus the aforementioned trial-and-error checking to determine that it's an IDE problem).

I did remove the IO board off the drive to check for a blown capacitor but didn't see any. The drive does seem to spin up ok when receiving power, so I'm not sure if it's a physical problem with the drive itself. I've ran the PowerMax utility on the drive and did the full (advanced) check and it passed with flying colors...I've also reformatted the hard drive and that didn't appear to fix it either.

Any ideas? Anyone?

TIA

Jeffbx · 01-06-2006, 06:55 AM

See if the warranty is still good & RMA it.

zero2dash · 01-06-2006, 02:34 PM

Thanks for that link Jeff...I'll check when I get home.

01-05-2006, 11:08 PM	#1
zero2dash Commander Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fenton, MO - but I wish I was at the beach. ANY beach. Posts: 1,367	HD problem (no power to other drive when hooked up to IDE cable) I've got a 40g Maxtor ATA drive from work that I can't figure out what's wrong with it. I tried using it at work in one of our other computers and didn't have any luck, so I brought it home and tested it here and wound up with the same problem. For some reason, when the drive is hooked up, the other device on the IDE cable does not work and has no power. I've tried this with the drive being both a master and a slave, with both a second hard drive and a cd drive. Now, when the computer boots, the bios does recognize both drives being connected, and properly labels the master as master and the slave as slave. But for some reason, once the PC posts and starts to load Windows, the other drive on the IDE cable will not work anymore. At work I tried it with this (faulty?) drive as a slave and the master as the boot drive with Windows 95, and in that configuration, the boot drive was not found (and Windows wouldn't load), not even in the bios. At home I had a little more luck, hooking it up on the secondary IDE channel with my dvd burner, set as a slave drive to the dvd burner being the master. The bios recognizes both, but hangs for a good 15-20 seconds on the "Load from cd drive" part (where it checks to try and boot from cd), and then Windows will load (off my primary IDE -> master drive which is my XP Pro drive), but in Windows, only the faulty hd shows up but not the dvd burner...and if I hit the eject button, the tray will not pop out (and the dvd drive does not appear to have any power). With the power cord plugged into the faulty hd but the IDE cable removed, it will receive power and the dvd burner will receive power, and everything loads like normal (but obviously the hd isn't recognized as anything since the IDE cable is unplugged). So because of this, I'm thinking it's an IDE problem of some sort. It's done the same thing on 2 computers with 2 different setups and 2 different IDE cables. I thought at first maybe it was a psu issue but I've got a 500w psu (plus the aforementioned trial-and-error checking to determine that it's an IDE problem). I did remove the IO board off the drive to check for a blown capacitor but didn't see any. The drive does seem to spin up ok when receiving power, so I'm not sure if it's a physical problem with the drive itself. I've ran the PowerMax utility on the drive and did the full (advanced) check and it passed with flying colors...I've also reformatted the hard drive and that didn't appear to fix it either. Any ideas? Anyone? TIA

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01-06-2006, 06:55 AM	#2
Jeffbx Fleet Admiral Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Michigan Posts: 9,390	See if the warranty is still good & RMA it.

01-06-2006, 02:34 PM	#3
zero2dash Commander Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fenton, MO - but I wish I was at the beach. ANY beach. Posts: 1,367	Thanks for that link Jeff...I'll check when I get home.

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