"detecting IDE drives" problem

[d00kie]

First, the specs of the troubled PC:
AMD Sempron 2200+ @ 1500MHz (166x9, 1.6V)
Speeze 5F286
Biostar M7NCG 400
Antec 350W PSU
Sapphire 9200SE 128MB
Mushkin pc3200 512MB RAM
Samsung SP1614N

Anyway, when originally built, the Samsung HDD had a weird glitch. It never allowed me to have a boot.ini file and instead, it shows the error "Invalid boot file; booting from C:\Windows"; and then boots normally. Otherwise, the drive was working smoothly.

So this problem appears about a month or so back. The boot screen would freeze at the "detecting IDE drives" part. The CDRW seems to be in working condition but no Hd spin. Checks cables and all but nothing. It finally worked when I pulled out the usb cable belonging to the iPod dock.

A week later the problem resurfaced. My bro left the iPod cable plugged- but removing it didn't solve the problem. Instead, when I removed the Jumper from the HDD, the thing booted like it would <_<. Weird, removing the jumper sets the Samsung into slave mode when it's supposed to be Master. I restarted and the problem showed up again. Returning the jumper to it's original location and it boots normally.

So the last two weeks we were dealing with this mess. Clear CMOS, switch IDE/power cables etc. It seems that the drive will be detected randomly after changing something, anything. Removing the power for awhile even worked occasionally.

But today, all hell broke lose. Nothing would work. Besides the detecting ide drive freeze at startup, the system wouldn't even boot at all(fans start, but this is an extremely rare occurence). I'm thinking that this is a HDD problem but I'd like some input before I go get a new hard drive. Could it be a motherboard issue? CPU? PSU? Help me :(

[turd]

What you describe sure seems to indicate a faulty drive. It looks like you have checked everything; jumper position, IDE cable, PSU.

Few things to check, that the IDE cables are plugged in properly with regards to color of connectors: blue to MB gray to slave and black to master.

Next you should run the Samsung diagnostic utility
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm

A good way to check suspected failed hardware is place the suspected device in another system and see if the failure stays with it.

[d00kie]

Yup, it has to be the drive. Removed it and the motherboard boots up fine (well err...I'm able to boot a CD).

Anyway I have a SFF barebone and laptop HDD on the way. Hope I'll be able to get them running smoothly come Wed. Now if I can get this sucker to "get-detected" one last time so I can extract some stranded data and erase it before RMAing the thing.

[Lance Thornton]

Do me a favor. When you have the case open, look inside and examine the capacitors. They are the little vertical cylinders that are on the motherboard. They should have a flat top If they are rounded or appear to have gunk coming out of the top, that is part of the problem, if not most of it. Gook luck.

[d00kie]

I'm afraid none of the capacitors on the Biostar have gunk spilling out of them.

[andyl33t]

i had that prob all the time. Changed ma mobo and its solved it

[d00kie]

Still unable to get the thing booted. grrr

I was thinking that would it be possible to gain access to the drive via the external enclosure+usb2 method? The drive just needs to be detected and it will work normally the rest of the way. I left it on over the weekend and no hiccups but my mom accidentally shut it down last night. I had planned to burn the ipod stuff + other scattered documents today :( I'm thinking that the external enclosure thing detects and starts the hard drive differently so I may be able to gain access to the sucker and get my stranded files.

Thanks for the replies guys.

P.S. Regarding the SHdiag thing. Well since it gets stuck at the detecting IDE drives part I'm unable to get UBCD to boot. If it does go past the first screen, I'd rather have it boot windows instead.