Help: Fixed Disk Error - Controler Cable not connected

[Raven]

Error message: Fixed Disk Error (80) Controler cable not connected

I'm in the process of building a new system, I have an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard, with an AMD 1800 processor.

Anywho, I place the board (with the static bag under it) on my bench. I installed the processor and HSF, using good ol'Arctic Silver 3. Everything went flawlessly. I continued with the installation, I installed my video card and my hdd. I decided with the basics in it would be time to boot it up.

Well it boot up flawlessly, it detected my hard drive, and even identified it properly. THen I get the error listed above, with the standard press F1 to continue. I hit F1 and get the following error message: No OS found.

WTF??? I flip the cable around thinking it might be a Pin 1, issue. Nogo, so I flip it on the mobo... still no go, both this time and the last, the bios didn't recognize my drive, so I know it was in properly before.

I thought it might be a faulty cable, so I swapped it out, but get the same error.

I checked the "Slave/Master" jumper and it's all good.

I then tried the drive in my other system and it boots up fine with an OS.

Anyone have anythoughts on this? Anything I might have forgotten?

[byteguy]

Not familiar with this motherboard, but does it have SMART technology? Is it enabled? Did you check the BIOS settings? That would be my first thought.

Art

[Raven]

Yep it has Smart technology I have enabled and disabled, still no go... All teh bios settings are correct.


Ohhh just got an e-mail, I think this is the answer:

Q I have a computer with the following configuration - P III, 733 MHz, 810 E Motherboard, 128 MB RAM, etc with Windows '98 SE. Whenever I start my computer, I get a message, "IDE 80 Conductor cable not installed." What does it mean? Secondly whenever I try to restart my computer, it hangs. I then have to shut it down for a minute or two. Only then it restarts. What's the reason? Please solve my problem.

A This is a common issue with the HDD connector. If you use the older 40-conductor IDE cable, under the Ultra DMA modes 0, 1 and 2, covering transfer speeds up to 33.3 MB/s. All you need to do is change your older 40-conductor IDE cable to 80-conductor cable. The main reason is that the old 40-conductor IDE cable, has an old and not robust design. Unterminated flat ribbon cables have never been all that great in terms of signal quality and dealing with reflections from the end of the cable. The warts of the old design were tolerable while signalling speeds on the IDE/ATA interface were relatively low, but as the speed of the interface continued to increase, the limitations of the cable were finally too great to be ignored. So you need to change your HDD connector cable for the solution of this problem as for any Ultra DMA modes above mode 2, the 80-conductor cable is required. Regarding your second problem, please load the BIOS default settings in the BIOS set up, I hope this will solve your problem.

I'll try this and let you know.... thanks for all your help...

[byteguy]

Oh--I assumed (silly me) that you had an 80-pin cable attached. Figured you had it on your old motherboard, but evidently you upgraded!

Art

[Raven]

Well it's not as bad as me not realizing that a 40-pin wouldn't work...

Here's my newb mistake thought: I just went and read the book and it says that it needs to have 80-pin cable... :shake:

[byteguy]

Oh, well. Sh** happens! I've done some pretty stupid things in my time. Unfortunately, I rarely read the manuals!!! :/