Problem Detecting IDE Drives......

[idiot_savant]

my sister-in-law's PC always hang up during boot up it hangs up on "Detecting IDE Drives......" All I do is to re-seat the IDE cables from the mobo and HDD...then the PC starts up.....It often happen and I always do the same thing pull up the cable and then put it back in......I tried to replace the IDE cable with a new one but its still the same.....what could be the problem here? is it the HDD having loose connection or is it the mobo that has a loose slot?

[AnotherTechGuy]

Originally Posted by idiot_savant

my sister-in-law's PC always hang up during boot up it hangs up on "Detecting IDE Drives......" All I do is to re-seat the IDE cables from the mobo and HDD...then the PC starts up.....It often happen and I always do the same thing pull up the cable and then put it back in......I tried to replace the IDE cable with a new one but its still the same.....what could be the problem here? is it the HDD having loose connection or is it the mobo that has a loose slot?

See if there is a Updated BIOS Flash for the systemboard
If you still have the same problem try different HDD

[Noodle2732]

I would..

1) Clean the slots, give them a blow to get any dust out or better yet use a can of compressed air.
2) Make sure the jumpers on the drive are correct (I cant personally see how it could cause this intermittent fault but i would still check
3) Try a different IDE HDD that you know works,
4) idealy if it still isnt working you would then want to try a diferrent motherboard.

If a new HDD did work then before you throw the other one away, try running a HDD check utility such as windows disk check (Warning: have had this delete data before. make a backup first!).