Unplugging DVD from MB allows HD to read on Boot.

[Loose rivets]

For ages, I had a Foxconn board that worked well except it often wouldn't pass the BIOS stage when looking for the HD.

Ages ago, I cleaned the contacts of the SATA cables with a diamond file and it worked perfectly for more than two years. Then I decided to put the side panel back on.:8 I know, it's one of my trademarks.

Having dusted it out and boxed it properly, the @#$%2 fault came back. Exactly the same. Footled with the leads and it worked again. Cleaned the contacts. Fine. Boxed it, it failed.:ugh:

No, the panel is not pressing on the leads. However, while venting my spleen, I pulled the DVD connector from the MB. It immediately found the drive and booted. Repeated the experiment.

A bit of history. When I first got the used home-build from an IT student, the DVD didn't work. I concluded it had failed as the BIOS could see it, and indeed, replacing it made everything okay. I wonder now if I purchased that drive for nowt.

Yes, I've tried other Plugs on the MB. It seems to make no difference.

Any idea if there is a kind of BIOS conflict that could be causing such a fault?

I am a bit concerned there's an intermittancy in the MB print adjacent to the plug sockets, but first things first.

[Prazum]

How about IRQ assignments ?

Also check if your using the same lead that one device is set to master the other to slave

[Milo Minderbinder]

get new SATA leads

and make sure the connectors on the motherboard are not loose

and don't use files on SATA leads, all you do it make them fit less well


but it is a Foxconn board.....that may have something to do with it
you could buy a real motherboard from MSI or similar instead

[Loose rivets]

Yes, I'll probably leave this computer here when I come home.

I'd used the file on me teeth a short while before that. The square cm of diamonds has lasted for all sorts of jobs for 43 years.:} < an 'after' picture.


At least one of the leads was changed and then swapped.

Don't like SATA leads. Too rigid for the strength of the tiny connectors.

[Spitoon]

Don't know how interrupts work with SATA but maybe try using another SATA port if one's available.

[green granite]

If you feel the need to clean contacts LR, use a soft rubber (eraser for our colonial cousins) or wipe them with isopropyl alcohol.

[ian16th]

Don't like SATA leads. Too rigid for the strength of the tiny connectors. SATA connectors have a design life for about 10 to 20 plug/unplug cycles!

If at all possible, leave them well alone.

[Milo Minderbinder]

current generation SATA leads tend to have retention clips, but the earlier ones (and current cheap ones) don't
when they first came out, they had such a tendency to come loose that we resorted to fixing them with blobs from a glue gun at both ends of the lead

it reduced our DOA figure by about 70%