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Nothing but SATA

T

TDHeller

n00b
Joined
Dec 22, 2008
Messages
37
I'm trying to get a neighbors PC working again (of course) and I found Both CDR and DVD R/W drives are inaccessible. SATA HDD drive is fine but the PATA CDR's are not listing in BIUOS.
I've tries new serial cables - No effect, a backup CDROM - No effect and chanting obscenities at the monitor - No effect.
Of note is that one of the memory banks appears not to work. Needed to swap memory out of the main bank (yellow) on ASUS P5Q-VM to the brown port (one yellow one brown) to get memory to read.
My thought is a possible badf MoBo but it will boot to Windows (XP) just will not see anything but SATA drives. I hope to NOT RMA the MOBO since it's been over a year out alreafy and really don't need the hassle.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

Rig Spec:
ASUS P5Q-VM Bios 1.1.26l(?)
2-SuperTalent 2gb chips
SATA 1TB Seagate drive
500 w Antec Power supply

1 CD Rom
1 DVD R/W
Both generic.

Thanks

TDH
 
Maybe the generic optical drives are going bad?

I mean, memory issues notwithstanding, the motherboard and hard drive otherwise work fine, right? And you've already swapped out cables, correct? Fortunately, you can grab an optical drive online for under $25 (most brick-and-mortar retail stores charge at least twice as much).

The bad memory slot is a more serious issue. Have you tried using memtest86+ to confirm that the problem is limited to that one slot?
 
Test the IDE devices in another system, if they can be seen there then we can eliminate them as the problem and then it would be motherboard related.
 
Corrupted BIOS perhaps try resetting the BIOS,you can also try a BIOS update.
 
tiraides:Yep MoBo and SATA section appears OK except for the Memory slot issue and IDE read.

Oddly enough the CD Drives report intermittently in BIOS,
But when they can be found in Boot device Priority section, - they still don't report in Main Setup Page.
Thats what makes me think Board more than HW. But 2 drive failures at once?? Cables (tried), BIOS (maybe), or MOBO (??)

Trying Not to buy another drive for funzies since a known good IDE drive I have here tests the same - No one home.
It seems PresonalJ's Idea will have to be the next shot in the AM. Really hate the ASUS RMA Trail - good results but it always feels like walking on broken glass til done.:(
 
Last edited:
Koduby: That was another good thought - I have cleared CMOS 2x times but haven't reflashed yet.
With the Memory issue I am a little leery - but it may need to happen - I just hope the lights will stay on. I'll keep it updated here - Thanks for all the input, OCP rocks!
 
Well today I've updated BIOS to latest rev. 2101 from 0402 - No help there.
Now boots with or without CDROMS installed with an error message like "No Hard disks Found".

If CDROMS (of any type) are installed Error Message "No ATAPI Devices found".
I've tried three different CDROMS all with the same effect - seems illogical all 3 would fail at the same time on the same PC but...

New Cables as stated earlier have no effect.
Really hate to RMA this but it may be all I've got.

BTW Memory began working in the original slot again last night - go figure.:confused:

Any fresh Ideas?? Thanks again.
 
All those inconsistent issues of working/not working/now working... not worth it, just RMA. Take note of the serial # and make sure they don't return the same board to you.
 
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