IDE Channel bad?

DonutDonut Maine New
edited March 2006 in Hardware
Since this isn't really an emergency, I thought I'd ask here.
Is it possible for an IDE channel to fail?
Wifes rig- Board- Biostar M7NCD (nf2 chipset)
Proc- 2400xp
ram- 1gig pc3200 (2*512)
psu- 420w Thermaltake
hd - WD 80gig. (8meg cache)
pr. cd-drives.

About a month ago the comp. started acting flaky. Ram Memtest overnight, no prob. (fyi, ran again last night no prob). Opened case to reseat cards etc. old hard drive was hot to the touch, swapped drives (to one above). All seemed well for a few weeks.

Up to present, last week the rig started acting flaky again,(flaky, mouse stuttering, freezing on basic tasks, no blue screens, just freezing) ran hd test to rule that out. MBM reports temps, voltages all normal. Called a friend of mine, he said sounded like memory or doggy cd drive. Unplugged 2 cd drives, all works. Plugged cd-burner back in all ok. A day latter, trouble reading cd,s, swap drives, good for about a half a day. (2 cd drives failing that quick?:wtf: ) Swapped psu,(working pull) same as listed above, no change.
Tried a third cd rom drive, with cable,(working pulls) no change. I forgot to mention I rolled back the drivers to Microsofts' to rule out a driver problem before I swapped psu.

Am I missing something simple? I have had a floppy channel fail. (It involved an old DEC rig, small children, spare change in the floppy drive.:rolleyes: )
The rig runs fine without any cd drive hooked up, maybe the board is going south? I don't want to order new parts right now but will if I have to.(the 805 Lemonlime pointed out looks tempting.) Any ideas?

Thanks,
Donut.

Comments

  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited March 2006
    did you try a new cable?
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2006
    Hi Donut,

    Since you ruled out most of the things I would have suspected, there is a very good chance that it is indeed the IDE channel/controller. Did you happen to try each channel individually to see if it is only one, or are both exhibiting the same problems? If you have an old IDE controller card lying around, that would be a good way to test.

    I had similar behavior from my system last year, but it turned out that my +5V rail failed and was dropping to 4.1V, causing my hard drives to choke a bit.
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited March 2006
    @ gibbonsl, yes I've tried a couple of different cables and a few different drives.

    @ lemonlime, for now it seems to be isolated to that one channel, I don't want to put a cd drive on the same channel as my hds. I don't have an IDE card lying around otherwise I'd give it a shot. I know at least 2 of the cd drives are good, because they were pulls from my folding rigs. I did think of the psu that's why I also tried another.

    Now that I'm sitting here thinking a little, I'm beginning to think my hard drive "failure" about a month ago might be related. That channel might not be acting up right now, it's just waiting,taunting etc.;D

    I guess I just wanted to check if I missed something simple. I suppose now would be a good time to start pricing an 805 rig.:vimp:

    Thanks guys
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2006
    Donut wrote:
    ... I suppose now would be a good time to start pricing an 805 rig.:vimp:

    Thanks guys

    I'm very tempted myself :D I just love cheap hardware
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited March 2006
    Loving wifes machine is starting to act up again with no cd roms attached, I thought it would hold out a little longer than this.:werr:

    I guess I'll be ordering soon instead of window shopping. like when I finish typing this.

    So far the short list is as follows,

    Intel 805, $134
    Asus p5p800se $82
    Epower psu $50+/- (28a on single 12v.rail) if I don't need it for this build, it will go into my Opty duallie.

    A shopping I will go...
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2006
    Donut wrote:
    ...

    Intel 805, $134
    Asus p5p800se $82
    Epower psu $50+/- (28a on single 12v.rail) if I don't need it for this build, it will go into my Opty duallie.

    A shopping I will go...

    Awesome! I look forward to seeing how that system turns out :)
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited March 2006
    Me too,

    Just got the confirmation from the 'egg, kinda hoping loving wife will let me have a few days to push this rig. This should be a nice upgrade for the 2400 xp. and I can reuse the ram and vid card. (can a TNT2 still be called a vid card?)

    I'm just hoping the board is dual compatible, as I don't have another Intel chip to flash the board with.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited March 2006
    I know they say it is on the Asus website and it should be new enough to at least boot with a DC proc. I know the P4P800SE I got for my brother in December was new enough to have a Dothan compatible bios in it so I didn't need to pull a P4 proc from a working rig and flash it.
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited March 2006
    Thanks muddocktor,

    I did check the Asus website, it's just good to here that people have had positive experience with Asus' bios. The only other Asus board I've tried is my PC-DL. It seemed it was a crapshoot which revision and bios you were going to get when you bought one.

    On a side note: What's up with Newegg and UPS? I ordered the board and proc on Tues. and it's not scheduled to arrive till Monday. (from CA), I ordered a BT yesterday, it's scheduled to arrive tomorrow. (from jersey). It seems 3 day shipping is only when it's convenient.
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