Computer can't recognise more than 4 IDE devices.

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February 26th, 2004, 10:26 AM
Redvers

Computer can't recognise more than 4 IDE devices.

Have installed XP onto a new hard drive on my system.
Specs as follows -
Medion Athlon 1600+ 256Mb
Primary HD Seagate 80Gb 7200rpm
Slave HD Seagate 80Gb 5400rpm (partitioned into 40Gb split)
DVD Rom
CD RW
Floppy

Couldn't connect to Internet because pc tells me BIOS does not support network card. Before I reinstalled XP I had never had this issue before. Downloaded latest BIOS onto a floppy via other pc. Put disk into Medion to discover that Floppy is not being recognised. Subsequently discovered that DVD Rom is not being recognised either. Now i discover that my pc will not recognise more than four IDE devises.
Is there a way around this?
February 26th, 2004, 11:34 AM
Ya_know

Oh boy... :eek2:

You know that the floppy isn't an IDE device...right?

Ok, starting from scratch...Have you double-checked the sequence of connected devices on both of your IDE channels? You should only have two per channel. Additionally, only one can be master, and one must be slave. If you are using cable select as an option, I advise against that, considering the issues you are describing. Manually assigning one as master and one as slave on each channel is the way to go. Then, check during the startup, to ensure that these devices are being seen by the system, forget what windows tells you right now...can you see all 4 drives (remember floppy isn't IDE) in the CMOS (BIOS).

Then, What motherboard...and how did it tell you could no longer use the network card?
February 26th, 2004, 01:59 PM
Redvers

Finally got all drives working. Just had to plug all the cables into the right places.
Still no floppy drive though. It is a Toshiba and is being detected by the pc. The error message is Code 10 and cannot start.
February 28th, 2004, 10:43 AM
BIGGS

that usually means that you got your floppy cable put on backwards ie the redstrip down the cable (pin 1) is on the wrong pin, just shut the computer off and unplug it, turn it 180 degreese and plug it back in and turn on the computer.
February 28th, 2004, 11:11 AM
Matridom

Quote:

Originally Posted by BIGGS

that usually means that you got your floppy cable put on backwards ie the redstrip down the cable (pin 1) is on the wrong pin, just shut the computer off and unplug it, turn it 180 degreese and plug it back in and turn on the computer.

you can also verify a floppy cable plugged in backwards, the light on the drive will be constantly on.
February 28th, 2004, 11:39 AM
Grandpapa

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redvers

Have installed XP onto a new hard drive on my system.
Specs as follows -
Medion Athlon 1600+ 256Mb
Primary HD Seagate 80Gb 7200rpm
Slave HD Seagate 80Gb 5400rpm (partitioned into 40Gb split)
DVD Rom
CD RW
Floppy

Couldn't connect to Internet because pc tells me BIOS does not support network card. Before I reinstalled XP I had never had this issue before. Downloaded latest BIOS onto a floppy via other pc. Put disk into Medion to discover that Floppy is not being recognised. Subsequently discovered that DVD Rom is not being recognised either. Now i discover that my pc will not recognise more than four IDE devises.
Is there a way around this?

It is possible to use more IDE devices I'm running 7drives 4 masters 3 slaves
using PCI ATA 133

Love exploding things in the laboratory :grin:
February 28th, 2004, 09:52 PM
Straight_Shooter

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grandpapa

It is possible to use more IDE devices I'm running 7drives 4 masters 3 slaves
using PCI ATA 133

Love exploding things in the laboratory :grin:

Yeah it's possible, but WHY???....pappy????? ;)
February 29th, 2004, 05:35 AM
confus-ed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Straight_Shooter

Yeah it's possible, but WHY???....pappy????? ;)

'cos he has 7 drives & loads of stuff !!?? :p

All IDE controllers can only generally handle four IDE devices, they are 'almost all' dual channel controllers & ide channels have two devices - ergo 4 IDE devices per controller :)

If you want to access more concurrently you use an additional contoller ;)

We do however seem to making 'very hard work' of this question !

I pressume that this was a working beast with '9x' on it ... then we 'upgraded' to xp & now its 'broke' ? & we never touched anything inside ???

(& yeah there is only 4 IDE 'type' devices mentioned)

Stuff that worked 'good' with 9x needent work the same with xp - xp requires acpi compliance & pci sharing 2.1 to work 'correctly' - check the xp HCL (hardware compatability list - I seem to say that a lot lately ...)