Secondary IDE drive disables Primary IDE detection

[PaolaN]

First, I've never seen anything like this before. Second, I did not build the PC. I was asked by a co-worker's brother to fix it.

Motherboard: SuperMicro P4DME-M
CPU: Dual Intel Xeon Processors (2.4GHz)
Chipset: Intel E7500

I've already updated the Intel Chipset.

Primary Master: 120GB HDD
Primary Slave: 80GB HDD
Secondary Master: DVD-ROM
Secondary Slave: DVD-RW

If only the drives on the Primary Master and Slave are installed, the PC boots fine. If any combination of the DVD drives on the Secondary Master and Slave are installed, the BIOS reports [None] for the drives on the primary IDE controller and I get an "Operating system not found" message.

Any ideas?

[ShadowWynd]

Some motherboard BIOSes have an option like "IDE delay" or "HDD Delay" or something similar. Sometimes the drives need an extra few seconds to wake up and smell the coffee - especially on some of the blazing fast PCs out there.

Have you tried changing the cables? They can be a problem.

Does the second channel work OK if nothing is on the first channel? If there is nothing on the first channel, can you boot off the second?

You said "any combination". Have you tried running a drive solo? Have you checked jumper settings? Are they set Master/Slave/CS as they ought to be?

Have you tried pulling the CMOS battery and letting it sit a while, then reinserting it? Sometimes it is a glitchy CMOS setting (sometimes not one that you can see).

Is there a BIOS Flash update available? I have seen this be an issue before.

Do the DVD drives work slaved off a hard drive? Sometimes they just don't like each other and fail.

Also a possibility that the motherboard is bad.

[PaolaN]

Thanks much for the reply.

It's always the little things that get ya. I assumed the guy hadn't removed/re-installed any of the cables connected to the motherboard. When I looked, I saw that the cable was inserted backwards.

Have you tried changing the cables? They can be a problem.

[confus-ed]

. Second, I did not build the PC. Dual Intel Xeon Processors Primary Master: 120GB HDD.. Primary Slave: 80GB HDD

I take it this is fixed, reversed IDE cable ?

BUT I'm not surprised you felt at pain to observe you didn't originally make this machine - what kind of nutcase fits twin xeons & then couples it with ide ?