Need Help, hdd/motherboard issue

[jza734]

Here's the problem:

The motherboard is a Aopen (I know) AX6BC Slot 1 Motherboard. The hard drive is a IBM DTLA-307015 15GB Hdd.

The motherboard was getting a checksum error on boot. I saw that the jumper for clearing the cmos wasn't even on either setting, it was missing. I replaced it on the "normal setting" pins 1-2. After that i got rid of the checksum error.

That isn't the real problem, however:
I can run autodetect hdd option, and the hard drive will come up as 15gb's, in lba mode. I can let it autodetect upon boot to see 15gb.

As soon as the machine actually boots, the bios status screen shows the hdd as a UDMA 2, 528mb hard drive. If you run fdisk, it shows the hard drive as 504mb, with a 14gb partition.

I've changed ide cables, updated the motherboard bios, tried putting the hdd on the seconday chain. I also changed the cmos battery as well. No luck. I also tried a new wd20gb drive, which was seen as the correct size, in bios and in fdisk.

The hard drive makes some weird noises when the machine is first powered on, and i have not tried it in a newer/other machine to try and duplicate the erroneous hard drive size seen in fdisk/dos/win9-whatever.

Originally this machine came in for trouble with the internet. It would lock up immediately after launching outlook express 6.0, or surfing the net for a few minutes.

I am somewhat confused as to why this is happening, anyone got a good idea about the hdd issue? I can't even tell if the windows problems and the hard drive problems are intertwined.

[The Rifleman]

Chances are the problems are not related. Get a diagnostic tool from the manufacturers website and test the drive. Then I would try an overlay partition if it checks out ok. It is also best to use the most current BIOS available for the MoBo.

[imaeditedbysowulo]

Try it out in another computer. If it sees it as 504Mb replace the drive.

You might want to check for viruses too.

[parenormal]

u said the hdd was making strange noises which is usually bad and means the drive could be going out. as for the size and partition in fdisk, if u can i would recomend wipeing all partitions and starting fresh with the whole drive in on partition or how ever u prefer.

[Todo]

I agree with the consensus here. go here for a diagnostic utility from <a href="http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm" target="_blank">ibm</a> .. run the diagnostic utility. If the drive checks out okay, then the next thing I would do is run a virus check. Its possible a virus could be causing the problems. Good luck!

[FatalException0E]

Not sure about the noises, but if the customer can stand to loose what's on there, delete the partions and run fdisk /mbr. After that, reboot and set the BIOS correctly for the drive. I've seen this a few times, actually. It could always be a bad drive, though, especially if its making weird noises......could be this particular line just sounds kinda weird, anyway?

[MaddMaxx]

You answered your own question. A new WD20 was
seen correctly and operated correctly. You have
a bad IBM (aren't most of them) drive. Toss it and
put in a new one. No computer part under a hundred
bucks is worth agonizing over.

[jza734]

Thanks for all of the help guys.
I forgot to mention i had already tested this 15gb ibm drive out on the affected machine, plus on another machine as well.
The drive tests out just fine, is seen as what it is.

I guess it must be a fluke?