HD is not detected by BIOS

[XiHuCuYu]

Hi, all: I have a Toshibe 2590CDT with the latest BIOS V8.20. The original IBM 6.4G HD all the sudden was not detected by the BIOS. Thought the HD was toasted and bought a new IBM 10G HD (according to Toshiba it should work). The new HD is not detected by the BIOS either. The HD is connected to the Primary IDE (ATA/UltraDMA) with the CD-ROM on the Secondary IDE. Also replaced the HD/Battery board. Everything else is working fine. Have checked the IDE and power cable. No obvious bad connection.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. If I want to look further down on the Motherboard, where should I look first? Replacing the motherboard would cost more than what it's worth.

Thanks in advance.

[Centurion]

First welcome! - Next - the drive dropped off the map? - did you have the top open for a checkup or something? I'm looking it up - right now to see exactly what it is.

As well did the bios settings get set to anything other than auto detect - I had that happen on a customers box - somehow the kids had gotten into bios and dropped all the drives off and saved the cmos.

Next the cable - do you have a spare?

I'll be back! - C

[XiHuCuYu]

Hi, thanks for your welcome message. Sounds like you have a 2590CDT too?

No, the HD is not showing up in the BIOS table. Nothing in the BIOS has been changed. In Toshiba's BIOS, there is an item Hard Drive Mode = . When the HD shows up, Hard Drive Mode = Primary IDE. When not showing up, = Not used. I cannot change it. The Device is set to Auto-detect.

I did open it up, and got to the motherboard. I don't have a spare IDE cable. But used the one on CD-ROM (it works on CD-ROM), same result-not detected. The HD spins at start up, so I don't think it's power cable.

The problem seems intermitent; some time it's detected, most time not. So looks like a bad connection somewhere. A motherboard user manual or schematics would be helpful. But Toshiba will not provide.

If the problem is on the motherboard, it will be my summer project try to trace it down. But just want to be sure that I am not missing some obvious things.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

CY

[Centurion]

http://209.167.114.38/support/TechSupport/TSBs/ALL/-TSB000608.htm

this url is what I found - so - Is your floppy plugged in? - if so boot off a win98 boot disk and see waht you get with your drive.?

[Centurion]

double check the pins on the HD - just to make sure that none are bent - as well - go over the end and make sure all at the end look ok.

I don't have a Toshi - but have worked on one lappy alot -

You say that it just quit - ? did it get dropped?

And look at the cable ends - is there anyway to reverse the cable plug without making it look really obvious. I once had a machine dropped off - that had both the floppy and ide cables reversed - and the guy swore they were right, I missed it for about 20 minutes.

have you got your restore disk and can you autoboot it.

I'm just tossing ideas.

and don't worry if nothing works - I have been working on one for 18 months - and beat it this week. The problems it had were great!

Go over your basics - any beep codes that it is emitting?

C

[XiHuCuYu]

Originally posted by Centurion
double check the pins on the HD - just to make sure that none are bent - as well - go over the end and make sure all at the end look ok.

I don't have a Toshi - but have worked on one lappy alot -

You say that it just quit - ? did it get dropped?

Ya, it quit while I was on a trip in Europe. But wasn't dropped or anything like that.

And look at the cable ends - is there anyway to reverse the cable plug without making it look really obvious. I once had a machine dropped off - that had both the floppy and ide cables reversed - and the guy swore they were right, I missed it for about 20 minutes.

have you got your restore disk and can you autoboot it.

Yes, I tried to reboot from CD using the original Toshiba recovery CD, but it says no fixed drive found and quits the recovery.

I'm just tossing ideas.

and don't worry if nothing works - I have been working on one for 18 months - and beat it this week. The problems it had were great!

Go over your basics - any beep codes that it is emitting?

No beep sound at all.

C [/B]

CY

[Xaotic]

If the drive is not being detected, try clearing the BIOS. Remove external power, the battery and the CMOS battery. Boot and enter BIOS and restore to default settings. If this does not restore function(probably won't since you said it can be intermittent), pull the service covers and the keyboard and all of the internal connectors. As you have suspected, most likely one is loose or making sporadic contact. Check for damage to the case or misaligned parts case and planar parts as well, sometimes stress can deforn components over time and may be contributing to the situation.

Good luck and welcome.

[Foggy]

Had this happen once to an IBM HDD so I used the IBM fittness disk and let it find the drive, not quite sure what it did but after that the drive worked fine????????????? :=)

[XiHuCuYu]

Originally posted by Foggy
Had this happen once to an IBM HDD so I used the IBM fittness disk and let it find the drive, not quite sure what it did but after that the drive worked fine????????????? :=)

Where can I get the IBM Fittness disk?

Thanks.

CY

never mind, found it! Thanks anyway.

[NDC]

Hitachi's version (IBM and Hitachi have merged their storage technology divisions) (http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm)