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Junkyard Engineer

I have an old PIII 733 with ASUS motherboard (don't know the model)

I have 2 HD on it and suddenly, when powering up the PC this evening, both
HD have disappeared. In the setup mode, it do not find any hd (it's on
auto). This setup has worked for 3 or 4 years now so it's not a problem of
peripheral change.

How bad does it look ? Any advice before going to the PC guy ?
 
shut the PC down and have the drives only plugged in 1 at a time on the
cable...if that doesn't show any drives...try a new ATA cable.
 
"Junkyard said:
I have an old PIII 733 with ASUS motherboard (don't know the model)

I have 2 HD on it and suddenly, when powering up the PC this evening, both
HD have disappeared. In the setup mode, it do not find any hd (it's on
auto). This setup has worked for 3 or 4 years now so it's not a problem of
peripheral change.

How bad does it look ? Any advice before going to the PC guy ?
Click to expand...

Since you are able to see the BIOS screen, the power supply probably
is not dead. If the BIOS has a hardware monitor screen that shows
readings of the voltages coming from the power supply, have
a look at the values, to see if the 3.3, 5.0, and 12V are within
5% of their normal values.

Do the drives spin up ? Can you hear each drive spinning ?
Are the drive LEDs permanently lit ? Have you verified that
the power connector to each drive is fully seated ?

To add to Dino's suggestion, you could also try moving the
IDE cable to the other IDE connector on the motherboard.
Usually there is a Primary and Secondary connector, and
either one should be able to talk to your two drives on
that cable.

Paul
 
Since you are able to see the BIOS screen, the power supply probably
is not dead. If the BIOS has a hardware monitor screen that shows
readings of the voltages coming from the power supply, have
a look at the values, to see if the 3.3, 5.0, and 12V are within
5% of their normal values.

Do the drives spin up ? Can you hear each drive spinning ?
Are the drive LEDs permanently lit ? Have you verified that
the power connector to each drive is fully seated ?

To add to Dino's suggestion, you could also try moving the
IDE cable to the other IDE connector on the motherboard.
Usually there is a Primary and Secondary connector, and
either one should be able to talk to your two drives on
that cable.

Paul
Click to expand...

And as an added thought on a machine that old, put a new battery in
it. It couldn't hurt, and might save you another trip under the covers
in a few months.

Bill
 
That was it. The backup data HD is fried. No big loss fortunately.

My wife told me that there was a power outage last night. The computer is
always on (that HD serves as a backup for the network).

At least I don't have to change de board...

thanks all for your input !
 
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