Primary slave not detected

  • Thread starter Thread starter Helene
  • Start date Start date
Well I tried that. If I realised how long it take to move
the tempory internet files I don't think I would have bothered!
And not I will have to move them back again :O(

Anyway on my mine it goes

Detecting primary master: WD32343 (name of the drive)
Detecting primary slave: [none]
Detecting secondary master (CDRW name)
Detecting secondary slave (CDRW name)
(and then the usual stuff on the screen)

So...not finding a drive does not appear to be a problem.
Indeed when I booted with no hard drives.

Detecting primary master: [none]
Detecting primary slave: [none]
Detecting secondary master (CDRW name)
Detecting secondary slave (CDROM name)
(and then the usual stuff on the screen)

It then trys to boot from the master CD drive and asks me to
insert a boot disk etc....


Now you say you get a c:\
I am unsure how you did this, as mine would just wait for
a floppy so it seems your master drive has been detected
properly.
I *assume* you have a c:\ prompt which I think, means you
have booted up into DOS.
If this is the case it would be useful to know the content of
your autoexec.bat file and the other files which run at start-up,
as it would seem the problem may be there.
I am not a 'DOS'person' (or windows lol) so may be someone
else can help there. (config.sys? ) mayve system.ini and
win.ini too but they are bigger files.

Also I am not sure what happend with your system, does it
stop after you get the 'not detected' message?
Or does it report the cdroms as whit mine? ( I assume she has
a cdrom).

I am not sure what 'GoBack is either and what 'window' you
are in? (The BIOS set-up window?)

Anyway, is your master drive reported at boot up?
Also as mentioned, boot without any and see if it says
Primary *master* not detected
If it does then I would ignore the message about the slave.

My windows scandisk is c:\windows\scandskw.exe nowever
I assme it will only run under windows so will that be anyhelp?
Or is there a dos version? or does it do both? I don't know.

Also as has been mentioned, did it ever work and if it had, had
she made some 'improvements' recently.


half_pint said:
It might be worth trying removing (disconnecting) the existing hard
drive ( easy enough to do) and seeing if you get the same message.
Also check it if correctly connected in the first place, ie it has
power and is connected to the wide IDE cable, it sould be on the
end of the cable, by the way, not on the middle connector
(is it has one).[Probably won't make any difference though]
Also maybe the cable is damaged and some electrical paint may
be in order :OP
Actually, just for fun, and because I have nothing better to do I
am going to disconnect my slave drive, and see what it says.
This will mean moving my swapfile and tempory internet
files back on to my master drive though!!!

Also maybe the BIOS has been 'forced' to detect it, but I doubt
it and I am not one who has ever had much need to mess with the
BIOS.
Helene said:
Here is my latest update on the problem: There is no second hard drive, so,
as Philo said, the "not detected" message means nothing. So, I guess that
has nothing to do with the problem she is having. She has a Gateway
computer. It goes to GoBack and then just sits at the window where it says
to hit the spacebar to make repairs. It says still waiting... and never goes
any further. I have tried to get to the c:\ prompt to run a scandisk, but
can't figure out how to do it on a Gateway. I have gone through the manual
and don't see instructions either. Could you please help me? I'm afraid my
friend doesn't have a startup disk either, which I know is dumb (before you
mention it first...LOL).

Helene
any
help
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Onideus Mad Hatter said:
And by top posting, you look like a ditz too! ^_^

And seriously, it isn't that hard to grasp. You have two IDE channels, a primary and a secondary.
And each channel has a master and a slave. So if you have two channels, each one with a primary and
a secondary, you can have a total of FOUR IDE devices.

Now most boards nowadays are designed to autodetect shit that you have plugged in, including IDE
devices. So if it's flashing a message that says 'whatever not found', it just means that it's set
to search for it when the computer starts up and if you don't have anything there it's gonna give
you that lil message.

Now you CAN shut that auto detection off in the BIOS and it might make it boot up faster...but
really, it doesn't have anything to do with anything. In most cases it's not a "problem" nor does
it need "fixing". What can happen is if you DO have a device attached and it's not working right,
cause then it'll get hung up trying to search for it. So if you go and disable the thing in the
BIOS, yeah, it'll probably boot up into Windows, but whatever the hell IDE device you had attached
won't be there (ie a CD ROM drive, a second HD, a zip drive, whatever).

Given your apparent lack of skill and knowledge and your friends deficiency in the area, you're
probably better off just taking it into a shop and having them fix it for you. *shrugs*

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch. I'm a ditz, but not dumb (notice the bottom posting!!!). I
am a bit uneducated about many parts of the computer (and about newsgroups).
But seeing as how I've installed a motherboard and a few other things to my
computer in the past, I can learn. So what you and others have said makes
perfect sense to me, and I have checked out the BIOS and have found that
nothing is attached to the Primary Slave. Thus it apparently has nothing to
do with why my friends computer won't start up. I'm learning. I'm begging
for mercy, understanding and patience here. LOL

Helene
Click to expand...
 
Richard Alexander said:
"Helene" <[email protected]> wrote in message

There may not be a second hard drive, but it is likely that there is a
second IDE drive, at least a CD-ROM.

BTW, you never did tell us... when did this problem become noticeable
to you? Did she just buy this machine, and it did this out of the box?
Or, did someone upgrade it or reconfigure it recently? For example,
did someone add or remove a CD-ROM drive (not the disk, but the entire
drive), a CD burner, a DVD drive or a DVD burner? Did anyone open up
the case of the computer for any reason at all before this problem
became noticeable?


As you can tell, I believe it does.


Nor will it.


If this is caused by a Master/Slave conflict, you won't be able to get
to a prompt, unless Gateway has done something really wacky with the
BIOS (I can't rule that out). This is simply the behavior of the
parallel IDE system. When we all go to serial IDE (SATA), this won't
happen anymore, because SATA does not use jumpers.


Below is an instruction guide for setting the jumpers on a hard drive.
The same idea works on optical drives, such as CD-ROM and DVD drives.
Note, again, that each manufacturer has their own jumper settings, so
don't just imitate the positions of the jumpers in the pictures.
Follow the diagrams on all your drives.

http://www.harddriveupgrade.com/jumper_pins.shtml

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/refjumper_settings.html
Click to expand...

Thanks again for trying to help me. This computer is probably 4 years old.
No changes have been made at all. It simple stopped working. The cd-rom is
set for another channel other than Primary Slave.

Helene
 
Onideus Mad Hatter said:
...how do you figure that running scandisk is going to do...well, anything at all? o_O

No offense or anything, but you haven't even ISOLATED the problem yet...so what exactly is it that
you're trying to "fix" by running scandisk?

You keep shorting us out on the relevant info too. I mean, was this machine EVER working? And if
so, what did your friend do to **** it up? I mean they musta done
Click to expand...
something. I doubt that it just
suddenly decided to stop working for no apparent reason at all. Did she try installing some piece
of software? Was she deleting things she wasn't supposed to? Did she try putting in some new piece
of hardware? Until you answer all those basic questions, there's no point in trying to "fix"
anything. You need to isolate what the PROBLEM is first.

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net
Click to expand...

No, she didn't try to fix anything. She wasn't deleting files. We have
wondered about a virus, but don't know that for sure. The reason I was going
to run a scandisk is because I once had a computer that wouldn't start up
and after running a scandisk which found and repaired an error the computer
started up and worked fine. I was just going with a past success, and
grasping at straws. I figured it couldn't hurt if it didn't work.

Helene
Click to expand...
 
half_pint said:
Well I tried that. If I realised how long it take to move
the tempory internet files I don't think I would have bothered!
And not I will have to move them back again :O(

Anyway on my mine it goes

Detecting primary master: WD32343 (name of the drive)
Detecting primary slave: [none]
Detecting secondary master (CDRW name)
Detecting secondary slave (CDRW name)
(and then the usual stuff on the screen)

So...not finding a drive does not appear to be a problem.
Indeed when I booted with no hard drives.

Detecting primary master: [none]
Detecting primary slave: [none]
Detecting secondary master (CDRW name)
Detecting secondary slave (CDROM name)
(and then the usual stuff on the screen)

It then trys to boot from the master CD drive and asks me to
insert a boot disk etc....


Now you say you get a c:\
I am unsure how you did this, as mine would just wait for
a floppy so it seems your master drive has been detected
properly.
I *assume* you have a c:\ prompt which I think, means you
have booted up into DOS.
If this is the case it would be useful to know the content of
your autoexec.bat file and the other files which run at start-up,
as it would seem the problem may be there.
I am not a 'DOS'person' (or windows lol) so may be someone
else can help there. (config.sys? ) mayve system.ini and
win.ini too but they are bigger files.
Click to expand...

No, maybe I made a typo. I can't get to the c:\, so I can't check any files.
Also I am not sure what happend with your system, does it
stop after you get the 'not detected' message?
Or does it report the cdroms as whit mine? ( I assume she has
a cdrom).
Click to expand...

It goes through the other reports including the cdrom. But stops right after
that.
I am not sure what 'GoBack is either and what 'window' you
are in? (The BIOS set-up window?)
Click to expand...

GoBack is a program that Gateway includes which allows you to go back to
where you were before you made a change if that change creates a problem. It
is the same as a restore program or cd. So the GoBack is working and the cd
with the restore information isn't working either.
Anyway, is your master drive reported at boot up?
Also as mentioned, boot without any and see if it says
Primary *master* not detected
If it does then I would ignore the message about the slave.
Click to expand...

The master drive is reported. I haven't had a chance to boot without the
drive yet.
My windows scandisk is c:\windows\scandskw.exe nowever
I assme it will only run under windows so will that be anyhelp?
Or is there a dos version? or does it do both? I don't know.
Click to expand...

My computer runs scandisk just by typing scandisk at the c:\, but since I
can't get to the prompt I haven't been able to run it.
Also as has been mentioned, did it ever work and if it had, had
she made some 'improvements' recently.
Click to expand...

Yes, has worked fine for about 3-4 years. They have made no recent changes.
Thanks for all the time you are spending on my problem.

Helene
 
I want to thank everyone for the time you've spend on my computer glitch.
And believe it or not I even appreciate the reprimands because they help me
learn more about these groups. (Although--and I'm not being at all defensive
here LOL--I did notice that the guys have not been scolded for top posting).
I will continue to check in to see if anyone comes up with something new,
but just wanted you to know I appreciate all the answers I'm getting. It may
be that my friend will have to bite the bullet for some computer service.
Thanks everyone.

Helene
 
ProfGene said:
The primary slave would be a second hdd. If she doesn't have one the
message might be an error and you could go into the bios and change the
primary slave to none if there really isn't one. If there is one any number
of things could be wrong. To get into bios is different on many computers,
but is always done on boot. Sometimes you can see the message of what to do
as the machine is booting but it verys from hitting esc, to del, to f4, or
other keys. Once you are in bios you look to see what drives are listed and
if she knows for certain that she hasn't got one and you see one you hit
page up or down to make it show none.
Click to expand...

I have gone into the bios and checked the settings. Everything looks ok
there, except that I changed the settings to none. It doesn't make any
difference in the start up, though.

I'm looking into my crystal ball and see a big computer bill in my friend's
future. LOL

Helene
 
[snip]
Thanks again for trying to help me. This computer is probably 4 years old.
No changes have been made at all. It simple stopped working.
Click to expand...

That is a bit odd. But, if the computer has been set in one place for
4 years, and it just suddenly began complaining of incorrect settings,
then something changed that you don't see. Maybe the BIOS battery is
dead? I have never seen a BIOS battery go dead, but I hear about it
happening.

Another possibility is a loose cable. If one of the data cables came
loose, or has worked itself loose, it may result in this error, too.
In my experience, most general computer problems are the result of
loose connections. Disconnecting and reseating all IDE connections may
resolve the issue.

It is also possible that one of the IDE drives is dead.

Other than that, I'm pretty much scrapping the bottom of the barrel. I
am certain that nothing that is stored on your hard drive is causing
this problem, though, so you need to worry about checking that.
 
Helene said:
I want to thank everyone for the time you've spend on my computer glitch.
And believe it or not I even appreciate the reprimands because they help me
learn more about these groups. (Although--and I'm not being at all defensive
here LOL--I did notice that the guys have not been scolded for top posting).
I will continue to check in to see if anyone comes up with something new,
but just wanted you to know I appreciate all the answers I'm getting. It may
be that my friend will have to bite the bullet for some computer service.
Click to expand...

People of all genders get violently abused for top-posting; stick
around and you'll see.

Meanwhile... I may have missed this, but have you:

... checked jumper settings?
... disconnected and reconnected all cables?
... swapped primary and secondary IDE cables (if you have both of those)?

Has your friend backed up whatever is on those disk(s)?

Louis Krupp
 
Thank you all for your help. I have found my answer. I had been searching
and searching Gateway support but apparently hadn't used quite the right
keywords. A gentleman in the alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 group knew what I
needed and where the fix was under Gateway support. I 'm sorry if I sent you
on a wild goose chase. Hope I'm welcome back if anything comes up in the
future.

Helene
 
Helene said:
Thank you all for your help. I have found my answer. I had been searching
and searching Gateway support but apparently hadn't used quite the right
keywords. A gentleman in the alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 group knew what I
needed and where the fix was under Gateway support. I 'm sorry if I sent you
on a wild goose chase. Hope I'm welcome back if anything comes up in the
future.

Helene

But what was the fix?
Click to expand...

bearman
 
There is a known problem with the older versions of GoBack. GoBack has to be
disabled. Then a patch can be downloaded. I have the url if anyone is
interested.

Helene
 
bearman said:
what
Click to expand...

Typical, a lot of people put in a great deal of effort into trying to help
her but the ignorant cow can't even be arsed to say what the solution was.
Makes me wonder why people bother!!
 
Helene said:
There is a known problem with the older versions of GoBack. GoBack has to be
disabled. Then a patch can be downloaded. I have the url if anyone is
interested.
Click to expand...

Hasn't bearman just indicated that you stupid ****?
 
Mr. half_pint (gotta wonder why that nickname?), you are so rude. Apparently
women are not welcome here (or maybe it's just me) without being insulted.
If you had read more carefully, you would have seen that I answered bearman
immediately with what I had found out and offered to post more information
if anyone was interested. NO ONE ASKED!!! Fortunately I have found most of
the people who answered me were kind and helpful. You apparently are the one
with the problem!!

Helene
 
Helene said:
Mr. half_pint (gotta wonder why that nickname?), you are so rude. Apparently
women are not welcome here (or maybe it's just me) without being insulted.
If you had read more carefully, you would have seen that I answered bearman
immediately with what I had found out and offered to post more information
if anyone was interested. NO ONE ASKED!!! Fortunately I have found most of
the people who answered me were kind and helpful. You apparently are the one
with the problem!!
Click to expand...

Yes stupid ignorant ****ers like you, however it is easy enough for me
to get rid of my problem. Your's however, appears to be very deeply
rooted.
 
Helene said:
Mr. half_pint (gotta wonder why that nickname?), you are so rude. Apparently
women are not welcome here (or maybe it's just me) without being insulted.
If you had read more carefully, you would have seen that I answered bearman
immediately with what I had found out and offered to post more information
if anyone was interested. NO ONE ASKED!!! Fortunately I have found most of
the people who answered me were kind and helpful. You apparently are the one
with the problem!!

Helene
Click to expand...


You also have the attitude of a ****ed up deranged lesbian feminist.
So that two little problems you have.
 
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