CMOS/BIOS finds HDD s-l-o-w-l-y.?

[BobTheCat]

I'm putting together an old PC for a friend.

It's a Dell Dimension L500c mobo and case.

I updated the BIOS.

Fdisked, formatted, and transferred the System to the HDD.

Selected AUTO in BIOS for IDE 0 (it won't take the actual numbers when I
choose USER).

When I boot the PC, it POSTs up until the part where it is about to list the
drive,
then it stops for 1 FULL minute and then finally lists the HDD, CDROM and
ZIP drives.

Then it boots normally.

The HDD is on it's own cable (Primary Master channel on Mobo).
I tried 3 different cables (both 40 and 80 pins).
I tried both Master and Cable Select.

Any ideas on why it's doing this or what I can try to fix it?

Thanks!
Bob

 

[kony]

I'm putting together an old PC for a friend.

It's a Dell Dimension L500c mobo and case.

What is an L500c?
A brief description of the tech can't hurt.

I updated the BIOS.

Fdisked, formatted, and transferred the System to the HDD.

Transferred what system?

Selected AUTO in BIOS for IDE 0 (it won't take the actual numbers when I
choose USER).

Why would you have chosen user? Auto is always the first
thing to try.

When I boot the PC, it POSTs up until the part where it is about to list the
drive,
then it stops for 1 FULL minute and then finally lists the HDD, CDROM and
ZIP drives.

Then it boots normally.

The HDD is on it's own cable (Primary Master channel on Mobo).

Is it jumpered to Master?
Is it a make of drive that needs a "Single" jumper setting
when there is no slave (like a WD)?

I tried 3 different cables (both 40 and 80 pins).
I tried both Master and Cable Select.

Try unplugging all other IDE drives.
Are you certain the drive is (100%) working properly? If
all else fails, run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics.

 

[Conor]

I'm putting together an old PC for a friend.

It's a Dell Dimension L500c mobo and case.

I updated the BIOS.

Fdisked, formatted, and transferred the System to the HDD.

Selected AUTO in BIOS for IDE 0 (it won't take the actual numbers when I
choose USER).

When I boot the PC, it POSTs up until the part where it is about to list the
drive,
then it stops for 1 FULL minute and then finally lists the HDD, CDROM and
ZIP drives.

Then it boots normally.

The HDD is on it's own cable (Primary Master channel on Mobo).
I tried 3 different cables (both 40 and 80 pins).
I tried both Master and Cable Select.

Any ideas on why it's doing this or what I can try to fix it?

Its doing it because some clueless muppet set the IDE channels to Auto
in BIOS because they didn't know what they were doing so the BIOS
detects the drives EVERY time it starts.

It can be fixed by setting the PROPERLY.

 

[JAD]

clear the cmos..
'reset configuration data' from the bios....if in fact dell gives you that
option

 

[kony]

Its doing it because some clueless muppet set the IDE channels to Auto
in BIOS because they didn't know what they were doing so the BIOS
detects the drives EVERY time it starts.

It can be fixed by setting the PROPERLY.

Untrue, practically every motherboard starts out with "Auto"
as the default and unless there is some other problem, will
not take anywhere near 10 seconds, let alone 1 minute.