A7V133 / Win98SE system lost primary bus (?) - please help

[Adam]

Attempting to open a MS Word document caused my system to
crash. After which, both HDDs on the primary bus were
no longer detectable and bootup failed. But, bootup was made possible by
moving the boot HDD (ST340016A) to the secondary master.
Does this mean that my primary bus is GONE?

Here's my "original" installation:

Motherboard: Asus A7V133 (rev "1.05." with BIOS 1007 and
Promise Ultra100 IDE Controller)
OS: Windows 98 SE

HDD (PriMastr): Seagate Barracuda ATA IV - ST340016A - ATA100 - 40 GB - 7200 RPM
HDD (PriSlave): Seagate Barracuda ATA IV - ST380021A - ATA100 - 80 GB - 7200 RPM
CD-RW (2ndMastr): Lite-On 52x24x52x (LTR-52246S)
DVD-ROM (2ndSlave): Pioneer 16x DVD-116 (40x for CD-ROM)

 

[Adam]

After more testing, it turns out that the primary slave HDD (ST380021A) may have
gone bad. My system was able to boot with the following:

HDD (PriMastr): Seagate Barracuda ATA IV - ST340016A - ATA100 - 40 GB - 7200 RPM
HDD (PriSlave): NONE
CD-RW (2ndMastr): Lite-On 52x24x52x (LTR-52246S)
DVD-ROM (2ndSlave): Pioneer 16x DVD-116 (40x for CD-ROM)

 

[F.N]

Not really enough info. Could be a PSU issue, or memory, or heat...
or..or..
Just by getting a crash will not cause you to lose the ability to use
the controller, something else must have happen.

 

[Jon Wichman]

It might've corrupted your system bios which can make it do all sorts
of strange things. You might want to reset the bios with the jumper.

 

[Bill Freeman]

Have you run two good HDDs on your original system?

 

[Adam]

Sorry, didn't see this post until just now since
I've been focusing on the storage newsgroups.

Yes, I was able to remove the bad HDD and
put another HDD in its place. And, both good HDDs were
detected.

Also, a friend of mine suggested that
I configure the HDD as master rather than
use cable select. Not sure whether it'll make
a difference but it's worth a try.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/ata/st380021a.html

 

[Bill Freeman]

aok. It does sound like a bad HDD. Suggest you acquire HDD fans to
aid in cooling for new/existing HHDs. Makes a difference in any
configuration.

 

[Rod Speed]

aok. It does sound like a bad HDD. Suggest you
acquire HDD fans to aid in cooling for new/existing
HHDs. Makes a difference in any configuration.

Not any, only those without adequate airflow over the drives.

 

[Adam]

FYI ...

Manually setting the HDD as master/slave did not make a difference.
The HDD was still "not detected" in both cases.