Failure of LED to show HDD activity

[Guest]

A few weeks ago I posted a question here about the failure of the LED on the
front of the computer case to show HDD activity. Several replies were
helpful, but none pinpointed the cause. Then, another and more serious
problem arose which revealed a fault in the slave connector of the IDE cable.
When I replaced the IDE cable to solve that problem, the LED began
functioning again. Conclusion = the fault in the IDE cable was the cause of
the non-functioning of the LED. Perhaps that solution could be suggested to
anyone else who encounters the same problem.

 

[Og]

A few weeks ago I posted a question here about the failure of the LED on
the
front of the computer case to show HDD activity. Several replies were
helpful, but none pinpointed the cause. Then, another and more serious
problem arose which revealed a fault in the slave connector of the IDE
cable.
When I replaced the IDE cable to solve that problem, the LED began
functioning again. Conclusion = the fault in the IDE cable was the cause
of
the non-functioning of the LED. Perhaps that solution could be suggested
to
anyone else who encounters the same problem.

If a failed IDE cable prevents data from moving to/from a Hard Drive, there
will be no "disk activity" for an LED to indicate.
The quality of trouble-shooting tips provided in these newsgroups, in other
words, can not exceed the quality of the information provided by the person
with the problem. If you send folks on a wild-goose chase, it is not their
fault that they chased a wild goose.
Steve

 

[Guest]

I'm sorry if the way I wrote this post implied I was dissatisfied with the
responses I got on the original problem. I was not and did not intend to
convey the idea I was. I only wanted to pass on the solution with the hope it
might be of help to someone else.

For the record, data was not prevented from being sent to and from the HDD.
Even though there was no slave drive connected, the HDD that was connected as
Master/Single, and recognized as such in BIOS, worked perfectly but the LED
did not show the activity. The problem was ultimately discovered when, with a
slave connected, the computer would not boot or even enter BIOS. Then, with
only the slave connected, it entered BIOS but no slave was recognized,
indicating a fault with the slave connector. The new IDE cable resolved the
whole issue.

 

[Richard Urban]

Thanks for getting back to us on this subject. It is now another piece of
information for the trouble shooting arsenal.


--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

You are welcome, Richard. Usually I need help, but am glad to help when I can.

 

[Jonny]

There is no "slave connector" on an ide ribbon cable, when the slave is
attached without a master. All lone hard drives go on the end of the cable,
whether jumpered master or slave.

You obviously have a Western Digital for a master as the other mfrs have no
facility of "single" or "alone". Not changing this jumper to master w/slave
will result in similar bios inability recognize. Adding a Maxtor as slave
with a Western Digital present may have similar results even if jumpered
correctly. Vice versa is also true. Have seen some very rare reports with
Seagates and WDs doing same.

Am not challenging your results. Just trying to help other readers to not
assume.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Jonny, for the input. On the basis of your comment, I connected the
end connector on the IDE cable to the slave (which is a WD properly
jumpered). Results = BIOS did not recognize it. If it is normal that a
properly jumpered slave would not be detected by BIOS whether using the end
or middle connector on the IDE cable, then I obviously discovered I had a
faulty IDE cable using an ignorant assumption.

I understand the solution to my problem will not necessarily be the solution
for someone else with a similar problem. However, it would be a good idea to
make it one of the first, if not the very first, things to look at. It sure
would have saved me a lot of hours of investigative trial and error.

My other HDD (the Master) is a Seagate. So your comment about combining a
Seagate with a WD is duly noted.