Sempron 2800+: Can't detect HDD while installing Win XP

[Samik Raychaudhuri]

Hello,
I assembled my system yesterday w/ the following specs:

Sempron 2800+
ECS K7VTA3 MB (BIOS V6.0B-A 07/07/2004)
512MB PC3200 DDR
WD 120G HDD
CD-RW
FDD

I have put the HDD on IDE1 Master (the blue one) and CD-RW on IDE2 Master (no Cable Select used in either case). FSB set to 166MHz.
When I power up the system, the bios detects the Sempron 2800+, HDD (Primary master) and CD-RW (Secondary master) correctly. After POST, it takes a long time (2/3 mins) to bring the screen 'Verifying DMI pool data' etc., I should have thought this will be fast. The table that briefly appears have this line: "Primary Master: LBA, ATA100, 120GB".
Then when I put Win XP Home CD for installing the OS, it takes around 2 mins to give the msg 'Setup is detecting hardware ...'. After around 5/7 mins, it starts the Win setup, asks me to press 'Enter' to continue, and then the next screen says: 'Setup didn't find any hard disk drive installed in your computer'.

Can anyone point to what I might be missing or doing wrong?
Thanks very much.

 

[Dave C.]

Hello,
I assembled my system yesterday w/ the following specs:

Sempron 2800+
ECS K7VTA3 MB (BIOS V6.0B-A 07/07/2004)
512MB PC3200 DDR
WD 120G HDD
CD-RW
FDD

I have put the HDD on IDE1 Master (the blue one) and CD-RW on IDE2 Master
(no Cable Select used in either case). FSB set to 166MHz.
When I power up the system, the bios detects the Sempron 2800+, HDD
(Primary master) and CD-RW (Secondary master) correctly. After POST, it
takes a long time (2/3 mins) to bring the screen 'Verifying DMI pool data'
etc., I should have thought this will be fast. The table that briefly
appears have this line: "Primary Master: LBA, ATA100, 120GB".
Then when I put Win XP Home CD for installing the OS, it takes around 2
mins to give the msg 'Setup is detecting hardware ...'. After around 5/7
mins, it starts the Win setup, asks me to press 'Enter' to continue, and
then the next screen says: 'Setup didn't find any hard disk drive
installed in your computer'.

Can anyone point to what I might be missing or doing wrong?
Thanks very much.

Double-check your jumper settings. Some hard drives have master (no slave)
and master (with slave) jumper settings. I believe WD uses this
etup. -Dave

 

[Samik Raychaudhuri]

Double-check your jumper settings. Some hard drives have master (no slave)
and master (with slave) jumper settings. I believe WD uses this
etup. -Dave

Thanks I will check that out.

 

[Michael Hawes]

Thanks I will check that out.

Most 80 conductor cables ARE Cable select. WD drive should be on CS,
which is asfactory default. Is CPU fan running? Does BIOS detect CPU
correctly? Try booting with DOS/Win98 startup diskette and run FDISK to see
if drive detected. Delay at startup sounds like dodgy hard drive/cable. Try
using other cable, as CDROM drive is working.
Mike.

 

[Samik Raychaudhuri]

Most 80 conductor cables ARE Cable select. WD drive should be on CS,
which is asfactory default. Is CPU fan running? Does BIOS detect CPU
correctly? Try booting with DOS/Win98 startup diskette and run FDISK to see
if drive detected. Delay at startup sounds like dodgy hard drive/cable. Try
using other cable, as CDROM drive is working.
Mike.

I was thinking that CS requires special cables (which has master in the middle and slave at the end etc. I am not sure about this.), so I set up the HDD as primary master rather than CS.
Can someone comment if CS requires special cables?
CPU fan is running, and BIOS detects CPU correctly (sempron 2800). I will also try booting w/ DOS diskette.
Thanks a lot.
-Samik

 

[Samik Raychaudhuri]

Problem solved.
Three things:
1. Jumper setting on HDD. My oversight ... the manual mentions that there won't be any jumper if this is the single drive w/ the cable. Thanks Dave for mentioning this.
2. The power connector to the HDD was opposite ... donno if it effects !!
3. Some connectors (esp. the CD one) were a bit loose.

Now the CD drive access is v. fast as expected.
Thanks v. much for all the replys.
Good day/night.
-Samik

 

[David Maynard]

I was thinking that CS requires special cables (which has master in the
middle and slave at the end etc. I am not sure about this.), so I set up
the HDD as primary master rather than CS.

With the WD the only drive on IDE1 it should be strapped as Master with no
slave present: I.E. single drive.

Can someone comment if CS requires special cables?

80 conductor cables should support CS.