Bios does not see IDE devices on boot up

After a long shut down the Bios does not recognize the IDE HD or CD drive.
After the BIOS screen finishes, the F2 setup message appears. If I allow the computer to keep running for 5 minutes and then restart the computer, the BIOS recognizes the IDE drives and boots up normally to Windows XP. If the F2 key is used during the first boot, the setup shows no hard drive or CD drive installed. When the F2 key is used during the second boot (5 minutes later) the drives are recognized. Could the battery cause this problem?
Dell Dimenson 8100
Pentium 4 1.3 GHZ
2 GB RDRAM Samsung
80 GB WD HDD

 

Hi, Welcome to MajorGeeks!

Yes. If you are getting a message about Hit F1 to continue or F2 to enter Setup then when hitting either you get a message about "detecting IDE drives" then it is probably the battery. The battery allows the PC to save the information about the detected drives during periods that the computer is shutdown.

You can test by leaving power to the computer when it is turned off (shutting off the computer but leaving the computer plugged in and any power-strip or light-switch turned on so that it gets residual power). If it starts up without the F1/F2 message then it is the battery that needs replacing.

Batteries are available at any large supermarket, drugstore or Radio Shack. Most likely CR2032 type at about $5.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Sometimes the F2 message comes on after the BIOS screen and sometimes it does not. There are no other messages. In either case the computer BIOS boots up normally to Win XP after leaving it powered up for about 5 minutes. Question: When I remove and replace the battery will it affect the BIOS?

 

Replacing the battery should reset BIOS to defaults but they are probably already there if the battery is not working properly. On an older machine like that they have probably always been at defaults. On some Dells a BIOS reset has it looking for a floppy drive but if that happens we just have to turn that option from Auto to Off which is not a big deal.

I did have one other thought that if the CD and HD are on the same data cable then it is possible the data cable is faulty. It would be unusual for both devices to be on the same cable but you could take a look when you replace the battery.

 

11/29/12:
I replaced the battery and the boot problem remained the same. It does not make any difference if I cold boot to the CD or the HDD. The computer must run for about 5 minutes before it will boot to Win XP. The fan is noisy during cold boot and becomes quiet after 4 or 5 minutes. After it quiets down the computer boots normally. However, I took the fan out and held it in my hand during cold boot and the problem still occurred (thinking vibration was a problem). Sometimes a white bar flashes at the bottom of the screen just before Win XP come up (not always). Any ideas on this one? I recently installed Logitech software and keyboard but this problem had been going on before the keyboard change.

 

When you replaced the battery did you have to set the date & time? If not take out the AC power and take out the battery for a few minuets, let the CMOS flush and put the battery back in, go into CMOS set-up and set date time etc.

If this makes no difference you could try a BIOS re-flash/update, unfortunately if the BIOS chip is going bad a re-flash could end you up with a dead motherboard.

 

Thank you Voodoo3rd. I will try the power down routine and see what happens. I have to wait until I have a long shut down or I won't know if it worked. Why would the warm up period make the computer boot up properly? Will reply again after test.

 

Hello Voodoo3rd. I unplugged the power and took out the battery. I then put the battery back in and plugged in the power. I turned on the computer from the power button and a message came up that the IDE devices could not be detected. Go to setup and set the confirguration to AUTO DETECT. I went to the setup (F2) and could not see anyway to change to auto detect IDE devices. So, I re-booted the computer and a message came up about Auto Detecting the IDE devices. The Bios then booted up to Win XP. However, the computer had been runing for a while. I will have to wait for a long shut-down to see if anything has changed. I will post quick reply after a long shut down.

 

Voodoo3rd 12/4/12: Next day boot after removing power and battery for a couple miniutes and then reinstalling the batter and power. First boot: Dell/BIOS screen comes up and stays up longer than a normal boot. Then black screen and F1/F2 message appears. Rebooted after 1 or 2 minutes and BIOS boots normally to Windows XP. I don't understand why the BIOS cannot see the IDE drives the first time. Do you think the hard drive is not spinning up fast enough? Is the BIOS auto detecting the IDE drives on the second boot? I am anxious to here what ideas you might have about this problem. Appreciate your thoughts.

 

Sometimes when electronics needs to warm up before it will work properly can be down to a bad connection, be it a solder joint or interconnection inside a chip or other component.
When it warms up a little the expansion can recreate the electrical connection. This could be happening to the IDE controller chip or various other devices.

Have you tried unplugging the IDE cable and power cable as sometimes you get a bit of tarnish on the pins and re-plugging them can scrape of any tarnish. As you said it could be the case that your hard drive motor is not spinning up fast enough to initiate, that would indicate possible motor failing, centre bearing causing to much drag or a soggy 12volt rail as the the start-up surge current on an inductive load can be quite high. Do the fans sound like they are running slow at start up and have to pick up speed more than normal or do you think the fan is noisy because it's running slow?
It could be that a capacitor in the output stage of your PSU needs to take a little voltage to reform itself before it can stiffen the supply enough for a successful drive initiation.

 

Voodoo3rd 12/5/12: Thanks for the response. Your thoughts are all logical and I will try some of your suggestions. I did replace the PSU in this computer with a used one. The time I wait until I reboot has shortened. As soon as the F1/F2 message shows up, I reboot successfully. Anyway, I won't reply back unless I find a solution. Thanks again for your help with this problem.