Computer freezes when detecting IDE drives and goes black before booting up

My computer goes to a black screen for about 2-3 minutes after Windows loads, instead of going straight to the windows logon screen. This just started happening all of sudden. I didn't install anything software or hardware wise, and did no big changes to my computer. About a couple weeks after it started doing this, my computer would get to the "Detecting IDE devices" part of the BIOS at bootup and freeze. It would be stuck at the screen. I have to turn off power completely to my computer and turn it back on in order to get it to finally detect. However, i do have to restart it like 4 or 5 times before this works. I don't believe the harddrives are the problem because they sound normal, and havent been touched. I dont think its the pins on my mobo either because it hasnt been touched so they should be fine. Thank you for anyone who helps with information on what the problem is and/or how i can fix it.

 

sound has little to do with it but isn't exluded is diagnosis..
Have you tried new cables?

 

What kind of hard drives are they (make, model) and what are there jumper settings?

 

I have 2 80GB Maxtor harddrives. One set as master, the other slave. And yes i just tried switching out the cables and the problem still occurs.

 

this is shareware. but it may offer you some information about the drive status.. worth a shot
ActiveSmart
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download246.html

 

Have you tried the drives individually?

Try putting them on the Secondary IDE bus (as a test), remove the CD temp.

Other thing to do is if Maxtor has a software diagnostic (DOS) try running it on both drives.

 

alright thank you, i'll try that