Primary IDE 80 controller not installed?

My friends PC reboots after the first XP screen, a message comes up on the start up screen saying (Primary IDE channel 80 conductor cable not installed) it will reboot each time before it gets to the logon screen. I removed the cables and tried others, cleaned and re-inserted them, I also cleaned the Ram and Dimms, all are firmly seated. The weird thing is, it will boot up fine now and again although she gets cut off the net after about 15 minutes.........the board is an MSI all in one, 266fsb. I'm thinking it could be a controller problem but would appreciate any advice.

 

Can you get into safe mode?? Could be a corrupted program that windows is trying to run at startup!!

Roger

 

It will boot to windows sometimes, the problem seems to be intermitent, when I was able to I did try safe mode. I checked for overheating and it appears to be ok, it's like a bad contact but I have replaced IDE cables and thoroughly cleaned the slots, it does occassionally do the full boot to windows but after re-starting a few times the same message appears on startup screen and problem re-occurs.

 

Sounds like the IDE sockets on the board could be faulty, although the corrupted file in windows was heading in a good direction as well...but I don't think it's even getting that far.
It could also be a BIOS problem. Have you tried flashing to a newer version? and if so, when you DO get it to boot, have you checked the driver situation for the IDE controllers? Perhaps an updated driver would do the trick
If all else fails, putting the Hard Disk onto another Mobo, and seeing if it will boot. that will resolve the issue of whether it's that, and just keep on eliminating pieces of the puzzle until you figure out what it is.


-koadmunki

 

Personally...I would start by stripping it to the BARE MINIMUM!!!! One piece of memory, the video card, the hard drive, nothing else!! Take out any add on pci cards, etc.

Then I would go into the bios and disable any of the "onboard features of the motherboard that are not needed, like onboard sound, or wi-fi, usb etc!!

Then try to reboot...if that is successful, then start putting things back in one at a time, then reenable the bios features one at a time!!

In theory...if it boots fine while stripped down, then when you reinstall a certain something, and it then won't boot...then odds are, that part or bios feature is what is causing the problem!!

Also...while it is stripped down...try one piece of memory at a time in each individual slot to possibly find a bad module!!

Ofcourse...in between EVERY SINGLE step you need to reboot, in order to rule out the last piece of hardware being the culprit!!

Every time you can get windows to boot...check out the Event Manager (in Control Panel>Device Manager) for any errors!!

Roger