GA-77OT-D3L has problems with ribbon cable usage?

[TacticalSiege]

Ever since i brought this motherboard about 4 months ago, i have used SATA.  However, when i am trying to use both IDE HDD and CD/DVD drive at the same time, it often has issues detecting the HDD.  This is an issue for me as i recently lost my SATA drive so i now need to install Windows XP onto the IDE.

However, upon formatting the HDD, copying files, etc. the reboot happens but the BIOS seems to forget that the HDD is even there, i have to go into BIOS and select Save and Exit before it even realizes that it's there.  I thought that maybe it was an issue with the HDD but it works fine in my friends computer.  I'm told that it should be really easy to fix and most computer techs say it rarely happens on machines they have worked with.

I have scanned through my instruction manual but i can't seem to find anything that i may need to change.  Ever since i got this motherboard it has had this issue where it only really wants to detect the master slot on the ribbon cable.  I read on Google that this is occasionaly an issue with Gigabyte motherboards that can be resolved in the BIOS.

Has anybody else, or does anybody else know of or heard of this issue and can perhaps help me resolve it?  It's been driving me crazy since Thursday now and it's really stressing me out because i know my hardware is fine.

If anybody could help i would REALLY appreciate it.

Thank you  


~*~*~*~EDIT~*~*~*~
Can a faulty/over heating grahics card cause this?  Mine just literally kicked the bucket (hense the BIOS beeps lol) it used to heat up like crazy so maybe that had something to do with it.

[Aussie Allan]

 Video card could be related but I very much doubt it, ... as for the main issue..........

  As motherboards get better and better, they become less and less compatible with older tech......mixing IDE and SATA just give problems which we see more regularly .... time for a new hard drive me thinks

 Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I very much doubt the fact that it is down to the faulty graphics card although that obviously wasn't helping matters. These motherboards that have the ability to run both SATA and PATA connections more often tan not give trouble if they are both used at the same time. I would agree with Allan and suggest getting a new SATA drive instead of your PATA one. The performance will improve as well as the stability.

[TacticalSiege]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I very much doubt the fact that it is down to the faulty graphics card although that obviously wasn't helping matters. These motherboards that have the ability to run both SATA and PATA connections more often tan not give trouble if they are both used at the same time. I would agree with Allan and suggest getting a new SATA drive instead of your PATA one. The performance will improve as well as the stability.

So it's not really possible to use a PATA HDD with a CD rom drive to install Windows?  Damn this sucks.  Oh well i'm going to buy a 1Terabyte SATA this week or the next and probably a new GPU and PSU.  Going to costs about £200 altogether.  I guess i should get used to the fact that this is amodern motherboard and the PATA drives are slowly being phased out..

[Aussie Allan]

  you can but problems most probably....much better Idea to upgrade and you'll be wrapped at the performance boost from what your use too.

  Scan, YoYo, Aria, Ebuyer and even the BT shop all have cracker deals ATM....Above all....Have Fun!

 Aussie Allan

[TacticalSiege]

  you can but problems most probably....much better Idea to upgrade and you'll be wrapped at the performance boost from what your use too.

  Scan, YoYo, Aria, Ebuyer and even the BT shop all have cracker deals ATM....Above all....Have Fun!

 Aussie Allan

Well i can't really.. The BIOS seems to forget that it's even plugged in, it only really reckognises the master, the slave is very tempramental, wish there was a way around it, even if it was for a few days  

Btw i was aiming to get a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB GPU for it, costs about £90 brand new

[absic]

Is your HDD set as Master?

If not it should be and the DVD/CD drive should be set to slave. Check the jumper settings on the back of the drives if you're not sure of how they are set. It could be that they are both set to Master or both set to slave.

[Aussie Allan]

 Good pickup "Sir Absic"

 Lord Aussie Allan

[TacticalSiege]

Is your HDD set as Master?

If not it should be and the DVD/CD drive should be set to slave. Check the jumper settings on the back of the drives if you're not sure of how they are set. It could be that they are both set to Master or both set to slave.

Didn't think it would make a difference.. I always set the CD/DVD ROM as the master and the PATA as the slave when installing Windows...

[absic]

It can make a difference and although it is some years since I used IDE Drives I remember having it drummed into me by a PC Guru when I first got into building PC's, that the HDD should always be set as Master.

[TacticalSiege]

It can make a difference and although it is some years since I used IDE Drives I remember having it drummed into me by a PC Guru when I first got into building PC's, that the HDD should always be set as Master.

And the HDD has to be on the master IDE slot on the ribbon cable or does that matter too?

[Aussie Allan]

It can make a difference and although it is some years since I used IDE Drives I remember having it drummed into me by a PC Guru when I first got into building PC's, that the HDD should always be set as Master.

 And on the END of the ribbon...... Master that is !

 Aussie Allan

[TacticalSiege]

It can make a difference and although it is some years since I used IDE Drives I remember having it drummed into me by a PC Guru when I first got into building PC's, that the HDD should always be set as Master.

 And on the END of the ribbon...... Master that is !

 Aussie Allan

Well i did that and it's seeing the IDE as master now but now it's having a hard time detecting the DVD ROM drive 

[Aussie Allan]

 Man! .........what sort of electricity are you using ?

 Aussie Allan

 Yes ! that was a joke, ... this ones not!......do you have a spare ribbon cable, the one your using might be damaged with a broken trace/wire

 Preferably one that you haven't tied down the trailer with!

 Aussie Allan

[TacticalSiege]

Man! .........what sort of electricity are you using ?

 Aussie Allan

 Yes ! that was a joke, ... this ones not!......do you have a spare ribbon cable, the one your using might be damaged with a broken trace/wire

 Preferably one that you haven't tied down the trailer with!

 Aussie Allan

I did state that i think my power supply is at fault... I'm using a 300 PSU to power a3.01Ghz quad core CPU, 2Gig RAM, this motherboard and a GeForce 7900 GPU.  I will also say that i've noticed that when the HDD and CD/DVD ROM seem to be pretty damn hot so i am seriously thinking that it IS the PSU.  When i install Windows (i just re-tried it...) i get the

Loading operating system.
Boot from CD
Press any key to boot from CD.....

Sticks at that screen.  Could a faulty PSU really cause this?  I'm just going to have to buy a new one and a new SATA i guess