I have an old packard bell. I'm trying to replace the hard drive. I have replaced a 2 GB disk drive with a Maxtor 20 GB drive. I did this because the computer couldn't read the drive. After replacing the drive the computer still couldn't read the drive. I installed an ATA 100 adapter card and the computer doesn't show or do anything except power up. What can I do?

Welcome Tony... The original Hard Drive wasn't being recognized leads to a bad ribbon cable or a Hard Drive controller on the Mboard that has malfunctioned. Providing the controller hasn't been removed in Device Manager or funky changes made in CMOS by someone.
So the problem carried over to what you are now trying to do. You will need a different Mboard if the controller has give up the ghost. P.B. is proprietary so that causes a problem.
Hang on, we'll see what the rest of the possee can do. Luck.

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......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
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Last time I checked PB's still had ISA or PCI slots....so if it isn't the cable there are PCI and ISA add in IDE controllers, so if the controller is bad all is not lost.

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mjc
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Also, make sure you disable the onboard IDE controllers. You may have to do this with these older systems to get the addon controlelr to work properly since they also use IRQ 14/15. This may be why your drive is not being seen. Hope this helps.

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I'm not sure what or where the PCI or ISA add in controllers, or onboard IDE controllers, or even IRQ 14/15. Would you mind describing those things and the procedures to change them? I know that the A drive works, but the computer won't even boot up with a diskette. I think all of this happened once I installed the ATA 100 adapter card, and I haven't a clue how to get it back to even the original way it worked. At least when I originally loaded the hard drive I could use the maxtor floppy disk to load the disk, but it stopped the disk diagnostic process when it said it couldn't recognize the drive. That's when I bought the adapter card. Thank you for the help.

I think I misunderstood your post...

First, can you access the BIOS (setup)?

If you can get into it then you will look for a seeting for on-board IDE controllers (or disk controllers), then there should be an option to disable it.

If you can't get into BIOS then try looking for info about your machine at this site:Ray's Packard Bell Site (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/8774/). You may be able to get into the BIOS by resetting a jumper or removing a battery and then resetting the default values. That may also restore some functionality to your other drives.

Also ATA100 may be just too much for your machine to handle, a few more system specs would be helpful here.

Post back with what you find out and we'll go from there....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

When you boot the computer up you will need to access the BIOS. Typcally, with Packard Bell's, this is done by the F1, Esc, Ctrl+Esc, or Del key sequence. During the bootup of the system it should present a short message telling you how to enter the Setup. Once in here you will need to find the Integrated Peripherals or Chipset Features setup...something along those lines. What you are looking for is the IDE controllers. Once you have located where they are for, you will need to Disable them. They are probably set to Auto. Just follow the method of moving around, which should be displayed at the bottom of the screen, to disable the Onboard IDE Controllers. It might be called "OnChip IDE First Channel" and "OnChip IDE Second Channel", "Onboard IDE", "OnChip IDE Channel 0" and "OnChip IDE Channel 1", or something close to that.

Write down where you found it for future reference. In case you have to go back and re-enable them. Once you get them disabled, make sure you exit and Save the changes. This is very important. The changes will not be saved unless you specify it. Hope this helps.

Edited to add the following:

To make things clear, the onboard IDE controllers are using IRQ's 14 and 15. The PCI card you installed is also trying to use the same IRQ's, thus no drive is being detected. Once you disable these, the add-on card should be detected and initialized just fine. You should be able to boot to the Maxtor boot disk and see the drive just fine.
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[This message has been edited by PostCode (edited 08-27-2001).]

My computer won't even let me into the bios. I get nothing. I do see the fan turning and the a drive spinning if I put in a diskette. I also see the monitor light and the computer on/off light turn on when I push the power button. I didn't mention it before, but I don't even hear the beep that I'm supposed to hear when I turn the computer on. I tried Ray's website, but I thought I would get more information on this site.

If the ATA 100 card is still in there, pull it. If it still won't boot, pull the hard drive cable(s) if still connected to the onboard controller. Reseat the video card and memory. One of the above should get it to boot, and get you into BIOS.

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Paleo Pete,
I did all of the things that you said might help, but I still got nothing. I'm not 100% sure if I put the memory chips in the right order. I mean that I don't know if the NEC chips went under the Seimens chips or vice versa. I tried to boot it with the original Packard Bell floppy disk and again with the hard drive disconnected and I couldn't get a reaction other than the fans turning. I don't know why I don't hear the beep. I hate to throw all of this away. This never happened until I installed the ATA card, but I would have a hard time proving that. What do you suggest? All other help is welcome, as well. Thank you.

I'm about to give this computer to somebody, so they can have a look at it. Before I do are there any suggestions that can help me see signs of life in my computer other than the fans and the led lights being on? That's as far as my computer will go. I'm dumbfounded. I don't know enough about the inside of computers to figure this one out. I'm sure that I will be able to use some testing equipment on the motherboard after I've taken a few hardware troubleshooting classes next semester, but until then I would really appreciate some suggestions from some more seasoned computer users. Thank you.