Detecting IDE device... intermittent

[status1]

Hello,
I read a post here about a problem "detecting IDE device" but in my case it's intermittent or I should say was intermittent.
I think I fixed it but I am not sure why

I upgraded the motherboard recently with an Abit sg-80 and I set it up so that
it auto detects the hard drive but for some reason when it gets to Detecting IDE devices it just hangs there, The only way I could go past it is to do a cold boot If I just use the reset switch or do a ctrl-alt-delete it would always hang there looking for the hard drive So I have to hold the power switch for 4 seconds then restart with the power switch and everything works.
Now it started doing it even when I first turn it on

So I decided to mess around with the settings in bios just to see if I can narrow down the problem.
After setting the hard drive to not installed it went past that message so I figured it has something to do with the hard drive since it did not stop trying to detect the DVD
Then I noticed on the hard drive mode there are other settings available
These settings are CHS. LBA, Large and Auto.
Originally it was set to Auto but after changing it to LBA it was working so I left it like that.
My question is what are the other settings for ?

From what I remember the LBA is for larger than 2gb which this hard drive is
but what are the other modes used for and why doesn't the auto work
if I do a warm boot ?

[Whyzman]

How did you have the Harddrive jumpered? (Master, Slave, Cable Select)

[Paul Komski]

My question is what are the other settings for ?
See: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/modesECHS-c.html
CHS has two modes; simple, with 504MB limit and extended (EHCS or Lage) mode, with 8gig limit. ECHS or large mode is important to understand, but in practice is not that frequently used. Instead, LBA mode is more popular; it is similar in concept but does the translation differently (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/modesCaveats-c.html).

Some BIOS when set to auto will redetect the parameters at each boot; others having stored the valuse in the CMOS will switch the mode to LBA, when that is appropriate. You seem to have done this manually and now the parameters are not being re-read at each reboot.

Sometimes with auto-detection the boot process just proceeds too fast and in some BIOS there is a way of slowing down this detection and allowing for the correct redetection each time. This sounds like what was happening in your case - particularly with the intermittent nature described.

[status1]

Hello,
Thanks for the explanation and the link
There is a lot of information there.

I think you are right about the speed since the new motherboard is faster than the old one
Any idea on how to slow down the detection time ?
I don't remeber seeing any settings for that but maybe it's called something else

Does changing the frequency has any effect on the detection time ?

To Whyzman I have the hard drive on one cable set to master and the dvd on
a separate cable and it's also set for master
I don't have any other IDE drives on these cables

[Whyzman]

There is also a priority for the IDEs... You have the harddrive on the Primary as master and the DVD on the Secondary as Master? Some motherboards have them marked...some you may have to check the manual to make sure...

Some are color coded also...blue I believe is primary...

[status1]

Hello,
Yes I have the hard drive on IDE 1 as master and the dvd on IDE 2 as master
although the manual doesn't mention a priority

[mjc]

Any idea on how to slow down the detection time ?
I don't remeber seeing any settings for that but maybe it's called something else

By disabling any 'quick boot'/'quick POST' features...

One of the things that happens on a cold boot is that it forces the BIOS to do a longer memory check/POST procedure...regardless of the 'quick' settings (yes it still isn't a 'full' check when set to quick, but it is longer than a 'warm' boot check). This gives hard drives a few extra fractions to whole seconds to come up to speed...which usually resolves this type of issue (along with the 'hard' coding of the drive parameters).

[status1]

Hello,
I thought about that and I believe I tried it once but it did not work.
It's just does a memory check as far as I can tell from the screen so I figured it has no effect on the hard drive.
It started doing it even on cold boot a few times so even if that helped it would not be a good permanent solution

Switching the mode from auto to lba seem to have worked so far
I haven't had the problem since I made the switch