This has been going on for a few months..


I went to clean my alienware, and cleaned it all out, replugged everything back right, and go to boot, and it posts to the HD's, and stops, and doesn't detect them, and says FAILURE ON HARDDRIVE... bla bla. It's NOT the HD's. I checked.

Anyway, I leave the PC on, so when I wake up, come in, it's rebooted somehow, and I got the failure again. I reboot a few times, smacked the case a few times (hehe) and it boot fine--right before it boot fine, it tried to--but detected only 1 hd and the cdrom VERY slowly then failed on that 1 hd that is my boot hd.

Is this the IDE controller dying on the MB? It sure feels like it. I'm not worried, as I can get a replacement, they are old now, and cheap.

Any ideas? Remember, the HD's were tested on another machine for errors, and nada.

Strange problem. Something similar happened to me, only it was the HD.

Perhaps you zapped the MB by not grounding on accident?

In any case, that's what you get for actually taking care of your hardware ;)

Can you try it in the Alienware PC without the IDE controller?

Hey now, banging is a last resort--and usually works! [img]smile.gif[/img] I take VERY good care of the machines--nasty dust clogs them every few months, so I clean them really well, and clean the fans and stuff.. Use a dry new paintbrush to clean the mb's--it's the best way besides compressed air.

Choc always wants the compressed air to get shot at him.. he runs away, then runs back real fast, like "hahah, try and get me" lol

Lol, I see why your PC isn't getting much of that canned air [img]tongue.gif[/img]
I think it may be the IDE controller, because the HDDs are fine as you say, and if the power supply were defect you'd hear a really unpleasant series of peeps(depending on if there is just one power line out, or a batch or the whole thing) so that rules that out. If you can get a replacement, go get it. Is the AW still unter warranty, or is the Mobo dirt cheap?

Yeah, I have had this happen a few times, check your IDE cables, either use them in another machine, or try someone else's in yours ;)

I'm assuming you've made sure that the cables were connected securely... on both ends, that is. I've had problems before where the MB side of the cable popped loose on me without much indication.

If you've tested the hard drives on something else and they passed, then it's down to the IDE controller, which may mean a new MB. Or an add-in card, but I'm not so sure I like those... feels like it would be slower to access.

Perhaps you can take the MB to a local computer shop to get it tested? I've done that before... and the MB turned out to be under warranty, too [img]smile.gif[/img] Unfortunately, I didn't want to wait for it to get sent out and come back, so I ended up with a second one...

BTW guys, I found the issue--it was a TINY small cut in the EIDE ribbon. I mean, I usually check them in front of a light bulb for internal cuts, but I missed it the first time. WOW! Lucky I have like 10,000 extra ribbons, eh?

Thanks! [img]smile.gif[/img]

LOL, all those spare parts pay off once in a while, don't they? :D We've got ribbons/connectors and bric a brac in boxes in the basement from every upgrade my husband has done on our machines and at least twice now, we've been glad we saved things like that.

For the want of a nail, the kingdom was lost... glad to hear it was discoverable and cheap to fix [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've also got boxes of spare parts in the basement. Heck, two years ago I built both of my kids computers out of spare parts :D

Man, I'm a pack rat ;)