Member Avatar for hemantrw

Dear friends !

I have a HP Compaq nx6110 Notebook PC. It comes with IDE Hard Disk. There is a problem in the PC that it is not detecting both the Hard Disk and CD-ROM. (I checked in BIOS setup and also when I want to install new XP, it states that setup did not find any hard disk.

I downloaded the troubleshooting manual for this model from HP site and found that it may be controller problem. Other things like screen, RAM, CPU are quite OK.

Now, thinking that the Hard Disk might have some problems, I replaced it with other hard disks but they are also not detected.

I want to know where is this IDE controller located. Is it the circuit somewhere on the motherboard or it is the circuit down to the hard disk itself. Because if it is the circuit on the hard disk itself, then why new hard disks that I connected for testing are not detected.

Please help me in solving this issue.

Regards

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Dani AI

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Brief recap and focused next steps. The nx6110 showing no HDD or CD-ROM in BIOS/Windows setup despite trying multiple disks (as reports) strongly suggests the problem is on the laptop side — the physical connector/adapter or the onboard ATA interface — rather than two different drives failing at once. Building on 's point about checking CMOS, these practical checks are ordered from low-effort to more intrusive.

  • Test the drives outside the notebook. Use a USB-to-IDE adapter or put the drives into a desktop/enclosure to confirm they spin, are recognized and that partitions are visible. A working drive on another computer rules the disk itself out.

  • Inspect and reseat hardware. Remove the HDD and optical bay assembly and look for bent pins, corrosion, a missing small adapter/flex cable or a damaged caddy/PCB (many laptops use a tiny adapter board between the drive and mainboard). Clean exposed contacts with high‑purity isopropyl alcohol, let dry, and reseat firmly. ESD precautions (grounding strap or touching metal) are recommended.

  • Reset BIOS/CMOS and load defaults. Power off, remove AC and main battery and (if accessible) the RTC coin cell for a few minutes or use the BIOS "Load Setup Defaults." Hold the power button 20–30 seconds to discharge caps. Some older BIOSes don’t show PATA settings explicitly; a defaults/reset can re-run auto-detect.

  • Use external diagnostics. Boot a USB live Linux image or diagnostic utility and watch kernel logs (dmesg/lsblk) while connecting the drive via USB adapter. That differentiates BIOS-level detection failures from OS-level issues.

  • If nothing appears, suspect the laptop interface. Failed IDE connectors, a bad HDD/ODD adapter board, cracked solder joints, or a failed southbridge/IDE controller are common. Replacing the small connector/adapter or the optical/HDD caddy is often cheaper than board repair. BIOS reflash is a last resort and carries risk.

Recommended priority: external-drive test → connector inspection/clean → CMOS reset → USB adapter/live-boot check → consider adapter replacement or motherboard repair. ESD and BIOS-flash cautions apply.

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Member Avatar for rch1231

Check in the CMOS setup to see if the PATA controller is enabled. Also check to see if the cable is properly connected to the motherboard. The controller is built in to the motherboard and not really something you can access as hardware. If it is PATA (vs SATA) there will be jumpers to set it for Master, Slave or Cable select.

Member Avatar for hemantrw

In CMOS Setup, I am not able to find any PATA or SATA information. I was also trying to see that information but could not find it.

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