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Thanks for visiting my post.
Their's afew things that happens when it doesn't detect the rom, when i connect all the power plugs into the HDD, Both Roms and the floppy drive, the computer just enters the bio's and just freezes, but when i remove the power plugs too both the roms and restarted it, it goes normally into windows and when i attach it again the hdd doesn't detect and the rom works, i just replaced the power supply (was "350w" NOW "400w") and does the same thing. Thanks
Also: before i installed the SP2 xp update everything worked fine.
"Running Windows Xp SP2 installed"

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As described, the system only behaves when the optical drives are left unpowered. and correctly pointed toward IDE/jumper issues, so the suggestions below assume those basics have been checked and add focused, practical tests and fixes that haven't been covered yet.

Start by isolating the problem device. With the PC powered off and unplugged, disconnect all optical and floppy drives (leave only the HDD). Boot and confirm the HDD is detected. Power down, then add one optical drive back (use a different Molex connector and a different IDE cable if available) and boot again. Repeat, adding one device at a time. If adding a particular drive or cable causes the BIOS to hang or the HDD to vanish, that drive or its cable/power connector is the likely culprit. Try the suspect drive in another machine to confirm.

Power-feed and connector faults are common here even with a new PSU. Test with a different Molex lead or a second PSU if possible; inspect connectors for melted plastic, corrosion, or bent pins. Do not hot‑plug IDE devices — standard IDE/Molex devices are not hot-swappable and attaching them while the system is running can cause the symptoms described. Use a PSU tester or multimeter to verify +5V/+12V rails under load only if comfortable doing so.

If every drive behaves when tested individually, suspect the motherboard IDE channel or BIOS. Try the HDD on a different IDE socket or install a cheap PCI IDE controller to rule out onboard controller failure. Reset CMOS to defaults and, if available from the vendor, update the motherboard BIOS to the latest stable build. Back up critical data before swapping hardware or updating firmware; if problems persist, replace the failing drive or consult a repair shop for a motherboard-level fault.

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Member Avatar for JANINE

have you checked your jumper settings.

you should aim for 1 master and 1 slave drive on each ide channel

ie ide channel 0 Hard drive (master) second hard drive or cd rom (slave)
Ide channel 1 cd-rom (master) cd-rom (slave)

get the picture as it sounds like a misplaced jumper

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

Janine may be onto something here -- the BIOS is not detecting the IDE settings correctly, thus it is probably waiting to TIMEOUT, not a hang, but waiting for the devices to respond to the query.

Yes, please do get the IDE jumpers in order. 1 master, and one slave. The master is usually connected in the "middle" of the cable, and the slave on the furthest connector.

Christian

Member Avatar for JANINE

Hello,

Janine may be onto something here -- the BIOS is not detecting the IDE settings correctly, thus it is probably waiting to TIMEOUT, not a hang, but waiting for the devices to respond to the query.

Yes, please do get the IDE jumpers in order. 1 master, and one slave. The master is usually connected in the "middle" of the cable, and the slave on the furthest connector.

Christian

thanks for agreeing christian.

one thing to watch out for torrent.. some drives especially hard drives have a dual jumper setting (that's it two jumpers instead of one). if one of these has slipped this could also be causing the problem;)

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