Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - diagnosing hardware problems with software?

sandeep · 11-23-2003, 11:20 PM

Hey folks, it's me (again) looking for a bit of advice.

I can't help myself. this place has so many heads full of info that I can't stand passing up asking questions.

Here's the deal. For a few weeks now, I think something is wrong with my mainboard. I have four IDE devices. Three harddrives and a CDRW drive. I can't get more than three at a time to work. I've tried various combinations of master/slave settings on both the controllers with three different IDE cables, but I can't put my finger on where the problem lies.

Is there a piece of software that could diagnose any problems with the hardware? Even stuff that runs before booting windows.

I've been in the market for a PCI IDE controller for a while now, because I have two more harddrives just sitting around that I can't use. I've been putting off buying one, but now it seems that i have no choice.

Before i went and spend money on something that I didn't want to buy just yet, I wanted to see if i could figure out what exact what wrong.

Any help or opinions would be appriciated. thanks.

11-23-2003, 11:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
sandeep Insane	diagnosing hardware problems with software? Hey folks, it's me (again) looking for a bit of advice. I can't help myself. this place has so many heads full of info that I can't stand passing up asking questions. Here's the deal. For a few weeks now, I think something is wrong with my mainboard. I have four IDE devices. Three harddrives and a CDRW drive. I can't get more than three at a time to work. I've tried various combinations of master/slave settings on both the controllers with three different IDE cables, but I can't put my finger on where the problem lies. Is there a piece of software that could diagnose any problems with the hardware? Even stuff that runs before booting windows. I've been in the market for a PCI IDE controller for a while now, because I have two more harddrives just sitting around that I can't use. I've been putting off buying one, but now it seems that i have no choice. Before i went and spend money on something that I didn't want to buy just yet, I wanted to see if i could figure out what exact what wrong. Any help or opinions would be appriciated. thanks.