CMOS Problems

P

peergynt_lwb

New Member
Hi,

New poster here. Looks like a great forum!

First off, please don't be afraid of this seemingly long post; most of it is just conversational gibberish :)

I'm a Java developer who's been forced into the murky world of system administration. Luckily, the system is my own that I use for developing software so, if I break something, I won't get fired...but nevertheless I need to remain productive. Unfortunately, admin problems, like the one I'm about to explain, slow me down much more than I would like.

Anyway my Dell PowerEdge SC500 Server has worked fine for years. I use it for running a development database and for offloading data. But now, after all this time, I decided to try re-configuring it with new hardware -- main components affected are several disk drives and a cd-rw drive.

Here are the basics:
-2 IDE controllers
-3 disks (1 for OS and 2 for data)
-1 CD-RW

The system works fine IF ONLY the OS hard disk is attached at Primary 0 and the CD-RW is attached at Secondary 0.

However, if I attach the data disks at the other two available channels -- Primary 1 and Secondary 1 -- then the CMOS no longer plays along. At that point, it won't recognize the CD-RW and will list incorrect values for the newly attached data disks.

I've removed the battery several hours, several times, to clear the CMOS. However, I still get boot errors such as:
Secondary hard disk drive 1 not found
Secondary hard disk drive 0 failure
or
Primary hard disk drive 0 failure (yes, even on the OS hard drive!)

The errors change according to whatever changes I make...or sometimes don't make. Nothing seems consistent.

I've read the Dell manual, but it doesn't cover advanced issues, beyond interpreting the error beep codes. It does mention a jumper though, which I assume resets CMOS (they use it to reset the system password), but I figure removing the battery does the same thing.

So is there something wrong with what I'm doing here? Is my configuration all wrong?

I'd really be interested in hearing some ideas! Do I need special tools -- hammer? pry-bar? nail-puller? circular saw?

Please help!

peergynt
 
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StrangleHold, I love that avatar!!!

I think I've got the jumpers set correctly, if I understand what you mean...
Primary 0 -- 80 GB HD operating system
Primary 1 -- 20 GB HD data
Secondary 0 -- 20 GB HD data
Secondary 1 -- CD-RW

The CD-RW doesn't seem to work in that position. I've had that setup before and it worked fine. This is a new CD device though.

Does Windows 'write' to CMOS upon shutting down?

I'm having problems with Disk Manager in Windows 2000. Maybe I should re-install Windows altogether?
 
Yikes!

Huh. I'm not really sure how to interpret the instructions you posted. My seems to have 5-pairs instead of 4. There are two separate jumpers -- one set on the first pair and another on the second pair.

I'm not sure if it's worth messing with because it's always worked fine this way. I only changed the positions of disks and CD-RW around.

In fact, I just did another swap-action after having power and battery removed for several hours. Got these errors:

Primary hard disk drive 0 not found
Primary hard disk drive 1 not found
Secondary hard disk drive 1 failure

System halted!

Upon reboot, the CMOS settings show both Primary 0 & 1 as Unknown Device
1 should be the OS drive and 2 should be the CD-RW

Secondary 0 and 1 show the data disks, but with strange capacity values.

Something is messed up. I need to figure out how to clear CMOS COMPLETELY and start over...
 
Nope, I was wrong. It's got 4 pins. The first pair has jumpers on it. There is also a second jumper, but it is only mounted on one pin of the second pair. Must be a spare. I'll try jumping the second pair...
 
The drives on the end of the IDE cable needs to be set as Master and the middle set as slave by the jumpers on the back of the drives, there should be marking on the drive above the jumpers and on harddrives sometimes on the label
 
Slaves-n-Masters

StrangleHold said:
The drives on the end of the IDE cable needs to be set as Master and the middle set as slave by the jumpers on the back of the drives, there should be marking on the drive above the jumpers and on harddrives sometimes on the label
Click to expand...
Thanks, I see what you mean now. For some reason it didn't occur to me that the Seagate docs showed settings on the drive and not the board. I must be an idiot :rolleyes:

I found the docs for WD drives. They show the middle pair for master and the 2nd pair for slave. So that's how I set things up. However, it still can't find the slaves:

Primary hard disk drive 1 not found
Secondary hard disk drive 1 not found

Do you think I should just get a new board? Or is there anything else I could try?

WD pdf:
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2579-001037.pdf
 
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diagnostics

Yes, everything is set to auto.

I've just downloaded the bios update from Dell, along with their diagnostics app. Maybe it'll help...
 
Can't get Bios update

Downloaded bios update a07 from Dell, but I need a05 as a prerequisite. I can only find a05 in diskette form. I don't have a floppy drive. I need the standalone version so I can burn it to CD and then transfer it to my other machine.

How do you system admins deal with this kind of crap on a daily basis? As a software developer, I deal with algorithms and such. If something doesn't work, then I need to check MY OWN algorithm for the failure. But as a sys admin, you rely on junk that someone else built to function correctly.

This sucks, but I'm glad you sys admin guys are willing to lend advice on forums such as this. Without it, I'd be screwed even worse :)
 
partial success

The bios update helped a bunch. It even seems to have quieted the fan -- I always suspected it was too loud.

Anyway, now my primary channels work fine (OS disk and CD). However, I'm having trouble with one of the disks on the secondary controller. Incorrect capacity values keep showing-up in CMOS. For example, it shows 4GB whereas it's acually a 20GB drive.

I've tried attaching that particular drive to both Secondary 0 and Secondary 1, but both positions result in the same values. I cleared CMOS between each change.

Do you think my hd is fried?
 
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