MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

[binsonk]

This computer is a generic box with MSI MS7412 ver 1 motherboard. I'm running Linux kernel 2.6.32, Puppy Linux Wary 5.1. This pair of IDE hard drives were installed in my original computer on one ribbon cable. The Maxtor 500 GB Master hdd has OS and data, and the Seagate 300 GB Slave hdd has data only. Now I install them in this computer on one cable without changing Master-Slave jumper settings, and the Primary Slave will not detect as such. Computer won't boot, freezes after IDE detection, and, after a delay, BIOS reports Primary master hard disk fail. Then I set both hdd's to Cable Select, with similar results. I also tried 4 differenct IDE ribbon cables. On one occasion the Primary Slave showed as present during IDE detection, but the computer still froze and reported Primary master hard disk fail. I have also done a manual detection of Primary Slave in BIOS with no improvement. Here are two pertinent facts: If I remove power from the Seagate Slave hdd, the Maxtor Master hdd behaves normally operating as a single drive, booting to desktop without delay. If I remove power from the Maxtor Master hdd, without removing the data cable from mobo, and then run live CD, the icon for the Seagate Slave shows on desktop. Therefore, the two hard drives operate as single drives without a problem, and the cable connection is good. Any idea what is causing this failure?

[SteveNielsen]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Double-check and possibly replace the jumper blocks. I prefer to use an 80 wire cable and jumper for CableSelect on the drives. If the PSU is faulty two drives may also be dragging it down so check voltages as well.

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

I am using 80-wire cable, and have settled on CableSelect for jumper settings. One setting diagram on the Seagate hdd puzzles me a little. It's the setting for Master or Slave, where the diagram shows a jumper across the pair of pins farthest from the power connector. Beside this diagram, it shows "Master = ON, Slave = OFF". Does this mean there is no jumper active for the Slave selection?

[selldoor]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Does the motherboard have a secondary ide socket - perhaps try the main drive on the primary and the second drive on its own cable on the secondary with or without a CD/DVD

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Replacing the PSU did not fix the problem. Same error: Primary master hard disk fail. There is a second IDE, to the DVDRW, but the optical device is 14 inches away from the hdd. If the second hdd should work on the secondary IDE, what does it tell me? Because I'm not going to configure things that way. Just to review, both of these drives had been installed in the original computer for a couple years.

[selldoor]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Its going to tell you the motherboard and the powersupply will support both drives.
Surely its not too big a job to try ? unplug power and data from DVD and plug into
second disk switch on - works -good -- doesnt work swap the leads back .
A picture of the set up might help - have you got a manual for the motheboard - I can find very little on a MS7412

[UserXP]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

I am using 80-wire cable, and have settled on CableSelect for jumper settings. One setting diagram on the Seagate hdd puzzles me a little. It's the setting for Master or Slave, where the diagram shows a jumper across the pair of pins farthest from the power connector. Beside this diagram, it shows "Master = ON, Slave = OFF". Does this mean there is no jumper active for the Slave selection?

I think that it means that the HDD is going to allow to function as a Master device only. That jumper position says that it is the only device connected to the cable as a Master drive and that there isn't any other (no Secondary) device connected to that same IDE cable.
There should also be a position of the jumper like "Master with Slave present", meaning that the disk will run as Master and that another drive can be connected to the other plug of that same IDE cable (and set as Slave).
Some HDDs run in Master mode when no jumper is put, it is a drive specific setting.

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Yes, it worked. BIOS recognized both drives, one on either IDE. The Maxtor primary hdd booted to desktop without delay. The Seagate secondary hdd appeared as an unmounted icon on desktop, which is my normal way of handling it.

So maybe it's the jumpers then.

Last week, I set the Maxtor to Master with Slave Present, and tried all four jumper positions on the Seagate, including no jumper. No luck.

[selldoor]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

OK so what are the models of the drives - to properly configure cable select on some drives, all devices on the same ATA cable must use the cable select jumper setting and be connected with a 40- pin Ultra ATA cable.
The Master drive should be on the end of a 2 socket cable

The jumper settings on each drive may be in a different position.

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Oops, it's not a Maxtor, it's a WD. But I am reading the jumper settings off the drives.
Western Digital WD5000AAKB-00H8A
Seagate ST3300631A

corrected mobo model: MS7142 ver.1

I wonder if someone with privileges could change the model number in the thread title (and OP). Please

[selldoor]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Well you are not making it easy

OK so on the master the jumper goes on the middle set of pins (5 &6)
If you want to try cable select is pins 1 and 2 Counting from power socket

on the slave for seagate it is no pins,

If you want to try cable select is 5 and 6 counting FROM the power socket end

Other considerations are updating the bios making sure it can handle "Large" disks.
Its late here now so I cant read the manual for you

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Ya, maybe update the BIOS. I'm gonna run a more recent kernel too. This project hasn't been a cakewalk. This is the fourth computer that I've tried to set up for these two hard drives. One thing or another was wrong with the others. Defective equipment, odd-ball designs that only work with Windows, and so on.

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Here's the support link for MSI motherboard K8MM-V (MS-7142)
http://us.msi.com/support/mb/K8MMV.html

[pfrcom]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

I would have tried another 80-wire cable by now

I've found 80-wire cables to be quite fragile and temperamental compared to 40-wire ones

Another option is to use a 40-wire for troubleshooting, although you'd need to find/make a 40-wire which supports CS

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Problem with flashing BIOS. The flash is run from hard disk (C:\>), not floppy. The procedure assumes Windows is installed, but I have a version of Linux installed. I tried putting the "test" folder in root ( / ), but could not navigate to the directory in DOS. I guess I'll have to install a temporary hdd with Windows on it, just to upgrade the BIOS.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

You have already verified that the board recognizes the drives so flashing the BIOS isn't going to change anything about that.

By replacing jumper blocks I mean to actually replace them with other jumper blocks to eliminate a bad jumper connection.

BTW, DOS won't read an Ext- partition if that's what is on the drive.

Edit - I also want to make it clear about CS and Master/Slave settings; CS means that neither drive is set for master or slave but for Cable Select on both drives and the drive's position on the cable determines whether it is M or S. If you use cable select on one drive you should use it on the other too. If you don't then the IDE interface and drives may get confused.

[binsonk]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

I just tested the third pair of jumper blocks, tested one at a time. I set up the hdd's as Master and Slave, as well as Cable Select. Computer choked every time, never booted, with a final error: Primary master hard disk fail. There was a difference between Cable Select and Master/Slave IDE detection by BIOS. When set up as Master/Slave, the Primary Slave was listed. When set up as Cable Select, the Seagate data drive was not listed. After substituting 6 cables and 6 jumper blocks, my opinion is that the problem is elsewhere.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

It really is acting just like a jumper setting being wrong. It may be a bad solder joint on the hard drive circuit board to one or more pins.

[Sparkey55]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Do you have at least BIOS version 1.7 installed? May make a difference in how detection is prioritized in bios. Also just for shits and giggles change the EIDE cable. Those 80 wire things are notorius for going bad from just looking at them wrong.

[selldoor]

Re: MSI MS7412 mobo will not boot two hdd's

Are you sure there is not a slot under the DVD drive that would take the second drive, then you could use the secondary IDE connector on the dvd and second drive.