Nec 2500a - Cold Start Hang

[BarryT]

I have a strange problem with my new 2500A. If I install it as the secondary master and power on, the system hangs before the POST tests. If I unplug the drive, power on and reconnect it, then do a warm start, it boots up no problem. As soon as I power down and switch machine back on it hangs again. I’ve discovered it will only boot if connected as primary slave. It then runs fine. I’ve burn’t several discs with no problems. I’m beginning to think it may be a problem with the motherboard. It’s an Asrock K7VM4 running Windows XP. I’ve flashed the BIOS, flashed the firmware, tried new 80 pin IDE cables, tried all combinations of jumper and BIOS set-up, but it always hangs if connected to the secondary IDE channel.

Has anyone had similar problems or possible cures?

[blinky]

Try moving it to the other connector on the IDE cable if you want it as Master. Some board and drive combo’s are funny about which connector is used as master and which as slave.

Check that both the NEC and the other drive on that IDE channel are jumpered correctly (cable select is NOT recommended).

P-ATA doesn’t support hot swapping so plugging a drive into a system which is switched on is not recommended.