Solved: Detecting IDE Drives error.

First off, I want to let you guys know that I've read through the other IDE threads on this board and have tried their solutions as well. They've worked, to an extent.

My computer (XP) has recently started acting a bit schizophrenic. It works perfectly one day and won't start up at all the next. Every time it decides not to work, I get the same message on the initial diagnostic screen that always pops up: "Detecting IDE Drives..." It just stays this way forever until I restart it.

I find that unplugging devices and plugging them back in helps to fix the problem, but only for a while. People have told me to try finding out which device is broken by starting the computer with different components unplugged. My guess is that its one of the older DVD drives, but I can't be certain, since after I plug the devices back in, the computer works again (for a few days). Any ideas?

 

Just to be clear, you're talking only about bootups right, and not about unplugging any USB devices but about unplugging IDE-connected devices?

 

Absolutely. The only things I tinker with are inside the actual case.

 

I should also have asked if you are using USB devices and to see if you can correlate the problem to the status of those devices (on/off), especially an external hard drive or flash drive. I have two systems that halt on IDE detect if there's an active USB drive attached.
If its not that for sure then an intermittent problem like that is tough to diagnose. Does the BIOS ever lose integrity at all and need re-tweaking from time to time? You might try replacing the battery if it does. Otherwise if you can leave one (most likely suspect first) IDE device unattached at a time and run normally for an extended period and see if the problem crops up again or not. It might be tough to find the problem though until you can reproduce the error at will.

 

Indeed. Thanks for the input. I'll see what happens the next time it goes out on me. Until then, this thread is done.