Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

OT: Boot Failure Follow-up

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mercury.morris at gmail

Mar 5, 2006, 11:41 AM

Post #1 of 3 (381 views)
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OT: Boot Failure Follow-up

About 10 days ago, I posted the details of the death of a MythTV system.
Here is a brief follow-up:

I removed the original A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard and installed a new one.

The same error occurred! Unbelievably, the BIOS on the new motherboard
still saw only the First SATA Master hard disk, and not the second one!

So, I replaced the SATA signal cable between the second hard disk and the
motherboard, and the problem went away.

The lesson I learned from this experience is: When the BIOS doesn't see
all the hard disks, try replacing the cables first. It's much easier than
replacing a motherboard.

--
MM

mtdean at thirdcontact

Mar 5, 2006, 1:53 PM

Post #2 of 3 (346 views)
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Re: OT: Boot Failure Follow-up [In reply to]

On 03/05/2006 02:41 PM, Mercury Morris wrote:

>I removed the original A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard and installed a new one.
>
>The same error occurred! Unbelievably, the BIOS on the new motherboard
>still saw only the First SATA Master hard disk, and not the second one!
>
>So, I replaced the SATA signal cable between the second hard disk and the
>motherboard, and the problem went away.
>
>The lesson I learned from this experience is: When the BIOS doesn't see
>all the hard disks, try replacing the cables first. It's much easier than
>replacing a motherboard.
>

I was helping a friend diagnose a failed hard drive on his Myth box just
over a year ago. I concluded the drive's electronics got fried since
the BIOS wouldn't even recognize the drive. So he went out and bought
what turned out to be a $200 IDE cable that came with a free 300GB HDD.
:) That was the first time in my life I've ever seen an IDE cable just
"die" while a system was running (gave up in the middle of a football
game he was recording/watching with a group of people).

At least in his case, he could continue to use the old drive and just
add the new one. Using two motherboards is more expensive--that
involves buying new CPU, RAM, HDD, ...

Mike
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mercury.morris at gmail

Mar 5, 2006, 2:20 PM

Post #3 of 3 (350 views)
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Re: OT: Boot Failure Follow-up [In reply to]

On 3/5/06, Michael T. Dean <mtdean [at] thirdcontact> wrote:
>
> On 03/05/2006 02:41 PM, Mercury Morris wrote:
>
> I was helping a friend diagnose a failed hard drive on his Myth box just
> over a year ago. I concluded the drive's electronics got fried since
> the BIOS wouldn't even recognize the drive. So he went out and bought
> what turned out to be a $200 IDE cable that came with a free 300GB HDD.
> :) That was the first time in my life I've ever seen an IDE cable just
> "die" while a system was running (gave up in the middle of a football
> game he was recording/watching with a group of people).
>
> At least in his case, he could continue to use the old drive and just
> add the new one. Using two motherboards is more expensive--that
> involves buying new CPU, RAM, HDD, ...
>
> Mike,

Thanks for the story - $200 IDE cable! Looking at my situation in that
light, I have a $162 SATA cable.

When my system died, it was recording a program. There was no EarthQuake,
no thunderstorm, no nothing. "How in hell could a cable just fail like
that", is what I thought today when it turned out that was what happened.
The cables were never even considered as the cause of the failure.

Now, like your friend with the free 300GB HDD, I can use the spare
motherboard to build another system. I'm going through the process of
putting the original motherboard back in service because the new one is
extremely noisy, and I don't want to have to re-install nvram-wakeup in case
the BIOS's are enough different to require it.

Thanks again for your somewhat sympathetic note. It's nice to know that I'm
not alone in buying the "higher-priced" components.

--
MM

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