Gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X secondary IDE channel not detected? \ VOGONS

Gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X secondary IDE channel not detected?

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First post, by Brawndo

Posted on 2022-03-17, 01:25

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I have a year 2000 desktop I built around a Gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X motherboard, got prepared to install Windows 98 and discovered that the CD-ROM drive, which is on the secondary IDE channel, is not being detected. The hard drive connected to the primary IDE channel is detected normally, and when I swap the IDE cables at the motherboard connectors, so the CD-ROM drive is on the primary channel and the hard drive is on the secondary channel, the CD-ROM drive is detected normally and the hard drive is not detected, so it appears it's just the secondary IDE channel which is not working properly. Is it possible for just the secondary channel to stop working? I am going to do some more device and cable swapping and see what happens, but I've never had just one channel not work.

Reply 1 of 5, by Sunoo

Posted on 2022-03-17, 01:26

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Did you check in the BIOS? You can often disable the two channels independently in there.

Reply 2 of 5, by Brawndo

Posted on 2022-03-17, 01:37

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Sunoo wrote on 2022-03-17, 01:26:

Did you check in the BIOS? You can often disable the two channels independently in there.

Both channels are enabled. I have also cleared CMOS and updated the BIOS to the latest available version (F45). During POST, it goes through the process of trying to detect devices on both channels, but it just shows "not detected" for the secondary channel when a known good device is connected. So it appears the motherboard knows there is a secondary channel, it's just that connected devices aren't detected. All IDE devices are set to "auto" in BIOS, and I tried to manually change the CD-ROM to ATAPI when connected to the secondary channel, and when trying to detect the device in BIOS setup, it errors out.

Reply 3 of 5, by Tetrium

Posted on 2022-03-18, 17:43

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Brawndo wrote on 2022-03-17, 01:37:

Sunoo wrote on 2022-03-17, 01:26:

Did you check in the BIOS? You can often disable the two channels independently in there.

Both channels are enabled. I have also cleared CMOS and updated the BIOS to the latest available version (F45). During POST, it goes through the process of trying to detect devices on both channels, but it just shows "not detected" for the secondary channel when a known good device is connected. So it appears the motherboard knows there is a secondary channel, it's just that connected devices aren't detected. All IDE devices are set to "auto" in BIOS, and I tried to manually change the CD-ROM to ATAPI when connected to the secondary channel, and when trying to detect the device in BIOS setup, it errors out.

Just for the record, you did swap out the IDE cables, right?

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Reply 4 of 5, by aaron158

Posted on 2022-03-18, 22:32

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i looked though the manual for the board dont look like there is any jumpers to turn off the ide channels only options are in the bios. so if those are turned on and u try another cable and it still cant see nothing chances are its failing.

best bet if u want to stick will full ide get an ultra ata 100/133 pci card or get a promise sata 150 pci card do sata for the hard drive and use the primary on board ide for the optical.

Reply 5 of 5, by PC Hoarder Patrol

Posted on 2022-03-19, 07:24

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aaron158 wrote on 2022-03-18, 22:32:

i looked though the manual for the board dont look like there is any jumpers to turn off the ide channels only options are in the bios. so if those are turned on and u try another cable and it still cant see nothing chances are its failing.

best bet if u want to stick will full ide get an ultra ata 100/133 pci card or get a promise sata 150 pci card do sata for the hard drive and use the primary on board ide for the optical.

There was an issue with ATAPI devices on the secondary IDE channel (supposedly) fixed by the F23 BIOS; maybe try an earlier version between there & F45 and see if the issue persists - https://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/Gigaby … B-4X/index.html

GA-6VX7-4X BIOS History.jpg

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