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BIOS hang trying to use a Sintech SD to IDE adapter clone.

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First post, by ioixd

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I am using the SD to IDE adapter because I want to be able to easily hotswap between 3-4 operating systems. I am not interested in getting a SATA to IDE adapter or a DOM or a CF adapter (especially not the third, because SD cards are actually still made unlike CF cards and the second hand prices for them are horrible).

Ok now that we have that out of the way: there's not much else to elaborate on from the title. When this SD to IDE adapter I got from Ebay is plugged into the IDE slot on my motherboard, the BIOS hangs when trying to get information on it. It doesn't even report incorrect information, it just reports none at all and won't do anything until I unplug the adapter. I have tried swapping IDE cables, I have tried swapping SD cards, I tried making it the only thing plugged in, I tried switching from molex power to floppy power, and I tried taking out the CMOS battery to fully reset my motherboard's BIOS. Nothing gets this motherboard to actually boot when this is plugged in. Speaking of the BIOS, I found somebody with a different motherboard but a near identical BIOS as me and what seems to be the same exact board, and their system posted just fine. So it's either a problem with the BIOS settings, a chipset on the motherboard, or the adapter itself; it's either broken or it doesn't like my system.

My system has:
- A Biostar M4800-M7A motherboard
- Intel Celeron D at 3.20GHz, not overclocked
- 512MB ram
- 128MB NVIDIA Geforce FX5200
- Soundblaster Live! 5.1 (as if that matters).
- Modern 400W PSU that I got out of a pre-built.

And on my YouTube channel I have uploaded a video of me going through the BIOS and showing the options it has. You'll have to excuse the CPU fan going at 100% blast, that's for some reason the default on this motherboard and I couldn't find how to turn it off until the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO6pCpxQ0UI

I am at a loss for what to do here to get this adapter to work, and I'm hoping somebody here might know what I need to do to get this to work.

Here are some images of the adapter:
R9oXilo.jpg
IQlfxvh.jpg

Last edited by ioixd on 2022-08-27, 18:18. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 1 of 10, by Horun

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ioixd wrote on 2022-08-27, 00:49:
My system has: - Intel Celeron D at 3.20GHz, not overclocked - 512MB ram - 128MB NVIDIA Geforce FX5200 - Soundblaster Live! 5.1 […]
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My system has:
- Intel Celeron D at 3.20GHz, not overclocked
- 512MB ram
- 128MB NVIDIA Geforce FX5200
- Soundblaster Live! 5.1 (as if that matters).
- Modern 400W PSU that I got out of a pre-built.

And on my YouTube channel I have uploaded a video of me going through the BIOS and showing the options it has.

What motherboard are you using ? Make and model please. edited cause I am tired 😀

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 10, by ioixd

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Horun wrote on 2022-08-27, 01:34:

What motherboard are you using ? Make and model please. edited cause I am tired 😀

Biostar P4M800-M7A.
i'll edit this into the original post.

edited thie post too because i got it wrong several times 🤣

Reply 3 of 10, by Sphere478

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Try disabling options in bios like udma?

Does it work on a add in ide card?

Edit watched vid

On basic bios options where it says none can you switch it to auto?

Sphere's PCB projects.
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Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
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SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
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Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 4 of 10, by darry

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I would try another IDE cable. Try both old style 40-pin/40-conductor ones(maxes out at ATA33) and newer 40-pin/80-conductor ones (can also handle ATA66/ATA100/ATA133) .

The Sintechi adapter maxes out at ATA33 as it is built around the FC1307A chip, so a 40-pin/40-conductor cable should be fine .

Reply 6 of 10, by ioixd

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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-28, 00:07:

Try disabling options in bios like udma?

No dice. Actually I tried disabling everything and setting the PIO for every IDE channel to mode 1, to no avail.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-28, 00:07:

Does it work on a add in ide card?

I do not have one of those; actually I'm out of PCI slots on this motherboard so I can't install one, unless I get an AGP version of my video card (which I've held off on because the PCI version handles Quake 3 Arena at max settings, at 60fps.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-28, 00:07:

On basic bios options where it says none can you switch it to auto?

It means "none" as in "no hard drive". If you click on it you'll see it's set to auto.

darry wrote on 2022-08-28, 02:03:

I would try another IDE cable. Try both old style 40-pin/40-conductor ones(maxes out at ATA33) and newer 40-pin/80-conductor ones (can also handle ATA66/ATA100/ATA133) .

The Sintechi adapter maxes out at ATA33 as it is built around the FC1307A chip, so a 40-pin/40-conductor cable should be fine .

I actually tried 2 40/80 cables, and i just tried a 40/40 cable. No difference.

Reply 7 of 10, by ioixd

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Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-28, 02:05:

You can also try forcing the 80 pin cable detection. Idk why this would help but something to try.

What do you mean by this?

Reply 8 of 10, by Sphere478

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ioixd wrote on 2022-08-28, 21:24:
Sphere478 wrote on 2022-08-28, 02:05:

You can also try forcing the 80 pin cable detection. Idk why this would help but something to try.

What do you mean by this?

I was thinking of direct to motherboard header adapters.

If yours uses a cable then you have already done it by using a 80 pin cable.

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 9 of 10, by ioixd

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OK I plugged into a completely different computer that predates the last one by 5 years and it didn't work. I'm contacting the Ebay seller to get a refund.

Reply 10 of 10, by Sphere478

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ioixd wrote on 2022-08-28, 22:47:

OK I plugged into a completely different computer that predates the last one by 5 years and it didn't work. I'm contacting the Ebay seller to get a refund.

It seems like a lot of these adapters have a lot of problems if they plug into the mobo’s ide directly. I never have gotten my cf to ide adapter to work right. My ide to sata adapters don’t seem to work well either.

Here is a thought,

I have this pci card and it works very well. Can’t speak to the cf adapter though

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

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