Auto-Detecting Pri Master..Press <ESC> to abort

Auto-Detecting Pri Master..Press <ESC> to abort_

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First post, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-10-02, 03:58

beastlike Offline

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Wondering if anyone has experienced this:

I have a Socket 7 Baby AT motherboard - I believe it's PC Chips. Best I can tell it's this one, this looks exactly like it:

I can't get it to detect a hard drive - I've tried multiple IDE hard drives that are tested working, multiple IDE cables that are tested working, but whenever it boots, it says:

Auto-Detecting Pri Master..Press <ESC> to abort_

Once it says this, the machine appears to be frozen.

Before it attempts to detect the IDE, I can hit DEL to get into the BIOS.

Under Standard Setup, Pri/Sec Master & Slave are all 4 set to "Auto"

There are additional parameters I can specify if I set it to "User" instead of "Auto", those parameters are:

Cyln Head WPcom Sec LBA Mode Blk Mode PIO Mode 32Bit Mode

Not sure what they would be, or if I would even want to set them. If I hit "Enter to Autodetect" - the same happens - it attempts to autodetect the drive and freezes.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

Reply 1 of 14, by SW-SSG

Posted on 2016-10-02, 04:34

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Would it be correct to assume that the HDDs you tested were the only drives plugged into the IDE cable at a time? (E.g. only one drive attached to the cable.)

If so, perhaps these drives have a "Single Or Master" jumper setting that you could try? (Have you tried this already?)

Reply 2 of 14, by BananaBonez

Posted on 2016-10-02, 05:43

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Look for a BIOS update. That is what fixed that same issue on my M748LMRT ver. 1.3D
I used the last known BIOS revision dated 2001. Hope that helps.

Reply 3 of 14, by xboingx

Posted on 2016-10-02, 10:58

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What is the max hdd size the BIOS can handle? Usually my systems hang when I try hdd to big for given bios.

Reply 4 of 14, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-10-02, 11:23

beastlike Offline

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SW-SSG wrote:
Would it be correct to assume that the HDDs you tested were the only drives plugged into the IDE cable at a time? (E.g. only one drive attached to the cable.)

If so, perhaps these drives have a "Single Or Master" jumper setting that you could try? (Have you tried this already?)

Yes, it's the only drive on the cable - originally it was on the Cable Select setting, and so I changed it to Master. Still same.

Reply 5 of 14, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-10-02, 11:25

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BananaBonez wrote:
Look for a BIOS update. That is what fixed that same issue on my M748LMRT ver. 1.3D
I used the last known BIOS revision dated 2001. Hope that helps.

Ok I'll try that - the BIOS is dated 1999 - the drive I'd like to use is from 2004, and I don't think I have any drives that are older than that.

Do you think the AMIBIOS 8 update would work for a board so old?
https://ami.com/download-license-agreement/?D … ate_Utility.zip

here's everything it says in post:
American Megatrends AMIBIOS (C)1996 American Megatrends, Inc.
Release 10/21/1999S

Then in the BIOS setup:
AMIBIOS SIMPLE SETUP UTILITY - VERSION 1.20
(C)1998 American Megatrends, Inc.

Thank you!

Last edited by beastlike on 2016-10-02, 11:36. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 14, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-10-02, 11:26

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xboingx wrote:
What is the max hdd size the BIOS can handle? Usually my systems hang when I try hdd to big for given bios.

That's a good question.. Wondering if a BIOS update would fix that.

Another thing I'm wondering - would a PCI IDE card be able to bypass any such restrictions?

Reply 7 of 14, by PhilsComputerLab

Posted on 2016-10-02, 11:28

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What sizes are your drives? Make sure the HDD is set to master and connected to the end of the IDE ribbon cable.

Rather then booting it, go into the BIOS and:

- Load BIOS defaults
- Change boot order to floppy (have a floppy drive attached with boot disk)
- Run the HDD detection from within the BIOS

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Reply 8 of 14, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-10-02, 11:47

beastlike Offline

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
What sizes are your drives? Make sure the HDD is set to master and connected to the end of the IDE ribbon cable. […]
Show full quote
What sizes are your drives? Make sure the HDD is set to master and connected to the end of the IDE ribbon cable.

Rather then booting it, go into the BIOS and:

- Load BIOS defaults
- Change boot order to floppy (have a floppy drive attached with boot disk)
- Run the HDD detection from within the BIOS

Thank you PhilsComputerLab -
It's a 120gb WD at the end of the ribbon cable and set to Master.

Just tried your recommendation, load default settings, boot order to floppy, and when I try HDD detection from within the BIOS, it hangs on:
"Detecting drive parameters: /"

Wondering if the drive is too big for the BIOS.

Reply 9 of 14, by PhilsComputerLab

Posted on 2016-10-02, 11:49

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Yes it's way too big likely.

Google the drive part number and see if it has a jumper to limit the capacity (make it appear smaller).

Got nay smaller drives lying around?

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Reply 10 of 14, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-10-02, 11:57

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Yes it's way too big likely.

Google the drive part number and see if it has a jumper to limit the capacity (make it appear smaller).

Got nay smaller drives lying around?

Ah. Makes sense. Could a BIOS update address that or is it a physical limitation of MBs in that era? If so, do you know if using a PCI IDE card could get around that limitation?

Just scrounged around and found a 13gb drive - forgot about this one. Looks like it autodetects this one fine.

Reply 11 of 14, by PhilsComputerLab

Posted on 2016-10-02, 12:02

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Yup a BIOS update can solve this, but there is no guarantee.

Or you can configure the machine as not having a drive (or pick one of the built-in ones) and use Dynamic Drive Overlay software.

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Reply 12 of 14, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-10-02, 12:06

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Yup a BIOS update can solve this.

Or you can configure the machine as not having a drive (or pick one of the built-in ones) and use Dynamic Drive Overlay software.

Awesome - thank you. Do you happen to know if the latest version of AMIBIOS8 from the American Megatrends website would work on such an old board? https://ami.com/download-license-agreement/?D … ate_Utility.zip

Reply 13 of 14, by PhilsComputerLab

Posted on 2016-10-02, 12:07

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beastlike wrote:
PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Yup a BIOS update can solve this.

Or you can configure the machine as not having a drive (or pick one of the built-in ones) and use Dynamic Drive Overlay software.

Awesome - thank you. Do you happen to know if the latest version of AMIBIOS8 from the American Megatrends website would work on such an old board? https://ami.com/download-license-agreement/?D … ate_Utility.zip

No idea 🤣

But I'm always careful with BIOS updates. If you don't have an external flasher I wouldn't risk playing around. So ideally you got to have an external flasher and another BIOS chip that matches the existing one. Pack the original away for an emergency, and play around with the replacement chip.

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Reply 14 of 14, by xboingx

Posted on 2016-10-02, 15:05

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I would stick with manufacturers bios only. If it does not solve the hdd situation you can use EZ-Drive or something similar, works very well.

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