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Old Zenith motherboard "Failure Fixed Disk 0"

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First post, by obcbeatle

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Hello ... I'm trying to get an old Zenith motherboard to recognize an old IDE Conner CFS270A 270mb HDD. The BIOS will not recognize the Conner HDD on either of the two IDE motherboard controllers (IDE0 or IDE1). The BIOS at POST says "Failure Fixed Disk 0". Within the BIOS ... the IDE Adapter 0 Master field was set to “Autotype Fixed Disk” ... and wasn't detecting the Conner HDD ... i.e. it was failing at POST with “Autotyping adapter 0 Master - Autotype Failed” ... so I input the HDD specs in manually ... and after that the IDE Adapter 0 Master field within the BIOS detected the drive as "C: 270mb" ... which is correct. But when I save and reboot ... I still get "Failure Fixed Disk 0". And I get two beeps ... and POST says “Press F1 to resume, F2 to Setup”.

The HDD is jumpered as Master/Single and works on another PC's IDE controller (boots into DOS) ... so I know the HDD works. I tried two different IDE cables that I know work ... with the pin connectors in the proper orientation. And I tried a different HDD on both IDE controllers with the same result ... "Failure Fixed Disk 0". What am I missing here? The BIOS seems to be having issues auto detecting and taking manual parameters for HDD’s? Or both IDE controllers are bad (that woud be odd)? Any help/suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

Last edited by obcbeatle on 2018-12-27, 16:41. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 1, by obcbeatle

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Arrgg ... I was just able to get a different HDD to work with this motherboard/BIOS ... but on the next boot I noticed an electrical smell. I immediately turned off the PSU and unplugged. When I looked at the motherboard I noticed the battery had slid half-way out of its socket. And sure enough ... the odor was evident in the area where the battery socket is. So I inspected the contact terminals and the battery then re-seated the battery and turned on the PSU and now the BIOS is complaining "System battery is dead - Replace and run Setup". I tried a new battery multiple times ... plus cleaned the two probes/terminals that form the battery socket ... but to no avail as the BIOS still says the battery is dead. I'm guessing it shorted something in the battery socket (terminals) area of the motherboard when the battery was half out of the socket?. Is there a way to test for a short of the battery socket? It looks like at one time the battery was soldered into the socket. Is that even possible?

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