On 4 Oct 2005 21:26:36 -0700, "Old Wolf"
<oldwolf@inspire.net.nz> wrote:
>I have a VIA VPSD EPIA-V mini-ITX motherboard and a Samsung 3GB hard
>disk. Occasionally (perhaps one time in 15), it will do the " DISK
>BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER " thing. Pressing
>enter has no effect of course. A cold reboot fixes the problem.
Is this problem always occuring from a cold boot, or also
from a warm (re)boot? If only from a cold boot I would
suspect your power supply is a bit too small and isn't
spinning the drive up fast enough. If that is the case then
see if the bios has a "quickboot" or similar setting that
you could disable to give the drive more time to spin up and
be ready.
>
>The BIOS is set to auto-detect the IDE drives. One time I noticed
>that it had detected no drive present, but another time it seemed
>to have detected the drive correctly (based on the info displayed
>by the BIOS before the DISK BOOT FAILURE message). I have tried
>different power connectors and different IDE cables.
Measure the power supply voltages and check the drive with
the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics. You might see if there
is a motherboard bios update that addresses any same/similar
issues.
>
>What are some possible causes / solutions to the problem?
>
>Another question - I am using an old IDE cable (not one of the
>new style ones with skinnier wires). The drive detects in ATA-33
>mode normally. Is that a problem or should I try and get a newer
>cable?
A 3GB drive cannot do any faster than ATA33 and you should
not need an ATA66/100/133, 80 conductor cable. However,
with an old cable there is a potential that it isn't making
good contact, as IDE cables with their insulation
displacement connectors are not meant to survive alot of
plug/unplug cycles and may not age as gracefully as other
connector types. I would try another (known good) cable
just to rule that out, but again for a 3GB HDD, it need not
be an 80 conductor cable instead of 40..
Mini-ITX fails to detect hard disk sometimes 
Linear Mode
