Primary slave not detected

"Helene" wrote in message ...
Here is my latest update on the problem: There is no second hard drive, so,
as Philo said, the "not detected" message means nothing.

There may not be a second hard drive, but it is likely that there is a
second IDE drive, at least a CD-ROM.

BTW, you never did tell us... when did this problem become noticeable
to you? Did she just buy this machine, and it did this out of the box?
Or, did someone upgrade it or reconfigure it recently? For example,
did someone add or remove a CD-ROM drive (not the disk, but the entire
drive), a CD burner, a DVD drive or a DVD burner? Did anyone open up
the case of the computer for any reason at all before this problem
became noticeable?

So, I guess that has nothing to do with the problem she is having.

As you can tell, I believe it does.

She has a Gateway
computer. It goes to GoBack and then just sits at the window where it says
to hit the spacebar to make repairs. It says still waiting... and never goes
any further.

Nor will it.

I have tried to get to the c:\ prompt to run a scandisk, but
can't figure out how to do it on a Gateway.

If this is caused by a Master/Slave conflict, you won't be able to get
to a prompt, unless Gateway has done something really wacky with the
BIOS (I can't rule that out). This is simply the behavior of the
parallel IDE system. When we all go to serial IDE (SATA), this won't
happen anymore, because SATA does not use jumpers.

I have gone through the manual
and don't see instructions either. Could you please help me? I'm afraid my
friend doesn't have a startup disk either, which I know is dumb (before you
mention it first...LOL).

Below is an instruction guide for setting the jumpers on a hard drive.
The same idea works on optical drives, such as CD-ROM and DVD drives.
Note, again, that each manufacturer has their own jumper settings, so
don't just imitate the positions of the jumpers in the pictures.
Follow the diagrams on all your drives.

http://www.harddriveupgrade.com/jumper_pins.shtml

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di..._settings.html

"philo" wrote in message ...
"Helene" wrote in message
...
A friend of mine is getting the message "Primary slave not detected" when
she starts her computer. What would cause that message and what is the
primary slave? What needs to be done to fix the problem? Thanks for any
help
you can give us.

Helene

if the machine does not have a second harddrive
then it's nothing to worry about.
if the message bothers you...you can set the primary slave option in the
bios to "none"

Set them to "Automatic" and let the machine take care of itself.

Richard Alexander's log on stardate 24 tra 2004

PC computers have two parallel IDE channels for connecting hard
drives and optical drives (CD drive and DVD drive),

How come? I, for instance, have a PC and 4 ATA channels. )


--
If we do happen to step on a mine, Sir, what do we do ?"
"Normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet in
the air and scatter oneself over a wide area."

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 00:16:32 -0400, Trent© wrote:

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 18:57:01 -0700, Onideus Mad Hatter
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 01:58:41 +0100, "Cerridwen" wrote:

Helene wrote:
Thanks for replying. I just talked with my friend again, and she says
she can't open Windows. After passing that message about the primary
slave, another message comes up, "Still Waiting." But it doesn't go
any further no matter how long they wait.

Helene

So do what Philo suggested then! Turn the PS off in the BIOS!

LOL, Helene seems a lil slow on the uptake, give her a few hours maybe it'll start to click...or
maybe somebody could take a box of crayons and color the steps out for her. Reading is teh HARD,
yo! ^_^

How do you turn off the power supply in the BIOS?!

Beats the hell out of me, why are you asking?

Free cl00, I'm entirely sure he meant PRIMARY SLAVE when he said PS...apparently Helene isn't the
only one not paying attention. ^_^

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 10:43:46 GMT, "Helene" wrote:

Or maybe I just don't understand much about this primary slave/secondary
slave business. Philo said if the message didn't bother my friend, but I was
explaining that it was a little more than just a nuisance. But I have a
sense of humor too, so I can understand how I sound like a bit of a ditz.
LOL

And by top posting, you look like a ditz too! ^_^

And seriously, it isn't that hard to grasp. You have two IDE channels, a primary and a secondary.
And each channel has a master and a slave. So if you have two channels, each one with a primary and
a secondary, you can have a total of FOUR IDE devices.

Now most boards nowadays are designed to autodetect **** that you have plugged in, including IDE
devices. So if it's flashing a message that says 'whatever not found', it just means that it's set
to search for it when the computer starts up and if you don't have anything there it's gonna give
you that lil message.

Now you CAN shut that auto detection off in the BIOS and it might make it boot up faster...but
really, it doesn't have anything to do with anything. In most cases it's not a "problem" nor does
it need "fixing". What can happen is if you DO have a device attached and it's not working right,
cause then it'll get hung up trying to search for it. So if you go and disable the thing in the
BIOS, yeah, it'll probably boot up into Windows, but whatever the hell IDE device you had attached
won't be there (ie a CD ROM drive, a second HD, a zip drive, whatever).

Given your apparent lack of skill and knowledge and your friends deficiency in the area, you're
probably better off just taking it into a shop and having them fix it for you. *shrugs*

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 14:14:13 GMT, "Helene" wrote:

Here is my latest update on the problem: There is no second hard drive, so,
as Philo said, the "not detected" message means nothing. So, I guess that
has nothing to do with the problem she is having. She has a Gateway
computer. It goes to GoBack and then just sits at the window where it says
to hit the spacebar to make repairs. It says still waiting... and never goes
any further. I have tried to get to the c:\ prompt to run a scandisk, but
can't figure out how to do it on a Gateway. I have gone through the manual
and don't see instructions either. Could you please help me? I'm afraid my
friend doesn't have a startup disk either, which I know is dumb (before you
mention it first...LOL).

....how do you figure that running scandisk is going to do...well, anything at all? o_O

No offense or anything, but you haven't even ISOLATED the problem yet...so what exactly is it that
you're trying to "fix" by running scandisk?

You keep shorting us out on the relevant info too. I mean, was this machine EVER working? And if
so, what did your friend do to **** it up? I mean they musta done something. I doubt that it just
suddenly decided to stop working for no apparent reason at all. Did she try installing some piece
of software? Was she deleting things she wasn't supposed to? Did she try putting in some new piece
of hardware? Until you answer all those basic questions, there's no point in trying to "fix"
anything. You need to isolate what the PROBLEM is first.

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net

The primary slave would be a second hdd. If she doesn't have one the
message might be an error and you could go into the bios and change the
primary slave to none if there really isn't one. If there is one any number
of things could be wrong. To get into bios is different on many computers,
but is always done on boot. Sometimes you can see the message of what to do
as the machine is booting but it verys from hitting esc, to del, to f4, or
other keys. Once you are in bios you look to see what drives are listed and
if she knows for certain that she hasn't got one and you see one you hit
page up or down to make it show none.
"Helene" wrote in message
...
A friend of mine is getting the message "Primary slave not detected" when
she starts her computer. What would cause that message and what is the
primary slave? What needs to be done to fix the problem? Thanks for any
help
you can give us.

Helene

It might be worth trying removing (disconnecting) the existing hard
drive ( easy enough to do) and seeing if you get the same message.
Also check it if correctly connected in the first place, ie it has
power and is connected to the wide IDE cable, it sould be on the
end of the cable, by the way, not on the middle connector
(is it has one).[Probably won't make any difference though]
Also maybe the cable is damaged and some electrical paint may
be in order :OP
Actually, just for fun, and because I have nothing better to do I
am going to disconnect my slave drive, and see what it says.
This will mean moving my swapfile and tempory internet
files back on to my master drive though!!!

Also maybe the BIOS has been 'forced' to detect it, but I doubt
it and I am not one who has ever had much need to mess with the
BIOS.
"Helene" wrote in message
...
Here is my latest update on the problem: There is no second hard drive,
so,
as Philo said, the "not detected" message means nothing. So, I guess that
has nothing to do with the problem she is having. She has a Gateway
computer. It goes to GoBack and then just sits at the window where it says
to hit the spacebar to make repairs. It says still waiting... and never
goes
any further. I have tried to get to the c:\ prompt to run a scandisk, but
can't figure out how to do it on a Gateway. I have gone through the manual
and don't see instructions either. Could you please help me? I'm afraid my
friend doesn't have a startup disk either, which I know is dumb (before
you
mention it first...LOL).

Helene
"Helene" wrote in message
...
A friend of mine is getting the message "Primary slave not detected"
when
she starts her computer. What would cause that message and what is the
primary slave? What needs to be done to fix the problem? Thanks for any
help
you can give us.

Helene

Well I tried that. If I realised how long it take to move
the tempory internet files I don't think I would have bothered!
And not I will have to move them back again :O(

Anyway on my mine it goes

Detecting primary master: WD32343 (name of the drive)
Detecting primary slave: [none]
Detecting secondary master (CDRW name)
Detecting secondary slave (CDRW name)
(and then the usual stuff on the screen)

So...not finding a drive does not appear to be a problem.
Indeed when I booted with no hard drives.

Detecting primary master: [none]
Detecting primary slave: [none]
Detecting secondary master (CDRW name)
Detecting secondary slave (CDROM name)
(and then the usual stuff on the screen)

It then trys to boot from the master CD drive and asks me to
insert a boot disk etc....


Now you say you get a c:\
I am unsure how you did this, as mine would just wait for
a floppy so it seems your master drive has been detected
properly.
I *assume* you have a c:\ prompt which I think, means you
have booted up into DOS.
If this is the case it would be useful to know the content of
your autoexec.bat file and the other files which run at start-up,
as it would seem the problem may be there.
I am not a 'DOS'person' (or windows lol) so may be someone
else can help there. (config.sys? ) mayve system.ini and
win.ini too but they are bigger files.

Also I am not sure what happend with your system, does it
stop after you get the 'not detected' message?
Or does it report the cdroms as whit mine? ( I assume she has
a cdrom).

I am not sure what 'GoBack is either and what 'window' you
are in? (The BIOS set-up window?)

Anyway, is your master drive reported at boot up?
Also as mentioned, boot without any and see if it says
Primary *master* not detected
If it does then I would ignore the message about the slave.

My windows scandisk is c:\windows\scandskw.exe nowever
I assme it will only run under windows so will that be anyhelp?
Or is there a dos version? or does it do both? I don't know.

Also as has been mentioned, did it ever work and if it had, had
she made some 'improvements' recently.


"half_pint" wrote in message
...
It might be worth trying removing (disconnecting) the existing hard
drive ( easy enough to do) and seeing if you get the same message.
Also check it if correctly connected in the first place, ie it has
power and is connected to the wide IDE cable, it sould be on the
end of the cable, by the way, not on the middle connector
(is it has one).[Probably won't make any difference though]
Also maybe the cable is damaged and some electrical paint may
be in order :OP
Actually, just for fun, and because I have nothing better to do I
am going to disconnect my slave drive, and see what it says.
This will mean moving my swapfile and tempory internet
files back on to my master drive though!!!

Also maybe the BIOS has been 'forced' to detect it, but I doubt
it and I am not one who has ever had much need to mess with the
BIOS.
"Helene" wrote in message
...
Here is my latest update on the problem: There is no second hard drive,
so,
as Philo said, the "not detected" message means nothing. So, I guess
that
has nothing to do with the problem she is having. She has a Gateway
computer. It goes to GoBack and then just sits at the window where it
says
to hit the spacebar to make repairs. It says still waiting... and never
goes
any further. I have tried to get to the c:\ prompt to run a scandisk,
but
can't figure out how to do it on a Gateway. I have gone through the
manual
and don't see instructions either. Could you please help me? I'm afraid
my
friend doesn't have a startup disk either, which I know is dumb (before
you
mention it first...LOL).

Helene
"Helene" wrote in message
...
A friend of mine is getting the message "Primary slave not detected"
when
she starts her computer. What would cause that message and what is the
primary slave? What needs to be done to fix the problem? Thanks for
any
help
you can give us.

Helene

"Onideus Mad Hatter" wrote in message
news:riil80p8la5fc5mva8k2734v4dma7ntlrj@farfoos...
On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 10:43:46 GMT, "Helene"
wrote:

Or maybe I just don't understand much about this primary slave/secondary
slave business. Philo said if the message didn't bother my friend, but I
was
explaining that it was a little more than just a nuisance. But I have a
sense of humor too, so I can understand how I sound like a bit of a ditz.
LOL

And by top posting, you look like a ditz too! ^_^

And seriously, it isn't that hard to grasp. You have two IDE channels, a
primary and a secondary.
And each channel has a master and a slave. So if you have two channels,
each one with a primary and
a secondary, you can have a total of FOUR IDE devices.

Now most boards nowadays are designed to autodetect **** that you have
plugged in, including IDE
devices. So if it's flashing a message that says 'whatever not found', it
just means that it's set
to search for it when the computer starts up and if you don't have
anything there it's gonna give
you that lil message.

Now you CAN shut that auto detection off in the BIOS and it might make it
boot up faster...but
really, it doesn't have anything to do with anything. In most cases it's
not a "problem" nor does
it need "fixing". What can happen is if you DO have a device attached and
it's not working right,
cause then it'll get hung up trying to search for it. So if you go and
disable the thing in the
BIOS, yeah, it'll probably boot up into Windows, but whatever the hell IDE
device you had attached
won't be there (ie a CD ROM drive, a second HD, a zip drive, whatever).

Given your apparent lack of skill and knowledge and your friends
deficiency in the area, you're
probably better off just taking it into a shop and having them fix it for
you. *shrugs*

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net

Thanks a bunch. I'm a ditz, but not dumb (notice the bottom posting!!!). I
am a bit uneducated about many parts of the computer (and about newsgroups).
But seeing as how I've installed a motherboard and a few other things to my
computer in the past, I can learn. So what you and others have said makes
perfect sense to me, and I have checked out the BIOS and have found that
nothing is attached to the Primary Slave. Thus it apparently has nothing to
do with why my friends computer won't start up. I'm learning. I'm begging
for mercy, understanding and patience here. LOL

Helene