BIOS not detecting HDD

I am not a computer expert, so I need some help. I am working on a
custom made computer that had a 150GB HDD in it for a few years
without problems. It was running WinXP Home. It has an Asus P5A-B
baby AT motherboard. The 150GB HDD, the only IDE HDD in it, was
placed on the IDE cable as the primary HDD with a CD-ROM drive on the
same IDE cable as the secondary drive. Again, this arrangement worked
fine for a few years. Then my mother called me to say she was having
trouble getting WinXP to load. She then had trouble getting the
computer to start. She lives out of town, so I was not able to look
at the computer for a while after the problems started. Okay, so I
have the computer here and I cannot get the BIOS to detect the HDD. I
think it's called POST, where the computer does boot up, but it cannot
get past detecting the primary HDD. I have three HDD's one is a
100GB, the other two are 80GB. I have tried every jumper setting
possible on all three drives without success. I have tried two
different ribbon cables. One cable is just like the original one, in
that it has connectors for two drives. The other cable simply has a
connector at each end (i.e. accommodates one IDE drive). I have tried
setting the BIOS to the default settings. I know the drives are good,
b/c they all work when connected to another computer. If the HDD is
removed, the BIOS will go on to detect the CD-ROM drive. The best I
can remember, all I did was pull the old HDD b/c I was having a hard
time reinstalling WinXP. But, I am thinking (I could be wrong), the
BIOS was at least recognizing the old HDD. I have replaced many HDD's
in several computers over the years, but I have not run into this
problem before. I am not familiar with motherboards, but would it be
possible for the IDE controller to go bad? The BIOS is the original
from 1998 or 1999. I thought about flashing the BIOS, but I've never
tried it before and I didn't want to risk it unless I was sure that
would help the problem. I'm ready to trash this computer, so I would
appreciate any ideas you have. Thanks in advance, ATL.

"ATL" wrote in message
...
I am not a computer expert, so I need some help. I am working on a
custom made computer that had a 150GB HDD in it for a few years
without problems. It was running WinXP Home. It has an Asus P5A-B
baby AT motherboard. The 150GB HDD, the only IDE HDD in it, was
placed on the IDE cable as the primary HDD with a CD-ROM drive on the
same IDE cable as the secondary drive. Again, this arrangement worked
fine for a few years. Then my mother called me to say she was having
trouble getting WinXP to load. She then had trouble getting the
computer to start. She lives out of town, so I was not able to look
at the computer for a while after the problems started. Okay, so I
have the computer here and I cannot get the BIOS to detect the HDD. I
think it's called POST, where the computer does boot up, but it cannot
get past detecting the primary HDD. I have three HDD's one is a
100GB, the other two are 80GB. I have tried every jumper setting
possible on all three drives without success. I have tried two
different ribbon cables. One cable is just like the original one, in
that it has connectors for two drives. The other cable simply has a
connector at each end (i.e. accommodates one IDE drive). I have tried
setting the BIOS to the default settings. I know the drives are good,
b/c they all work when connected to another computer. If the HDD is
removed, the BIOS will go on to detect the CD-ROM drive. The best I
can remember, all I did was pull the old HDD b/c I was having a hard
time reinstalling WinXP. But, I am thinking (I could be wrong), the
BIOS was at least recognizing the old HDD. I have replaced many HDD's
in several computers over the years, but I have not run into this
problem before. I am not familiar with motherboards, but would it be
possible for the IDE controller to go bad? The BIOS is the original
from 1998 or 1999. I thought about flashing the BIOS, but I've never
tried it before and I didn't want to risk it unless I was sure that
would help the problem. I'm ready to trash this computer, so I would
appreciate any ideas you have. Thanks in advance, ATL.

Dont flash the bios.
The drives work in another pc, so it's possible the ide controller has gone
bad.
There's also equal chance that the power supply is gone, and since you've
been mucking with stuff now then other things might be messed up :/.
Use 1 hard drive and remove the cd-rom. Set the hard drive Master or CS
(master is better), make sure that it's connected to IDE0 on the motherboard
and (hopefully) it's connected to the part of the ribbon cable used for
master (master will go on the end, hopefully this connector is black (with
blue going to motherboard) but if it's an old cable that wont be the case).
Turn on the computer, enter the bios, move down (using down arrow) to
Primary master, the word "Auto" should be highlighted, hit enter and it
should see the drive.

I am also confused about what drives you have
150gb
100gb
80gb *2

(all sound excessive for a mother)

"ATL" wrote in message
...
I am not a computer expert, so I need some help. I am working on a
custom made computer that had a 150GB HDD in it for a few years
without problems. It was running WinXP Home. It has an Asus P5A-B
baby AT motherboard. The 150GB HDD, the only IDE HDD in it, was
placed on the IDE cable as the primary HDD with a CD-ROM drive on the
same IDE cable as the secondary drive. Again, this arrangement worked
fine for a few years. Then my mother called me to say she was having
trouble getting WinXP to load. She then had trouble getting the
computer to start. She lives out of town, so I was not able to look
at the computer for a while after the problems started. Okay, so I
have the computer here and I cannot get the BIOS to detect the HDD. I
think it's called POST, where the computer does boot up, but it cannot
get past detecting the primary HDD. I have three HDD's one is a
100GB, the other two are 80GB. I have tried every jumper setting
possible on all three drives without success. I have tried two
different ribbon cables. One cable is just like the original one, in
that it has connectors for two drives. The other cable simply has a
connector at each end (i.e. accommodates one IDE drive). I have tried
setting the BIOS to the default settings. I know the drives are good,
b/c they all work when connected to another computer. If the HDD is
removed, the BIOS will go on to detect the CD-ROM drive. The best I
can remember, all I did was pull the old HDD b/c I was having a hard
time reinstalling WinXP. But, I am thinking (I could be wrong), the
BIOS was at least recognizing the old HDD. I have replaced many HDD's
in several computers over the years, but I have not run into this
problem before. I am not familiar with motherboards, but would it be
possible for the IDE controller to go bad? The BIOS is the original
from 1998 or 1999. I thought about flashing the BIOS, but I've never
tried it before and I didn't want to risk it unless I was sure that
would help the problem. I'm ready to trash this computer, so I would
appreciate any ideas you have. Thanks in advance, ATL.

I'd try a different known to be working PSU first. I've seen similar things
a number of times with PSU that's on its way out. Also check that the
electroytic capacitors, particularly the bigger ones sited near the CPU are
not split, bulging or obviously leaking.