Problem accessing IDE disc on a EPIA-ML6000EAG

[johan.eke]

Hi !

I'm a new owner of an VIA EPIA-ML6000EAG motherboard.

Have anyone been able to install Linux ( or Windows 2000 Pro) on a motherboard like this on a IDE disc ?

spec according to manual:

Chipset
- VIA CLE266 North Bridge
- VT8235 South Bridge

2 X UltraDMA 66 / 100 / 133 Connector

Repeatedy errors like below is displayed when trying different distros ( Ubuntu, Fedora, DSL, Debian)

<4>hda: read_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
<4>hda: read_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=127, high=0, low=127, sector=64
<4>end_request: I/O error, dev 03:01 (hda), sector 64

And a blue screen of death trying to install Windows 2000 Pro on it. The message says
unable to access disc.

The disc is a modern Seagate and works fine on other machines.

Don't know if I'm missing something or if the motherboard is broken

/Johan

[boyblue]

johan.eke

What model is the Seagate drive?

[johan.eke]

The Seagate drive is a Baracuda ST3120026A (Internal 3.5-inch Ultra ATA/100 120-GB Hard Drive)

[boyblue]

Is your harddrive clean and formatted? Is the jumper on the harddrive set to master and is it connected to IDE1 on the motherboard?

Have you tried another IDE cable and making sure it is 80-conductor cable.

Does the bios see the harddrive correctly? size, etc.

How much memory is installed?

[boyblue]

Is the harddrive set to first boot device HDD-0 in the bios

[boyblue]

Is the harddrive the only device connected to IDE1 so no DVD or CD-rom drives.

[johan.eke]

Originally Posted by boyblue

Is your harddrive clean and formatted? Is the jumper on the harddrive set to master and is it connected to IDE1 on the motherboard?

Have you tried another IDE cable and making sure it is 80-conductor cable.Does the bios see the harddrive correctly? size, etc.

How much memory is installed?

* Formated ( NTFS - Was last used in i Windows 2000) and empty. Yep it's set as master and on IDE1.
* Tried two different 80-conductor cables. Same result. Even tried a 40-conductor cable with no difference.
* Looks OK in the BIOS as far as can see.
* 1024 Mb of memory

[johan.eke]

Harddrive not set as first boot disc since I boot from the installation CD ( The CD is set as the first on)

[johan.eke]

Originally Posted by boyblue

Is the harddrive the only device connected to IDE1 so no DVD or CD-rom drives.

Currently the harddrive is on IDE1 and CD on IDE2. By mistake I ran it the other way around when I first installed it but corrected it when I discovered my mistake. Same problem in both configurations though.

[johan.eke]

But I have done some discoveries this evening.

#1. Since booting Linux from the installation CD connected as a IDE unit takes a long time I thought it also was affected by the same problem. But now after giving it the time it needed it turns out that the reason it was taking time was that it could not mount the HD. In other words accesing the IDE CD player works but not the IDE HD so this could be that it's not broken hardware :-)

I had abandoned booting connecting it as an IDE unit and running it as a USB unit before I retried it.

#2. After booting up on the Ubuntu live CD I downloaded Seagates SMART checkup tool for linux and ran it on the machine against the HD and received the following error "VERIFY failed on block 127 Sense data = 14/00/00". Not sure but I think the 0x14 code is broken cable. Strange...