Hello,
I have a very frustrating Dell SX280 computer. It turns on and is fully functional, it appears, except the SATA controller is giving me a big headache! Just about every time a drive is inserted, the BIOS detects it (one time it displayed garbled text in the drive info section) just fine. However, when I try to start up from the hard drive, it gives me some drive error, or a disk read error. I've tried 3 drives, 2 known working, one of them from the PC I am using right now. Same problem. The IDE controller for the DVD drive works fine.
Windows XP Setup doesn't detect the drive even in Combined (option in BIOS for more compatibility) mode, nor does Ubuntu 10.
On top of that, the disk activity light is on solid about 90% of the time, and sometimes the drive doesn't appear to be a boot option in the boot menu, although it is detected in the BIOS.
The capacitors seem to be perfectly flat, but there may be a problem with them that is not immediately visible. The capacitor near the 3V battery could possibly be bulging although no electrolyte is visible.
Is there a particular capacitor I should watch out for with regards to this problem, or do I have a serious motherboard issue that isn't repairable by replacing capacitors?
Thanks!
I have a very frustrating Dell SX280 computer. It turns on and is fully functional, it appears, except the SATA controller is giving me a big headache! Just about every time a drive is inserted, the BIOS detects it (one time it displayed garbled text in the drive info section) just fine. However, when I try to start up from the hard drive, it gives me some drive error, or a disk read error. I've tried 3 drives, 2 known working, one of them from the PC I am using right now. Same problem. The IDE controller for the DVD drive works fine.
Windows XP Setup doesn't detect the drive even in Combined (option in BIOS for more compatibility) mode, nor does Ubuntu 10.
On top of that, the disk activity light is on solid about 90% of the time, and sometimes the drive doesn't appear to be a boot option in the boot menu, although it is detected in the BIOS.
The capacitors seem to be perfectly flat, but there may be a problem with them that is not immediately visible. The capacitor near the 3V battery could possibly be bulging although no electrolyte is visible.
Is there a particular capacitor I should watch out for with regards to this problem, or do I have a serious motherboard issue that isn't repairable by replacing capacitors?
Thanks!