Does IDE cable need to be connected?

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Hi,
I have a very old P2 400 PC, and I had an IDE cable connected to the Primary IDE connector on the mobo, and the cable does not connected to any devices, and my PC won't POST up, all I got is a blank screen. IF I remove that cable, my mobo would boot up to the point where it find there is no OS.

Is this means I have a bad IDE cable or bad IDE connector on the mobo?

or in another word, does the IDE cable on the mobo need to connect to some device?

Thanks in advance!
 
make sure the jumper on your hdd is set to master (shouldn't matter but do it anyway)
1. put the ide cable into the primary connector, then plug it into your hdd, does it boot?
2. If not, take it out of the primary and plug it into the secondary ide connector, does it boot?
3. If not, change the ide cable and try steps 1 and 2 again.
(again, doesn't matter which ide connector you use to connect the hdd to)
4. If it still does not work, you either have faulty ide connectors on your motherboard or your hdd has a corrupted os on it.
 
thanks for the advice, I did play around with the primary and secondary IDE connector on the mobo, it turned out if I use the secondary, it always boot up. And if I use the primary, most of the time it won't boot up, but it also boot up two times.
I guess the connection on the primary has some problem, I might pulled it too hard.

make sure the jumper on your hdd is set to master (shouldn't matter but do it anyway)
1. put the ide cable into the primary connector, then plug it into your hdd, does it boot?
2. If not, take it out of the primary and plug it into the secondary ide connector, does it boot?
3. If not, change the ide cable and try steps 1 and 2 again.
(again, doesn't matter which ide connector you use to connect the hdd to)
4. If it still does not work, you either have faulty ide connectors on your motherboard or your hdd has a corrupted os on it.
 
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