Weird problem with Abit IS7 motherboard...

[WRXHokie]

Okay recently when i came home from work i found that the power had
gone out, and my computer had been left on all day, and so i rebooted
it after it had been shut off. Well, what i found was that when it
was going through the boot up process (specifically the part where it
detects all the IDE devices) That it would detect the IDE Channel 1
Master device and then just freeze. It would actually say something
like "3^2^3hannel 1 Master IBM-HD". After displaying that, it would
just freeze.

Normally it would go on to detect the other hard drive on that Channel
(the slave one), and then the DVD drive on IDE Channel 2. I have no
other IDE devices.

What i've tried (which is about everything that i can think of), i've
tried resetting the CMOS, flashing the BIOS, flipping the master and
slave hard drives on channel 1, and also tried setting them up on
Channel 2.

What i've also found is that i've disconnected everything from the
motherboard except the video card and it boots fine. Then i added just
the one master hard drive and freeze happens again. I then just
hooked up the dvd rom and video card to the motherboard and the IDE
channel detects the dvd rom fine. Only when i put the hard drives on
the IDE channels does it mess up.

In addition, i've tried hooking up known working hard drives to the
IDE channel and they crap out the same way my regular hard drive does.
So that tells me its not the hard drives (I also hooked up my hard
drives to a seperate windows machine and they were detected and i
could get to the data fine in windows).

Well anyway, like i said, i'm at a loss and have no freaking idea why
it is my motherboard doesnt like hard drives any longer. It worked
great up until the power went off during the day.

Anyone have any suggestions about what the problem might be?

My configuration is as follows:
ABit IS7 motherboard
Intel P4 2.6 GHz
1/2 Gig RAM
Hard drive 1 (Master) is IBM 30 Gig (Has Windows XP loaded on it)
Hard drive 2 (Slave) is Western Digital 120 GB
BIOS version 20 on the motherboard.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to TechSpot

Looks like the IDE-1 channel has been damaged by the power-out.
The cheapest way to repair this, other than replacing the motherboard, would be to buy a separate PCI ID-controller, stick that in, attach your HD's to it, make it the first-booting controller, and off you go.
If you want to change the mobo, get an identical one, that way you don't need to reinstall anything.

 

[WRXHokie]

Even though the IDE channels recognize my DVD drive, you still think the IDE channels are damaged? Its only hard drives that are not recognized by them.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

You could try clearing CMOS by taking the battery out for a few minutes.
If that does not help yet, try flashing the BIOS, either with the same version that you had, or with a newer one if available.
If you have all the HD-settings (normally available on a sticker somewhere on the HD), you could try and set the stuff manually in the BIOS.
Start with only your old HD that has Windoze on it (as master). When you get that going, try the new HD.
Failing that, new ID-controller or new mobo.

 

[WRXHokie]

Have taken out the battery to clear the CMOS, have flashed the BIOS, havnt tried to manually configure the hard drives, but i never get the chance considering i cant get far enough in the boot up process to access the BIOS when i hook up the hard drives.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

With the danger of repeating myself, get yourself a new PCI HD-controller.