I have a message when my computer BOOTS up that says it cannot find the IDE devices. It looks for the primary, and then (failing that) starts looking for the secondary....I can BYPASS it, and it "tries" to continue to boot up, but ends up prompting me for a boot diskette. It is a wierd problem....computer works just fine, and then freezes (no rhyme or reason to that, either), and when I have to reboot, I get this "Attempting to access primary ide device..." message again.

I'm running Win98SE on this machine. The system could run much more, but it is primarily my "music studio" machine. System is a KT7 MOBO (I think...) with an Athlon 1.2GHz processor, 512MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 64MB RAM video, Two hard drives divided into 4 partitions each (both are 80G hard drives). I built this system about 2 years ago, and have never had a moment's problem with it. Actually, I DID replace its power supply about a year ago, but it's been working fine since....until now!

If I remove the case, and tug off the IDE cables at both ends, and reinstall them (the old "RUB off the corrosion" trick), it starts right up every time. However, I'm not too long into a document, or a song that is playing, etc., when it just freezes up again. The reboot produces....you guessed it!...."Attempting to access, etc."

Any SUGGESTIONS?I would try a few inexpensive fixes before we anylise any furter...
1) Get 2 brand new IDE cables and hook them up to your HDD and optical drives...

2) Get a new CMOS battery part# CS2032 and replace the one on your MBoard...

Make sure when doing both of the above that all power is removed to the box and that you are properly grounded...

Then post back with the results and we can diagnose further.

patio.  Thanks for the reply....I had already replaced the cables, and have also replaced them (40-pin) with ultra-dma cables (80-pin) and I get the same result from both sets of cables...everything boots once....locks up, and then the same thing. However, I have not yet changed the CMOS battery, and that makes sense, too....I'll head over to R-shack today and see if I can get it there, and once it is changed, I will let you know what happens.

Thanks for being there!!You're Welcome,
Let us know how it goes...

patio.  You know what? As smart as I like to think I am about computers, it never occurred to me that the CMOS battery might be failing! Little things like date/time should have been my first clue!

I changed that thing today, and it's booting up faster, seems to run better, no error messages, no other problems....(for now). Of course, I won't "say" that out loud....you know how computers can be! (BTW, you were 100% on the mark with the correct battery number, too!)

Thanks ever so much for the advice! You are awesome! I have my music back, and my computer is behaving like new again! Thanks, too, for the "lesson"!

God Bless you and all those you love! And, have a wonderful Holiday Season!

JudieYou're more than Welcome and thanx for posting back to let us know how it worked...
Glad you got it solved and yes keep your FINGERS crossed.

patio.