Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed?

**buurin** · 05-17-2007, 01:25 PM

When I boot up and the PC detects my hard drive I get the following error / warning:

"Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed"

I am using a 2.5" laptop drive (Toshiba 60GB 5400/16MB 2.5" Mobile PATA HD), M10000 Motherboard, and a laptop->IDE adapter (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Sku=C184-17705)

I have also recently began to experience frequent, unexpected shutdowns of the computer. I want to know if this message is related to my shutdowns.

I am pretty sure I never received this 80 conductor cable warning in the past.

My question:
Could this be faulty hardware? If so, would it be the HD, Mobo, or IDE cable?

I plan to run two tests when I get home:
1) Try a different hard drive to see if the error appears
2) Try a different IDE cable

Any other tests I should run?

**psyrex** · 05-17-2007, 01:50 PM

That's just a cable thing. Use a 80 conductor 40 pin cable. You're probably using a 40 conductor 40 pin cable right now. Frequent shutdowns are likely power related, and not this.

**buurin** · 05-18-2007, 12:56 PM

So I swapped IDE cables and the 80 conductor warning went away

I then put the old IDE cable back on and the message did not appear. This makes me even more confident that this message did in fact recently start appearing.

Booting the PC w/o the message, I allowed the PC to run for 2+ hours. Previously I was seeing the unexpected reboots & shutdown.