I need to repair my desktop computer. Either the CPU or motherboard is faulty. I tested the system with two different good power supplies and both shut down in about 1/10 second, even with all boards and drives disconnected. Power is available to the pins of the connectors. No boot to BIOS since it shuts down immediately. Fortunately, both supplies have overload protection for dead short circuits, and that is what it appears to be doing, though it may be the motherboards response to a bad part or CPU that shuts the power off. I bypassed the on/off switch at the connector level and get the same results.

So, I plan to upgrade my Gigabyte motherboard and Athlon 2700+ CPU to something else, most likely an AMD 3000+ or higher, possibly a 3800+, and another motherboard, possibly an ABIT or ASUS.

My problem is this. The newer chips require a different socket than the 2700+, which back then all boards supported two IDE channels for a total of 4 IDE drives. Most of the newer ones lean toward SATA support, with 4 to 6 SATA ports, and 1 or zero ATA/IDE ports.

I figure that I should get a board with one IDE port and that leave me with no direct support for two of my 4 drives. I can hook up the larger hard drive and the dual layer super-multi DVD writer to the IDE port and use just those under Linux if nothing else can support the other two drives (another hard drive and another DVD drive), but I am wondering if there are any PIC controller cards for IDE support that work under Linux, or if the IDE to SATA converer boards that attach to an IDE device and then to the SATA cable to the motherboard work under Linux.

If the latter works at the BIOS level, it should work under Linux. The PCI IDE cards I've seen come with a driver disk, which probably means that it needs the driver in Windows to work. That would help me out on the Windows XP partition but not in Linux.

Do any of you have experience in Linux with either using a PCI IDE controller card or the IDE to SATA converter boards that plug into the back of the IDE drives?

I would pay more for a board or converter that was known to work under Linux if it wasn't a lot more money. I will be unemployed off and on this year so this must be more of a repair than an upgrade. I don't want to waste money that should go to groceries on new SATA drives, a more expensive processor, etc.

Thanks!!!

Donald

They still make boards with SATA and IDE. I have a Gigabyte with one IDE port. Try Newegg and use their search options to limit your search to two IDE ports and see what you get.

Another probably-not-cheap option, is to get a board with a single IDE port for your ROM's, and move your hard drives into an external setup.

I've used the IDE/SATA converters without any problems, under both Linux and Windows. They plug in the IDE port, on the drive, and then use a SATA cable to connect to the motherboard. The only issue with them could be, is that they also need a 4-pin power connection.

The protocol conversion is done at the hardware level, even before the signals make it the motherboard, so they are transparent to the OS.

Cheers.

This solved my problem.

I evaded a HDD capacity limit on an old mother board with a Promise Ultra133TX2 controller pci card. It has two connections for two devices each with its own BIOS, and linux loved it. Its only limitation was that it lost its way to the CD drive if it was used to make that connection. I paid little for it used, but such cards are not expensive. There are several makes of cards, some better supported in linux than others. Google, friend, for linux ide controller card and find.

Q: Why would you even want to keep your IDE alive for any longer than it would take to copy the whole contents over to a new (faster, cheaper and much, much bigger) drive? Or keep the old mobo? Especially when you know that either might suddenly die on you at any time (probably at the least convenient moment)?

Just curious...

Because I'm out of work (actually, off and on with plant shutdown periods) and don't have money to pay for any more than necessary to fix the problem.

I've since narrowed it down to a chip issue and might just buy a used Athlon 2700+ chip to replace it. I substituted someone else's chip in my system and it worked fine.

Old doesn't mean useless in my household when I don't know when I'll be back to work again. Maybe in 2010 things will pick up, but I think I'm in for a rough ride until then.

If course, if someone sends me all of that for free, I'll take it and make it work in my ATX tower case, but that's highly unlikely. :-)

Donald

Hi, t2000kw -

I completely understand.

It's just frustrating how short the half-life of today's consumer-oriented hardware is (certain species of gnat have longer lifetimes than the average CPU/motherboard combination, it sometimes seems), and it's often actually *more* expensive to maintain old gear than it is just to chuck it out and start fresh.

Anyway - good luck with the hardware ... and good luck with the job hunt!

Sincerely .. PSM

Hi,

It's odd for a processor to just fail. You should check with 'AMD' to see if the chip can be replaced under warranty. What condition is your HSF for the processor?

You can get a PCI adapter too support additional IDE devices.

You mean you need a fan and heat sink on these chips? Just kidding! :-)

The fan/heatsink is in fine shape. It was replaced a year ago when the fan failed. The chip (Athlon XP 2700+) is beyond the warranty period of 3 years.

I've had motherboards fail before, but I don't think I've ever had a chip failure.

(This was a hard one to find a previous answer for. I found some related posts but nothing specific to this. Maybe it was because the posts didn't have a useful title.)

I'm probably going to go ahead and replace the board while I'm at it. I can get an Athlon 3800 X2, board, chip, memory, and an older Radeon card, and it isn't all that much more than replacing the chip. I can get a chip really cheap ($25) if I want to wait up to 7 weeks from an unreliable eBay seller in China who sometimes sends the wrong chip then never answers emails, so I won't try that route. I would like to install a Pinnacle PCI HDTV card that I bought when things were better economically and never used yet and it requires a little faster chip than I had. So by increasing the system speed just a little, I can have a DVR again. We gave up cable with their cable/DVR combo box and are getting our TV over the air in HD to save money. It would be nice to be able to record HD television.

Maybe after the taxes are done I'll have enough cash for a single SATA drive to add to the mix. Until then, I'll have to use adapters, and I like the idea of the hardware adapter cards that fit onto the back of the IDE device and allow you to hook up a SATA cable to it.

I'll still be able to have a separate drive for Linux and Windows in any case since I have two IDE drives.

Hi,

You could check with local electronic recyclers to see if they have anything that you could use. I use several in my area to get components for systems that I rebuild for low income households.

As for the 'HSF', I've seen units where the fan ceased due too lint or dust. If the user did not have the temp alarms setup then the system could in effect fail because of the rise in temp. Especially 'AMD'. I like to use a good 'HSF' with active bearings instead of a sleeve bearing. The cost difference is negligible when compared to the processor replacement cost.

t2000kw,

Just so's there no confusion, this is the Socket A Athlon XP 2700+ shown here:
http://www.shopzilla.com/amd-athlon-...386929/compare (I know, I know, they're all Socket A).

My point is that I may have a Socket A processor or 2 in the same speed range lying around that I could part w/. I'm at a point where I am unlikely to do any constructive w/ them. Would you be interested? (I hope this isn't violating the LQ advertising rules. OTOH, Sending you an e-mail might be considered spam. )

Hi,

You could go with a barebones setup. I've seen some good deals from tigerdirect for AM2+ boards w/AMD 64 athlons,PSU, Case and 1 GB memory for around $125. You would have to get a HSF for processor. Check to see what motherboard is with the barebones. Most at Tigerdirect are MSI MB for the barebones. The PSU are China supplies but they do work. I've got one cooking now, up for over 30 days and no problems with loads variations.

I swapped someone's processor from their "backup" computer into the socket and all was well, so it was the AMD Athlon chip that went bad. It had a decent heat sink and fan on it and ran for maybe 6 or 7 years, so it did it's job well.

I ended up ordering bidirectional SATA to IDE converter boards pretty cheap for the other two drives.

Yes, that's the CPU. I sent an email to you, and thanks for the offer. I did get a replacement board, CPU, stock fan, and 2 GB memory for under $100. It ended up being a partial upgrade. The only cheap source I could find at the time for a replacement for the chip was from China and some eBay buyers said he sent the wrong chip and wouldn't answer emails. Some said he sent used when he advertised new. Most were pleased, but I didn't want to wait 5-7 weeks and also have the possibility of not getting the right chip from him.

When I looked at barebones systems, I couldn't find one at a decent price. I ended up using my old ATX tower case and bought a motherboard combo with all I needed for under $100. It had an AMD 64 X2 3800 processor with it.