Super sensitive IDE ribbon cables??? Really annoying

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:05 am

I thought my hard drives were both going bad, after I suspended my hard drives the computer wouldn't find my storage 120gigger and then after messing with the cables some more I couldn't load windows from my main 80 gb drive. Crap, I thought.

But then I tried a new IDE cable and everything's fine. But now it's starting to do the same thing my crinkled old cable did. My hard drives will just freeze up so I have to open my case up and fiddle with the cables and make sure it turns on and works again before screwing the side back on (ANTEC 3700bqe).

I can't just let the cable go wherever it wants to in my case, clean airflow is pretty important with my configuration, so I tried to keep it tucked in against the side. My cablegomi (lol spelling?) skills aren't superb but I doubt I could even fold them without the cable just dieing. My question is, are there any "super" cables out there that aren't going to crap out on me? Round cables are probably where it's at. Anyone have an experience with IDE cables doing this, and a solution?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:10 pm

Personally, I suspect they may be overpriced, but I've only heard good things about Granite Digital cables

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:33 pm

lol yikes that is really expensive. I guess I'll try some of the round newegg ones when i get around to it.

jldet5 · Post by **jldet5** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:53 pm

There is some server grade round cables for $16 off of one of the yahoo shopping stores that look promising.

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:58 pm

If it's happening with multiple cables, I wonder if its the motherboard, and not the cable at all. Having one flaky cable is one thing, but have a repeat would be exceptionally rare. Check the pins and conenctors on both the mobo and the drive for cracked or loose bits.

brad · Post by **brad** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:04 pm

I thought I was having issues with faulty sata cables in my system. After replacing every cable, trying the drives in different ports, and several volume repairs \o/ I finally figured out what was going on.
I had 4 drives in the system, and it was too much for the powersupply. At least I assume that was it.. I haven't had a problem since I cut back to 2 drives.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:22 pm

Rusty075 wrote:If it's happening with multiple cables, I wonder if its the motherboard, and not the cable at all. Having one flaky cable is one thing, but have a repeat would be exceptionally rare. Check the pins and conenctors on both the mobo and the drive for cracked or loose bits.

That's a good point. I have been moving things around a bit in there, perhaps it is one of the connectors on the mobo or the ones on the hard drives themselves

Well, it's been good to me so far for the last day and a half, we'll see where it goes from here.

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:48 pm

Just for grins, you might try running your drive sitting outside the case, or at least sitting on something non-conductive.

A while back, I had some strange EM problem (perhaps current in the chasis?). Basically, I RMA'ed four consecutive drives because they kept exhibiting data corruption. I got tired of completely mounting every new drive to the drive cage, so when I got the fifth (yeah, I'm a slow learner), I just powered it up sitting outside my case. Worked fine. Put it back in the case: data corruption. Back out of the case: fine. Etc.

I never did figure out exactly what the problem was, as I replaced all other components eventually anyway.

Matt