IDE Channel Dead?

[LOTL]

Got an older P3 Box im working on here. Seems the secondary IDE channel might be toast. Nothing is detected when connected to it. HD's, Optical drives dont show up in the BIOS or during POST. Ive checked all the BIOS settings and everything looks fine. Swapped out the IDE cable.
Its an old Dell machine and i may look for a BIOS upgrade. Something tells me im wasting my time with it though.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Steve R Jones]

In the BIOS did you try manually changing it from Disabled to Auto?

[Sterling_Aug]

IDE controllers do die on mobos. It is not uncommon.

[LOTL]

In the BIOS did you try manually changing it from Disabled to Auto?

The choices in the BIOS were Disabled, Primary, Secondary, and Both. It was set to Both and thats where i left it. I did try Secondary for the heck of it and still no show.
Funny i forgot to mention that one of the optical drives actually worked and both CD-ROM and CDRW drives were shown in the device manager even when nothing was showing in the BIOS or during POST.
I tried unplugging the IDE cable from one and then from both of them and then in the Device Manager i would loose the entry for the Secondary IDE Channel. Plug them both in and now i get both Primary and Secondary shown under the IDE ATA/Atapi Controllers heading.
Only one drive works though which is strange. Im off to find a new BIOS and see what happens. Its got an Intel chipset and i may try reinstalling the latest and greatest from Intels or Dells website.

[LOTL]

Well the BIOS upgrade worked. Went from the original BIOS A02 up to the latest A11 version and both drives showed in the BIOS and POST this time.
Do have a dead CDRW drive though. Always sumtin.