How do I test an IDE / Parallel ATA channel, as opposed to a drive attached to such a channel?

Question

PROBLEM:
I may have partially friend a secondary IDE channel interface on a x86 machine, possibly by static or plugging/unplugging the ribbon cable while the motherboard was partly powered.

SYMPTOMS:
At boot, the BIOS (Phoenix, circa 2002) can't recognize anything on that channel, but sees "something" and tries for about 90 second per device - three minutes if two drives are attached.
After boot, I can open/close the tray, and dmesg reports the drive ID, but it remains inaccessible.

GOAL
I would like to see if it's really hardware-gone or if there's some strange firmware setting somewhere that can be fixed. I'd prefer to save this IDE channel to any alternative I can think of, such as putting CD and HD on primary, or getting a PCI IDE/PATA interface card.

Answer 1

When you use the term partly powered, what do you mean. Either the systemboard was powered on or not. Usually when an IDE channel is bad, it is blown, it is bad. It is never a firmware issue. It is likely the IDE channel will not work with any drive. By the way, what are you trying to check the secondary ide channel with. Another drive or CDROM, make sure the jumpers are set correctly. Almost always, the system will halt at the post if the device it's trying to read is not functioning or the jumpers are set incorrectly. Good Luck!