[SOLVED] HDD only spins when IDE cable is unplugged

[Alpha39401]

I am trying to put together an old system with parts that I have and I have met a weird issue.

It's a socket 775 P43 chipset mobo. I have 2 IDE HDDs, one is a Maxtor 120GB and the other is a Seagate 250GB(Maxtor is master, Seagate is slave). Pretty ancient stuff but the Maxtor only has around 20 hours power on time.

I installed Win 10 on the Maxtor and it worked fine at first. And it suddenly stopped working (nothing is touched, same jumper settings, same setup). Hard disk doesn't spin at all if IDE cable is plugged in. It can post but the initialization takes abnormally long (like a broken HDD would).
It might randomly boot in every few tries but it's unpredictable. When the IDE cable is unplugged both HDD spins up.

I cleaned the system so there isn't much dust. I also tried another cable and cleaned the IDE connectors with alcohol. I measured the molex 4-pin of the power supply and I got 12V and 5V as well.

Looks like the mobo is no good?

Specs
ASUS P5QL-PRO
Pentium Dual Core E5200
Radeon HD 4350
2.5GB DDR2
120GB + 250GB IDE/PATA HDD
SATA disc drive

 

[rgd1101]

test the ide drive on the other port?
even if it only 20 power on time. old hdd don't age well.

 

[fzabkar]

This is the behaviour one could expect if the IDE cable were installed upside down. But you say that nothing was touched ...

 

[rgd1101]

shouldn't it have a node so you can't install it upside down?

 

[fzabkar]

Some IDE cables don't have keys or notches. I've reversed them many times on 3.5" drives. It does no harm because power is supplied via a separate connector.

However, you wouldn't want to do this on 2.5" drives with 44-pin IDE cables. These have the power pins at the end of the cable.