WD Caviar WD400BB recognised in BIOS

[apprent]

I'm looking into a WD400BB, which is behaving quite oddly. It is recognised by BIOS, MHDD (I've run an F4 scan on the first 5GB, no problems) and Linux.

It has problems getting recognised during BIOS boot, unless it's on its own IDE channel as single master. I had to boot from CD, since when I tried to put a WD120GB in 1st IDE channel the PC locks up.
Strange characters in identification string ^WD^C ^WD400B^B-00^DE^A0 (Note: in MHDD these appear as funny high-ASCII chars)
Data read seems to be partially garbled.

E.g. output of hdparm (Linux):

Code:

ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       ^WD^C ^WD400B^B-00^DE^A0
        Serial Number:      ^WD-W^CA^D13xxxxx
        Firmware Revision:  05.03E05
Standards:
        Supported: 5 4 3
        Likely used: 5
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   16383
        heads           16      16
        sectors/track   63      63
        --
        CHS current addressable sectors:   16497680
        LBA    user addressable sectors:   78165360
        device size with M = 1024*1024:       38166 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:       40020 MBytes (40 GB)
Capabilities:
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        bytes avail on r/w long: 40
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 *udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Security:
                supported
        not     enabled
        not     locked
        not     frozen
        not     expired: security count
        not     supported: enhanced erase
[b]Checksum: incorrect (0xc0), expected 0x40[/b]


I've mirrored the first few GBytes, but data seems partially garbled. Strings from drive image reveal data suspiciosly like garbled text, e.g.:

Code:

V%r)S)g., I.c.1705
l!s3 3
u"l)c P2i-a2y C%r4i&i#a4i/n A5t(o2i4y0
040716000000
140715235959Z0
V%r)S)g., I.c.1
i'n T2u3t N%t7o2k1;09
2T%r-s o& 5s% !t h4t0s://w7w.v%r)s)g..#o-/2p! (c)041.0,
i'n C,a3s 3 C/d%
i'n)n' 2004 C
"'$,8
070307235959
o3c/w1
M/s#o71
a3p%r3k9
a"1>0<
i'i4a,  D C,a3s 3 - M)c2o3o&t S/f4w!r%
a,i$a4i/n v21
e#h.i#a, $e0t1
K!s0e2s+y L!b0
90705
/(t4p://C
C3-2004-c2l.v%r)s)g..#o-/
3-2004.#r,0
F  -- W)n$o7s S4i,l I-a'e S%t5p F)l%
o0y2i'h4 (c) 1997-2000
i#r/s/f4
o2p/r!t)o.
; M!n5f!c4u2e2: M)c2o3o&t C/r0 &o2
p3o.
e2s)o.]
a9o5t
i,e=L!y/u4.)n&
S)g.a4u2e="$C
l!s3=   m!g%
C,a3s
U       D={6b$d1f#6-810&-11$0-b%c7-08002b%2092f=
P2o6i$e2=%M3f4%
r)v%r
e2=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.0


Any ideas what is going on here?

[pepe]

bad ide cable or rather one bit on the interface seems to be shorted to ground.

pepe

[rameez]

or any of the pins of the IDE connector may be broken .

[pepe]

It seems that the bit is forced to low level (logical 0), if it was open, the level would be high (logical 1).

That's why I am suspecting something else...

pepe