PS1/2 PS2 - Harddrive is not shown as formated after reboot

[shawly]

Info:
FMCB 1.964 + Modbo 4.0 (FW v1.93)
SCPH-50004

Yesterday I've installed a Modbo 4.0 I bought from Eurasia.nu in my V9. After I was done it seemed to work fine, except when I started OPL and it showed no games at all. Long-story short I opened uLaunchELF which showed that the HDD was connected, but not formatted. So I formatted it again via uLaunch and it showed the partitions now, BUT as soon as the PS2 is reset, the drive is shown as not formatted again. Connecting it to my PC and opening WinHIIP reveals, that the drive is still formatted, so the issues lies somewhere on the PS2.

I've tried three different hard drives, same issue. I've formatted the drives via uLaunch and WinHIIP but it doesn't make a difference.

I've tried to skip booting the Matrix firmware from the Modbo, but it also doesn't seem to be the cause of the issues.
Before I assembled the system after the Modbo installation, I've checked for bridged contacts with my multimeter, but it didn't seem like I've bridged anything.
I can't rule out the possibility of having bridged contacts, but I'd say I've done a pretty good job and I've checked everything thoroughly.

The problem is, the last time the PS2 was running, was in November and I've disassembled it right after I got the Modchip, so I can't say if the issue was already present before the Modchip installation.
But I can definitely say that the PS2 worked without issues back in Nov.

Could it be that my third party SATA network adapter is about to die? I mean if it were dead, the drive wouldn't show or format at all I guess, but does anyone know this issue?

 

[Ryccardo]

Could it be that my third party SATA network adapter is about to die? I mean if it were dead, the drive wouldn't show or format at all I guess

In general, third party "network" adapters are a bad idea: the best one (the GameStar) was designed to be 100% compatible with the homebrew drivers for the original one, however the drivers were wrong, and making them work better with the original broke compatibility with the GameStar (which is, after debate, a compile-time option): add the fact that there are fakes of the GameStar, fakes of the original, unbranded models with different designs...

It is certainly possible for a chip to conflict with other mods, including homebrew drivers; try changing your chip's settings to disable, at least, HDD-related patches (ATAD) - maybe you'll need to add a power switch for the chip?

try new and old versions of W/uLaunchElf too, just in case it's actually a compatibility problem!

 

[shawly]

I got one that is labeled from GameStar, dunno if it's a clone of the clone. Anyways, I could narrow it down now, I've copied uLE to my second non FMCB MC so I could boot it directly with DEV1 mode from the Modbo, without FMCB interfering.
The same problem was still there, didn't matter if I used uLE 4.38, the latest version or wLE or the uLE 2TB edition. I've tried to format the drive again but this time I wanted to copy uLE to the HDD just to see if it could boot from it but as I wanted to paste the boot.elf, it said copying failed, same when creating a new directory on any of the partitions. I could create new partitions though, which weren't writable either. I've also tried install FHDB but the FMCB Installer actually failed at formatting.

So either my modchip is faulty, my soldering was faulty even though I haven't bridged anything and the soldering points seem to be good OR it actually is the NA which might have gotten damaged because I opened it out of curiosity.
Anyway my new original Sony NA arrived today, much to my regret because I don't have any IDE drive to test it with and the SATA upgrade board hasn't even been shipped yet, unreliable ebay retailers ftw I guess..
Guess I have to excercise patience and hope it's indeed the NA.