[broughha]

Hi,
Hope somebody can help me with my problem. I can't get to HDD command line.

My setup - 500gb seagate brick. Nokia Ca-42 cable (powered by 5v from another (faulty) celluar cable), tx and rx lines - loopback test passed, gnd - from Nokia cable, software - Hyperterm. Whole thing seems to be working fine, loopback test passed many times but when I connect power to HDD, I get lines of "garbage", on a page 84 I read that most often it's caused by GND cable problems, did a tripple check and tightened GND but still don't see anything useful in a terminal. I have two sources of power for hdd - 220v to SATA (part of external hdd interface) and a SATA power cable via adapter from MOLEX IDE connector from desktop pc. When I change powersources it result in different amount of garbage in terminal. Maybe someone can have an idea what's wrong with my setup?

[jaclaz]

Grounding should mean that ANY device connected is grounded together.

I.e. ALL boards/devices/whatever should have the 0V (usually black) cables connected together.

Do check also speed/parity settings in hyperterminal.

Try getting the power for the CA-42 by the SAME 220V to SATA PSU.

jaclaz