IDE Port problem

my MV43 m/b will not find hdd's on ide1, I have tried different hdd's, if a
cd rom is on ide1 by itself it gives "incompatible atapi device" message, I
can boot a hdd from ide2 even with the cd rom as slave and all works
okay???? but not on the primary master, it just will not detect a hdd
..............

I have tried new cables / power supply / hard drive, ram, and I have
returned the m/b and the same thing happened with the returned one ????

any ideas please????