Seeking Help With a Computer Problem

[Agent Minivann]

I've been having a little computer problem, and I figured I would check here before buying something. I know there has to be a few here that know more about computer hardware than I.

I built the computer about 2 years ago. It is an AMD motherboard and CPU with SATA hard drive and dvd drive running Vista. In the last month or so it has had a hard time detecting the hard drive when it boots. During the POST it sees the DVD drive consistently, but it doesn't always catch the hard drive resulting in a message to insert a boot disc. When it does detect the drive everything works normally. A couple days ago the BIOs reverted to factory defaults.

What I have tried so far:
I put on a new SATA cable.
I switched power cables to the drive.
I replaced the CMOS battery.
I moved the hard drive from SATA 1 to SATA 2 (and DVD drive from SATA 2 to SATA 3).

After all that I still have the problem. I think I have done all the cheap fixes I can think of. The only things I can think of trying is putting in a new motherboard, a new hard drive or a new power supply. All of these would involve making a purchase that I will have a hard time paying for (even going cheap. Does anyone have any ideas what component is causing the problem?

Thanks in advance.

[Cavalier]

I would honestly be looking at the HD, but your issue is one that honestly makes me . Definately a weird one.

[crxcowboy]

I would think that it might be the mother board since the BIOS reset. I had a similar problem happen at work the other day and the mother board is what we tracked it to. Our final test was whether or not the motherboard would power a USB mouse or not. If it can't, it's more than likely the motherboard.

[robbdaman]

I would probably agree that the MB is the culprit for whatever reason. Either the SATA chips failing resulting in lost controllers or an overall dying board. Difficult to track unless you want to go in with some BIOS tool at manufacturer level. I keep old drives or multiples in one system around to run tests with on occasion though dying drives typically make noise (clicking or whirring) so I would doubt that is the issue but it is always worth a try if you have an extra available.

[lefton4ya]

One of the following is bad: the sata controller on the motherboard, the hard drive controller (circuit board on hard drive), the boot sector is just corrupted but not physically damaged, or the hard drive disk is physically damaged, especially the boot sectors.

First try connecting an old hard drive to the same sata port to see if it recognizes that, then try hooking up the hard drive to another computer either internally or using a USB adapter - that will determine if the motherboard sata controller is bad or it is a hard drive issue. If the sata controller is bad, it may be replaceable but usually it is "embedded" on the motherboard so is easier to just buy an add-on sata or RAID controller card.

If the boot sector is corrupted, you can get a bootable diagnostic disc from your hard drive manufacturer to repair the boot sector without affecting the rest of the data. If it is a hard drive issue, the only way to determine if is a bad circuit controller or physical damage to the disk is to reformat the hard drive. That would require you to purchase a new hard drive to copy data off too, and I would recommend just buying a new one and format it and reinstall windows, drivers, programs, etc and then see if you can copy the data from your old hard drive to your new one.

[Agent Minivann]

Thanks for the answers, guys. I think I have just about ruled out the hard drive. Did an old school CHKDSK, and a manufacturer diagnostic that always came back normal, even when run on a "floppy"* that boots to DOS. About the only thing that is left is the motherboard. I'll have to look into RMAing it. If all else fails I guess I could just get a SATA card. Potential replacement motherboards that work with my CPU all seem either expensive or a downgrade (worse sound and video, fewer DIMM slots, fewer SATA connections, etc.

Does anyone know how to check the SATA controller?

*One good thing that came from this is that I now have a USB stick that boots to DOS. This thing will come in handy.

[Chardris1287]

Agent Minivann, I don't know much of anything about how a computer works. And I'm sorry if I leech on your thread but I'm having a graphics driver issue with mine. A few months ago, I bought a Nvidia GeForce gts 250 (sparkle) graphics card. It worked fine at first but the past couple of weeks, it's been acting up. Whenever I log in to play Starcraft 2, it will freeze up and force my computer to restart. This happens on other games as well, and also just watching videos...(heck one time the computer screen went green and froze when I logged onto Heroscapers forums.) I take the card out and all of these problems go away, but obviously I lose the ability to play some games with the best possible quality, and some games I can't even play at all. So what can I do to fix this problem? I'm toying with buying a new card but that will be about $150.

[Agent Minivann]

I would check for new drivers. Chances are there has been an update since it shipped.

[crxcowboy]

New video drivers is always a good place to start. It's distinctly possible that the processor on the video card is going bad. Check the drivers first. If you have another computer you can try it in, that can tell you if it's the video card for certain or if the video slot is having issues.

[lefton4ya]

Also, you can update the BOIS for the motherboard, controller card, and even hard drive. I don't know what brand you have, but usually you can download diagnostic and bios flash utilities that can be run from windows, or at the very least put on your USB flash drive. also, make sure your drivers are digitally signed and windows certified as newer windows vista service packs (and windows 7) require signed drivers or else they won't load.

[ForwardOn]

I agree that this is very likely the motherboard. Why else would the BIOS reset itself? Its possible that there are some power or jumper issues with the components you have connected. Best would be to test this out bit by bit. And for the hard drive I would try out assigning a new drive letter or changing the assignments with the DVD drive and whatever else you have. Then go into the bios and make sure it boots whatever drive letter first that is assigned with the hard drive. (Or alternatively, just see if swapping the drive letters for the DVD and HD will do the trick)

[lefton4ya]

I love it when people register to this site to make their first post in the off-topic forum, especially a dead thread.

Spoiler Alert!

I am half-sarcastic and half-serious about that.