Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Toad on October 04, 2002, 10:10:32 AM

Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Toad on October 04, 2002, 10:10:32 AM
I got the computer up and running with a new power supply from the previous crash.

Now Googlegear just returned a stick of DDR RAM for the one that I sent back after it tested as bad.

Stuck the new RAM in to give me 768 and now I have the same problem I had before, the one the local computer shop told me I needed a new power supply for.

The computer will not detect the HD at all; this happened the first time I tried to boot after installing the new RAM.

Yanked the new stick back out but it still can't see the HD.

What now? :confused:
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: SKurj on October 04, 2002, 10:33:10 AM
flip the  plug for the hdd over +)

LoL thats something I do all the time by accident when rebuilding pc's.. thats if the plug will even go in the other side up...


SKurj
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Gunthr on October 04, 2002, 10:41:17 AM
Toad, if I were in your situation I would clear the bios on the mobo to force the bios to rescan the PCI. GLUCK.
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Hussein on October 04, 2002, 10:46:38 AM
If you have warranty, slap the whole sucker back to the shop and tell them to fix it or refund it. Sounds like a bad motherboard to me.
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Dingbat on October 04, 2002, 11:01:49 AM
Try a different power rail (the plug that goes in to the hard drive).  One could be bad, see it before.  Can you tell if the drive itself is spinning?
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Dingbat on October 04, 2002, 11:03:24 AM
Quote
Originally posted by SKurj
flip the  plug for the hdd over +)

LoL thats something I do all the time by accident when rebuilding pc's.. thats if the plug will even go in the other side up...


SKurj



I worked with a guy who some how managed to plug the molex connector into the IDE port.  what a tool.:rolleyes:
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Tyro48 on October 04, 2002, 02:03:26 PM
Have ya tried going to control, settings, and run " Add new hard ware ?
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Dingbat on October 04, 2002, 02:05:32 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Tyro48
Have ya tried going to control, settings, and run " Add new hard ware ?



Kinda hard if he can't boot to windows off of it...
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Tyro48 on October 04, 2002, 02:26:17 PM
Some folks have moren than 1 hard drive !
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Tyro48 on October 04, 2002, 02:30:05 PM
What operating system you using?
Try 1 stick only in the very 1st slot
Start out with your vid card installed remove all others
Get your sys to its most basic level so the power supply is lightly loaded and see if it comes up
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Toad on October 04, 2002, 02:31:02 PM
Well kiss my sister.

Figured I'd try Dingbat's suggestion. I unplug the computer totally; remove the main power cord from the Power Supply so the little green light on the Mobo goes out.

(Not sure what that is acutally, but it stays lit even with the computer off unless you pull the plug to the wall. Obviously, the Mobo is getting some power from the power supply even when the computer is off. This probably reset the bios or something?)

I swap rail plugs to the HD even though I never touched that suckah and it ran fine for 3 weeks without changing a thing after I put the new Power Supply in. BTW, this original rail is a "direct connect" from the new PS; no "splitters" in that line.

I use a rail that is split off from the one that runs my case fans. Fans turn, so I knew it was "hot".

Ok, plug everything back into the wall and it boots right away.

#1. Thanks Dinger!

#2. Is this really the problem or just the alignment of cosmic forces of chance?

#3. Like Hussein, I am eyeing the Mobo with a touch of suspicion.

Any thoughts?

Now the ever-ignorant fool Toad is going to shut that one down, stick in the new RAM again and run "DocMem" to make sure all the RAM are good. If it passes, I will again attempt to boot.

BTW, this Mobo has the latest Bios update from ASUS. It's a A7V266. Is there anything kinky about using all 3 RAM slots with 256 DDR's?

Anyway, thanks to all. Ya gotta love AH. There's so much talent here and guys are so willing to help.

Stay tuned for my next adventure! Gotta tell ya, the repeat of the problem I had 3 weeks or so ago really ruined my morning. I hadn't been able to play for quite a while because of that; barely got a few sorties in and now this.

Bad day at Black Rock, fer shure.
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Tyro48 on October 04, 2002, 02:36:22 PM
Simmtest .com explains that for reasons unknow some sticks just dont like each other, I have a 256 meg SDRAM and a 128 SDRAM.
can run either one and all is well put them together and all kinds of crap begins to happen.
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Toad on October 04, 2002, 02:44:37 PM
Oh yeah, the basics:


Brand new 350W Power Supply. Had a 450 but they said that was bad although it always passes a Multi-meter test and they were out of those so I got the 350.

Asus A7V266

1 Good 256 Cruicial DDR

1 PNY 256 Cruicial DDR that has been working fine since I RMA'd the OTHER 256 Crucial to Googlegear.. about 2 weeks

1 New 256 Crucial DDR that Googlegear just sent to replace the RMA'd one. It's when I stuck this one in that the system puked.

Athlon XP 1600

IMB 40 Gig Deskstar that runs fine when it can be found ;)

Floppy

Toshiba CD that always runs fine

eVGA GF2GTS vid card. Has been great since I cleared the dust off of it. Been running AH fine.

SB Live Value.

DLink network card.

This is nothing fancy. I acutally use it 90% of the time for AH and do all the E-mailing and stuff like that from the computer I'm on now. I just wanted a "gaming" machine that the rest of the family kept their dang hands off of so I didn't have to deal with virus issues and full HD's from the kids downloading music .
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Toad on October 04, 2002, 02:46:35 PM
Hmmmm.

It is failing the RAM test, always at address 512M. So that last stick isn't working.

Could either be the RAM slot or the RAM I guess.

Time to shut down, remove all RAM except the new one, move it to Slot 1 and run the test again.

Stay tuned.
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Toad on October 04, 2002, 02:51:28 PM
That was quick.

It won't boot at all with the single stick of Crucial that Googlegear just sent!

Time for another RMA I guess
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Dingbat on October 08, 2002, 12:03:17 PM
Cool, glad every thing worked out.   I'm no braggin but I've built literally over 10,000 machines in my career as a systems Integrator and working for a VAR.  I've seen just about every possible hardware failure there is.
Title: ATX standby power
Post by: llyr68 on October 08, 2002, 12:40:27 PM
BTW, just to clarify ....

ATX pwr spec supplies 5v stand by power when the machine is turned off-to explain why yer LED is still lit after shutting the machine down. I usually disconnect the mobo power lead (due to the charge remaining in any caps in the power supply), but yanking the cord from the wall will also work (obviously).  :cool:
Title: Help Again Please! System can't find Hard Drive
Post by: Reschke on October 08, 2002, 04:18:01 PM
Toad trying moving the memory around into the different memory slots. I have the same motherboard running a single 512MB DDR PC2100 right now in slot 3 on the board. I have had all 3 sticks of DDR RAM (that I have) in the motherboard running a total of 1GB PC2100 DDR RAM.