BleepingComputer.com: Shutdown and no hard drive

Not really sure whats going on here, but my assumption is that I have a bad drive. First the specs:

AMD Phenom 9600 AM2+
Foxconn A7GM-S 780G MB
4gb Kingston HyperX DDR2
EVGA 9800 GTX
Seagate 640gb 7200 HD - the issue

Now, I just built this machine a week ago. What happens is at random times it will just restart, and the message at boot is "non-system disk please restart", basically something like that. I have seen that message in the past when I leave my USB drive is and restart, and obviously when the hard drive is not working. I have found that if I shutdown, unplug the SATA cable from the HDD, and reinsert it, everything starts up normal. So far this has happened 3 times in the last 2 days. I am thinking a return of the HDD is in order. Thoughts?

I have built many many PC's so I'm not new to this, but I would rather get some opinions since I have not had a DOA HDD before.

Did you check the disk for errors?
There are some good hard disk diagnostic tools.
This topic maybe can help you to find a diagnostic tool.

actually no, I haven't done that yet. I should though, I will check that, and get back to you. Better not have errors....it's brand spankin new!

ok, finally had the chance to run all the tests, everything checks out fine. So, I will try swapping out the sata cables next and see if that works. Never know, since unplugging helped. Next I'll try a diff port which could be tough considering my GFX card covers all but 2. We'll see after that.

If you have 32-bit processor and windows xp, you might want to try to remove half the memory, 4 gb is the limit and is known to cause problems sometimes.

Can you quote the exact error message?

64 bit processor, Vista Ultimate OS, no problem there. I'll see if I can get the quoted message. As I said, I have seen it before many times, but usually if I leave my flash drive plugged in when I restart on my home computer, never an issue since I just unplug it and continue on. Basically, when I saw the message, i restarted, went into the Bios, and no hard drive was detected in there. So, I shut off the PC reseated the SATA cable, and everything worked again.

Ok, went and checked the computer, it had died overnight again. Message:

"Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media into selected boot device and press a key"

Double checked, HDD is first boot device, 2nd is CD. There once again is no HDD detected in the BIOS. I am swapping out the SATA cable for now, and will see what happens.

So, been a few days, swapped out the SATA cable, and seemed fine for a day. However, I'm back to the same issue. I have completely scanned the drive for any errors, nothing, everything came back fine, I can only try to swap the to another SATA location, but the GFX card covers all the ports, need a 90deg connector to try that. Would it seem safe to assume bad MB?

I wouldn't .

When you say that the hard drive doesn't appear in the BIOS...are you referring to the main screen...and the boot options you've elected?

What are the listed boot options right now in the BIOS?

Consider the CMOS battery?

Check the power supply?

Louis

This post has been edited by hamluis: 01 April 2009 - 09:50 AM

Checked the PSU, works fine. Swapped the power plugs for different, since I have so many to choose from, same issue no matter which line I use. DVD drive works alll the time, so there is always power on that line. CMOS seems fine, especially since nothing but the HDD is effected. All settings stay the same except the HDD being recognized at boot. Basically in the list of boot devices, i have it set to boot to the HDD first, then the DVD drive. DVD drive is always there, the HDD seems to blink in and out of existance. It is purely random, not heat issues, no load problems, as it happens so randomly. The PC just reboots itself, and once I get through the post screen I get the error message, if I hit the reset button and go to the Bios, the HDD is not there. Shutdown completely, reseat the SATA cable in the HDD ONLY, it boots fine. I have never had to unplug the cable from the MB to get it working, I have only had to replug the HDD and everything goes back to normal. Used 3 different SATA cables so far, but have not been able to use a different SATA port on the MB yet as I need a 90deg connector to fit under the GFX card. Once I get one, I will try a different port, but so far not much luck.

Ok, well. I used the right angle sata cable and switched ports. I also moved the RAM around to other slots that the manual said would work. Figured why not. Still the same problem. Computer locks up for a moment, then shuts down. Still get the same wrong boot deice message on initial reboot. Complete shutdown and cold start everything is fine. Starting to think bad MB again. Need some input before I contact Newegg. Thanks.