Hard drive problem...maybe mobo problem?

[AiponGkooja]

Ok, update again. Was doing tons of homework and studying, and getting really sick of it, and I happened to look over at my computer. Decided to drop the homework for a bit and go at my computer with a screwdriver and just pull parts out and unplug stuff on my way to taking ASUS's advice and pulling the mobo out of the case to check for possible "grounding/emi interference problems." So here's how it went:

-Unplugged both DVD burners and floppy drive
-took out my X-Fi sound card
-replaced my 6600gt with the 7800gtx replacement that I got a while ago
-loosened the screws mounting the motherboard into the case (just loosened screws, did not remove mobo from case)
-disabled the SiL raid controller
-disabled the nvidia raid controller
-moved both hdds to the "regular SATA" ports
-turned on computer

Computer booted. It asked if I wanted to boot Windows in safe-mode. I said boot normally. It did. Both hdds work. All my data is still here. Everything works. I'm a happy little man. The End

Thanks all,
Aip

 

[Jiggz]

NOw that you have finally seen the light, the next move is to find out specifically what caused the problem. You can do this by singly enabling some of the stuff you disabled and also connecting one at a time units you have disconnected. So at least you know exactly what was the caused. This will be very helpful in the future not to mention with this forum.

 

[AiponGkooja]

I was going to post this last night, but I was tired so I went to bed.

I plugged EVERYTHING back in, including the new hdd, and everything still works perfectly. So really, the ONLY thing that is different between now and when it first stopped working is that I loosened the screws that mount the mobo into my case.

Should I retighten those and see if it stops working again? :laugh:


By the way, the reason I even loosened the screws was because I was on my way to doing what ASUS suggested in this e-mail that I got a month after I sent in my problem to their support site:

"The problem you are seeing can be caused by what we call a grounding/emi interference problem, start by taking the motherboard out of the case you have it in. Next set the motherboard up on top of the cardboard box it came in, straight to the cardboard(do not use the anti-static plastic, foam, or an antistatic mat as these have been known to keep a board from posting.) if you do not have the box that the board came in then use some newspaper a phonebook or some other non-conductive material. Connect to the board just the bare minimums needed to verify the problem you are having i.e.: cpu(w/heatsink and fan), memory, video card and power supply. Power the system up outside the case if the problem then seems to have resolved itself then all we need to do when mounting the board back into the case is use some added grounding/emi protection, the simplest way to resolve this type of problem is to get you some standard electrical tape and make a cross over the brass or metal stand-offs you are mounting the board into. This will do 2 things, first it will insure that we do not have a metal to metal ground and second it will lift the board up away from the case so that if you had a solder point sitting to close to the case generating an emi field the distance added between the 2 should keep this from happening. If this does not resolve the problem you are having then please contact either our tech support office at 502-995-0883 and give the technician who picks up this case number or our RMA dept. at 510-739-3777 option #3 and we will have the board sent in for repair/replacement."

 

[hippy2981]

wow.