Mobo SATA problems or something else?

[Charlie98]

This is a bit involved, please bear with me... reference 'DESK' in sig below. 2500K OC'd to 4.1GHz, RAM undervolted; running dual boot SSD setup at the moment in SATA ports #0 & #1. I flashed the F10 BIOS a few months ago, haven't had any problems besides the disappearing SSD.

First my SSD was disappearing at boot (thread for reference.) I've also had some USB drive read/write slowness problems (thread for reference) that I've seemed to have ironed out with the last BIOS flash and reloaded drivers.

Now, this morning, the PC hung on the mobo splash screen... after the post beep but before the keyboard check. I had to hard reset it (hold power button down for 5 seconds) but it continued to do it. I removed all external USB connections. Still wouldn't boot. Powered down, unplugged it for a few minutes... and it finally booted without a problem.

I still think the disappearing SSD problem is related to the SSD, not the mobo or SATA ports... but at this point I don't really know. The mobo lockup at boot is freaking me out, now; this is my business PC, too, and I can't afford this thing taking a puke on me. (Yes, my data is backed up 3 ways, every day.) Do I just roll over and get a new chip and mobo, or am I overlooking something?

EDIT: I was switching to the 2nd boot SSD to work on it some more when it locked up this AM. It went all the way through the disk search, I selected the 2nd drive and then it black screened and wouldn't boot or recover.

 

[Ketchup]

Have you tried replacing SATA cables?

 

[Charlie98]

Have you tried replacing SATA cables?

😉 ...yes. Cables, SATA ports... I even put it on one of the SATA2 ports for a while just to see, that's why I think the disappearing SSD is an SSD problem, not a mobo problem.

I don't know, all this stuff, all of a sudden like, has really got me scratching my head. The mobo boot lockup really concerns me.

 

[Ketchup]

😉 ...yes. Cables, SATA ports... I even put it on one of the SATA2 ports for a while just to see, that's why I think the disappearing SSD is an SSD problem, not a mobo problem.

I don't know, all this stuff, all of a sudden like, has really got me scratching my head. The mobo boot lockup really concerns me.

OK. That board has all the SATA ports on the one Intel controller, so even going from SATA3 to SATA2 wouldn't rule out too much. Do you have a PCI/PCIe SATA card? I have a cheap one. It isn't very fast, but it has come in handy from time to time.

As I mentioned in another thread, now would be a good time to get a new motherboard if it comes down to it, as I imagine boards for that socket will start to disappear pretty soon.

 

[Charlie98]

Yea... NE only has 2 Gigabyte Z77 boards listed, they are both ATX. MicroCenter doesn't have Z68 at all, and only ATX Z77 boards. I want to upgrade, just don't have the money right now. *sigh* I would love to upgrade to Z77 for the USB3 mobo header, though.

 

[Charlie98]

Now, this morning, the PC hung on the mobo splash screen... after the post beep but before the keyboard check. I had to hard reset it (hold power button down for 5 seconds) but it continued to do it. I removed all external USB connections. Still wouldn't boot. Powered down, unplugged it for a few minutes... and it finally booted without a problem.

I think I've successfully traced this to my MP3 player plugged into the case USB port. When it's plugged in, the mobo locks up at restart; when it's not there, it boots fine, even with other USB HDDs plugged into the mobo rear ports.

Here's what I get when the MP3 player is hooked up...



...and when it's not...




It's almost like the it's forcing the mobo to look at everything as a boot drive or something. In the second image, the 2 external HDDs are still hooked up, but without the MP3 player it ignores them... 😕

 

[Ketchup]

Wow, so she's running fine with the player unplugged? That is interesting (in a good way). Maybe the board is trying to recognize it as a possible boot source, but some aspect of the player will not allow it to do so.

 

[sm625]

Sounds like a bios bug, or feature, depending on how you look at it. They probably made it that way to make it easier for dummies to boot from a usb drive, regardless of how some other bios settings may be configured.

 

[Charlie98]

Sounds like a bios bug, or feature, depending on how you look at it. They probably made it that way to make it easier for dummies to boot from a usb drive, regardless of how some other bios settings may be configured.

I'm considering reflashing the BIOS just to make sure it's not borked, I didn't have any of these problems until I flashed the F10 BIOS (from the as-delivered F8.) I might even roll it back...


Highlights of the F10 BIOS:

1. Support Intel 3rd generation 22nm E1 stepping CPU (Ivy bridge)
2. Improve power on issue
3. Update ME / CPU code

I don't know what 'improve power on issue' means, but I really wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the problems losing the SSD at boot.

Wow, so she's running fine with the player unplugged?

Well, the boot sequence is. I haven't had the SSD disappear lately... but then again I haven't shut the computer down and let it set lately, either, for fear of it never waking. 😵