New odd problem in my haunted PC

[VirtualLarry]

Is this an Asus motherboard? They normally ship with a "Q-Connector", which is a little mini-header, that you can connect those two-pin wires to, OFF of the board, and then PLUG IN the Q-connector strip right onto the board, simply and easily.

 

[Craig234]

Well I think I see where the HDD LED pin goes - but it seems to have zero indication on it which side is +.

 

[Craig234]

Is this an Asus motherboard? They normally ship with a "Q-Connector", which is a little mini-header, that you can connect those two-pin wires to, OFF of the board, and then PLUG IN the Q-connector strip right onto the board, simply and easily.

ASRock Z97 Extreme6.

No such connector.

 

[lakedude]

Do not guess! Know or know not. You need the page in the owner's manuals for both the case and MB that show the pinouts. This should have been standardized ages ago but it hasn't been. The audio can be a big deal. I've goofed up the audio before, it made some parts very hot! Now I double and triple check all those "small" connections.

 

[Craig234]

OK, got three of the four on, assuming the little triangle I found on the connector means +.

But connecting the 2-pin "RESET SW" cable to the "RESET" pins, there are three pins instead of two to pick from.

The layout I mentioned before is 2x5, with 8 pins to connect of cables, the right 2 not used. But actually it has 9 pins, 1 of the right pair.

So here's how is looks, with "x" a pin and "." a spot without a pin and "u" a pin not yet connected. The + are marked and the - are assumed:

+-+-
xxxx.
xxuuu
+--+-

So the three remaining are the three in the lower right. But here's another oddity not that clear in the diagram.

For the three connected cables, the "+" was on the left. But for the remaining three pins, the "+" is marked to be in the middle of the three - so if I should use the left 2 pins of the three, then for some reason it has + and - reversed from all the others, and if I use the right two of the three, it skips the pin in the middle of the five for some reason. This is just odd.

 

[Craig234]

Do not guess! Know or know not. You need the page in the owner's manuals for both the case and MB that show the pinouts. This should have been standardized ages ago but it hasn't been. The audio can be a big deal. I've goofed up the audio before, it made some parts very hot! Now I double and triple check all those "small" connections.

I linked to the manual page in a post above, for you to see how it just says nothing about the pinouts. I'd post a photo but it's way too small to show the info.

 

[Campy]

it won't let me post in this thread. page 24 manual

 

[Craig234]

OK, I think I got it from a google image - looks like of the three pins, it uses the left two and in fact for some reason the + and - are reversed only for them.

 

[Craig234]

it won't let me post in this thread. page 24 manual

Thanks, that seems to further confirm it. A little tricky to get it on but all set up. Here goes...

 

[Craig234]

And... it worked... to get the exact same problem as why I replaced the MB in the first place, on the Windows 10 boot screen, the dots just keep spinning, not going to a login.

The first suspect would be a problem with the OS, but when I had put the boot drive in another PC it booted fine.

 

[Craig234]

The problem that's caused months of downtime is now isolated.

The HD (not an OS drive) went bad.

I decided to search for the symptom again, and this time found a match - a person who had the same symptom and finally figured out, with the same setup of a HD that doesn't have the OS, that the HD was the cause.

I unplugged the HD - and am now typing this post on the system.

Main question now is how to copy the files from the bad HD to a new one. Disappointed in Windows' handling of the problem (and the HD quality, used only 1 year).

 

[Craig234]

The other problem right now is that I just can't get the video card reinstalled. Push and push and it's not in right. Yeesh.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The problem that's caused months of downtime is now isolated.

The HD (not an OS drive) went bad.

That's actually a really good job to diagnose that. I have a friend, that was complaining of "pausing" on his PC. Turned out (we figured it out when the secondary HDD went completely bad, and it was hanging), that the non-OS HDD was the issue. Upon disconnecting it, the OS (on SSD) booted quickly, and no weird "pausing".

The other problem right now is that I just can't get the video card reinstalled. Push and push and it's not in right. Yeesh.

Well, don't force it, there must be some reason. Did you "reset" the PCI-E retention mechanism, if it was in the wrong spot, sometimes that's an issue. (There's a variety of styles of PCI-E retention mechanisms.)

Did some errant "bit of fluff" get wedged into the slot, before you put the card in?

 

[Craig234]

I'm wondering if there's any practical way to copy the files from the bad drive to a new one, or whether I need to just trash the old drive and its 2.5tb of data (I hope nothing important but not sure) and just rebuild it all - and how that will affect things like all the stuff the OS thought is installed on it, mostly Steam.

I'll mess with the video card some more. Nothing in a slow, the retention is at the end of the slot and just seems to have 'up' and 'down', I put it down.

It's just tricky - you can't see the slot while you do it, and it's just not wanting to go in.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm wondering if there's any practical way to copy the files from the bad drive to a new one, or whether I need to just trash the old drive and its 2.5tb of data

Look at a bootable Linux DD_RESCUE distro, on a USB key, and get a portable external HDD, or another same-capacity internal, that you can use as a target to backup the drive to. Then perform data-recovery on the backup (fresh drive), never the original.

That's your best bet, short of sending to to someone for professional recovery.

 

[Craig234]

Look at a bootable Linux DD_RESCUE distro, on a USB key, and get a portable external HDD, or another same-capacity internal, that you can use as a target to backup the drive to. Then perform data-recovery on the backup (fresh drive), never the original.

That's your best bet, short of sending to to someone for professional recovery.

I've never used Linux... might be better if there's an affordable service.

Good news though, I finally got the video card reintalled. System is back up, except the HD and the legacy issues with the OS.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Good news though, I finally got the video card reintalled. System is back up,

Hey, good to hear. You're making great progress. Care to comment on how you got the GPU to finally install? Was there something in the way, or just had issues lining it up? (I find that I sometimes have issues with a new GPU, because I try to seat it on the board and in the chassis, WITHOUT taking out those little plastic "protectors" on all of the outputs in the back.)

I had trouble recently, too, with a PCI-E retention mechanism, that I had switched to the wrong position to insert a card. Little things like that, that are so simple in hindsight, are frustrating.

Edit: One time, very recently, I bought a new RX 570 4GB, I think that it was, and I was re-building a couple of rigs I use for mining, and I was in such haste to install it, that I neglected to remove the PCI-E card-edge connector protector sleeve. WHOOPS. That could have been Bad News, had I physically wedged it into the PCI-E slot with that protector on, would have ruined the mobo. Thankfully, calmer heads prevailed.

 

[Craig234]

No trick, it was just delicate to get positioned just right to go in. Probably 10 minutes of wrangling over and over and over. Maybe a little more.

I've taken the broken 3TB Seagate Barracuda out, and put the new Toshiba 5TB in.

So far, it's not recognized - have to remember how to get it recognized etc. Do I need to format it, CAN I format it, what do I need to configure, make sure I don't hurt anything, etc.

The hardware is a bit nasty to deal with - I forgot how to reattach the CPU fan so it's sort of hanging loose, the HD wouldn't go in with two little pins in place so it's sitting loose...

But hey the thing is running. Hopefully with the first actually working MB of four.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I forgot how to reattach the CPU fan so it's sort of hanging loose, the HD wouldn't go in with two little pins in place so it's sitting loose...

But hey the thing is running.

EEK! You really should look into fixing the CPU fan/heatsink. That's a MUST. Otherwise, I don't know how much longer the thing will be running. This is a 4670K, right?

HDD should be mechanically-secured as well, otherwise, it can vibrate itself to death, and cause a head crash. You wouldn't want that on your new 5TB drive, would you?

Not trying to pick on you, just looking out for you and your gear, with best practices.

Edit: In order to use a brand-new, fresh-from-the-factory HDD, you need to:
1) shut the system off (or use a hot-swap caddy), and plug in the drive, into both power and data.
2) boot the system, and open Disk Management. If you're on Windows 10, you can right-click the Windows Icon / Start Menu icon, to get a "Master List" of locations, of which Disk Management should be there. If on Windows 7, click Start Button, right-click Computer, and select Manage, Then click on Disk Management on the left-hand side of the window that comes up.

If a drive is truely factory-fresh, Disk Management will prompt to "Initialize" the Disk, which can be done either with MBR (for HDDs smaller than 2TB), or GPT (for HDDs 2TB or larger).

Once that's done, maximize the Disk Management window, and there will be two panes, one on top, with drive letters, volumes, and FS formats, and then the bottom (scrollable) window, with some graphical depictions of disks as horizontal volumes.

Find the disk that you just initialized, and in the empty space, right-click and select Create Volume, specify the partition size, filesystem type, Full or Quick format. I recommend Full format for brand-new factory disks, just to do a surface test by writing to every sector. You may not be so cautious, and willing to wait that long (hours). In that case, just select Quick format (the default). Generally, you want to use NTFS in Windows.

That being said, PLEASE FIX THE CPU FAN FIRST. Thanks. Otherwise, your PC may not survive the HDD formatting process.

 

[Craig234]

Oh boy. So google on it, and it has me bringing up a program to do it - but it says 'select the uninitialized disk'.

I see the 'uninitialized disk' - but on top of that program, it brings up a windows just saying 'you need to initialize the disk before logical disk manager can access it', and it's less clear about what's what raising the concern that I don't want to accidentally initialize my boot drive and destroy its information.

It only has one device listed to select, "Disk 0" with no other information though in the background I can see "Disk Zero" is the right size of 4657GB, while the background also shows "Disk 1" as the 500GB SSD. It also wants me to select a 'partition style' between 'MBR' and 'GPT'...

 

[Craig234]

EEK! You really should look into fixing the CPU fan/heatsink. That's a MUST. Otherwise, I don't know how much longer the thing will be running. This is a 4670K, right?

Yup. The fan is actually in place and functioning; it's just not secured.

HDD should be mechanically-secured as well, otherwise, it can vibrate itself to death, and cause a head crash. You wouldn't want that on your new 5TB drive, would you?

I agree. But for some reason I just could not get it slide in with the two pins in place, after about 15 minutes of trying (even with them it's not very secured in the bay).

Edit: In order to use a brand-new, fresh-from-the-factory HDD, you need to:
1) shut the system off (or use a hot-swap caddy), and plug in the drive, into both power and data.
2) boot the system, and open Disk Management. If you're on Windows 7, you can right-click the Windows Icon / Start Menu icon, to get a "Master List" of locations, of which Disk Management should be there. If on Windows 7, click Start Button, right-click Computer, and select Manage, Then click on Disk Management on the left-hand side of the window that comes up.

If a drive is truely factory-fresh, Disk Management will prompt to "Initialize" the Disk, which can be done either with MBR (for HDDs smaller than 2TB), or GPT (for HDDs 2TB or larger).

Once that's done, maximize the Disk Management window, and there will be two panes, one on top, with drive letters, volumes, and FS formats, and then the bottom (scrollable) window, with some graphical depictions of disks as horizontal volumes.

Find the disk that you just initialized, and in the empty space, right-click and select Create Volume, specify the partition size, filesystem type, Full or Quick format. I recommend Full format for brand-new factory disks, just to do a surface test by writing to every sector. You may not be so cautious, and willing to wait that long (hours). In that case, just select Quick format (the default). Generally, you want to use NTFS in Windows.

This is Windows 10. OK, I'll use GPT (you'd think the software would know that since it sees the size).

I mainly want to make sure I don't clobber the SSD and pick the right options, but so far so good.

 

[Craig234]

CPU temps are in the 90-100 F range.

 

[Craig234]

Doing a full format now.

 

[Batboy88]

Pull the battery out of it, check for bent pins.. Clr Cmos all that etc...said you overheated it...
It does sound like it's doing some wierd stuff....

 

[Craig234]

This is a long one - almost an hour and it's at 12%. So... about 6-7 hours.