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[resolved] MSI K8N Neo2 plat. won't POST with SATA HD

frogger9

Member
I've run into a strange problem with my system (using an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum). I went to turn on the computer today, and it gets to the POST screen but just sits there frozen. Pressing delete will not get into the BIOS. After much troubleshooting, I've discovered that after disconnecting the SATA hard drive (either the SATA cable or the power cable), the system will post as normal and I can enter the BIOS.

Now, which part of the system is the problem here? My guess is one of the following: SATA Cable, Motherboard, Power Supply, or SATA Hard drive. I find it strange that even if the hard drive was bad it would cause me to not even be able to enter the BIOS? Unfortunately, I don't have an extra system here to test individual components with, so I'm hoping someone can help me narrow down the source of the problem.

I'd appreciate any ideas on what's going wrong here.
 
Here are the complete system specs:

Antec 350W Power Supply
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
2x512 Corsair Value Select
Leadtek 6600 GT AGP
Samsung 160GB SATA HD

 
Well, the problem seems to have been the hard drive itself. Just replaced it with a new one and the system comes up fine. Very strange that the bad drive caused the system to fail to finish POST. I guess stranger things have happened 🙂

Now comes the chore of reinstalling Windows/Linux/all sorts of programs 🙁
 
I would try the old drive again. My cables used to work loose if I nosed around in the case until I got special set from WD for my raptor. It could be a loose connector. Try a different cable and see if it still fails
 
I tried the old drive with a different cable first. Still had the same problem. Looks like that drive is dead for good. I will try to test it on another system first before I RMA it though just to be sure the data is not recoverable.

Also, I can't really run any diagnostics on the drive since the system won't even post with it connected 🙁
 
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