Computer Just Stopped Working--its Fixed Now

[bobbo2]

I built my system about two years ago and it has worked fine. Then last week the screen just went black as the system shut down--no warnings, just the Black Screen of Death. Worked on reboot. This went on for 2-3 days. I cleaned out the dust bunnies and reconnected all the cables. Then yesterday it quit again and would not start. "Detecting Array" is as far as the system would go. Sometimes the Harddrive with the OS was identified, sometimes not.

So, I "switched" the cables going to Harddrive 0, and Harddrive 1. Everything has been working fine now for 24 hours. My plan is to replace the cable and see if I can get all my Harddrives back in their original locations.

Diagnosis: I'm think either the circuit in the motherboard went bad OR the SATA cable went bad. Replacing the cable should tell me.

Question: How can anything with no moving parts and no physical impact and no overheating and no electrical spikes "wear out?"---or, what am I missing. I've read the dust bunnies can create new electrical pathways or shorts even in low humidity areas like mine but my system failed after cleaning the computer to near new. Also, I keep my computer "pretty clean" at all times. Going to reinstall that air filter I used for months and stopped using out of laziness.

What might I be missing--or what else should I check out?

Thanks.

 

[bobbo2]

Well, 12 hours later and the computer is failing again just the same way. I'd think this was now a hard drive issue except when I switched the sata cables the previously working storage harddrive could not even be detected by the bios on startup.

Now, I am facing a "cascading failure" that now affects the sata channels 0 and 1. The harddrives in channel 2 and 3 are still detected but they are storage only. I ASSUME I could switch cables again and the OS would boot/work the computer off of Channel 2 but if it failed again in 1-2 days then WTF is going on?

Could this be a "bad" hard drive that is killing the motherboard? If so, there has been no noise, no clicks, and Seagate Drive Tester says it is working just fine and so forth.

Doing black box maintenance, replacing the motherboard is actually cheaper but replacing the hard drive might add resources==or should I do both at the same time?

Any suggestions on tracking down what might be wrong/going wrong? Thanks.

 

[c1001]

my guess is that the mobo is failing. the real question is what caused it to fail? could be the PSU. what PSU do you have?

also, have you googled issues with the brand/model mobo that you have? this may be a common issue.

couple of things you can try:

check the PSU cables and make sure nothing has come loose. reset the CMOS and the mobo to default settings. then re-install the SATA drivers and see if it detects your HDD properly.

after that try minimizing the amount of stuff connected to your mobo and try reinstalling them one at a time. i.e. try with just one stick of memory, etc.

by the time you are finished with this you will wish you had just bought new stuff!

 

[bobbo2]

c1001--hah, hah. Good advice and better conclusion. I've been wanting to build a Hackintosh capable computer==try to run Mac Software and if it didn't work then I'd still have a good platform for Win 7. That all would cost about $300 with all the parts I already have.

My PSU is a two year old Thermaltake 500 Watts. NOTHING unusual has happened to this system in the two years since I built it--well, ok 8 months ago we had 3-4 power cut offs to the whole house but thats about it. I did also drop a quarter onto the MB once when cleaning--with no effects at the time. Not at all like previous machines that had bad PSU's, spilled drinks, hard knocks. Some baby proof their houses, I made mine safe for the puter.

OR--just buy end of the line AM2 board for 30--50 bucks that would still be an upgrade for me. Hmmm. I hate these decisions==what I want to do which is build the latest rig, or get by on a decent cheap alternative for what will minimally get the job done. Rats!!

If you/others have the time==how would a failing PSU take down the Harddrive Channels one at a time in sequence?

Tomorrow I'm going to Fry's to get an external harddrive and transfer the data files off the drive ((if I can)) and then work with NewEgg once I decide what to do.

I will also follow your advice re cmos and such--I've done that before for non-starting units after a bad bios flash. I don't have any custom bios settings==everything set up from the start with default settings but I'll do that too. Sata Drivers are whatever WinXP uses--I never set up Raid as I distrust the failures that can lead to.===course that all assumes the machine will boot at all after this last failure. When I boot again off Channels 2 or 3 it will be to move data off the drive before trying to fix the rest of the system. People are amazed my Packard Bell Unit is still going after 15 years--I guess this is catchup with the odds?

Thanks==your advice is right on.

 

[CruisD64]

most of the gigabytes are great hackintosh's. I have a UD3P which installed right away without much fuss. Only problem is a sound issue where the bass doesnt really come through. If you have any further questions, PM me as I'll be happy to answer them.