Sata HD, or PS, ar maybe Mobo Problems? Help, Please?

[leavitt121]

First, the system is as follows:

AMD 64 3000+ 939
1024 PC3200 Kingmax Ram
ECS RS480-M (using the onboard video)
Seagate 80 Gig Sata w/ncq
Asus Dvd Rom
Nec Dvd Burner
Generic 480 watt PS
1 80mm case fan

I put it all together and fired it up. Everything was recognized in the bios as expected. I installed xp pro and then applied sp2. Everything was going nice and smooth. I put in the rest of my programs, defragged and took a break (shut it down). A couple hours later, I brought everything up stairs, plugged it in, fired it up, and the bios couldn't find the hd. So, I turned it off, checked all my connections (all looked fine), fired it back up, there's the hd. I'm thinking maybe a fluke?

The next day, I fire it up, no hd. I reset a few times, and the hd shows up again. Now I'm not thinking fluke anymore. I ran Prime95 for a couple of hours without errors, Memtest86 can up clean, I downloaded seagate's hd diagnostic and that came up clean too.

I'm really not sure what else to do. I've unplugged the optical drives and booted that way with no changes. The bios is the latest. Raid in the bios is disabled. Once I get the hd going, it seems really stable.

The PS has only the 20 pin and the MB calls for 24, but the manual says it "should" be okay. Do you think that would be it? Also, the bios says the +12 is running between 11.52 and 11.58. That seems low to me. What do you guys think. My head hurts right now!

 

[Carnival Forces]

if the only problem is BIOS not recognizing the hard drive, why does it matter?

does your computer still work when the BIOS doesn't recognize the hard drive (mine does)?

maybe it's a faulty ide cable or a faulty slot on the motherboard, try changing those...

 

[darknite]

if the only problem is BIOS not recognizing the hard drive, why does it matter?

does your computer still work when the BIOS doesn't recognize the hard drive (mine does)?

maybe it's a faulty ide cable or a faulty slot on the motherboard, try changing those...

it matters because you cant run and os without a hdd try what he said and run a hdd diag if you can get it to recognize....i had a guy bring in a seagate 120 that was bad...returned it and they sent him another bad one....he eventually got a refurb 160....he's a WD man now...lol

 

[coffee33]

SATA HD's can be a bitch but ECS MB's are WAY worse. I would flash that bios then once thats ruled out go for a new HD.
SP2?
I noticed you had NP's till you installed SP2 just now.

 

[Carnival Forces]

if the only problem is BIOS not recognizing the hard drive, why does it matter?

does your computer still work when the BIOS doesn't recognize the hard drive (mine does)?

maybe it's a faulty ide cable or a faulty slot on the motherboard, try changing those...

my BIOS doesn't even know i have a hard drive.

my IDE 0 and IDE 1 masters are both optical drives (a CD-RW and a DVD+/-RW)

i run Windows XP Pro (SP1).

 

[defakto]

You sure that generic 480 is putting out enough power? I had a system in that wouldn't recognize all the drives in it on boot up because it wasn't getting enough power. (not so much a problem except one of the drives was in a raid5 array...bad times....)