Last night I jump on my computer, which is in sleep mode. It starts up, and freezes. So I hard restart the computer and get some weird shit on the startup screen. It doesn't run through it's usual processes, gets stuck on the detecting IDE part (which is weird, since my hard drives are both SATAs). I go into the BIOS and lo and behold, it doesn't recognize either of the hard drives. Go to auto-detect: doesn't find shit.

"Uh oh, this can't be good".

I put in the Vista disc to see if it runs some diagnostic scan. First a screen pops up that says "Windows failed tot start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause"

But I didn't change shit! I just started the fucking thing up out of safe mode! What kind of unstable piece of shit crashes and burns my hard drives just by taking it out of safe mode?!

So then it tells me to use Windows Repair, but I can't find the fucker using their instructions. I use "Memory Tests", but after running through seven of those (they keep running for as long as you let them), it didn't find shit.

I really, really hope I don't have to get new hard drives. I don't have the money to get new ones, and I really don't want to reinstall all of my stuff.
 

don't put the computer to sleep if you don't have a notebook. bad idea imo.

are the connections inside the case secure? nothing jiggled lose? make sure.

and in the BIOS can't you disable IDE support so it doesn't try to search for 'em anyway?
 

Er, not sleep mode, standby mode.

Did that. Connections are secure.

I'll have to look into this.

EDIT: oh great, it won't even go into the BIOS.
 

At first it sounded like your HDDs ate shit. If you can't enter the BIOS, however, I think you might be looking at a dead mobo =(
 

I was able to get to the BIOS this morning, but now it's being a bitch and not reacting to anything.

I can do two things at the startup screen (which now hangs), Press Del to enter Setup (BIOS), or Esc to Enter Boot Menu. Neither work now, but both were working this morning.
 

Search google for how to flash your bios. Be sure you download a new BIOS and have a means of restoring it (either via a USB flas-drive, or a floppy). The mobo manufacturer's site should have up-to-date software/drivers. Before following through with it, do some research. Google for "[your mobo model]+unable to access bios" and similar terms related to your problem. You might find someone has had an identical problem and has provided a fix.
 

I looked at the schematic that came with the mobo and it turns out that my mobo has a Clear CMOS button on it, should I try that first?
 

Fried motherboard. Replace.
 

Clear your CMOS, then if that fails, flash the BIOS with the latest firmware, then if that fails, your mobo is dead and if it's still under waranty then return it.
 

Yes, if it doesn't work:

Get a replacement, sorry JT
 

On the upside, the prices on good mobos are very reasonable these days.
 

What's even better is that my mobo is still under RMA replacement from EVGA. I don't really want to have to send it in, but if it comes down to that, at least I don't have to buy a whole new mobo.
 

Consider yourself lucky! I wouldn't hesitate - send that bitch in. Next thing you know, it'll be too late.
 

I just got the mobo in February, so unless I really procrastinate, it's not really an issue of when I send it in.
 

I've had them replace a mobo before, their support was excellent. My only complaint was all the stupid things they had me trying. If I told you I already tested it, what makes you think asking me again will get the result you want?
 

Bumpan

I contacted EVGA about the shit, and, as RC said, their support is great. He had me reset the CMOS battery and plug in the hard drives on at a time. My computer has two hard drives, a 500GB which has my Vista install and games on it and a 1TB drive that I used as a media drive. Whenever the 500GB drive is plugged in, either by itself or with the 1TB drive, my computer can't do shit. When the 1TB drive is plugged in by itself, I can get into BIOS and it reads the 1TB drive. Then it loads up this Caldera DR-DOS shit that I've never heard of before.

EDIT: actually, the only reason it was loading the Caldera stuff was because I accidentally left a CD in the drive that had a flash bios program on it.
DOUBLE EDIT: so I put in my Vista disc, hoping that I could just install it on a partition on my 1TB drive, and I get this shit:

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert the Windows installation disc and restart your computer (did that)
2. Choose your language settings and click "next" (didn't get to this part, comes back with this 'windows failed to start' bullshit)
3. Click "repair your computer" (see the above parnethesis)"

so yeah, I can't even get Vista to install on the 1TB drive. About the only thing I can do is run a Windows Memory Diagnostic, but it doesn't find any problems, which I guess is good, but doesn't solve my issues.
 

Well I'm going to break it down for you.

You need to remove both HDDs and go to a different working computer and hook them up to see if they're accessible. If they are and they're working fine, you then need to remove the HDD from the working computer and start up with your HDD. If it works, it's the motherboard. If it doesn't, either your boot sector is fucked or your HDD is. Either way, you'll know for sure and where to go from there.

This playing around with your fucking CMOS is a joke.
 

Two problems with that:

1) I don't have access to another computer with SATA connectors on the mobo, so I won't be able to test the hard drives
2) the hard drive of the computer I'm using has XP 32-bit on it, and the computer I'm checking was built for Vista 64-bit. I don't expect there to be any problems, but I don't want to plug it in and then fuck up and have TWO computers out of action.

EDIT

I installed an older, completely formatted 120GB IDE HDD into the new computer (which does have an IDE port), just to see if I could install Vista on it. While the computer does detects the HDD, it comes up with an BSOD instead of installing Vista.
 

RMA the motherboard then? If it can't even deal with a standard IDE drive then something is most definitely wrong with it.

Yeah, and Vista x64 won't work on a 32-bit system. However you can plug the drive in just to check and see if the drive itself is shot, or if your data is still there. Depending on the type of harddrive it is, you can use the diagnostic tools that such drive manufacturers have to fix the MBR, or just scan it and see if anythings up. Western Digital has a good dos-based diagnostic thing, not sure about others.

By the way, what version of Vista are you trying to install? Like, is it a restore disc, or an OEM Vista disc or a personal backup or something?

Out of curiosity you could try loading Windows 7 on the machine and see if that works :3 -- don't use the torrent version, download it from Microsoft. There was a trojan in a recent torrent download version (why anyone would bother torrenting the RC version when it's available legit and free from MS is beyond me though).
 

Yeah, I'm going to have to RMA the mobo and hope that there isn't something wrong with the one hard drive. I could probably have someone look at it, but I don't have that much cash... It does spin up when the computer is
started, so that's a good sign.

Another weird thing: in the BIOS, it auto-detects the DVD drive as a hard drive. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to do that.

Well, what I meant was can a 32-bit OS work with hardware meant for a 64-bit system (I have 4 gigs of RAM, which I know exceeds the 32-bit maximum)?

OEM.

I was planning on installing it on a partition, just to see how it works, but then this shit happened with the mobo.
 

Try Windows 7 then. Honestly you've got nothing to lose, and you maybe able to track the issue down, if you don't want to RMA it.

However detecting a DVD drive as a hard drive... roflz. Yeah I just think it has some issues.

I'm not sure. 32bit XP will only see about 3.2~ GB of ram or so instead of the full amount, but otherwise it just depends on the hardware and driver support it has for the new computer's stuff.

Chances are the motherboard is screwed up somehow though. I would suggest, as one final thing to try, is to download the latest version of your motherboard's bios and 'flash' it and see if that helps at all. It's really the only thing I think of that might work.

I apologize if that was already suggested or you already attempted that -- I've been confusing a couple of these threads for some reason.
 

I already flashed the BIOS, and naturally that didn't help.
 

Ahh. Well mobo is fried then, sorry mate.
 

At least I can RMA it. And between the Mobo and the hard drives being fried, I'd much rather have the mobo fried and the hard drive survive. I really don't want to reinstall Vista and all my games and programs or pay out the ass to get the data recovered.
 

screw vista, go with windows 7 :33333
 

Yeah, I only heard about Windows 7 AFTER I bought Vista. Bastards.
 

 

I don't want to turn into the goatse man if Microsoft's legal team discover that.
 

Uhm... Windows 7 RC is currently free. From microsoft. Legitimately.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win.../download.aspx

edit: torrenting it is a bad idea anyway, some of the releases have had trojans built in.
 

Keyword currently

• The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010.

 

Why is that a problem?

Why would you download and install an RC and expect it to remain free?

The retail is due out this fall, and to be frank Windows 7 will be one of the only windows I legally purchase, the previous being Win2k.
 

Does anyone know if MS would offer a rebate for those who bought Vista when buying 7?
 

Nope.

I could see it being a problem for people that upgraded and decided not to buy it though.

So how is it compared to Vista? Does superfetch still consume 100% of your system memory and slow games to a crawl?
 

There's a windows 7 thread somewhere around here.

I've said this like a billion times but I'll post it again here -- Windows 7 is just as fast, and in some instances, faster then Windows XP on the same machine. My computer is also not the best, nor the latest. Indeed by W7 own performance measures it only ranks like a 2.9 lol.

Still it's extremely fast, and I've not noticed any issues with memory consumption, and it's played every game I've thrown at it without any slowdowns from XP.
 

This would have gone a lot faster if you'd have listened.
 

Hey I quoted you and emphasized your post dammit!