Hi friends... First, sorry for my english Second, the problem: I have a MA770-UD3 with 2GB RAM (1+1) with AthlonII X2 240 OCZ 450W Power supply and a HD SATA Samsung with a SONY DVDRW (Master IDE) and ASUS DVDROM (Slave IDE). A few months ago, 5-10 times in a week +/- (not always) when i try to start the PC, the system dont boot. No image, no beep, no red led of HD activity, BUT THE IMPORTANT: the green led of system power is on and "the green led of the ASUS DVDROM is on too. No way to open the DVDROM tray, no reset, no system shut down with the case button. If i disconnect the PC from electrical installation and if i connect in 1 seg +/- the system boots OK. This is dangerous, because can damage any component. So i want to fix this problem. Anyone can help me. May be the IDE controller of motherboard? May be the OCZ power supply (i don´t believe) May be the ASUS DVDROM. But the system dont post anything in the system start check. Please help!!! Thanks.
Hi, The first thing I would try is just reseating all cables, connectors, and expansion cards on the system board in case anything has become loose. If that does not help, try booting with only the cpu (and its fan) 1 stick of ram, and the video card installed and disconnect everything else (hard drives, CD-drives, floppies, keyboard, mouse, etc) just to see if you can get anything to come up on the screen. If you can, start adding devices back one by one to see if it fails with any one piece of equipment. However, if the computer will not boot up with a minimal boot, the problem lies with either the RAM, Video card, Power supply, motherboard, or lastly the cpu. I would next try a different stick of ram in the computer, as RAM seems to fail more than anything else. Also, try moving the RAM to different slots on the system board to rule out a bad RAM slot on the system board. If that does not help, try using a different video card if you have one, or use onboard video if your motherboard has it. If that does not help and you still have a no boot, the next thing I would look at replacing or swapping out is the power supply. Faulty power supplies can cause strange issues like this. Also, if you have a different power cord, try that as well, also try plugging the power into a different electrical outlet on the wall as well. If the power supply is failing and is not able to provide a stable voltage, your computer will not work correctly. If the changing power supply does not help, I would then look at replacing the motherboard, and then lastly the cpu. One other thing you can try is to take the system board out of the computer case, place it on a nonconductive surface (like a sheet of cardboard) and try booting from there to see if it will boot. If the motherboard is touching metal on your case because it is missing a riser, it could cause a short causing a no boot situation.
Sorry for the time passed. A few days ago i get it a PSU Coolermaster 800W Silent Pro Gold, and the problem is the same. But when is disconnected the HD SATA, only optical drives is connected, the system always boot and run OK. So the problem is the HD. I read about change the horizontality of disk or a few strikes because the problem is in the plates. Is this real? Thanks.
Hi, With most newer drives, according to the manufacturers, you can mount a hard drive either horizontally or vertically and the drive will work. I guess older hard drives sometimes had issues with being vertical because of gravity stressing the read write heads, or I also read older drives would recommend that if you format a drive in a horizontal position, to keep it that way otherwise it could do something to the heads inside the drive. I have mounted drives horizontally and vertically, and havent noticed any of them fail faster because of it. Where I work, we have all dell optiplex machines, and every one of them has the drive sideways and vertical in them when the machine is standing up. As for a few strikes on the hard drive, you want to avoid that whenever possible, especially when it is turned on. The reason is because when you hit the computer, the shock can force the read/write heads into the platters either damaging the heads or the platters themselves. If you damage a platter, only part of it may get damaged and the rest stays useable, but if the magnetic head is damaged then the drive will probably be a loss. I have had to replace 2 hard drives for users who kicked over their computer towers by accident which killed their hard drives in the past 6 months alone. So basically, be nice to your hard drive and dont hit it or kick it and it will live longer
Thanks Wildcard. But... where is the problem in HD?. May be a fault contact, the logical part, i dont know. Yesterday i tested again and definetely is the HD. The HD need a extra inject of power and then runs and work excellent when start/spin. But the disconnect and connect the power of electrical installation will be a dangerous action for the all system. I´m going to buy a Western Digital HD and clone the disk. Tell me a good software to clone a full HD, include MBR, partition table etc. Thanks men.
I wrote this today to Samsung Customer Support... Hi friends of Samsung... I have this problem with my HD. Sometimes, about 5-6 times of 10 when i start my PC the system refuses to start. No HD led, no sound of HD, no post-check, nothing. If i disconnect the PC from electrical installation and connect quickly about 1-2 seconds, the PC runs OK with HD working etc. Testing with other HD the system always start and run excellent. So the problem is the HD. The sata cable is OK, the mother is OK (all tested). May be a fault power of HD. Is in warranty. The firts months of HD never has a problem. The problem start 2-3 months ago. Again: when the system runs (HD Samsung F3 working), no test problem, no hangs, no freezes, excellent transfer rate. Help with this problem!!! Thanks. and i received a Samsung reply... "Based on your explanation, it appears that the unit hard drive has a problem."
Hi, There are lots of different programs out there to clone hard drives. I have only tried two different ones though. Norton Ghost works well and can do the job. The other one I have tried was Clonezilla, its a free program unlike Ghost which needs to be purchased. However, the one time I tried Clonezilla, it didnt image the drive correctly for me (tried cloning a vista drive).
