Motherboard dying?

[quaxo]

I apologize, this is a bit lengthy, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible.

Ok, I think something has died (or is dying) in my system (see my specs for complete details of the system). The hard drive with Windows is the 160GB drive (IDE). The DVD is also IDE, on the same cable as the hard drive, as the motherboard only has 1 IDE connection. I'll explain why mentioning that is important in a moment. There is also a 500GB SATA drive.

Over the last week, the computer has been acting up a bit. It started with random lock ups. Sometimes for 30 seconds, sometimes it just never came back and I would have to reset. Sometimes after a lockup, if it came back, Windows would say something about a write error (unfortunately I didn't write down the complete message, sorry) in a little pop-up balloon over the system tray.

After a few days of this, at random during start up the computer would claim no boot device was found and to insert some kind of boot media. I'd go into the BIOS and find that under "hard disk drive", it has switched the SATA drive to 1st drive, and the IDE to 2nd drive (meaning it tries to boot from the SATA drive instead of the IDE).

Then yesterday, the IDE drive disappeared altogether. The BIOS was only listing the SATA drive. Ok, fair enough I thought, the IDE drive is 5 years old and is probably dying. So, I pop in the Windows CD, reboot and prepare to reinstall Windows on the SATA drive. During Windows setup, the IDE drive seems to be present again. Ok, fine. Reboot, and the computer loads Windows from the IDE drive and it works fine for a couple of hours, then I start getting the write error messages again, then finally it doesn't come back from the lock up. Reset, IDE drive is gone again.

Ok, I figured that's it, the drive is going and I had better install Windows on the SATA and save what I can from the IDE while it is still willing to work a bit. Pop in the Windows CD, start setup. About halfway through setup, it tells me it can no longer find the Windows CD or the CD is faulty. Ok, reboot and try again. About halfway through the beginning of setup (when it starts loading files but before the first install/repair menu) it does the same thing.

Now, seeing as both the IDE hard drive and IDE DVD drive are having write/read errors, I'm guessing something has gone wrong with my motherboard causing the IDE devices to disappear at random. Before I rush out and get a new board, I was curious if anyone else had any opinions about this.

[patio]

You probably already did so but try another IDE cable.

Also blow out the slot with some compressed air as well.

Have you swapped in another PSU also ? ? Flakey power will make devices disappear intermittently...

[quaxo]

You probably already did so but try another IDE cable.

Also blow out the slot with some compressed air as well.

Have you swapped in another PSU also ? ? Flakey power will make devices disappear intermittently...

Hey Patio.

Yeah, tried swapping cables. I hadn't before but did so after I made that post. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to try that before. Alas, the problem persists.

I did check that the connections were clean and clear as well. I blew them out already with some compressed air.

I considered the power supply. Unfortunately, I don't have another power supply around that will work in this thing. The video card requires it's own power connection and the only power supplies I have sitting around are too old or lack the power to run this system. Plus none of them have a PCI express power plug and I don't have the adapter to take regular power connectors and convert them. Nothing else seems to be disappearing except those two drives though. Like I said, the SATA drive is always present. Since it's a modular power supply, I'm gonna try switching the cables around and power the IDE hard drive from the plug that's powering the SATA at the moment since it seems to be working fine. Gonna try a couple other things and see if I can get any results tonight. I'll post back in a few.

[patio]

Just checking but can you run it on onboard graphics temporarily ? ?

[quaxo]

This model doesn't have on-board graphics.

You know, I just recalled something I failed to mention before. Since this problem started, about every 10 time attempting to get this thing to boot, I get the POST message "CMOS settings wrong." Then given the option to enter setup or continue.

Upon entering setup, all of the CMOS settings are set to default factory specs, but the clock and date remain correct. Tried swapping the battery already so I don't think it's that.

Also, I'll post the voltage readings since I've got them here on the screen now:
VCORE: 1.264v, but drops to 1.256v every 3-5 seconds.
3.3v: 3.280v constant
5v: 4.968v constant
12v: 11.872v constant

Also, temps:
CPU: 35.5 C/95.5 F
MB: 36 C / 96.5 F

As far as I can remember, that's how they've been since I put this together about a year ago.

[patio]

What if you disconnect the optical drive and do 5 or 6 cold boots...does the HDD still randomly dissappear ? ?

[quaxo]

Great minds think alike hehehe

Everything is disconnected except the IDE drive, CPU fan (it draws straight from the power supply, not the motherboard), and the video card. IDE drive seems to be staying.

Oddly enough, it seems to be working properly. Unfortunately, I seem to have managed to break something in Windows with these lock ups. It loads Windows, and just as you would get to the login screen, blue screen and reboot... so fast I can't even get a single word of what it says. Does this in safe mode too.

Ideas?

[patio]

When you boot to safemode is the option at the bottom to turn off startup recovery ? ?

First 2 things i would try is boot to the Recovery Console and try the fixboot and fixmbr commands...

[quaxo]

I know what you're referring to, but it reboots before the loading of either normal or safe mode is complete, so I never manage to get anywhere that I can change that.

In the recovery console now. At some point during the loading process, the drive seems to have disappeared again........

Just checked the BIOS and it's still showing the drive though. Gonna reboot and try again.

[quaxo]

Ok, I'm lost now. Usually when loading the recovery console it prompts for which Windows installation I'm trying to fix, but it's not doing it this time. The only drive letters I can switch to are C:, D: (a second partition on the IDE drive), and E: (the DVD drive). Running a DIR command on D: and E: works fine, but trying to get DIR on C: causes a 15 second pause, then returns "An error occurred during directory enumeration."

-=EDIT=-

Tossed in a live Ubuntu disc. The C: partition reads fine there.

[patio]

Just grasping now...
Try removing the SATA HDD to facilitate these repairs on the IDE.
Less variables the better.

[quaxo]

Just grasping now...
Try removing the SATA HDD to facilitate these repairs on the IDE.
Less variables the better.

The SATA drive has been removed since I unplugged everything a few posts back. The only drives currently plugged in are the IDE (with 2 partitions) and the DVD drive.

[patio]

Any IDE to SATA adapters lying around the shop so you can hook the optical to a SATA connector ? ?
I still think it may be the culprit here.

[quaxo]

I went into Windows setup again, and went to install Windows as if it were going to be a new installation. It shows the available drives as:

C: Partition1 [Unknown] 95598 MB (95597 MB free)
D: Partition2 (Backup) [NTFS] 57028 MB (20892 MB free)

(D: drive's label is "Backup", as it's the backup storage for work files on the laptop should it ever crash, get stolen, etc.)

But like I said, drive C: worked perfectly fine when I accessed it from Ubuntu. I even tried opening various directories and files. It's not empty as Windows setup indicates.

I've just gone back into Ubuntu and checked it again. It still shows the files. Checked it with Gparted (Linux partition editor if you're not familiar with it) and it indicates it's an NTFS formatted drive that has 76GB used of 96GB, indeed not empty.

As for IDE to SATA adaptors, I don't have one here (that works anyway). I'm actually at home at the moment (it's 11pm here) and the old IDE to SATA adapter I have here stopped working a while back. Are you just attempting to get the DVD drive off the IDE cable? I can pop it into that external enclosure I have (it's a 5.25" IDE enclosure) and still access the drive through USB. Will that work for whatever you're intending?

[patio]

Well yes and no...
The HDD stays in place when the optical is removed...
However you need the optical to run the RC so i was just thinking of alternate connections...
Will it stay running long enough to run chkdsk /r on it ? ?
Ubuntu shows it NTFS but it's slightly troubling Windows shows it as unknown.