# Motherboard not detecting my Hard drive



## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

Hi there, recently my PC's having an issue, sometimes it wont switch on and says disk boot failure and then sometimes it switches on fine, The reason it doesnt switch on at times is that the Mobo doesnt see my 2 SATA HD's as being there which is most strange, i have done a number of different diagnostics on my HD's to which everyone of em says its fine, i now think it may be my motherboard, what should i do?


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## blackduck30 (Sep 7, 2004)

The first thing i would do would be to replace the sata cables to make sure they are not faulty or go and see if you can get an updated sata driver from your motherboard manufacturers web site


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

Both Sata cables have been replaced and are brand new, if they were faulty surely they wouldnt work at all but my problem is intermittent.


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## blackduck30 (Sep 7, 2004)

well if they are new then have a look and see if there are any updated drivers, Have you try'd updating the bios ?


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

How do update the BIOS, i've never had to do that before


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## 8210GUY (Aug 29, 2006)

What are your system spec's ? especially your drive model's if they are WD's, I saw something on their site about an issue to do with certain drives on occasions, but you would get the bios from the manufacturer of your motherboard.


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

My system is a
AMD 64 3200 socket 939
1 Gb dual channel RAM
2 x 200 Gb SATA II HDs
(1 samsung one and one WD one)
Nvidea 7800GT PCI-e graphics
Creative Soundblaster Sound card
Not sure on the motherboard, i'll check but its just a standard one that came with the PC.

Ok i'll try get a BIOS update if i can, why do you think it only detects the drives some of the time


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## 8210GUY (Aug 29, 2006)

Not sure personally, I replied because I had just seen something on the WD site that may be relevant to you, should you have one of the following drives you can get a firmware update >>>Here<<< that may help with it being dropped, but only use this if yours is an affected model listed below.


> WD1600YS
> WD2500YS
> WD4000YS
> WD5000YS
> *CAUTION*: Do not attempt to run this software on any hard drives other than what is listed above.


To find out your motherboard (essential for the bios) get and run Everest in my Sig and that should tell you everything in your system.

Just because a cable works it doesn't mean it is OK, intermittent faults are the curse of all time, it's like the faulty TV working fine when the engineer calls lol, cables can work fine but if they say overheated it could bring about weird intermittent problems, and Sata leads are not infallible, but it doesn't mean they are the problem either, but they have to be considered and eliminated if [possible to try and find the actual cause, but follow the excellent advice of blackduck30 and hopefully he will sort you out, I just popped in because of what I saw over at WD incase it was relevant here.


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

hmm i never thought about that thanks, its a nightmare, how could i test the cables to see if they work? I'm gonna try updating the BIOS now and see if that helps. i'll find out my motherboard using Everest and i'll post again.


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

Right my motherboard is an ASUS A8NE and i've downloaded the update from the ASUS website buts its .rom file and i dont know what i need to do with it.


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## 8210GUY (Aug 29, 2006)

Well there are different ways depending on what you have, and remember a bad flash can kill your board so take your time to study everything carefully, but >>>Here<<< is their page on how to do it, but you will need to identify which you need depending on what you have got, but I also found >>>This<<< that may be of help as well once you identify what your using.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

asus has a guide with all bios d/loads


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

I've looked at the link but dont see one for my Mobo, why is that exactly or am i looking in the wrong place.

My mobo is an ASUS A8NE 


I will be taking my Harddrives to my brothers house and leaving them with him for a while if the BIOS update doesnt work, this will then tell me whether the cables or HD's are at fault. If its not the HD or cables, do you think my motherboard is buggered like the sata controllers


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

Oh i've found the bios update and looked at the manual for how to do it, i'll try it asap


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## blackduck30 (Sep 7, 2004)

It's good to see the boys look after a thread while a man sleeps, the time zone thing can be a pain some times.
Please let us know who you go


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## blackduck30 (Sep 7, 2004)

Also take note of this warning if you are updating bios to versions above 1006

*nVidia Chipset(CK804) driver version V6.65 for Windows XP(WHQL).
To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver before updating Bios version 1006 or later*


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

Yeah right... i took notice of that warning, i installed the chipset driver v6.65 then did the BIOS update fine and then nothing, my PC now wont display anything at all. I reckon its time for a new motherboard then...


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

reset the cmos


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## dgrandich (May 7, 2007)

Reset it twice once with just taking the battery out for 20 mins and 2nd by switching the jumpers. No luck, time for a new motherboard


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