Is this a mobo problem or a HDD problem?

G

Georgie

New Member
My OS won't boot from the hard drive or the CD/DVD drive. I suspect the problem is either my hard drive or my motherboard Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. I have troubleshooted the problem by taking everything apart and plugging everything back in. I have resseted the CMOS jumpers on the mobo. How can i further troubleshoot my computer to figure out why the OS won't boot. Is it possibel that there is something wrong with my mobo even though the BIOS shows everything. Is it possible something's wrong with my CPU even though i didn't touch it and everything ran at safe temps? My bios shows my CPU running. Could it be the CPU? Can it be my harddrive? Will the Vista DVD not boot if the hard drive is faulty? Or will it still boot? Cuz i couldn't boot the OS from the DVD either.

Thanks for reading guys!
 
Since you are able to get into the bios setup program after clearing the cmos it would be good to take a look at the jumper settings on the drives themselves. A bad cpu wouldn't even allow the initial post screen to be seen. You would be hearing a constant series of audio beeps.

A bad hard drive may pull a system down powerwise without completly stopping the boot from the optical drive. While a bad board is possible you've gone too far for something like bad caps, a bad bios chip, or even a bad chipset. Any of those would stall the first post completely. The drive or drives at the end of a cable are genneraly set to master except on some older boards where two ide drives fail to see each other.
 
how would i look at the jumper settings for the drives themselves??

i'm assuming now that it is a hard drive problem, because i can't hear it spin. What can i do other than getting a new hard drive? Because i don't wanna get a new hard drive and find that it's not the problem.

Thanks PC eye
 
On the rear of any ide drive's casing you will see a small rectangular opening with two rows of small pins. The plastic cap jumping from one row to the other is the jumper itself. Generally the MA or master will be seen along side the slave or SA and CS or cable select. If the connector at the end of the cable and not the center connector is plugged in you set the cap to the master.

The middle connector is generally for the slave setting for the middle connector. First take a look to see if both drives are on the same cable. With most newer boards there is only one ide cable where the optical drive is set as slave on the centor connector there.

For most drives you shouldn't actually be hearing it unless you hear a clicking sound or the bearings are binding anyways. You simply look at the HD led on the front or top of the case if it has that along with the power led. When busy like when loading Windows the led will flash at a much faster rate.
 
oh ok, but is it possible that the hard drive is fine and it IS a mobo problem, even though the i can see the BIOS?
 
If the bios was somehow incomplete where some info was lost or corrupted somehow that would be the possible reason for seeing the system stalls. With the Gigabyte logo disabled and not show at startup you would generally see all drives that are installed when the post tests are conducted.

The option for that is usually found in the advanced or advanced shipset section of the vios. If you see the hard drive as well as the optical drive when the drives are being detected the drives are generally in working order. A bad drive or misconfigured jumper setting will see no drive where one should be.
 
ok, i did turn off the logo, my dvd drive and my hdd are listed...so it's not a jumper issue? So if they are listed does that mean that they work 100% or is there still a chance that my problem is a hdd problem.
 
A bad drive wouldn't always be missing. But since you are not able to boot from the optical drive that could be the jumper setting or simply a bad ide cable to consider. The drives being seen can mean something as simple as a jumper setting or a possible prpblem being seen with the board itself.

The specifications show only one ide cable suggesting a look at the jumpers to see if those are set correctly before assuming a hardware fault. The post screen suggests that the drives themselves are in good working order otherwise. The specifications can be seen at http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Product...rboard&ProductID=2560&ProductName=GA-P35-DS3L
 
wait....i have SATA...do i have the jumper thingies...cuz i read somewhere that SATAS don't need to set master /slave stuff. I'm really sorry, i don't understand what u say when you talk about jumpers and master slave ...?
 
The reference to jumper settings has to do with the optical drives if those are both ide. For sata there are no jumpers. The port you plug the 7pin data cable into decides if it is a primary or secondary master or slave. But it's the boot order if you have more then one hard drive installed as seen in the bios that sets which one is the default. Did you forget the power plug for the hard drive by chance?
 
What make and model board do you have there? With the Socket 939 and AM2 boards out by Asus there's an F8 boot menu option seen on the first post screen for selecting the drive to boot from. That is seen right next to the press DEL now to enter bios setup option.

If your board has that you could try selecting the optical drive from the list of drive seen there under the cd/dvd drive section. If the data cables are all good but you forgot the power plug for either drive it may show up while not being accesible since there's no power going to them.

You are going back and forth there between drives and board where both drives tried are still seeing no results points at some bios setting. a need to update the bios to correct a problem there, or look at a possible need to replace the board itself. With both drive types not seeing anything the board is suspect there.
 
yea that's what i though

*rant*

DAMMMNNNIIIITTTT

*end rant*

lol i'll give it a couple more tries b4 i either RMA board or buy a new one
 
Do you have any spare cables for the drives like more then the one cable that comes with the board for sata? Just a thought to try replacing the ones you are using before assuming a bad board. Of course I.m the last one to rule that out since the new build here saw the first board quit in only 3 days. :P
 
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