Mother board or hard disk problem?

J

Jaylong

New Member
Hi all.

A few weeks ago my external hd packed up and died, leaving me with no back ups or money for a new one. Not long after the computer was sounding a bit loud, so I tookthe case off and gave it a quick blast with a hair dryer. This worked and it went back to being quiet and dust free. However, a few hours later the computer froze and I restarted it. It booted to the mother board screen then would reset it's self and continue looping until I turned it off. I took the CMOS out for 30 seconds to reset it, then tried booting it up and got the error : adapter 1 no hard disk detected.
After checking the bios, the hard drive is connected and is being read and I can hear it spinning, but the computer just won't boot. I don't know a lot about fixing computers so I'm limited, if anyone could give me some helpful things to try it would be a life saver as I'm only worried about losing the files on my hdd.

The computer is a 18 month old build, Asus p5ql pro. 2gb ddr2. Samsung 1tb hdd.

Thanks
 
There is noise coming from the hdd but just normal noise, spinning etc. I havnt got another computer I had to post this using my phone etc but I've asked a friend to bring his pc round just so I can check and then make a back up if the hdd is ok
 
Sounds like the HDD may be on its way out or have errors.
...got the error : adapter 1 no hard disk detected.
After checking the bios, the hard drive is connected and is being read and I can hear it spinning, but the computer just won't boot.
Click to expand...
Well, that's a little confusing. Where is the HDD "being read"? Where is it listed in your BIOS configuration? As Primary Master? If it's not, then you should pull the drive and check your jumper settings. If it is, but you're still getting a "no hard disk detected" error, then you should put the disk into another computer immediately, and back up your data to another HDD or DVD, USB drive, etc.
Then I would scan the disk for errors in the other computer using Scan Disk (My Computer-->right-click the drive-->Properties-->Tools-->"Check Now" under Error-checking), or download and run Samsung's Hard Disk Diagnostic Tool

You said the computer "was running a bit loud" - that infers that it was overheating and the fan(s) were kicked into overdrive to keep up. If the drive got too hot, it could have possibly damaged it. Also, please don't clean dust out of your computer using a hair dryer - that can overheat and damage the motherboard and components. Instead, use a vacuum cleaner with a hose or canned air. When/if you ever get your computer back up, I suggest you download SpeedFan to monitor your temperatures. I wouldn't think a hard drive should ever be hotter than 50°C

Let us know what you find out. If the HDD is bad, I would definitely return it - surely there has to be a warranty on a drive that fails after two months?
 
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that's how it shows in the BIOS
 
Then the hard drive is being detected as it should. But, for whatever reason, is not bootable.

All you can do now is back up the data from the drive using another machine (or a Live CD such as Knoppix) and check the disk for errors as described above.

If errors are found, then you can attempt to repair the disc using the HDD diagnostic utility or scandisk, but I would recommend replacing the drive and seeing about getting a refund.

If no errors are found, then somehow your MBR got botched - have you been fooling around with resizing partitions or trying to install a second OS for dual-booting?

My guess is that the HDD overheated and is damaged beyond repair, in which case it will be impossible to retrieve your data from the drive. But the only way to find out is by performing the steps above. Please do and let us know what you find.

Good luck!

[edit]
Also, make sure that the HDD is enabled in your BIOS Boot options - I would set it as the first boot device just to be sure that the computer is indeed trying to boot tfrom the HDD
[/edit]
 
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