Sata controller on main board?

[bevills1]

On a MSI Z77A-G41motherboard with Pentium G2020 cpu at 2.9GHz that has 2 sata hard drives and 2 sata optical drives connected, all drives are recognized in bios, but only hard drive 1 is recognized while hard drive 0 is not recognized when boot to Win10 install disk. Also CD/DVD disks fail to boot about 9 out of 10 times. Does this mean the main board sata controller has failed, or might a bios upgrade fix the problem? BTW I tried replacing sata cables and tried different sata ports, and neither helped. Memtest86 was run and found no errors. I did notice clock in bios was 4 hours slow which may indicate cmos battery needs to be replaced. Could a weak cmos battery cause such bizarre behavior with the sata drive connections?

[aedipuss]

could be a bunch of different things but if everything is there in the bios it's already gone through the sata controller and it's ok. is it overclocked or using non-standard bios settings? failing power supply maybe? bios upgrade is not likely to solve it but it's good to do before installing windows anyway.

[bevills1]

It's not overclocked, but bios sata settings is set to IDE mode to be able to boot WinXP in this dual boot WinXP/Win10 system.

[aedipuss]

shouldn't make any difference unless you have ssd drives. are you trying to install windows? if so wipe the drive first no format no partitions and unplug all other drives. then install onto it and let windows format and partition it.

[bevills1]

Today the PC booted normally once to bios, but on a second startup lights and fans came on for about 10 seconds, shutoff a few seconds, back on for 10 seconds and shutoff a few seconds; this sequence repeated over and over until power was turned off. This seems to indicate either a a bad power supply or bad motherboard. Is there a way to determine which it is?

[aedipuss]

only if you have a spare p.s. hanging around

[Backpain]

Bad power supply, bad mother board. Visually inspect the mother board for some cap leaking. Try another known good power supply.

[bevills1]

Since this is LGA1155 motherboard, I sure hope it's the power supply because the LGA1155s are hard to find and pricey when found. The problem with other widely available motherboards is they have so few expansion slots, and going to another motherboard would requiring getting another cpu too. I ordered a new power supply and hope that is the cause of problems.

[JVRaines]

Bad power supplies can cause all kinds of crazy behavior. If you have a voltage meter, you can check the outputs to see if anything is grossly out of whack. Definitely try replacing it before you move on to other components.

[bevills1]

Power supply was replaced and same problem persists which probably means bad motherboard and/or cpu. LGA155 motherboards are hard to find and pricey when found, and I probably should get a new motherboard which require a new cpu and memory too. Will these changes prompt reactivation, and will Windows 10 allow activation with these changes?

[aedipuss]

depends on the version of win10 it was. if it was a purchased retail one maybe not, but other versions are usually tied to motherboard id and not changeable so a new copy of w10 may be needed.

[october262]

Power supply was replaced and same problem persists which probably means bad motherboard and/or cpu. LGA155 motherboards are hard to find and pricey when found, and I probably should get a new motherboard which require a new cpu and memory too. Will these changes prompt reactivation, and will Windows 10 allow activation with these changes?

Try removing the button cell battery on the motherboard and reset the bios
Then start the computer and see if the other hard drive is recognized.

[bevills1]

Power supply was replaced and same problem persists which probably means bad motherboard and/or cpu. LGA155 motherboards are hard to find and pricey when found, and I probably should get a new motherboard which require a new cpu and memory too. Will these changes prompt reactivation, and will Windows 10 allow activation with these changes?

Try removing the button cell battery on the motherboard and reset the bios
Then start the computer and see if the other hard drive is recognized.

Bios can also be reset by setting the jumper according to https://www.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS, and it seems both methods should have same result. Have you ever done this on a system exhibiting the behavior I described above which resulted in normal startup? My guess is resetting bios might work where fans and lights start and continue to run but not posting to bios. Since my cycles lights and fans on and off, I'd bet it's likely a motherboard issue and not a simple matter of resetting the bios.

aedipuss, this system was self built on which I originally installed Windows 8.1 and upgraded to Windows 10 when the free upgrade was offered by Microsoft. I think what you mean by a retail version is such as on a Dell, HP or other computer maker which mine is not. Is that ciorrect?

[october262]

Power supply was replaced and same problem persists which probably means bad motherboard and/or cpu. LGA155 motherboards are hard to find and pricey when found, and I probably should get a new motherboard which require a new cpu and memory too. Will these changes prompt reactivation, and will Windows 10 allow activation with these changes?

Try removing the button cell battery on the motherboard and reset the bios
Then start the computer and see if the other hard drive is recognized.

Bios can also be reset by setting the jumper according to https://www.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS, and it seems both methods should have same result. Have you ever done this on a system exhibiting the behavior I described above which resulted in normal startup? My guess is resetting bios might work where fans and lights start and continue to run but not posting to bios. Since my cycles lights and fans on and off, I'd bet it's likely a motherboard issue and not a simple matter of resetting the bios.

aedipuss, this system was self built on which I originally installed Windows 8.1 and upgraded to Windows 10 when the free upgrade was offered by Microsoft. I think what you mean by a retail version is such as on a Dell, HP or other computer maker which mine is not. Is that ciorrect?

I always reset the bios especially when adding memory or a dvd drive.
To me, it's just a safeguard and for the peace of mind.

[bevills1]

Battery was removed and bios reset, and the same problem of cycling on and off continues as I suspected it would. A new motherboard, cpu and memory was ordered, and I'll see what activation issues may arise when the new hardware is installed.

[bevills1]

Motherboard was replaced with Gigabyte GA-B250M-D3H with Pentium G4400 cpu installed and 4GB DDR4 PC2133 RAM. On startup there's a single short beep, and on the monitor appears a screen that shows "Press Del to enter bios setup," "Press F12 for boot menu" and a couple of other options. However, there's no response from any key input from keyboard; I've tried PS2 and USB keyboards with same results. Late Friday I called Gigabyte support and was told to try USB keyboard after initial try with PS2 keyboard failed, and they were closed before I could call back. I can't call back to Gigabyte support until Monday because they're only open Monday through Friday. Has anybody had this issue with a new motherboard, or does anyone know a possible fix for the problem?

[davexnet]

Have a look here for some suggestions:
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2176482/breadboarding-stripping-basics-troubleshooting.html

Good luck with it, been there done that myself

[TimA-C]

As far as the old motherboard etc. did you try replacing the Sata cables? Oxidation on the contacts or just vibrated loose - certainly wouldn't be the first time. I always use latching Sata cables now.

With the new motherboard, 3 things spring to mind:-

1) Have you got the additional 4 or 8 pin motherboard power connector plugged in as well as the usual 24 pin connector?

2) Is the new PSU able to supply enough current on the 3.3v line for your CPU? (I recently bought a 500W PSU as a replacement for my Sister's PC, only to find that the maximum current on the 3.3v line was only rated at 6 amps. The installed AMD CPU needed at least 8+ amps.)

3) You haven't got any unused spacers under/behind the motherboard - leftovers from the old motherboard - that are shorting out on the new motherboard?

[bevills1]

As far as the old motherboard etc. did you try replacing the Sata cables? Oxidation on the contacts or just vibrated loose - certainly wouldn't be the first time. I always use latching Sata cables now.

With the new motherboard, 3 things spring to mind:-

1) Have you got the additional 4 or 8 pin motherboard power connector plugged in as well as the usual 24 pin connector?

2) Is the new PSU able to supply enough current on the 3.3v line for your CPU? (I recently bought a 500W PSU as a replacement for my Sister's PC, only to find that the maximum current on the 3.3v line was only rated at 6 amps. The installed AMD CPU needed at least 8+ amps.)

3) You haven't got any unused spacers under/behind the motherboard - leftovers from the old motherboard - that are shorting out on the new motherboard?

The answer ti #1 us yes, and the answer to #3 is no. I don't know what the PSU current on the 3.3v line is, but the CPU has integrated graphics. I'm getting video display showing options to choose, but the keyboard simply won't respond to any key pressed.

[jan5678]

Did you try other usb ports?
Sometimes only usb 2 ports has legacy keyboard support.

Just a thought

[TimA-C]

There's usually a label on the PSU giving the various ratings.

If I think of anything else, I'll post back here. Good Luck.

[bevills1]

Did you try other usb ports?
Sometimes only usb 2 ports has legacy keyboard support.

Just a thought

I was told by Gigabyte support that it would only work with USB2 ports which the board has 2 and has 4 USB3 ports, and both USB2 ports were tried..

TimA-C, It shows +3.3V @ 20A for specifications at https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139196. I assume that means the PSU can supply 20A on the 3.3v line. Is that correct? There's no label on the PSU itself with such info unless it's on the top or the side that can't be seen with PSU installed in the tower.

[TimA-C]

I would have thought 20A would be enough.

Just to confirm, you are using a wired USB keyboard and not a wireless one with a USB receiver? I guess the only other thing you could do is remove the motherboard battery for a while and/or, if you've got either a jumper or solder points on the motherboard, clear the CMOS. (You'll need to check the documentation for the motherboard.) That would force the CMOS to it's default settings . . . worth a shot before sending it back. (I'm guessing that Gigabyte Tech Support may try and get you to flash the Bios with the latest version from their website.)

Anyway, good luck. Let us know how you get on.

[bevills1]

Around 20 years ago I had a new motherboard fail to post, and the store who sold me the motherboard told me to disconnect all hardware except graphics card and monitor and reconnect hardware 1 at a time restarting after each device was reconnected if it posts with only the video connected, but the PC still failed to post. The store said the motherboard was bad and replaced it. A couple of years later the same problem arose with another PC, and the same steps were followed resulting this time in PC booting after all hardware was reconnected. I'm unsure why this works, but it does.

This afternoon I followed that same procedure, and the new motherboard booted until the last optical drive was connected whereupon it froze at the same point in my initial post above. A second sara cable was tried with no help; then I tried switching sata ports with the problem persisting. I also tried switching sata cables between the 2 optical drives, and the problem continued. Finally I determined the system would boot correctly only when that last connected optical drive is disconnected. Apparently a bad optical drive was the cause of the problem. I've never had a bad drive cause this kind of problem. All other drive failures I've seen simply resulted in the bad drive failing to read or write.

Now I wonder if my conclusion may have been faulty about the motherboard replaced being bad, and could that bad optical drive have caused the computer to cycle on and off without booting. Maybe that motherboard isn't bad after all.

There's 1 more thing I need to determine. I've been dual booting WinXP and Win10, and while using the board that was replaced sata mode in bios had to be set to ide in order to boot WinXP. This new board has no ide setting for sata mode in bios. Does this mean WinXP won't run on this board, or is there a way to boot WinXP without sata mode set to ide?

Edit: Today, 3/19/18, I got an error message while trying to boot to a BartPE CD stating the system BIOS was not fully AHCI compliant and that the BIOS needed to be updated. I called Gigabyte support to see if there's a BIOS update to fix this problem and was told only Windows 7 and later will work with this board. According to »(https://www.comx-computers.co.za/GA-B250M-D3H-specifications-154810.htm) that seems to be true. I guess that means I can no longer run WinXP unless the board that I replaced is still good, and I reinstall it. They used to make software that's backward compatible but not so any more!

[Nelson37]

Do you have another keyboard to test with? It is possible that the kb is faulty and could be the original problem. No KB in BIOS, more than one KB tested, all tested good on another PC, should be sufficient for a warranty RMA.

[bevills1]

A PS2 and USB both worked fine after the bad drive mentioned in reply $24 was disconnected which means problems were caused by the faulty drive and not a keyboard or motherboard issue.

[turk690]

....Could a weak cmos battery cause such bizarre behavior with the sata drive connections?

Weak CMOS batteries (<3.0vdc) can introduce random/faulty BIOS setting values which is far worse than a truly dead one, which just resets the RTC and BIOS values to default every time the computer is powered on/booted. If you suspect even the slightest that it's bad, DO NOT merely reset it; throw it away and replace with a fresh one, verified to measure between +3.0 & +3.4vdc. No compromise here.
A separate issue would be, what kind of battery it is and where on the mobo it is located. Although the vast majority of mobos I have encountered use something like a non-rechargeable lithium coin battery like a type-CR3032, some do not. Most that use the CR3032 has it installed in a holder, where it's easy to pop out and replace. Some use a version of the CR3032 that has spot-welded leads and is soldered to the board directly (may require a visit to the hateful geeksquad). Other (older) boards may use a rechargeable NiMH coin type (terminal voltage +2.4vdc), which, after it dies, is not easy to find.
When a mobo exhibits bizarre behaviour such as those OP mentions, the 1st thing I make a beeline for is ALWAYS the CMOS battery, most especially if the board is more than a year old. If it's more than 3 years old, I ALWAYS replace the CMOS battery, no exceptions. After doing so, if the problem persists, this is where I start poking into other possibilities, such as the PSU, cables, etc.

[bevills1]

Today I retested the replaced MSI board using the same procedure used to get the new Gigabyte board working described in my reply #24 above, i.e. disconnected all hardware except video to see if it would boot to BIOS which it did. I suspected it would test good after getting the new board working via that procedure. This means I now have a spare board that still works. Next time a similar problem occurs I’ll know to try this procedure first. It’s very odd to me that a bad optical drive could cause such problems, and I never before seen this kind of catastrophic issue caused by a bad optical drive.

I think I’ll continue using the new board since it has warranty, and the old board is out of warranty. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before other motherboards will need to be replaced because no hardware lasts forever, and virtual machine will become the only way to run older Windows versions…