Intermittent boot problem

[TonyMS]

I have an Asus A7N8X running XP SP2 with 2 SATA drives. Intermittently,
it refuses to boot. If I then boot from a CD (using PEBuider) both disks
are visible. So far, I have persuaded it to boot eventually by leaving
it to warm up and playing with the connection cables.

Can anyone suggest a strategy for pinning down and rectifying the fault
- the disks, cables, motherboard, or whatever.

Tony MS

 

[Chuck]

Might the power supply be unable to properly handle the startup load?
Then, there is a possibility that the "power good" circuitry on the
motherboard is malfunctioning. (not enough delay)
Playing with "connection cables" when power is on is not a good idea. If you
have one in particular in mind, try replacing it.
There is possibly a question concerning SATA support by the BIOS. The
settings in BIOS may not be optimized for SATA booting, or the BIOS may be
out of date.

 

[TonyMS]

Might the power supply be unable to properly handle the startup load?
Then, there is a possibility that the "power good" circuitry on the
motherboard is malfunctioning. (not enough delay)
Playing with "connection cables" when power is on is not a good idea. If you
have one in particular in mind, try replacing it.
There is possibly a question concerning SATA support by the BIOS. The
settings in BIOS may not be optimized for SATA booting, or the BIOS may be
out of date.

Thanks

The power supply is fairly new, and over-spec if anything.

However, the BIOS is original. I'll see if I can get a newer one

 

[Anna]

I have an Asus A7N8X running XP SP2 with 2 SATA drives. Intermittently,
it refuses to boot. If I then boot from a CD (using PEBuider) both disks
are visible. So far, I have persuaded it to boot eventually by leaving
it to warm up and playing with the connection cables.

Can anyone suggest a strategy for pinning down and rectifying the fault
- the disks, cables, motherboard, or whatever.

Tony MS

Tony:
1. First of all, has this problem just occurred "out of the blue"?
Everything was working perfectly and then one day the problem you described
just happened?
2. What do you mean when you say "Intermittently, it refuses to boot." It
doesn't always happen? Rarely? Occasionally? Frequently? Black screen? Error
messages? What exactly happens?
3. And what do you mean when you say "I have persuaded it to boot eventually
by leaving it to warm up and playing with the connection cables." How are
you "playing with the connection cables"? Uninserting & reinserting them? So
there's some indication that the SATA data cable connections are at the root
of your problem? Have you changed them?
4. And what is this "warm up" reference? Any indication your power supply
may be causing the problem? Any chance of changing it to determine if that's
so?
5. Had you made any significant software/hardware changes just prior to the
problem arising? BIOS changes?
6. Do you have any clue whatsoever as to the cause of your problem? Any
suspicions?
7. Your SATA HDDs run independently or is this a RAID configuration?
8. If a non-RAID config., one of the HDDs is your boot drive; the other used
for storage/backup, right? If so, what happens if you boot with only the
boot HDD connected? Same problem?
9. The system is free of viruses and other malware?
10. You're reasonably sure your HDDs are properly (securely) connected to
the motherboard's appropriate SATA connectors?
11. Any problems with other PC components? Your optical drive(s), for
example?
12. Do you have a spare PATA HDD you can connect and install the OS?
13. Have you tried booting into Safe Mode? What happens?
14. Think there may be a possibility that you're dealing with a defective
boot HDD? Have you used the manuf. HDD diagnostic to test out the drive(s)?
Anna

 

[DL]

When my A7N8X deluxe started giving 'odd' problems with my sata drives
(Mirror) it transpired that the sata controler/drivers were flakey.
I purchased a new mobo.
Both Asus/Sil reported that there had been problems with the Sil
driver/controller that was supposedly cured by a bios upgrade.

 

[TonyMS]

That looks an exhaustive list of questions! Answers interleaved: Tony

Tony:
1. First of all, has this problem just occurred "out of the blue"?
Everything was working perfectly and then one day the problem you described
just happened?

Happened before about a month ago. I swapped the SATA leads on the
motherboard and it went away

2. What do you mean when you say "Intermittently, it refuses to boot." It
doesn't always happen? Rarely? Occasionally? Frequently? Black screen? Error
messages? What exactly happens?

Last 2 mornings at switch on. After the usual BIOS startup messages, it
sits for a few mins, then says it can't read the disks - insert a system
disk (I can't get at the exact words at present, because the system is
now working)

3. And what do you mean when you say "I have persuaded it to boot eventually
by leaving it to warm up and playing with the connection cables." How are
you "playing with the connection cables"? Uninserting & reinserting them? So
there's some indication that the SATA data cable connections are at the root
of your problem? Have you changed them?

Left the system on for 15 mins. Switched off. Swapped SATA cables.
Switched on. Worked on 2nd try

4. And what is this "warm up" reference? Any indication your power supply
may be causing the problem? Any chance of changing it to determine if that's
so?

I don't have a spare. The current Antec true330 is about 12 months old,
and appears to be fine.

5. Had you made any significant software/hardware changes just prior to the
problem arising? BIOS changes? No
6. Do you have any clue whatsoever as to the cause of your problem? Any
suspicions?

Maybe marginal data record on the boot track

7. Your SATA HDDs run independently or is this a RAID configuration? Non-RAID
8. If a non-RAID config., one of the HDDs is your boot drive; the other used
for storage/backup, right? If so, what happens if you boot with only the
boot HDD connected? Same problem? Yes
9. The system is free of viruses and other malware?

Yes, tested frequently, and has firewall

10. You're reasonably sure your HDDs are properly (securely) connected to
the motherboard's appropriate SATA connectors?

Well, SATA connector are a crude push onto the MB, with no positive grip

11. Any problems with other PC components? Your optical drive(s), for
example? No
12. Do you have a spare PATA HDD you can connect and install the OS? Yes, and I'll do this next
13. Have you tried booting into Safe Mode? What happens?

Didn't think of that, but I don't think it got that far

14. Think there may be a possibility that you're dealing with a defective
boot HDD? Have you used the manuf. HDD diagnostic to test out the drive(s)?

Hitachi advanced test says no problem

 

[Anna]

That looks an exhaustive list of questions! Answers interleaved: Tony


Happened before about a month ago. I swapped the SATA leads on the
motherboard and it went away
Last 2 mornings at switch on. After the usual BIOS startup messages, it
sits for a few mins, then says it can't read the disks - insert a system
disk (I can't get at the exact words at present, because the system is
now working)
Left the system on for 15 mins. Switched off. Swapped SATA cables.
Switched on. Worked on 2nd try
I don't have a spare. The current Antec true330 is about 12 months old,
and appears to be fine.

Maybe marginal data record on the boot track


Yes, tested frequently, and has firewall
Well, SATA connector are a crude push onto the MB, with no positive grip

Didn't think of that, but I don't think it got that far
Hitachi advanced test says no problem

1. It could be the power supply. But the only definitive way to determine if
that's the problem is to replace it.

2. Possibly your SATA cables aren't making a proper connection.

3. Try booting into Safe Mode and see if any clue there.

4. Definitely install your PATA HDD to see if same problem exists.
Surprising you haven't already done that. Obviously if no problem with the
PATA HDD that would seem to pinpoint problem with your SATA HDDs -
connections/configuration.

5. What do you mean about a possible problem because of "Maybe marginal data
record on the boot track."?
Anna