Need help troubleshooting SFF PC

adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
edited December 2008 in Hardware
I am troubleshooting a SFF PC that is experiencing occasional disk boot failures, hard lockups requiring reset and occasional failure to detect the SATA drive during POST. Here are the specs:

· Ultra Microfly SFF case w 430 watt T-Take power supply
· MSI K8NGM2-L 939 motherboard
· AMD X2 Opteron 180 Denmark
· 2 X 512 Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR
· Seagate 80G SATA2 HD
· EVGA 7950GT PCIe video card
· Lite-On DVD-CDRW combo drive + Sony FD
· Win XP Home Ed. SP3

Memtest 86+ shows no errors with RAM, SeaTools shows no errors or faults with the hard drive, and power supply tests good with my Zalman tester. Video card temps are comfortable at 50-55 degrees. CPU is running at 38-45 degrees depending on load.

Once or twice the BIOS failed to detect or show the SATA HD so I replaced the SATA cable. Hard freezes continue anyway. The sys might run fine for a half hour or longer gaming then hard freeze just surfing the web. At other times it just might not boot with DISK BOOT FAILURE listed during POST. I am running out of ideas here. This pc has run flawlessly until just a couple of days ago. No newly installed hardware or software.
Any help appreciated. THX!

Comments

  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Update on bios? what about trying a diff psu 430 is kinda low any over clocking?
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    BIOS is updated to the latest version: 5.1. No, no overclocking. The power supply has been with this system since new and has powered the 7950 w/o issue; it meets the 7950 12v rail requirement even though it is not a strong as some others. My fear is the mobo may be going but hoping it is something else.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    i haven't had any experience with MSI micro boards the only micro boards i used were gigabyte Its a possibility
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    I thought for awhile that windows was corrupt but that wouldn't explain why the BIOS occasionally does not detect the SATA drive. Is it possible for a hard drive to be bad even though it passes tests like those in SeaTools?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Is it possible for a hard drive to be bad even though it passes tests like those in SeaTools?
    The hard drive itself is probably just fine. The Windows installation on it or the file system may be corrupt. Hard drive diagnostics software generally only checks the physical characteristics of the drive, not necessarily the viability of the file system laid down on the surface of the platter.

    Run Checkdisk on C:\ partition. Ensure to check both boxes: "Automatically fix..." and "Scan for and attempt recovery..." Odds are that will fix the problems your computer is currently experiencing.
    what about trying a diff psu 430 is kinda low any over clocking?
    430w, assuming its a decent quality unit, is just fine for a system with that configuration. I should even have power to spare. If he had a quad core CPU overclocked with a 4870X2 or two 8800GTs in SLI, then yes, he'd need a more powerful PSU.

    The Windows XP Checkdisk utility and tool is very good. It has rescued several of my systems on more than one occasion form unexplainable problems, including boot issues.
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Thanks Leo! Running chkdsk now. I'll get back with a report after it's complete and I've tested the pc.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    What are you doing for cooling?
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Chkdsk seems to have done the trick. No failed boots and freezes since so it appears back to normal again. Thx Leo!

    And to Buddy J, I am using the stock heatpipe cooler that came with the Opty. It idles at 36 and hits 38-45 depending on load.

    Thanks to all for your replies!
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    Chkdsk seems to have done the trick.
    Good. It can do wonders sometimes. Now, if you have any other partitions, run Checkdisk on them as well. It's never a bad thing.
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    No other partitions. It's only an 80 gig HD so I set it to only one partition.
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