Trying to diagnose my issue: Hard Drive or Motherboard?

upandatom17 · Oct 4, 2015

I've had my system running fairly smoothly for the last couple of years, here are the specs (please let me know if I left anything pertinent out)

AMD FX-6100 CPU
Biostar TA970 Mainboard
4GB DDR3 RAM
GEForce GT 6100 Graphics
Running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit

So a couple of days ago I was introduced to the Windows 8.1 version of the Blue Screen of Death. I'd never encountered it before and as I said, I've been running this system pretty much 24/7 for over 2 years. It came up with the error "Kernel_Data_Inpage_Error" and tried to reboot.

When it tried, the computer came up with 'No bootable device', so I restarted, went into the BIOS and tried to boot directly to the hard drive, which worked. I've had the same issue happen a couple of times over the last few days and each time it takes more and more tries to finally 'get through' and have the machine boot to Windows. Most of the time it's 'No bootable device.'

After getting in the last time I transferred all of my data from the drive containing my OS, and went and bought a new HD today, thinking the drive was the problem.

Then, when I got home (the system is running and I don't want to even turn it off in case it won't start up!) I tried plugging in my iphone, and didn't get the customary 'bing' when it starts charging. I checked the cable, moved it to several different USB ports and nada, phone won't charge and isn't recognized by itunes. On top of this, when I changed the cable to a different USB port I got a message on the screen asking if I had just plugged in some new speakers? This got me thinking that maybe my initial problem is related to this, and the root could be with the motherboard.

I don't want to install the new drive if I don't need it, how can I tell where the problem lies?

Thanks for any and all help!

coastie65 · Oct 4, 2015

upandatom17 :

I've had my system running fairly smoothly for the last couple of years, here are the specs (please let me know if I left anything pertinent out)

AMD FX-6100 CPU
Biostar TA970 Mainboard
4GB DDR3 RAM
GEForce GT 6100 Graphics
Running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit

So a couple of days ago I was introduced to the Windows 8.1 version of the Blue Screen of Death. I'd never encountered it before and as I said, I've been running this system pretty much 24/7 for over 2 years. It came up with the error "Kernel_Data_Inpage_Error" and tried to reboot.

When it tried, the computer came up with 'No bootable device', so I restarted, went into the BIOS and tried to boot directly to the hard drive, which worked. I've had the same issue happen a couple of times over the last few days and each time it takes more and more tries to finally 'get through' and have the machine boot to Windows. Most of the time it's 'No bootable device.'

After getting in the last time I transferred all of my data from the drive containing my OS, and went and bought a new HD today, thinking the drive was the problem.

Then, when I got home (the system is running and I don't want to even turn it off in case it won't start up!) I tried plugging in my iphone, and didn't get the customary 'bing' when it starts charging. I checked the cable, moved it to several different USB ports and nada, phone won't charge and isn't recognized by itunes. On top of this, when I changed the cable to a different USB port I got a message on the screen asking if I had just plugged in some new speakers? This got me thinking that maybe my initial problem is related to this, and the root could be with the motherboard.

I don't want to install the new drive if I don't need it, how can I tell where the problem lies?

Thanks for any and all help!

Well, as a rule, the "No Bootable Device" message is pretty straight forward. It is trying to boot to the optical drive. The problem has just come up, you may want to try a system restore to a point befopre this started and see what happens.

upandatom17 · Oct 4, 2015

Thanks for the reply, and that's what I was hoping was the problem. In the BIOS it gives me the option to boot directly to the hard drive, and even when doing that I still get the same 'no boot device' error. If I keep trying it, eventually it will boot up though.

capt_taco · Oct 4, 2015

upandatom17 :

This is the kind of thing that happens when a hard drive is failing. It may hang on and give you a few spurts of intermittent use, but make no mistake about it: You want to replace that drive.

There is an outside chance, however, that the SATA port it's plugged into is going bad and not the drive. Simple enough to rule out: Plug it into a different port and see if there's any difference. You may also test it with a different SATA cable. But again, those are both pretty low-percentage plays and the drive is still the main suspect.

I wouldn't read too much into the phone issue. Those kinds of messages come up all the time, and are usually software issues (my AV, for instance, keeps detecting my printer as a new external drive and asking to scan it whenever I turn it on). The "no bootable device" error trumps everything else.

upandatom17 · Oct 4, 2015

Okay, I'll take the plunge and reintall Windows on the new drive and hope for the best! I was thinking about buying a new bare bones system and just moving the drives over, but when I ran some rough benchmarks apparently the CPU I've got is still pretty decent, I'd like to squeeze some more life out of it if I can!

Is there any way to definitively tell if the drive is failing? I ran a quick scan of it in windows and that came back clean, but I'm not sure how thorough that test is.

upandatom17 · Oct 4, 2015

Well, when trying to restart Windows the system hung for a while then BSOD'ed again, this time with the error "Driver_Power_State_Failure', but when I finally got back to Windows my USB ports seem to be working again. Just putting it out there in case an expert sees a pattern here.

Thanks again guys!

coastie65 · Oct 5, 2015

upandatom17 :

Arae you using an Xbox Controller on there? If you are and have Motioninjoy installed, that could be an issue and that driver needs to be removed.

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