Bios does not detect HDD

Damian1010

Prominent
May 6, 2017
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My bios every now and then looses the harddrive of my asus r556-ld laptop. At first i thought it was a problem with the harddrive so i bought a new one. But the problem continued. The drive did not show up in bios and the laptop could not boot.

After some fiddling and playing a bit with the screws of the hdd controller (a small part that is screwed on to the mainboard and has a plug for the harddrive) and unplugging the harddrive, it detects the harddrive again and things are ok for a while.

The harddrives work fine when i plug them into a desktop pc. When i tried to install windows 10 from a dvd on my new ssd drive in the laptop, things were super slow, so i aborted the install after 2 hours. Instead i plugged the new ssd into my desktop and installed windows 10 from dvd in like 15 minutes. After that i plugged the new ssd into my laptop and things worked for a while, before the laptop again failed to boot and did not show the new ssd in bios.

So my theory is: Could the hdd controller be broken? Might it be the mainboard? But then i wonder why the laptop finds the drive again once i have removed the ssd and the hdd controller and build both back in.

The laptop is unfortunately out of warranty. Any help highly appreciated!

The hdd or ssd can not be the problem, they work fine in another machine and the tools i used to report their health status show they are fine.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
First and foremost, have you made sure your laptop's BIOS is up to date? Second, can you find the HDD in your device manager? It's probable that the cable leading up to the HDD can't supply adequate power. It's possible that the cable may be faulty.

Without any SSD populating the system while an HDD is connected can you see if it's detected in BIOS? On another note what is your OS? Windows 8.1 or Windows 10?
 

Damian1010

Prominent
May 6, 2017
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510
Yes, bios is up to date. Its windows 10 64bit. When this problem appears as i can not boot i can not get into the device manager. when the laptop works, all is fine in device manager and the drive is shown.

There is no cable connected to the hdd. I put it in a slot of the hdd connector/adapter thats attached to the mainboard.

And as described before this problem exists with any hdd or ssd that i put into that laptop: They work fine in other setups,but bios looses them like once a week. and then I have to open the laptop and reassemble things, after that they work again for a while. There are no loose screws or anything and i dont screw them too strong.

Surprisingly bios finds the DVD drive though, which is also connected over the same sata/hdd adapter. And as mentioned before all hdds and ssds work perfectly in other computers.
 

Damian1010

Prominent
May 6, 2017
6
0
510
MERGED QUESTION
Question from Damian1010 : "Bios has problems detecting HDD"

Sorry for reposting this. But i think i posted it in the wrong category before and can't remove this thread. Admin, shall i delete the old post?

My bios every now and then looses the harddrive of my asus r556-ld laptop. At first i thought it was a problem with the harddrive so i bought a new one. But the problem continued. The drive did not show up in bios and the laptop could not boot.

After some fiddling and playing a bit with the screws of the hdd adapter (a small part that is screwed on to the mainboard and has a plug for the harddrive) and unplugging the harddrive, it detects the harddrive again and things are ok for a while.

The harddrives work fine when i plug them into a desktop pc. When i tried to install windows 10 from a dvd on my new ssd drive in the laptop, things were super slow, so i aborted the install after 2 hours. Instead i plugged the new ssd into my desktop and installed windows 10 from dvd in like 15 minutes. After that i plugged the new ssd into my laptop and things worked for a while, before the laptop again failed to boot and did not show the new ssd in bios.

So my theory is: Could the hdd controller be broken? Might it be the mainboard? But then i wonder why the laptop finds the drive again once i have removed the ssd and the hdd controller and build both back in.

The laptop is unfortunately out of warranty. Any help highly appreciated!

The hdd or ssd can not be the problem, they work fine in another machine and the tools i used to report their health status show they are fine. Strangely the DVD drive which is connected to the same SATA/hdd adapter is always recognized in Bios. Bios is updated, System is windows 10 64bit.