NF7-S problem

[steely600]

Hello!
Ok, I have a weird problem here. I have an Abit NF7-S 2.0 MB with a Raptor SATA HD running XP Pro and another Seagate HD on the other channel as my data backup drive.

I have had this configuration for almost a year now with no problems what so ever. All of the sudden my pc crashed while sitting idle one day. I wasn't even on it, I just turned around and saw a BSOD! I initially thought that my Raptor HD had bought the farm because I was getting "UNKNOWN DISK" error at post. To trouble shoot I rebooted to my WINXP disk and checked to see if it would still recognize my Raptor HD. It did not, it didn't even see my Seagate SATA HD. As far as my motherboard is concerned I don't have any HD's installed at all. I next un-hooked the Raptor all together to see if it would recognize just the Seagate HD alone. It did not! I don't have another MB with SATA to test the HD's on or I would have tried that already. I have a sneaking suspicion that the SATA controller on my MB has crapped out.

Before I buy another MB I thought I would run this buy you guys to see if maybe anyone had any other ideas.

Thx for your time and advice!
N3il

 

[Flinx]

When the computer comes up an posts does the BIOS see the drives? Do you see them listed?

If you need to slow down the posting u can use the Pause key. I think you can hit DEL too and see if the devices show in the BIOS.

Have you tried resetting the CMOS ? (long shot)

Any funny smells lately (unstable power). Check the boards for bulging or leaking capacitors? Although ABIT uses the best.



The loving are the daring!

 

[steely600]

Flinx,
This is very strange; when my pc comes up at post it DOES see the drives. It gets to the end of post just before you see the Windows logo and then I get the "UNKNOWN DRIVE" error. But when I check the bios there are no hard drives found. Clicking on auto detect drive does nothing at all. I have checked the MB with a magnifying glass from head to toe and found no burn marks or bulging capacitors or funny smells. About the only thing that I have not tried is resetting the CMOS. I will try that as soon as I get home from work in about an hour and let you know how it turns out.

THX!

 

[steely600]

I wish I had another MoBo with SATA so that I could test the Raptor on it but I don't.

 

[endyen]

It could be the psu. Can you use a diferent one, or maybe try without the optical and floppy drives?
If I were in your shoes, I would want to test the seagate, maybe not the raptor. If it killed your sata controller...

 

[steely600]

Ok, the plot thickens...
Clearing the CMOS did not correct the problem. I un-hooked both the Raptor and Seagate SATA drives from the mobo. I then reinstalled just the Raptor by its self and booted to Windows Xp disk, going through the WinXP install process I get all the way to the point where I can select the drive that I would like to format or partition but there is no drive found. Tried this on SATA1 and SATA2. I also tried the same thing for the Seagate with the same result, no drives found. I un-hooked the SATA cables and grabbed a spare IDE hard drive I had laying around to see if the mobo would recognize it. Bingo, the mobo sees the IDE drive no problem. I decided to install XP on the IDE drive, after getting all drivers and service packs installed I come to find out that the integrated Ethernet adapter on my mobo is no longer recognized as being present!!! Device manager does not see it and I have tried it with the drivers that came with the mobo and the most recent nforce drivers from Nvidia's website, still no network adapter detected!

I’m now starting to think that I'm having a hardware issue with either the north or south bridge chipsets.

So if the SATA controller and Ethernet adapter have stopped functioning could this mean that the NB or SB has gone crapped out?

Does anyone know if the SATA controller and integrated Ethernet adapter are controlled by the same bridge on ABIT NF7-S 2.0????

I can feel my blood pressure starting to rise.

Thanks for your help!
N3il

 

[steely600]

Abit NF7-S does not have Gigabit Ethernet, just regular 100Mb/s Ethernet.

 

[endyen]

The "common ground" would appear to be the pci bus. Chuck in any pci card you have, and see if it works. Also check in device manager ro see if it has been disabled, or if drivers are required.

 

[Flinx]

I also find it curious that one of the two IDE drives would work. Otherwise I would have eliminated power completely.

Unhook the floppy and CDROM/DVD if u have those. Minimize power and possible interference.

Can you eliminate power as a possible culprit? Borrow a PSU ???

Are the memory modules particularly warm/hot?

Starting to narrow down to MOBO IMO though. Can u borrow that?

The loving are the daring!

 

[steely600]

"I also find it curious that one of the two IDE drives would work. Otherwise I would have eliminated power completely."

THE TWO DRIVES THAT ARE NOT WORKING ARE SATA DRIVES. I WAS ABLE TO GET A SPARE IDE DRIVE TO WORK, SO I HAVE MY DVD DRIVE ON IDE2 AND ANOTHER IDE HARD DRIVE ON IDE1 CURRENTLY.

 

[steely600]

The AGP is running at 66mhz in the bios.

 

[steely600]

well that's it, i'm ordering a new MB today, case closed.
thanks to all that provided advise.

 

[endyen]

One more thing to try. your mobo came with an ide>sata dongle, and power adaptor. See if the ide drive is recognized, in sata.
Also, check that sata hasn't been dissabled in bios.