Motherboard doesn't detect anything plugged into SATA ports

[goombawaho]

I have a customer with a desktop - HP Pavilion a4316f. It's giving them the "insert bootable media" message at boot. I was thinking that the hard drive was dead, so I connected it to my laptop via USB to SATA adapter. It was fine and passed a diagnostic test.

Then I noticed that the optical drive wasn't being seen either by the BIOS. I tried different SATA ports and even tried powering the drive via external power to bypass the power supply.

Tried setting the BIOS to defaults. No change.

I've never seen a motherboard fail in that way, with only the SATA ports not working. Anyone seen this or have any comments?

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[gbaughma]

Is it possibly a power supply issue? I don't think the SATA ports will register anything plugged in if there isn't proper voltage to the drives.


Just my $.02

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

 

[technome]

I've never seen a motherboard fail in that way, with only the SATA ports not working. Anyone seen this or have any comments? "
Never seen it but anything is possible. Have you pulled the bios battery? Is anything else connected to the SATA interface? If the battery pull does not help, yank all cards in the machine other then video.




........................................

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, 1949

 

[Scott24x7]

This can also be a memory issue. I encountered many years ago now, what I still can't fully explain in that a failing memory module caused an enormous amount of problems with drives (mind you this was pre-SATA era), but since there doesn't seem to be much else happening...
How many SATA ports are on the motherboard? If there is an e-SATA port, try running the drive off of that (you can run the external cable back inside the machine with the case off and see if that will work). Also, use a different power connector if possible. (Use a split cable off a known working power cable if you have to, or have one available).


Best Regards,
Scott
MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[DrB0b]

Update the BIOS if available? Ive had a board fail where either the SATA or PATA ports died and that was it. Basically was the first step in the board beginning to totally die. If you toss a PCI SATA card in there does everything work fine?

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[goombawaho]

Tested the memory - it passed
No e-sata port to try
Already tried powering the drive off of an external power brick
I don't have a SATA card to try

BIOS update is the only possible thing I can do, but I don't know if I'll get another chance as the owner doesn't want to pay for troubleshooting and so this is heading toward replacement.

I'm just kind of in awe of this failure mode!!!

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[Scott24x7]

The SATA control isn't part of the CPU, so a failure in a connection between chip and interface could be enough to allow the SATA to pass POST, but not "see" any objects on the other side.

I'll ask one stupid question and that is, does the existing BIOS allow for changing how the SATA ports are "recognized" or "treated"? (IDE, SATA, RAID, LEGACY, AHCI).
If there are options, and these have been changed (from say IDE or AHCI to RAID or other ways around), it may have made the devices unrecognized.
During POST do any of the SATA ports show as having devices attached? (i.e. does it say something like SEAGATE Model <blah blah blah>.

One other question, can you boot it off a USB stick? If it boots there, even in a command prompt level, if you can get DISKPART to run, it will tell you if it sees any drives. And if the USB is bootable, you can also get other information past the "No Boot Partition" issue.

You may need to change the BIOS settings to allow the USB to boot, but in general during POST F8 or F2 or F12 (depending on the BIOS maker) should take you to a boot menu, where you can pick the USB stick to boot from. It would also be interesting to see if it sees any other devices at that menu...


Best Regards,
Scott
MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[dik]

Check the internet to see if there are any issues with SATA and your motherboard. Can it be fixed with a BIOS upgrade? Can you borrow or do you have a spare peripheral that uses SATA? If not, and the client is willing to upgrade... replace the motherboard. I've never had an issue with SATA not operating... and access to SATA, as noted, may be missed by your POST.

or from a website for ASUS boards, in the BIOS, "Change it to AHCI or it maybe talking about the sata cable/power"

Dik

 

[rclarke250]

Not in a desktop, but I have seen a laptop motherboard fail in this way.

 

[goombawaho]

I'm not going to have access to the computer to do anything else, but I will try other suggestions if/when I do.

During POST do any of the SATA ports show as having devices attached?

No - nothing listed for any of the ports even though a hard drive and optical drive are connected.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[Scott24x7]

Will it boot from a USB drive?
Then we can find out more about what the system can "see" once it's up and running.

Best Regards,
Scott
MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[goombawaho]

Again - I will have to wait until I get there for more testing.
Can probably use the Ultimate Boot CD and run the Western Digital hard drive diagnostics. If that OS can't see the hard drive then it would be the same as booting to a USB as you mentioned.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[goombawaho]

Oops - forgot that the optical drive isn't seen! My bad.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[kjv1611]

You can do Ultimate Boot CD from USB Flash drive or USB Optical drive.

If you do replace, it might be worth digging in further in case you can find out for future reference. Probably not, though. You're probably too busy to do all the extra things like the rest of us. I've got SO many things I want to do that's extra that I can't touch.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[goombawaho]

Oh, if I get their PC to recycle, I will play with it to see if I can find out anything interesting.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[dik]

I often run Speccy to see what the system sees... It's freeware (in limited capacity) from Piriform. Doesn't do much other than show what's 'connected'.

Dik

 

[goombawaho]

Interesting. I found one of my own previous threads relating to this same computer model. The motherboards must be subject to bad capacitors or some ailment. The one in this thread had a longer life though.
Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[balanceistische]

And did you change the capacitors?

 

[goombawaho]

No, I don't do board level repairs. Even if I did, on a computer that old, it would kind of be a waste of money.


"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.