Possible Hard drive and motherboard issue

Here are my computer specs

MotherBoard : P5QL PRO
Processor : Intel Q6700
Ram : 4 * 1 gig PC5300
PSU : Antec 650 w
Hard drive 320 gig + 3* 500 gig (SATA, all WD)
Graphic card : gforece 9800x2
Case : Antec p193 (love it)
I also have 2 dvd burners (IDE)
And a wireless network card WRT54G

OS : xp sp 3 pro 32 bits and Win 7 ultimate 64 bits


Problem :

The first problem I seem to have if that one of my drive F: would sometime disappear for no apparent reason. When I boot the pc and check the BIOS, the 4 hard drives are detected and when I load windows, they are all there.

When the drive is listed, I can access it and use the data on it. But after some time, it just seems to get disconnected for no reason. Once it is gone, I checked the Disk manager and it is completely gone (the next time it happens I will also check the device manager).

If I reboot the pc, the drive will be back.

I checked the power cable and it is working fine, I switched it just in case. I changed the sata cable with no luck and I also used another connector on the motherboard without any success.

The event viewer shows those errors :

Source : Disk
Event ID : 11
Description : The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D.

The time on those error seems to be related to time where windows takes a really long time to load and hangs at the Windows XP loading screen.


Source : Ntfs
Event ID : 50
Description : {Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file . The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.


Source : PlugPlayManager
Event ID : 12
Description : The device 'WDC WD5000AAKS-00YGA0' (IDE\DiskWDC_WD5000AAKS-00YGA0___________________12.01C02\5&2afb53d3&0&0.0.0) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

Those 2 seem to be related to the fact that the HD goes missing.

I tried to run a CHKDSK F: /F /R

It ran for 7 hours and was at 20% of step 4 out of 5. I needed the pc so I had to cancel it

I am virus free.

No I would normally believe this is a hard drive issue and not bother with it at all. I would unplug the hd and not even replace it as I no longer need 1.5TB of space.

However I started to have other problems and I am not quite sure that to make of the situation anymore.

Ssometimes, when I start the pc. It will not go through the motherboard screen, I will have the screen that says the port model and brand and nothing else. After I reboot the pc 3 or 4 times, the computer came back to live. (This make me believe I have mother board problems, but the board is not even 6 months old)

When I log on to windows, it will sometime look as if explorer.exe is having problem. Icons will not be displayed properly and I will not be able to access my computer. I tried to kill explorer.exe and the process would still be there on the task manager.

In cases like that, if I try to log off my account or shut down the pc, it will not work. Windows will simply not shut down and I need to manually turn off the pc (this made me believe I have windows issue)

When the pc is on, it would sometime freeze everything except the mouse for about 10 seconds then unfreeze for a minute and then freeze again for 10 seconds. This could go on forever (until reboot) or last only 2 or 3 minutes. It does happen while I am playing games, but it also happens when I am browsing the net with nothing else open (this made me believe I had windows issue).

Lastly, my wireless network adapter seems to lose its signal quite often for no reason. It never happened in 6 months and now it is happening everyday. Sometime it would lose connection and reconnect itself, sometime it would not reconnect at all until reboot and sometime it would see the network, connect to it but I would be unable to access the net and would need to reconnect to the network. I reinstalled the drivers and did not notice any changes. (This made me believe I had an hardware problem but I do not know what it would be, NIC or motherboard).

So right now, I am sort of baffled. What could be causing those problem?. I would tend to believe it is a motherboard problem but the only way I have to verify that would be to actually buy a new one (as far as I know) and I would like to avoid that if possible.



Now, I am moving in 2 weeks and will finally be able to get rid of the wireless network card so that’s not the most important problem. I was also planning of getting a 10k hd for my OS and 2 * TB hard drive to only have 3 HD and not 4. I was also planning of removing one of the DVD burner as I no longer need it anymore.

Sorry for my poor English, I did my best to make it readable and understandable. If I am in the wrong section, please let me know I and I will correct the issue

 

Your hard disk is probably going if not already gone. Backup whatever you can & run manufacturer's diagnostics.

Your motherboard must be in warranty. Get hold of your supplier & ask him to replace/repair it.

Also check your power supply & RAM.

 

that's the funny part, I can still access the hd and use/move data with no problems.

I unplugged the hd anyways ( i had time to back up everything) and 1 of the dvd burner.

Is it possible that the issue could be cause by the fact that my power supply might not be powerfull enough?

Tested the ram and psu and everything seems fine.

 

What if you unplug all hard drives except your C drive, you have unplugged the second optical, what do you get in Safe Mode, is the same thing happening in Safe Mode.

 

Problem with unplugging all the other hard drive would be that since I installed win 7 on one of the secondary drive, pc wont boot without that 2nd drive. So I unplugged the 3rd hard drive and the other dvd burner with and tried in safemode. It did not seem to make any changes.

I have not had any problems since I unplugged the 1st hard drive and the dvd burner.

 

Your PSU could be the problem.

You can also check by plugging in hard drive & DVD writer one at a time.