BIOS loses hard drive - intermittent problem

Hi

This is the problem.

Sometimes when I power up the computer, the system health is checked and then when it starts to look for the hard disk I get a chirrupy type blip and then it hangs for a while. Occasionally it will then find the disc and I will get the normal start up bleep and everything is fine. Sometimes it doesn't find it - if I then go into the BIOS and got to Autodetect it will suddenly find the hard disc and I can then carry on and start windows OK. Occasionally I don't need to go into the BIOS to do the autodetect - just restarting will correct it.

Finally, this is intermittent - it will do it one night and then be fine for days.

I have fitted a new IDE cable and that didn't help. I have run the Maxblast diagnostics and that says the disc is OK.

Any ideas

Thanks

 

cmos battery perhaps??

 

Thanks - but doubt it - board only a couple of months old - forget to say in original posting - spec is....

Gigabyte 7ZXE MB, Athlon 1.33, Maxtor Plus 45 20 Gb HD, Macron 300W PSU

 

If it's that new I would check with Gigabyte (Gagabit) support. That sounds like something they would want to know about. Perhaps they have a fix for it already.

Good luck.

 

Definitely sounds like a drive problem to me. I would contact Maxtor first....or maybe both.

Zephyr, could you elaborate on the "Gagabit" comment. Just curious.

Dale

 

If you have ever needed support from Gigabyte you'll understand what's implied there. When you get down to the nitty gritty on their support site, it transitions into oriental script and that's when you gag-a-bit. I know, that's pretty weak humor and not very nice so let's not embellish it overduly. Forgive me.

 

Well, I guess that since I have not needed support that I have been lucky. I have been through the site though, didn't notice anything as goofy as you described. There also was no offence taken with the comment, I was honestly just curious.

Dale

 

Putting myself in your shoes, I'd do the following:

Clear CMOS
ReFlash BIOS

Try a higher-wattage power supply. I have heard of IDE detection problems when the PSU involved just isn't cutting it. When you boot, several peripherals need alot of juice at the same time which could result in the IDE detection failure. And, when you go into the bios, that surge is not happening at that time and thus IDE detection works every time.

Just a thought. The high-end T-birds, especially the 1.4G Tbird, are power pigs. You might want to try detaching some of your peripherals like CD-ROM-type drives and see if the problem goes away - if you have no access to a larger (and high quality) power supply.