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From: martin.cantell on 9 Jul 2008 04:11
Using Win XP Home SP2.

Everything has been running fine for a few yeart.
Doing nothing special (just selecting the start menu), the PC locked
up
totally with the HDD light on permanently. I waited for an hour
before
deciding that it was totally locked. Ctrl/Alt/Del would not work
either. The
HDD did not sound as if it was accessing, so I performed a hard turn
off
with the power button.

I now have the following. The HDD light comes on immediately power is
applied and stays on permanently. The BIOS now cannot see either the
DVD ROM
drive or my spare IDE HDD. The main drive is a SATA which is seen ok.
Not
sure if this went at the same time, but certainly not a long time
before.

It takes a lot longer to get through the splash screen at the start of
the
boot (ASUS SLI16N Premium BIOS motherboard splash screen) and takes
longer
to boot into XP, but it does get there. I can use XP as normal, but
things are a fair bit
slower than usual.

I have tried the following:
Checked device manager for items listed as failing - none (but DVD
drive not
listed)
Disconnected the IDE cable from the DVD and IDE HDD - no change to
HDD
light.
Replaced IDE cable with a spare - no change to light or devices
Tried the second IDE port (have both devices on one IDE cable) - no
change
to light or devices.

I cannot get my DVD or IDE HDD back and the HDD light stays on all the
time.

I have yet to try resetting the BIOS and cloning the SATA drive and
try with
the cloned drive, but thought I would try here first.

Thanks for any help you can provide. I have looked on Google, but have
not
managed to find a suitable answer yet.

Cheers

Martin
From: Paul on 9 Jul 2008 04:44
martin.cantell(a)baesystems.com wrote:
> Using Win XP Home SP2.
>
> Everything has been running fine for a few yeart.
> Doing nothing special (just selecting the start menu), the PC locked
> up
> totally with the HDD light on permanently. I waited for an hour
> before
> deciding that it was totally locked. Ctrl/Alt/Del would not work
> either. The
> HDD did not sound as if it was accessing, so I performed a hard turn
> off
> with the power button.
>
> I now have the following. The HDD light comes on immediately power is
> applied and stays on permanently. The BIOS now cannot see either the
> DVD ROM
> drive or my spare IDE HDD. The main drive is a SATA which is seen ok.
> Not
> sure if this went at the same time, but certainly not a long time
> before.
>
> It takes a lot longer to get through the splash screen at the start of
> the
> boot (ASUS SLI16N Premium BIOS motherboard splash screen) and takes
> longer
> to boot into XP, but it does get there. I can use XP as normal, but
> things are a fair bit
> slower than usual.
>
> I have tried the following:
> Checked device manager for items listed as failing - none (but DVD
> drive not
> listed)
> Disconnected the IDE cable from the DVD and IDE HDD - no change to
> HDD
> light.
> Replaced IDE cable with a spare - no change to light or devices
> Tried the second IDE port (have both devices on one IDE cable) - no
> change
> to light or devices.
>
> I cannot get my DVD or IDE HDD back and the HDD light stays on all the
> time.
>
> I have yet to try resetting the BIOS and cloning the SATA drive and
> try with
> the cloned drive, but thought I would try here first.
>
> Thanks for any help you can provide. I have looked on Google, but have
> not
> managed to find a suitable answer yet.
>
> Cheers
>
> Martin

It sounds like power to the IDE I/O pins has died for some
reason. Since your board is booting, the power supply is
probably not responsible.

About all I can suggest, is a cardboard test. That involves
setting up the motherboard outside the computer case, so no
standoffs are touching the bottom of the motherboard. Normally,
this is OK, because the plated holes on the bottom of the
motherboard, are at ground potential. And so are the
standoffs, so no harm when a standoff touches a plated hole.
When there can be trouble, is when you install a standoff where
it doesn't belong - then the standoff can touch something on
the bottom of the motherboard. By pulling the motherboard
from the case, that eliminates the potential for contact.
(Be careful when doing this, because plug-in cards are not
supported, and if you tug on a video card cable, the video
card would come out of its slot.)

The motherboard likely has a 3 year warranty, so you may be able
to get it fixed that way (RMA).

Paul
From: david on 9 Jul 2008 06:06
On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:11:32 -0700, martin.cantell rearranged some
electrons to say:

> Using Win XP Home SP2.
>
> Everything has been running fine for a few yeart. Doing nothing special
> (just selecting the start menu), the PC locked up
> totally with the HDD light on permanently. I waited for an hour before
> deciding that it was totally locked. Ctrl/Alt/Del would not work either.
> The
> HDD did not sound as if it was accessing, so I performed a hard turn off
> with the power button.
>
> I now have the following. The HDD light comes on immediately power is
> applied and stays on permanently. The BIOS now cannot see either the DVD
> ROM
> drive or my spare IDE HDD. The main drive is a SATA which is seen ok.
> Not
> sure if this went at the same time, but certainly not a long time
> before.
>
> It takes a lot longer to get through the splash screen at the start of
> the
> boot (ASUS SLI16N Premium BIOS motherboard splash screen) and takes
> longer
> to boot into XP, but it does get there. I can use XP as normal, but
> things are a fair bit
> slower than usual.
>
> I have tried the following:
> Checked device manager for items listed as failing - none (but DVD drive
> not
> listed)
> Disconnected the IDE cable from the DVD and IDE HDD - no change to HDD
> light.
> Replaced IDE cable with a spare - no change to light or devices Tried
> the second IDE port (have both devices on one IDE cable) - no change
> to light or devices.
>
> I cannot get my DVD or IDE HDD back and the HDD light stays on all the
> time.
>
> I have yet to try resetting the BIOS and cloning the SATA drive and try
> with
> the cloned drive, but thought I would try here first.
>
> Thanks for any help you can provide. I have looked on Google, but have
> not
> managed to find a suitable answer yet.
>
> Cheers
>
> Martin

I have had similar problems with an ASUS motherboard. I have RMAd a
particular motherboard twice (it's on the way back now). The first time
it was NTF. The board would power up maybe once every 25 hits of the
power button. Chilling the board in my freezer, and then connecting it
while it was cold allowed it to power on (until it warmed up, and then
the problem returned).

Disassemble your computer so you have nothing but the PSU, motherboard &
video card, outside of the case on a piece of cardboard, and try it then.
If it then works, then you have something shorting your motherboard
inside the case.
From: John Doe on 9 Jul 2008 13:33
martin.cantell(a)baesystems.com wrote:

> Using Win XP Home SP2.

> It takes a lot longer to get through the splash screen at the
> start of the boot (ASUS SLI16N Premium BIOS motherboard splash
> screen) and takes longer to boot into XP, but it does get there. I
> can use XP as normal, but things are a fair bit slower than usual.

Before you do anything, make sure you have a backup copy of any
important files from your hard drive.

What hardware stuff have you done to the computer recently?

Try stripping the computer of everything you don't need to get into
Windows. In other words, remove all hardware except the keyboard,
CPU, video card, one stick of memory, and the hard drive. See the
strange behavior goes away.

By the way.
Removing the mainboard from the case and powering it up is asking
for more trouble, IMO. If the computer hasn't been dropped or
experienced any other jarring movement, there is no reason to
suspect that something physical has changed.



From: Paul on 9 Jul 2008 15:14
John Doe wrote:
> martin.cantell(a)baesystems.com wrote:
>
>> Using Win XP Home SP2.
>
>> It takes a lot longer to get through the splash screen at the
>> start of the boot (ASUS SLI16N Premium BIOS motherboard splash
>> screen) and takes longer to boot into XP, but it does get there. I
>> can use XP as normal, but things are a fair bit slower than usual.
>
> Before you do anything, make sure you have a backup copy of any
> important files from your hard drive.
>
> What hardware stuff have you done to the computer recently?
>
> Try stripping the computer of everything you don't need to get into
> Windows. In other words, remove all hardware except the keyboard,
> CPU, video card, one stick of memory, and the hard drive. See the
> strange behavior goes away.
>
> By the way.
> Removing the mainboard from the case and powering it up is asking
> for more trouble, IMO. If the computer hasn't been dropped or
> experienced any other jarring movement, there is no reason to
> suspect that something physical has changed.
>

Some people place an extra standoff underneath the motherboard, where
it doesn't belong. It doesn't make contact at first, and maybe
a shift in the position of the motherboard, or tightening the
screws again, sets it off. The standoff may touch a copper track on
the bottom of the motherboard, such as a power track.

Removal and the "cardboard test", does two things. It removes the chances
of a short to the bottom of the motherboard, and it also avoids
bending stresses on the motherboard itself. Sometimes, if
there is a bad solder joint, removing mechanical stress from
the motherboard, temporarily fixes it.

Removal of the motherboard, is also part of preparation for RMA. So it
isn't effort wasted.

Paul
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