I just finished my first build 2 months ago, I have a MSI Neo4 Platinum, with a 3000+ Venice and a Leadtech 6600GT. The hard drive that failed is this Samsung Spinpoint 160GB.
So, I was playing CS Source yesterday and my comp kept freezing up right after I logged into a server, while I was waiting for a chance to play. I would reset and try again and finally my machine booted up using WinME (which is still on old-slave harddrive). So, I shut down and checked the BIOS. Under Boot sequence, I saw the slave HD - the Quantum Fireball 40GB...don't laugh, I've had it for 6yrs and it's never given me an ounce of trouble - was priority 1 with "removable add-on card" given priority 2. The BIOS had no mention of my new HD which has WinXP and my vid driver on it, and it wouldn't Auto-detect it either(not sure if this is just for IDE). I switched to each available SATA port on my MB and tried a new SATA cable, and different power lead. Nothing worked.
My questions are: If the HD is operable, the board would recognize it, right? But if it has failed, would the board just stop recognizing it, and is there a way to auto-detect it?
If this is an RMA case, can you recommend any programs to save my data?
I saw on a troubleshooting forum elsewhere that I should plug in the drive and touch it to see if it's spinning, which it isn't, but my 350W Coolermaster power supply only has one SATA cable with 2 molexes, so I can't tell if it's the HD or the power supply that is acting up.
Any help is much appreciated!
[Edit] I just got finished reading Biggs post below, and that sounds exactly like the problem I was having with CS Source. On that post, people seem to think it was the vidcard, but my HD is definitely not recognized in BIOS, and a 6600GT should be enough for CS Source...right?
So, I was playing CS Source yesterday and my comp kept freezing up right after I logged into a server, while I was waiting for a chance to play. I would reset and try again and finally my machine booted up using WinME (which is still on old-slave harddrive). So, I shut down and checked the BIOS. Under Boot sequence, I saw the slave HD - the Quantum Fireball 40GB...don't laugh, I've had it for 6yrs and it's never given me an ounce of trouble - was priority 1 with "removable add-on card" given priority 2. The BIOS had no mention of my new HD which has WinXP and my vid driver on it, and it wouldn't Auto-detect it either(not sure if this is just for IDE). I switched to each available SATA port on my MB and tried a new SATA cable, and different power lead. Nothing worked.
My questions are: If the HD is operable, the board would recognize it, right? But if it has failed, would the board just stop recognizing it, and is there a way to auto-detect it?
If this is an RMA case, can you recommend any programs to save my data?
I saw on a troubleshooting forum elsewhere that I should plug in the drive and touch it to see if it's spinning, which it isn't, but my 350W Coolermaster power supply only has one SATA cable with 2 molexes, so I can't tell if it's the HD or the power supply that is acting up.
Any help is much appreciated!
[Edit] I just got finished reading Biggs post below, and that sounds exactly like the problem I was having with CS Source. On that post, people seem to think it was the vidcard, but my HD is definitely not recognized in BIOS, and a 6600GT should be enough for CS Source...right?