Intel G33 motherboard's AHCI not detecting hard disks

What could cause it?

PC is a HP m9088hk. The SATA has 3 modes: IDE, AHCI and RAID.

Now only IDE mode detected the 250G hard disk! The SATA DVD burner was
not affected, working both in IDE and AHCI modes. The SATA cable seemed
to be fine as well.

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Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

What could cause it?

PC is a HP m9088hk. The SATA has 3 modes: IDE, AHCI and RAID.

Now only IDE mode detected the 250G hard disk! The SATA DVD burner was
not affected, working both in IDE and AHCI modes. The SATA cable seemed
to be fine as well.


Well, that's a new one.

Other people have seen such things. It's possible there is a correspondence
between "flaky disk" and "AHCI not detected", in which case you'd want
to put the controller back in IDE mode and run a hard drive diagnostic.
And see if the drive is healthy or not. While not mentioned in this
thread, you also have the option of "Clearing CMOS" (with computer unplugged).
If all the ports responded uniformly, then I'd blame the hard drive.
Otherwise, I'd suspect a corrupt CMOS value, not detected
by the simple minded checksum used to protect those bytes.

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-...ed-bios-2.html

The evidence almost hints to me, that the BIOS code may be
doing more disk checking when in AHCI mode, than when in IDE
mode. If SMART is enabled at BIOS level, it might even be
possible for the BIOS to issue "SMART short test" or similar
command, if they wanted. I think there are SMART diagnostic
commands in the ATA/ATAPI command set, which would not normally
be used except by Seatools or the like. You don't really want
to be using a built-in diagnostic, if it causes an unacceptable
delay to the user (user doesn't know what is happening while
a disk test is running). So if the BIOS was doing that, and
not just reading the SMART stats, the test duration would
have to be very short.

Paul

On 5/10/2013 12:29 AM, Paul wrote:

Now only IDE mode detected the 250G hard disk! The SATA DVD burner was
not affected, working both in IDE and AHCI modes. The SATA cable
seemed to be fine as well.

Well, that's a new one.
If all the ports responded uniformly, then I'd blame the hard drive.

The 250G hard disk is a Seagate. Maybe I should swap in other brands
and/or newer generation ones.

Otherwise, I'd suspect a corrupt CMOS value, not detected
by the simple minded checksum used to protect those bytes.
http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-...ed-bios-2.html
The evidence almost hints to me, that the BIOS code may be
doing more disk checking when in AHCI mode, than when in IDE
mode. If SMART is enabled at BIOS level, it might even be
possible for the BIOS to issue "SMART short test" or similar
command, if they wanted. I think there are SMART diagnostic

Let me disable SMART and try again! Tomorrow...

I should also try removing all PCI/PCIe adapters.

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BTW, if you could remember, I had complained about a motherboard losing
BIOS settings all of a sudden in this newsgroup.

It's that motherboard!

On 5/10/2013 12:29 AM, Paul wrote:
Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
Well, that's a new one.


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On Sat, 05 Oct 2013 00:58:16 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote:


BTW, if you could remember, I had complained about a motherboard losing
BIOS settings all of a sudden in this newsgroup.

It's that motherboard!


Bad thing. Got a BIOSTAR that did that, except, rather than
occasions, every time it booted up. Nice board in all respects as
advertised/spec'd out, severely discounted for new from a company with
something of a long-standing reputation, dating back with computer
building hobby community, and now recently out of business. Only
thing lacking was it was too good to be true. I did, however, make a
point of filing a credit-card dispute against how they handled return
shipping costs;- stupidly while doing it, as it's petty pinching
stuff, that my credit card absorbs as a courtesy to good-standing
customers, under a certain monetary limit precluding the retailer's
involvement.

American customer service is a thing of the past for many as
consolidation in the global market probably excludes hiring at that
level of profit, considering anyone worth the salary and particularly
competent (or trustworthy as I saw it).

I wouldn't want a dead BIOS on a new MB from a premier seller, NewEgg,
say, and would raise hell if they sold me one for new pricing and
refused to absorb my shipping for something blatantly wrong. People
whine a lot, for a lack of technicality, if not outright abusive, so
storefronts are harder and careful about returns.

Run it for a 24/7 computer, never turned off while it lasts;- they all
more or less exhibit degradation over time, quirks, if not becoming
downright mean. Had a MB once that ruined, burnt out drives and power
supplies. BIOS is way cool, comparatively;- bad capacitors dragging
down other components into oblivion, enough of that will make one hate
anything but reasonable MSI/Gigabyte solid-state capacitors.

I've mixed feelings about Intel. They can tend to be modest,
no-frills and somewhat outdated for a broader scope of available
features, (deep sale/discounted), if often placed at prices well above
the norm where more contemporarily deserving of notice.

On 6/10/2013 12:48 AM, Flasherly wrote:
I've mixed feelings about Intel. They can tend to be modest,
no-frills and somewhat outdated for a broader scope of available
features, (deep sale/discounted), if often placed at prices well above
the norm where more contemporarily deserving of notice.


That HP Pavilion m9088hk PC was using an Asus motherboard. I think we
cannot blame Intel chipsets for BIOS problems.

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On Tue, 08 Oct 2013 00:07:54 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"

That HP Pavilion m9088hk PC was using an Asus motherboard. I think we
cannot blame Intel chipsets for BIOS problems.

Must have misread you saying it was an Intel board, straight across.
With an Intel processor, it'll be licensed for Intel chipset support,
in part;- nope, don't believe offhand I've ever run into a MB that
booted up to a BIOS screen Intel designed and implimented. Not sure,
why either, AWARD or the likes of a few others have an effective
corner on BIOS chips variously implmented on MB brands.

On 8/10/2013 3:57 AM, Flasherly wrote:
Must have misread you saying it was an Intel board, straight across.
With an Intel processor, it'll be licensed for Intel chipset support,

It's natural to assume companies like HP & Dell would use motherboards
from companies other than Intel.

in part;- nope, don't believe offhand I've ever run into a MB that
booted up to a BIOS screen Intel designed and implimented. Not sure,
why either, AWARD or the likes of a few others have an effective
corner on BIOS chips variously implmented on MB brands.

Sometimes, I thought there was a naughty ghost inside that motherboard.
It's too weird....

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On Tue, 08 Oct 2013 18:05:24 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote:

Sometimes, I thought there was a naughty ghost inside that motherboard.
It's too weird....

Not really. Between a dual core x4200 AMD and the MB's chipsets,
including video support chip on my multimedia computer, the level of
processing going on and subsequent heat. . .'weirdness,' knock on
wood, I suspect, is just a matter of time, now, after going on three
years heavy usage.

All things considered, the price of such a computer, as well as
rebuilding a replacement, though, is very reasonable. So is being
accustomed to a five years computer life expectancy, except I've never
had a computer, such as it is, capable of heavy loads and degrees of
program processing I'm now used to in a manner of course for
multimedia.

On 8/10/2013 7:25 PM, Flasherly wrote:
All things considered, the price of such a computer, as well as
rebuilding a replacement, though, is very reasonable. So is being
accustomed to a five years computer life expectancy, except I've never
had a computer, such as it is, capable of heavy loads and degrees of
program processing I'm now used to in a manner of course for
multimedia.

I was/am still being puzzled by the mysterious loss of CMOS data in that
motherboard. I had replaced the power supply with a Antec 430D as well
as the CR2032 battery, didn't help. Note that it didn't happen
frequently, just a few times.

I do/did assume that the user didn't play tricks on me.

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