More sleep mode woes

can somebody change the topic title to something more eye grabbing, like "Standby Mode = No Boot? Again"?

What happened:
The standby button on my keyboard was accidentally hit, causing the computer to enter standby (not sleep mode since I have hybrid mode off). The last time sleep/standby/hibernation was hit, all hell broke loose (see http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/92761-sleep-mode-totally-screwed-up-my-computer.html). This time however, everything looked fine. I clicked the button to wake it up and walked away for a minute to get something. When I returned, the screen was blank, with a bliniking "_" that you get when you turn on the computer. I did a restart and that's all you see, after the BIOS intro screen of course. You don't see "Start Windows" nor resuming or anything of the matter. Just what looks like an infinite "_". After a while it jumps a line down, but nothing else happens, as the BIOS tells me to reboot and select a boot device or insert media and click a key (for like CDROM and such).

What I've tried
I have tried booting from the Windows 7 installation disc to run Startup repair, but as no Windows installations are listed, nothing can be fixed (if you try it anyways, the error report contains "Unknown" for basically every value and 0's for everything else).

The last time I had this problem I simply replaced the hard drive to motherboard cable with another one I had it and Windows started up, but this time that did NOT work. I tried a brand new one and the one that was used for my DVD drive.

BIOS information
I thought the problem was that the hard drive was not detected. BIOS doesn't show it on the boot menu, only floppy drive and a DVD drive. Sometimes it appears but even if you try it, it doesn't work, and then it disappears on restart. So it's like a fluke.

I actually dug deeper into BIOS information and you CAN see the hard drive there after all. It is the third IDE master (no idea why it's not 1, I have it in "SATA_1" on the motherboard) but actually doesn't show up sometimes. You have to select the third master and then it is detected in that slot. Except it shows up as 0MB!?

Help
Anybody have any ideas? I'm really desperate. None of this makes any sense. WHY is sleep/standby is so problematic?

Extra info
I've filled in my specs on my user profile and some pictures of the BIOS

Anybody? Off the first page and 0 replies.

Thank you for filling in specs and posting pics of BIOS. Luckily you can get into the BIOS so at least its posting. Next we would need to figure out why the HDD is not being recognized. As in the last thread, the suggestion was to replace the cable. Since this is not working in this instance, you might have an issue with either the Hard-Drive or the connection to the Motherboard.

When the system starts up you are able to get to BIOS, before this, are you presented with any error messages or anything?

Also, can you test this Hard-drive in another computer to test and make sure it is working properly?

here are resources for your HDD: WD Support > Downloads > SATA & SAS > WD Caviar Blue / SE / SE16 (SATA II)

I don't know which one you need, but you can burn the (DOS) version of Lifeguard to a CD and run it at startup as well.....

I also posted in another thread to see if anyone else has any ideas....

Foxconn - Products: Motherboard

here is the site for your Motherboard just for everyones info on mobo specs.

Also, For future reference, you can use the "Fox One" utility to monitor the motherboards stuff, but... Thats from within Windows. So just for future reference.

Thorsen said:

When the system starts up you are able to get to BIOS, before this, are you presented with any error messages or anything?

Click to expand...

Nope, however I can turn disable "Quiet Boot" which will show POST messages (instead of an OEM logo) and disable "Quick Boot" which skips some tests that happen on startup. Should I try those off and report back? I probably will.

Thorsen said:

Also, can you test this Hard-drive in another computer to test and make sure it is working properly?

Click to expand...

Sigh... I guess I will do that (I was just hoping to not have to take the drive out). I'm wondering though, are there any free explorer-like boot discs? I looked for some today but it all seemed overly complicated. Just an image or such that I can use to browse NTFS to check if the disc is intact (which I'm pretty sure is).

Thorsen said:

here are resources for your HDD: WD Support > Downloads > SATA & SAS > WD Caviar Blue / SE / SE16 (SATA II)

I don't know which one you need, but you can burn the (DOS) version of Lifeguard to a CD and run it at startup as well.....

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for that info! I'm going to try the CD version and keep a copy of this info on my bulletin board for future reference. The CD version is also bootable, not sure if you saw the page for it.

Thorsen said:

I also posted in another thread to see if anyone else has any ideas....

Click to expand...

Thanks again!

So I tried that Life Guard program from WD... it does not work AT ALL! The first time I burned it to a disc, it came up saying it couldn't find the license file and then that it wanted files from A: (floppy disc drive). It then says to put in A:'s media and click a key to continue. So I burned another disc (this time using Windows Burner instead of ImgBurn). SAME EXACT THING. I'd love to see what it does but it just doesn't work. I have no floppy drive (or at least not with the slot punched out for it), so I couldn't use that one.

I may have to stick the drive into another computer after all, crap!

I think you downloaded the wrong one... Are you sure you downloaded the DOS (CD) as there is a Floppy one as well listed....

Also make sure your CD drive is the first Boot device listed in the BIOS.

Thorsen said:

I think you downloaded the wrong one... Are you sure you downloaded the DOS (CD) as there is a Floppy one as well listed....

Click to expand...

Yes, I downloaded the correct one. It even had CD in the file name. The utility just does not work unfortunately.

Thorsen said:

Also make sure your CD drive is the first Boot device listed in the BIOS.

Click to expand...

I used boot from the drive.

When I try that in another computer, I'll report back.

ok... Thanks for replying... seemed to much like the floppy one. Maybe since your comp is not recognizing the C:\ Hard-drive, it was prompting for a a:\ Boot Disk.

There is also a Universal Boot Disk. If I can find it I will post a link to it.

Nope, the program just is broken. It can't even show it's own license file and then trips into another error with the floppy thing. I even checked the actual ISO and it's right there!

Checked the other computer, but it's so old, really the hard drive can't be used in it.

With most of the possible solutions out the door, should I just get another hard drive and install Windows on that? I would really hate to reconfigure everything for the 3rd time, but not sure what else to do and how to access the disc.

Im not sure. I don't know if it is a faulty HDD... you could take it to a repair shop and see if they can test with another HDD... your options are pay for a new HDD and it works or doesn't or take it to a repair shop and they can tell you for sure if that is the problem.

I don't know what else to do to test. Maybe there is a general command line test you can run to test the HDD. Can you get to the command prompt from the Windows Installation Disk? You might be able to try this. Just to see if you can get to a command prompt. (There should be a prompt from within the Install Disk but I can't find the right tutorial.)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

I think this is the tutorial for how to get to c: from Install disc

I use GWScan which is a version of Data Lifeguard that works on all HD's. http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=21280&dscr=GWSCAN%205.12&uid=27543171
Unzips to c:cabs where you'll find ISO to doubleclick to burn with Windows Burner to CD. Boot to run Full Scan.

Take the floppy drive OUT of the BIOS boot order completely.

Try the HD in another IDE port.

There should be ATAPI sleep settings (s1-s3) somewhere in BIOS that could affect this.

gregrocker said:

I use GWScan which is a version of Data Lifeguard that works on all HD's. http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=21280&dscr=GWSCAN%205.12&uid=27543171
Unzips to c:cabs where you'll find ISO to doubleclick to burn with Windows Burner to CD. Boot to run Full Scan.

Take the floppy drive OUT of the BIOS boot order completely.

Try the HD in another IDE port.

There should be ATAPI sleep settings (s1-s3) somewhere in BIOS that could affect this.

Click to expand...

I would love to use that but you need to have a gateway computer for that, so no download.

I just reinstalled Windows onto a new hard drive... it showed my other one in the list of hard drives available, but this time with 23gb left, 23gb total. That is better than nothing, but it won't show up in Windows, like list of explorable hard drives. It shows up under Device Manager though.

Out of all the backups I have, I don't have one of this drive. If I have to take it somewhere, anybody have any reliable services, not crap like Geeksquad? I don't understand what Standby did. It like killed it.

It shows up in BIOS, and in Device Manager like I said too. No mechanical problems, no clicking, etc. I just wish I could look at it. I'm pretty sure everything is there, if I could just access it.

I ran that WD Lifeguard utility and so far only used the quick test but it says it passed fine. Windows reports that everything on it is fine too.

I tried running GetDataBack and it actually shows that it found the physical drive, but then it would lock up and not get to stage 2 (actually selecting that drive and then starting a scan for files).

I noticed on startup that the BIOS is like confused with that other drive still inside. It takes a LOT longer to startup now, you can see it get to the blinking "_" and then it like sits there, waiting for the messed up hard drive to do something, before eventually booting the other drive, yet the "starting windows" message is also pretty long.