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 https://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...-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

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.

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.

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.