Lockups/BSOD/Drive not being detected

iamshad3 · 27 Feb 2010

hello all,

I am getting random freezes that will cause me to reboot and sometimes the BIOS will not detect the HDD after the reboot, until I reboot a couple more times to be able to login normally.

Sometimes it would lock up, and i would be able to move my mouse but no programs can be accessible and I'd have to shut it down manually or it would freeze and immediately reboot with a flash of BSOD. It is mostly during playing video games but have also had it happened during regular surfing and trying to view Event manager would sometimes lock up as well.

before this event, I was installing new RAM, de-dusted my computer with compressed air. I thought this would be problems with the RAM so I played around with BIOS settings until i could fix it, performed a BIOS update but still freezes. So, I put my old RAM back and still same problem.

Ordered new RAM, installed it, reset CMOS, reset BIOS to default, did disk check and came back with 0 bad sectors, confirmed that my SATA cable is secured, installed gpu drivers. It is still freezing. my OS drive is 1.6 years old now.

Event viewer shows Critical and says the computer didnt properly shut down. I have suspicions that it is my HDD dying but would be odd to begin to die just right after cleaning the dust out of my computer..

Windows 7 OS 64bit Premium Ed.
Seagate Baracuda 7200RPM 80GB SATA 3.0Gb
700W PSU
new RAM G.Skill 4GB 2x2 DDR2 800
EVGA 8800GT 512MB
EVGA nForce 780i Motherboard 132-CK-NF78-A1 775
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

usasma · 27 Feb 2010

Please start with these free diagnostics:

H/W Diagnostics:
Please start by running these bootable hardware diagnostics:
Memory Diagnostics (read the details at the link)
HD Diagnostic (read the details at the link)

Also, please run one of these free, independent online malware scans to ensure that your current protection hasn't been compromised: Malware (read the details at the link)

iamshad3 · 02 Mar 2010

sorry, been away for a bit. I did a scan using the seagate's tools and it passed. Will do the memtest soon. Feels like it'll pass since i tested three sets of RAM.. but then again that was one of the two things i last did before this all happened >.>

iamshad3 · 17 Mar 2010

Found out the problem was the SATA cable being bent 90degrees -_-

found out because i swapped SATA cable with another drive and then few days later that drive disappeared from BIOS as well and started freezing up after reboots. Swapped SATA cables and all is fine.