I just got home, and to see if I could get the HDD activity light to turn off .... I disconnected EVERYTHING except 1 stick of ram, the cpufan, & the atx connections to the motherboard.
The HDD light is permanent with NO drives / Optical Drives/ Nothing installed. I even pulled my video card and it is still permanent. I pulled my MOBO to see if anything was obviously wrong with it and I see nothing.....
Any other tips? I'm guessing my MOBO died.........
Plug HD and monitor back and and see what happens when you boot up.
HDD light stays on permanently .... when it says "Windows Loading" the screen stays black and dont get those 4 colorful things above the text .... it just basically "hangs" there and never loads windows.
EDIT:
I switched the cable to SATA1 slot (I had it in SATA0) and now windows boots but the HDD light is still permanent....... So there is something seriously wrong with the various SATA connectors on my motherboard. Hmmm.....
Here is the computer management image for my 1 HDD installed (os drive):
Gigabyte tech support advised me to RMA the board and I am out of warranty by 2 months so they won't help me at all. I have purchased an Asus board to replace this one.
Thanks for the help guys (alpha# & gregrocker)
I too have had a bad experience with a Gigabyte motherboard and poor tech support from them. I'll never by another product from them. I've had this Asus motherboard for almost a year now and have no complaints. I'm brand loyal so my next will likely be Asus too.
If you can still boot the HD, go into Device Manager and uninstall the key drivers for Win7 - CPU, SATA controller, display, SM Bus, network, sound, etc. Don't restart when prompted at all. Just shut down when done.
This will make it more likely you can start your Win7 on the new mobo. If not, try booting into Safe Mode to install new chipset.
If you have Acronis 10+, it will make a backup image with drivers removed if you choose that option.
Thnks for the recommendations. Since I installed nothing after formatting I'm going to just start from scratch and format again. I won't loose too much time. Thanks again!
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