Occasional BSOD and reboot. Boot Drive not seen in BIOS

Pathian

New member
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Good Evening all, Hopefully one of you can provide me some direction that I'm currently lacking. I built my own HTPC a few weeks ago (specs at the end of the post), and it's been running alright except for a problem that has come up twice in the past week. The first time I directly observed...I was watching/recording some TV via Windows Media Center, when suddenly my picture froze, the system locked and started looping the same moment of audio for about a second, and it blue screened. Normally I'd take down all of the details, but the BSOD only stayed up for another few moments before rebooting and all I could take note of was a generic "dumping physical memory" message.

As soon as the machine rebooted and passed POST, I was taken straight to a BIOS screen instructing me to insert boot media. I rebooted again (with the reset button on the front of the case), and checked the BIOS to find that my SSD boot drive wasn't detected. Reset again just to make sure, still not there. Finally, I hit the power button, leave it off for a moment, and start up again. System detects my boot drive and starts normally.

I figured this for a fluke, but just last night I came home and turned on the TV to find that the computer was back in the BIOS missing a boot drive, so I assume the same event happened. I used the same workaround, shutting it down and rebooting and loaded up a dump log reader, but no crash reports for the blue screens were found.

So now I'm somewhat vexed. Normally I wouldn't care about uptime for a home PC, but since I use it as my DVR and don't necessarily check that it's running constantly, uptime is kind of important.

I assume there must be something hardware related happening if the system is affected at the BIOS level, but I can't think of what specific component may be at fault. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks much,
Justin

System Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom HTPC
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
2.8 Ghz AMD Athlon II X2
Motherboard
JetWay JMA3-785GP-LF
Memory
4 GB G.skill DDR3
Graphics Card(s)
On board Radeon HD 4200
Sound Card
On board
Monitor(s) Displays
38" Vizio HDTV
Screen Resolution
N/A
Hard Drives
64 GB Microcenter (ADATA rebrand) SSD (boot)
1 TB Seagate Barracuda (storage)
PSU
400W Diablotek PHD
Case
Coolermaster Elite 341
Cooling
Stock
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Ultimate x642.8 Ghz Athlon II X24 GB G.skill DDR3On board Radeon HD 4200
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom HTPC
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
2.8 Ghz Athlon II X2
Motherboard
JetWay JMA3-785GP-LF
Memory
4 GB G.skill DDR3
Graphics Card(s)
On board Radeon HD 4200
Sound Card
On board
Monitor(s) Displays
38" Vizio HDTV
Hard Drives
64 GB Microcenter (ADATA) SSD (boot)
1 TB Seagate Barracuda (storage)
PSU
400W Diablotek PHD
Case
Coolermaster Elite 341
Cooling
Stock
Can you still boot Windows?
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Win 7 Pro x64 SP1 OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7Intel Core i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (Quad-Core)8GB 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAMATI Radeon HD 6750M (1GB, GDDR5)
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Macbook Pro 15" (2011) (Matte Version)
OS
Win 7 Pro x64 SP1 OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7
CPU
Intel Core i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (Quad-Core)
Motherboard
N/A
Memory
8GB 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics Card(s)
ATI Radeon HD 6750M (1GB, GDDR5)
Sound Card
N/A
Monitor(s) Displays
1 Display
Screen Resolution
1,680 x 1050 (Matte Screen, Anti-Glare)
Hard Drives
750GB SATA (5400 rpm)
WD My Passport Essential 1TB Portable Hard Drive
PSU
N/A
Case
N/A
Cooling
N/A
Keyboard
Apple Wireless Keyboard
Mouse
Apple Wireless Magic Mouse
Internet Speed
Max - 2.2MB/sec; DSL provided by Telecom NZ
Other Info
MS Office Professional 2010
McAfee Total Protection 2011
On a Laptop Stand (Hand-Built)
Yes, there doesn't seem to be any actual data damage to the drive. It's just not being detected in the BIOS after each blue screen until I do the hard power-down.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Ultimate x642.8 Ghz Athlon II X24 GB G.skill DDR3On board Radeon HD 4200
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom HTPC
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
2.8 Ghz Athlon II X2
Motherboard
JetWay JMA3-785GP-LF
Memory
4 GB G.skill DDR3
Graphics Card(s)
On board Radeon HD 4200
Sound Card
On board
Monitor(s) Displays
38" Vizio HDTV
Hard Drives
64 GB Microcenter (ADATA) SSD (boot)
1 TB Seagate Barracuda (storage)
PSU
400W Diablotek PHD
Case
Coolermaster Elite 341
Cooling
Stock

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Win 7 Pro x64 SP1 OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7Intel Core i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (Quad-Core)8GB 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAMATI Radeon HD 6750M (1GB, GDDR5)
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Macbook Pro 15" (2011) (Matte Version)
OS
Win 7 Pro x64 SP1 OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7
CPU
Intel Core i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (Quad-Core)
Motherboard
N/A
Memory
8GB 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics Card(s)
ATI Radeon HD 6750M (1GB, GDDR5)
Sound Card
N/A
Monitor(s) Displays
1 Display
Screen Resolution
1,680 x 1050 (Matte Screen, Anti-Glare)
Hard Drives
750GB SATA (5400 rpm)
WD My Passport Essential 1TB Portable Hard Drive
PSU
N/A
Case
N/A
Cooling
N/A
Keyboard
Apple Wireless Keyboard
Mouse
Apple Wireless Magic Mouse
Internet Speed
Max - 2.2MB/sec; DSL provided by Telecom NZ
Other Info
MS Office Professional 2010
McAfee Total Protection 2011
On a Laptop Stand (Hand-Built)
Ah, sorry about that. Missed the protocol post. The diagnostic files are attached.

Is Windows 7 . . .
- x86 (32-bit) or x64 ? x64
- the original installed OS on the system? Custom system.
Win 7 is the first OS installed on the drive, yes
- an OEM or full retail version?
Retail I believe. Installed from an ISO from my MSDN account for testing
- What is the age of system (hardware)? ~ 1 month
- What is the age of OS installation ~1 month
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Ultimate x642.8 Ghz Athlon II X24 GB G.skill DDR3On board Radeon HD 4200
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom HTPC
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
2.8 Ghz Athlon II X2
Motherboard
JetWay JMA3-785GP-LF
Memory
4 GB G.skill DDR3
Graphics Card(s)
On board Radeon HD 4200
Sound Card
On board
Monitor(s) Displays
38" Vizio HDTV
Hard Drives
64 GB Microcenter (ADATA) SSD (boot)
1 TB Seagate Barracuda (storage)
PSU
400W Diablotek PHD
Case
Coolermaster Elite 341
Cooling
Stock
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