Problem caused possibly by BIOS or motherboard

[peterhearn]

I have asus asn-sli motherboard, with amd athlon 64 x 2 dual core processor, 2 gb of ram, 2 sata hd, 1 cd/dvd drive and 1 external h/d (but problems started before adding this drive). Running win xp sp3.

PC boots and bios does not detect any drives and message tells disk boot failure and to in insert system disk. Sometimes it will start ok and run for days/weeks, other times will start and then re-boot after a while with same message on start up. It has not detected the cd drive for ages although it still opens, even windows doesn't detect the drive. Have changed batttery on m/b.

I have cleaned inside and all fans are working and one side panel is always off, so plenty of air flow. Have to turn off at mains, wait for hours, then re-start, sometimes successful, sometimes not.

Could it be m/b, bios or even power supply?
Thanks
Peter

 

[Tmagic650]

Disconnect the CD/DVD drive entirely and see if the hard drive are detected normally. Is the CD/DVD drive SATA too?

 

[peterhearn]

Disconnect the CD/DVD drive entirely

Hi Tmagic650. cd/dvd drive is ide. I disconnected it and pc started, found C drive ( I have disconnected the second h/d) it started okay and everything loaded as normal but after about 2 minutes it froze, then re-booted, no drives detetected and message about boot failure and asking for system disk.

I have changed all sata leads and power cable, it seems like its detecting the hd's, starting, then crashing and the bios is not keeping the information.

Very frustrating, i think its terminal and need to spend some money on new one, but would like to find out what is wrong.

Thanks
Peter

 

[Tmagic650]

Was the battery on the motherboard a CR2025? Did you replace it with a new one?

 

[sonicblast]

You will need to replace that battery

 

[peterhearn]

Battery was cr2032 3volt and was replaced. The problem was there before I repaced the battery, so even if I replaced the new battery with another, don't think it will cure it

 

[Tmagic650]

May be time for a new motherboard...

 

[peterhearn]

That's the conculsion I had come to but had to try and see if there was something else causing it.

Thanks for your help Tmagic650, look like I will have to save my pennies for a new pc, perhaps a mini form one this time as my needs have changed.

 

[Tmagic650]

Okay, good luck, and thanks for stopping by