[cowboy.frank]

Hey everyone. I am working on a HP A6720f descktop that has me stumped. It has a Pegatron M2N78-LA (Violet) motherboard with a Phenom X4 9550 processor on it. Yesterday it started freezing at the hp screen where you can decide to go to setup or boot menu or diagnostics. At first I thought it was the hard drive because there were no drives being found at all. I tried a brand new Barracuda 1TB drive but still nothing showed up. I then tried the drive on another pc and it shows right up and scanned with no faults at all (PC Doctor). Then I thought I would try the power supply. I know if it is going bad it will sometimes not power the board properly. Again I put in a known good supply and still the same. No drive detected and PC freezes at the HP screen.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? This is my wifes PC and she has all of her school work on it so I need to get it back up as fast as I can.
Thanks in advance,
Frank

Forgot to mention it is running Windows 7. Don't remember what version.

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Sounds like a controller issue to me.
Can you slave the drive in another system and see if the data can be retrieved that way?
How old is the system and is there still any warranty on it?

[rshaffer61]

Sounds like a controller issue to me.
Can you slave the drive in another system and see if the data can be retrieved that way?
How old is the system and is there still any warranty on it?

[cowboy.frank]

Yes I can slave it to my pc and see and get the data. The system is about 2 years old with no waranty left on it.

[rshaffer61]

OK just to test my theory disconnect the ribbon from the motherboard that goes to the hd. Does the system act the same or do you get a different type of message about no ide connection?

[cowboy.frank]

All I get now is "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

I have to go back tow ork now so it will be about 4 1/2 hours till i can look at future posts.
thanks rshaffer61.

[rshaffer61]

OK so with the ribbon connected correctly then the system is not identifying the drive with the OS at all?

[cowboy.frank]

Exactly. When it goes to the black screen that list the drives and stuff it just stops there. Ctrl+Alt+Delete does a reboot but it always brings the same thing

[rshaffer61]

OK getting the same results with the ribbon as without. That would tell me the controller is bad.
Can you check the bios and see if it identifies the hd?

[cowboy.frank]

The last time I looked it did not. That is why I thought the drive was bad.

[rshaffer61]

Now is this a IDE drive or a SATA drive?
Does it have a ribbon or a red cable going to the mobo?
Have you tried a different ribbon if IDE?

[cowboy.frank]

It's a SATA

[rshaffer61]

OK, then try it on a different sata connection on the mobo.

[cowboy.frank]

tried it on 3 of the 4. no change

[rshaffer61]

Different Sata cable?

[cowboy.frank]

tried it with the new cable from the new HD and one from my other pc