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Need help diagnosing possible hardware problem


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#46
iammykyl

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Gday.
Please try a Windows install again, see if you can get past the hangs you have had before.
Re. cmd. With your keyboard suctioning and the cmd window you describe being correct, looking for why it won't work.
As well as the OS installation disc, do you have a Recovery disc?
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#47
Cabranth

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Hi again, everyone. Sorry I didn't get back sooner, but it was a very productive absence.

I was able to download, burn to USB, and boot up Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic. I was able to use the WRITETOZEROS function which performed a full erase of the hard drive (what I'd been trying to do with HDDErase). Afterwards, I ran a Quick Test, got an error code and a recommendation to run another function called Media Test or something, which came back with a second error code. I went to WD's website, looked up the codes, and "Replace Drive" is the result.

Looks like you guys spent all that time and effort trying to help me get a goddamn DOA hard drive to work. :smashcomp:

I got the drive registered, and the RMA process is started. I guess you can lock and archive (or delete) the thread now. I really appreciate the effort, even if it was all for naught. I got a lot of practice at things I'd only ever done once or twice, as well as learning a bushel of new things I can bank for any future problems.

Thanks, iammykyl and phillpower. :cheers:
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#48
iammykyl

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Gday.
Great you got it sorted. You beat me to it, test and possible RMA was going to be the next step.

We don't close topics so, Please ask if you need any more help on the install and let us know how everything turns out.

You are most welcome.Posted Image
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#49
phillpower2

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Gday.
Great you got it sorted. You beat me to it, test and possible RMA was going to be the next step.

We don't close topics so, Please ask if you need any more help on the install and let us know how everything turns out.

You are most welcome.Posted Image

Ditto :thumbsup:
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#50
Cabranth

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Thanks guys, I probably will post back when the replacement gets here.

I had been trying to RMA with WD because I thought I had to, but on a lark this morning I went on Newegg's Live Chat to ask if I could RMA to them and get a brand new HDD instead of a refurbished one (WD only replaces RMAs with refurbished, not new). It was still within the 30 day return window, so I thought no harm in asking.

Not only could I get a brand new replacement from Newegg, but when I asked if I could ship it by US Postal Service instead of UPS, I was told that since the product was defective, they would email me a pre-paid UPS label to cover the cost of return shipping (got the email within 10 minutes).

Dropped it off at a UPS store today, got a paper receipt from UPS, and it's all over except waiting on Newegg's RMA verification and re-ship.
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#51
iammykyl

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Gday.
What a great result, does no harm to ask. Look out for your next reply>Posted Image
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#52
Cabranth

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Hi again.

 

The new drive got here today, and I just finished the last of the setting up and Windows-updating. I'm not going to do anymore tonight, I just wanted to check back in. I'll probably try to start that transferring tomorrow. Unless you have anything new to add, I'll just follow the instructions and the guide you posted earlier.


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#53
iammykyl

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Thanks for the update.

I note the Windows update, you should also update the MB Drives and utilities, if not already done so.

Some reminders.

Play safe and create recovery media first. 

Do a manual restore point before every step you take.

Copy only Data to the new drive.

After installing any program, configure how it runs, look under preferences, options and help,  i.e. (I have set office) not to start with windows, not to perform auto update. Windows Update< I have set to Notify, but do not download, there is them some cortrol of what is installed. 

Exceptions for me are, Security, Firewall, Anti Virus, all remain at defaults.

When finished your setup, create a drive image, save to USB stick.

 

Good luck. 


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#54
Cabranth

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Howdy :)

 

Spent a couple hours making sure I got the latest drivers for everything I could think of, but something else sidetracked me before I got to anything else.

 

I've been having trouble over the last few months with my hard drive not being detected when I use the "Restart" function in Windows Shut Down options. It started maybe 4 months ago, and went from happening maybe 10% of the time to something like 90% of the time presently. Usually my PC starts like this:

 

1. Black screen with white text

2. Asrock splash screen

3. Black screen with more text

4. Asrock splash screen

5. Welcome to Windows, on to desktop

 

Now when it messes up I get to screen #3, and all I see is that "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key" message.

 

It was more annoying than anything since I just had to manually power down, wait 60 secs and power up again. Didn't seem to bother any installs that needed the Restart to finish. I googled the crap out of that problem all week and tried just about every easy fix I could think of. Today while I was taking a break from the drivers I decided to do a SATA cable and socket check.

 

I didn't think it was my cables, but just to be ABSOLUTELY sure, I tried switching out my SATA3 cable for a SATA2 into the SATA3_1 socket. Tried 2 different SATA2 cables, and same problem happened 5 out of 6 restart tries.

 

But when I connected my hard drive with the SATA3 cable to the SATA2_1 socket, something odd happened.

 

When I powered up after the switch, at Step #3 above where normally I'd see several lines of text including a line about the hard drive, this time instead of hard drive info, it said something like "no device was detected" ? I'm not positive, since the screen was gone in 2-3 seconds. I'd thought something went wrong, but it proceeded on to the Windows welcome screen and then to my desktop as normal.

 

I spent the next half hour restarting it about every 5 minutes, and so far, it has worked properly every time. I no longer see the 2nd Asrock splash screen, the text line that used to appear on screen #3 with HDD and its port info no longer appears, but in every other respect I have had zero difficulties with it. Even had to restart when I topped up this old drive's Windows update a little while ago and it worked fine.

 

Anyway, I was wondering if you thought that my SATA3 sockets on my motherboard could be faulty. I'm not 100% certain, but I think I've had the restart problem with SATA3_2 socket also. I can check that tomorrow and see. My SATA3 sockets are different than they show in the manual's schematic. The SATA2 sockets face straight "up" from the motherboard, but the 2 SATA3 sockets are covered by a raised boxy plastic thing that redirects them to a 90-degree angle. Here's a link to a close-up of what I mean.

 

If those sockets or the raised white box thing are becoming inoperable, I guess I can get by using the SATA2 ports without too much inconvenience. Replacing the motherboard (and having to buy a new copy of Windows) is not something I want to think about right now.

 

Anyway, thank you for the reminders. I should get on the transferring tomorrow if everything goes smoothly, and I'll try to check that SATA3_2 socket just to be sure it's both of them.


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#55
iammykyl

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Gday.

Using the SATA-3 ports is of no benefit to a mechanical HDD, use for a SSD.   Carry on using the SATA-2 ports.

In the BIOS,> storage, if a floppy is mentioned, but you do not have one installed? disable it.

In the BOOT order, I use the following, 1st, USB, 2nd CD/DVD ROM, 3rd,C. (drive containing OS)  Probable adds 3 seconds to my BOOT time. 

Save settings when exiting the BIOS. 


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#56
Cabranth

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Hi again.

 

Got the Boot settings changed per your instructions except for 1 thing: USB doesn't show in my Boot Options unless I have a USB drive plugged in, so my order is 1- CD/DVD, 2- C: drive (my new hard drive). And I do not have a floppy drive, nor is one listed in the BIOS, so that's that. Still haven't finished transferring everything, but I haven't had a single issue with that part so far.

 

I did want to ask your advice about a problem I've been having with Internet Explorer, though. I've got it set up on the new hard drive, got my favorites listed, everything is working perfectly on every website except when I try to log in to my Bank. The login procedure normally goes like this:

 

1. On Bank home page, enter a User I.D.

2. On 2nd page, enter the answer to a Security Question

3. On 3rd page, enter Password

4. 4th page should come up with my Account Overview where I can navigate by links to such things as recent transactions, set up or modify my auto bill-pay, etc.

 

What happens is that at random (or seemingly random) points during that process the website interrupts me with the following error message:

 

Your Transaction did not complete

You may have reached this page in error.

Possible reasons include clicking the refresh or the back button.

For security reasons, please re-login.

Click here to return to the login page.

 

This kicks me out so to speak, and I have to go back to the home page and start all over again. Also, the link that appears in the error message "click here to return to the login page" doesn't work. I try clicking on it and after about 30-45 seconds of the spinning wheel I get the "cannot display the page" error. If I try clicking on the box in that page to diagnose the problem it tells me that everything looks good on my end, but the other end of the link address isn't responding. The "Transaction did not complete" error can also sometimes occur after I've successfully logged in while navigating my account. It's driving me bat-guano crazy having to spend 5-10 minutes doing the whole thing over and over before I can finally get logged in.

 

I called my bank and tried to figure out the problem with a customer rep, but he was of no use and claimed it was my ISP's problem. I haven't called my ISP yet, but spent the last several days googling the problem and trying every easy (i.e. non-expert) solution offered such as resetting IE settings, flushing/resetting DNS, adding the site to Trusted Sites and Compatibility View, checking the Hosts file, powering down my modem (both for 1 minute and 15 minutes)  . Nothing works so far.

 

The crazy thing is, it seems like it's just some simple setting that's different on this hard drive or this Windows installation, because if I connect my old hard drive and boot from it, I can login to my Bank no problem. Tried it 5 times in a row, clicked on all sorts of navigation links after I logged in, and not a single glitch.

 

Do you have any ideas, or is this something I should ask about in the Software/Web Browsers and Email sub-forum?

 

Thanks. :)


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#57
iammykyl

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Gday.

If IE is set to defaults on the new drive and your bank is the only site giving problems, your computer may be infected as using the old drive you do not have the problem.

Have you tried connecting to another secure site where you need to use a password?

Have you run anti software programs?


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#58
Cabranth

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Hi again.

 

As far as secure sites, I've visited about 5 or 6 that require username and password to login. The Home pages for them are all http, but the login pages are all https, so I don't know if that makes them secure or not. In any event, I've visited as many sites as I can think of that I'm registered at and the bank is the only one with this problem.

 

I have run Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, and Avast at least once during this whole installation process. I went ahead and ran them all again today just to be sure, and all I came up with was an installer with foistware being listed as a PUP by Malwarebytes. This is normal ever since MBam went to a more aggressive, anti-foistware stance, and I just add it to the ignore list when I find them and confirm they're harmless.

 

I have been using online banking with my bank on my old hard drive as well as the hard drive I had before that one in a different, store-bought PC. When I switched over to this new home build at the beginning of 2012, I didn't have a single problem with the banking online. 

 

If you don't have any other ideas, I was wondering if you saw anything wrong with me going ahead and just doing a clean install of Windows 7 again. I know I'll be wiping out several hours of work I did over the last week, but I'm wondering if something about the install might have caused a problem. I know I had to completely power down the PC a couple of times during the install because of the malfunctioning SATA3 motherboard port. Perhaps if the Restart function had been working properly during the install I might be ok.

 

If that doesn't fix whatever the problem is, I guess I can start a help thread over in the Software - Web Browsers section.

 

Anyway, I'll wait to hear back from you before I try anything else.


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#59
iammykyl

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Gday.

You can try a Non destructive clean install of windows, (preserves, user Data, setting) and if not happy with the results, we can give further help. 

Please read the How To from the link.   Very important that you make a full backup, in case of hiccups.   before you start.  Let us know what you think, are the instructions clear to you,  Any questions. 

http://windowssecret...tive-reinstall/.


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#60
Cabranth

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Hi again.

 

Believe it or not, I think I got it figured out. I think the problem had something to do with not installing previous versions of IE in sequence the way I did on my last hard drive. When I got the old drive it came with IE 8, and I believe IE 9 was available for download in the very first Windows Updates I did when I first installed the OS. Then during the last 2 years I upgraded to IE 10 and 11 when they came out. I've kept the old hard drive up to date with all the Windows Updates, so it's running IE 11 with no problems on the bank's site.

 

However, when I installed Windows 7 on this new hard drive, I went straight from IE 8 to IE 11 without 9 and 10 in between. I just assumed that if Windows Updates offered IE 11, and it installed fine (which it seemed to aside from the bank site problem), that there wouldn't be any problems not having those previous versions also.

 

So what I did was, when I ran Windows Update for the very first time today, I unchecked any new versions of IE and updated everything else.

 

I checked to see if I could log in at my bank ok with IE 8. I could, no problems. Clicked navigation links while logged in, logged out and back in several times, no problems.

 

Then I did the Update for IE 9. After that installed I ran Updates again, unchecked the box for IE 10, and ran the Updates listed (some were for IE 9). Went online afterwards, logged into the bank and did all the stress tests again, and it worked fine. 

 

Downloaded the Update for IE 10, after install downloaded any IE 10 updates, checked the bank online again, no problem.

 

At this point I made a Restore Point on my own, just in case my PC spontaneously combusted or was struck by a bolt of lightning, repeated the whole process for IE 11, and it works. I've spent most of the last hour logging in, logging off, logging back in, navigating the bank website's links, exiting and reentering IE 11, restarting the PC, powering down the PC completely, checking for any new Windows Updates, and generally pinching myself to be sure I'm not dreaming.

 

So, unless it reverts back to glitch behavior, I think I'm ready to continue transferring and reinstalling programs on this drive. Oh by the by, I did make another Restore Point as well as a new backup on my USB drive once I got it working in IE 11. At this point, I'm so beat I think I'm just going to rerun my 3 scan programs again and start back up tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the guide, it did help. A lot. :)


Edited by Cabranth, 06 April 2014 - 05:11 PM.

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