Built Rig Fails - Please Help

[whubbard]

Hi all,
It's been awhile and I'm coming here to get a second opinion on my diagnosis. Hopefully it's not as bad as I figure...

I come home one day to find that my PC is off. No big deal. I turn it on, then realize that it's not booting and that all the fans have been turned off (I have a fan controller for all fans but the processor fan). Nobody in the family wishes to admit it was them, but that's just how these things are. Now I have to fix it.

When I turn the machine on it goes to the Asus post screen and holds on that screen. My Logitech G15 (keyboard) doesn't power on and the 'del' key doesn't work to put me into the BIOS. I then went and found another simpler keyboard and unplugged all other USB cables. Now I could go into the BIOS. I set the BIOS to recognize 4GB ram, got rid of the floppy disc, etc (I had reset CMOS already). All is well (so I thought), and it now boots. Vista loads, I log in, all good. But wait! Only my main boot drive is showing, the other raptor drive (with all my programs) and my seagate data drive are nowhere to be found (not even in BIOS). Yet, both sata CD roms are shown! Now, whenever I shut down I have to go get the other keyboard just to boot, then I can plug the rest of my gear back in.

My guess is that I need a new motherboard. What are your thoughts/things to test?

Thanks,
West

[Khalil]

What did you want the family to admit?
Your machine have more than likely been surged and no one is responsible. If the USB controller is fried on the motherboard then it is time for a new board unless it is still under warranty then Asus will fix/replace it.
Test the G15 and other USB components on another computer or your laptop if they work then your know it is the motherboard.
Have you made any major changes or added any new compnents recently?

[whubbard]

The knobs on the fan controller had all been turned down to off. I assume this was done as the noise is quite substantial, but is obviously bad for the computer to have the fans off.

The machine is also plugged into a very nice Monster surge protector/power filter. We also have a massive surge protector on the entire house.

It's just weird that the G15 will work once booted, but not before boot. Only the keyboards that are more 'simple' work. Also the hard drives not being located are a huge issue too!

-West

p.s. No component changes recently.

[whubbard]

Nothing on why a mobo wouldn't show two hard drives?

-West

[glc]

Have you tried all the SATA ports? Have you tried pulling the drives and seeing if thay can be seen via USB with an adapter?

[whubbard]

I was just about to PM you glc...you always seem to have the answers.

Turns out that I had the CD-Roms plugged into the mobo. HDs (other than boot) were on a PCIe sata card that I completely forgot about/didn't notice until I was looking for the sata ports. Seems that card has gone bad (I tried it in another machine). Luckily SIIG has a lifetime warranty so I'm sending it back to them.

Thanks,
West