Even Sherlock Holmes Can't Solve This

[Nocturnal036]

Before I begin my adventure of computer problems. Please let me elaborate the specifications of my system.
This system has always run at stock, and has never been overclocked.
-Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
-EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (Runs Pheonix Award BIOS)
-Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920
-EVGA 9800GX2
-OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX120G 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
-Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
-Western Digital 250GB SATA
-OCZ Platinum 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1333LV12GS
-Thermaltake Armor Case
-Coolermaster V8 CPU cooler

Some premise to the story: OCZ Solid State Hard Drive (which will henceforth be referred to as the SSD) is connected to SATA port 0 on my mother board. The 250GB HD is connected to SATA port 1, and the 1TB HD is connected to SATA port 2. There is an optical DVD Burner connected to SATA port 3 via a SATA cable.

So, late one night after playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 i shut down the game and return to my desktop. I travel to the next room and return to see my computer displaying a black screen with white font that reads something like "Cannot find BOOTMGR Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"
My BIOS for some strange reason was not detecting my SSD. I searched the room for causes. I believe that my friend hit a reset switch on a power strip that my computer was plugged in to. He refuses that he did anything of the sort, so I can not definitively say that this is absolutely the cause. I tried to much dismay and possible harm to my computer to get the drive detected.
I tried a different SATA cable, I tried just the SSD plugged in. I then proceeded (stupidly) to try to change settings in my BIOS. I believe that my SSD was installed into the system as an AHCI drive [These things (SSD's) can be tricky to install and it is recommended that they be installed as IDE but it was not being detected as IDE when I tried to install, if i recall correctly]. I changed the SATA settings from AHCI to IDE and visa versa a few times to try different things ( This could be a source of problems). I then decided that it was definitely the SSD and I requested and RMA for it and it is en route as we speak.

BUT!!! I still need a computer to play video games on and use huge excel worksheets because I'm an engineer man!

So, I decided that I would sacrifice some data that I had stored on the 250GB HD and do a fresh install on that drive ( All my precious stuff is on my 1TB HD and CAN NOT BE LOST, I will Die)
I proceeded to attempt to try to install Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit onto the 250GB HD.
The system would absolutely not boot from any CD's. I tried the Vista DVD and a win7 DVD. Neither work. This is what occurs: Change BIOS to boot from DVD Drive 1st --> System prompts me to boot from DVD --> I press any damn key --> System then Reboots 4ish seconds after i press the key ( i never get to see a windows logo). The system then goes through POST again and blah blah blah its just a viscous circle.
So then I thought to myself, It's gotta be this damned DVD drive.
I then look up instructions on how to boot from a USB drive. I then make a bootable USB drive with Win7 on it. [The CD's both boot other systems and so does the USB drive]. The same thing occurs when I try to boot from the USB stick. I hit escape while the system is starting up, choose to boot from my USB stick, and the system just does the same thing with the DVD.

In the process of this occuring, I boot up one time to a 3 beep error code (I recognized it as my video card error [It melted once before{9800GX2's were poorly designed}]) I then took out my 9800GX2 and replaced it with an older 7600GT. Thus, no three beep error code.

So at this point in my story, I'm down a SSD and a 9800GX2, not to mention countless hours.

At this point, I want to check my RAM just to make sure they are okay.
I created a bootable USB drive to boot win98 and ran memtest4.00 which hung in the begining. I tried an older version memtest2.10 which worked. I allowed memtest to make 4 passes with no errors. At least its not my RAM, right?...

So then I thought, what if the 250GB hard drive is bad? Was pretty full if I could remember correctly. I then connected the 250GB to my friends system and installed windows vista to the hard drive with out a hitch. I then proceed to throw a WTF storm in my dorm room.
So then I thought, "What if its my BIOS?" "If my BIOS was corrupted, i would be T-O-A-S-T"
Throughout the story, i have always been able to get into my BIOS by pressing del at start up.
I then proceeded to flash my BIOS to E758SZ27.bin
This occurred with no errors, and my system still does the same shit.

I have no idea if this is possible, but I thought it might be useful to try and run CHKDSK, but all of the tutorials and methods use booting to a disk, which I am unable to do. I tried to find a method to run CHKDSK from a USB drive, but I was unsuccessful in finding one.
I am not too familiar with the world of Linux, I have yet to delve in it.

I have searched COUNTLESS hours all over the internet
Please friendly member of Anandtech, can you please lend me a kind hand, I don't know what to do anymore.

 

[sonoma1993]

even though memtest didnt show any memory errors, I would try taking out all the memory modules one at a time. then install one at a time to see if the problems still occur.

 

[Fardringle]

If the parts all work on a different machine, but don't work in yours, then it has to be either the power supply or motherboard. Since the system seems to boot up fine but won't let you access the BIOS or devices properly, I'd look at it as a problem with the motherboard.

 

[jdjbuffalo]

If the parts all work on a different machine, but don't work in yours, then it has to be either the power supply or motherboard. Since the system seems to boot up fine but won't let you access the BIOS or devices properly, I'd look at it as a problem with the motherboard.

Nocturnal036 your issue is a malfunctioning piece of hardware. I agree with Fardringle, it's either a power supply, motherboard or RAM issue.

Try one stick of RAM in the first slot. Try out all the RAM you have one at a time. Then if you have the ability to borrow a friends power supply then I'd try that. If it still malfunctions then I would look at RMA'ing the motherboard.

Also, your SSD is probably fine. Did you try this in a friends machine to see if it recognizes the drive? (Note: Don't bootup to Windows from your SSD on someone else's machine. But if you boot from their main drive and want to see if Windows can detect your SSD then that will be ok.)

 

[Nocturnal036]

Thank you for those who replied to my post.

The SSD was already mailed for RMA service.
I had an AMD4200+ + Asus motherboard sitting at home in a box that I tried in my system. The system is not booting fine. I have vista installed and everything, on the old new motherboard that is. I ran memtest again on this system, and everything passed on this system. There was no observable thermal damage to the CPU or bent pins on the motherboard. The power supply is fine because its working fine on this system. The motherboard was not detecting my EVGA 9800GX2 but its working fine in this system.

In conclusion, I think I have narrowed down my problem to this:
1) My friend hit the reset switch on the surge protector
2) This dip in voltage probably damaged my motherboard, leading to multiple failures (I checked for busted capacitors so it wasnt a voltage surge)
3) My SSD could have been effected, I'm sure OCZ will be able to tell if something is wrong with it.
4) I am currently in the process of RMA my motherboard.

 

[earthman]

I doubt hitting a reset on a surge protector would cause the problems you describe. Cutting power to the system might conceivably corrupt a hard drive, but it should not damage a board. It's more likely that the sudden shutdown simply revealed a problem that was already pending a reboot.

 

[Wogdog]

Have you reset BIOS by jumper or pulling the CMOS battery? That way it goes back to default vanilla settings. Like other people have already said, go back to basic hardware setup IE one stick ram, motherboard, video, and keyboard. If it POST then turn off, plug hard drive and go from there.

 

[NesuD]

Are you running the memory at it's full rated speed? If so try dialing it back one speed grade. Even though your board has 6 RAM slots I can almost guarantee the manufacturer only qualified it to handle ram modules at their rated speeds with only 2 or 4 slots populated. This is pretty standard with desktop motherboards. Populating all 6 Slots puts more of a strain on the motherboard and sometimes it can't run the RAM reliably at it's rated speed. I have this issue with a ASUS P5Q board I have when I populate all of the slots. I need to do some fine tuning of voltages and timings to make RAM reliable at it's rated speed. Problems can be intermittant and don't always manifest themselves immediately. Try running with only 1 pair of modules and see if things start to work for you. if they do then you are probably going to have to step your RAM speed down a tick or remove a pair of modules.




P.S. Stop trying to lay this at your friends feet. You don't know that he did anything. These kinds of things happen all the time on their own. Even if he did reset the power strip it most certainly would not have caused what you are describing. You are being a complete jerk by treating him the way you are. Man up!