Motherboard or Hard drive?

I have
BIOSTAR N4SLI-A9
and windows is installed on
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

I also have two additional IDE drives.

when I first installed windows on the SATA drive there were no problems. I did however have a few issues getting all 3 drives running at the same time. That was over a month ago though and things were working pretty well up until recently (aside from random lockups in WoW that would go away after 20 seconds).

Anyhow recently when I boot my computer some strange things happen which include any one of the following:

1.) SATA drive isn't even recognized
2.) SATA drive is recognized but set as the 3rd drive in the boot order (neither of the other drives has an OS).

I'm wondering if it is a problem with my motherboard or my drive.

This morning I had the problem repeatedly so I went and plugged my HD into a different SATA port on the mobo. It seemed to work after that but who knows if it is there to stay.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

have you checked to see if there are any bios upgrades regarding this?

I will be doing that soon. There is a bios up there but it doesn't say what it fixes.

Jesus can fix it!

Go to the BIOS and set the IDE drives to NONE.

Go to the BIOS and set the IDE drives to NONE.

stupid question: will they still work in windows though?

stupid question: will they still work in windows though?
Stupid answer: Would I tell you to do it if they wouldn't? :p:

its back. :(

booted up this morning and it couldn't find the hard drive. After a couple tries it did. However it wouldn't boot into windows. Then I rebooted and no more HD. I set all the IDE drives to "none" and it still didn't work.

I'm ready to kick the fucking thing down the stairs.

please help me Tdub

I had a bad sata cable in my system once, pinched it in the case door and started having the same problem as you. Have an extra one around to test out?

I had a bad sata cable in my system once, pinched it in the case door and started having the same problem as you. Have an extra one around to test out?
This is definitely worth trying. SATA cables are finnicky little bitches I've gathered from my only experience with them in my current computer. On the times it doesn't work, have you noticed that there is less noise when the computer boots? Could be the power cable too. An easy way to check for sure is to see if the hard drive is vibrating once you've got the computer running with the case open.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_939/n4sli-a9/Nslia912bf.exe

That is the latest BIOS update for your mobo, but I don't see anything related to SATA in the update notes, so it's probably not worth bothering with, but who knows.

I updated the bios last week anyhow just in case.

I also have an error I've been trying to track down where sometimes while playing WoW my whole computer will completely lock for 30 seconds, and then go back to normal.

Very annoying.

Just a shot in the dark here.

Maybe you need to tell the BIOS to have a delay before looking for HD's or trying to access them. There should be an option for it in your BIOS somewhere.

update

so now my computer will boot...but doesn't show my IDE drives (Although it does recognize them on boot)

What got it to boot?

dunno

I just powered it on and it booted (took a while at the windows loading screen though)

update

so now my computer will boot...but doesn't show my IDE drives (Although it does recognize them on boot)
Doesn't show them means what? You can't see them in Windows at all?

It sounds like you need a new motherboard.

edit: Actually, since you have a ghetto motherboard, you probably also have a ghetto powersupply. You might want to try a different one to see if it helps.

Doesn't show them means what? You can't see them in Windows at all?

It sounds like you need a new motherboard.

edit: Actually, since you have a ghetto motherboard, you probably also have a ghetto powersupply. You might want to try a different one to see if it helps.

but before you do any of that try what I had mentioned above about giving the delay. :D

but before you do any of that try what I had mentioned above about giving the delay. :D
I have not seen that option in a BIOS since my Pentium 60. It is most certainly not the cause.

what video card you running? i had the same problem, though different game with my GF3 Ti500. swapped it for a FX5600XT i had sitting around and not a blip since. irony is i got the 5600 from a friend who needed a new card because this one was freezing on him in WOW every once in a while.

as for drives not spinning up, same happens to me now and again. mostly if it is fairly cold in my room and im just booting first time in the morning. sometimes i get a nice screech as well. pretty sure it's my power supply is getting weak cause it never did it till i put the 5600 in.

i took out one of the IDE's and it is running super swell now. Dunno why