External HDD not recognized. Not all RAM recognized.

[Zuckerton]

So I finished my first custom-build which consists of:
Motherboard: Sabertooth X79
CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 130w
GPU: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB GDDR5
PSU: CORSAIR TX750W COMPUTER POWER SUPPLY
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 1600
SSD: 120gb Samsung SSD
HDD: WD 2TB HDD
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
ODD: LG CH10LS20 10x Blu-ray BD-ROM/16x DVD±RW Burner
CORSAIR Hydro Series H100

I updated the Bios to it's most recent edition, updated all the drivers, but I still have a few issues.

One is that my computer doesn't recognize external hard drives. I connected a WD Scorpio WD2500BEVS 250gb HDD through an enclosure, but the PC didn't even recognize that anything was plugged in. It didn't show up in Device Manager or in EaseUS. What would be the cause of this? My laptop recognizes the Hard Drive so it's not a bad hard drive and the PC recognizes Flash Drives connected to the same usb ports, so it's not bad ports.

My second issue is that Windows only recognizes 8gb of RAM. I know this is a common issue and I've heard there is a way to get Windows to see the whole thing. Does anyone know this process?

I've had success on this form the past week when the motherboard wasn't getting video, so I have faith that someone knows how to fix these issues.

Thanks in advance!

 

[COLGeek]

Make sure all of your USB drivers are installed properly in Windows and all ports enabled in your BIOS.

Reseat your memory to ensure both DIMMs are securely installed.

 

[Zuckerton]

Is all of your RAM recognized in the BIOS? I am not aware of this 64 bit windows error. Never heard it before, but it could just be me.

Only one seems to be recognized. I'll reseat the RAM and see if that fixes it.

Is all of your RAM recognized in the BIOS? I am not aware of this 64 bit windows error. Never heard it before, but it could just be me.

Make sure all of your USB drivers are installed properly in Windows and all ports enabled in your BIOS.


Reseat your memory to ensure both DIMMs are securely installed.

All ports are enabled and if they recognize the flash drives, they should be installed properly.

 

[COLGeek]

HDDs require more power than "thumb drives". Try connecting directly to the ports on the back of your system (those connected directly to your motherboard) or to ports on a powered USB hub.

 

[Paperdoc]

COLGeek has pointed in the right direction, I think. But you might need more. I am assuming that your external enclosure does not have its own power supply, so that you connect to it only one cord - the USB cable that plugs into your laptop. Thus the drive gets all its power from a USB port. The drives' specs on the WD website say it uses little power on average, BUT its maximum power draw is 1 amp - I presume that is at times like start-up when the disk must spin up to speed, which is exactly when your system would be trying to get a response from it. However, a standard USB2 port can supply at max 0.5 amps, so your unit might be underpowered just at a critical time.

Many enclosures for portable HDD's come with a special USB cable or adapter that has TWO plugs on the end that connects to your laptop. They look the same, but one is a "normal" USB connector, and the second merely taps into the power lines from the second USB port. In that way it can feed twice as much power (max) as is available from a single USB2 port. Do you have one of those cords? If not, look for an adapter that will feed two USB ports into one connector cord.

 

[Zuckerton]

Reseat your memory to ensure both DIMMs are securely installed.

I reseated the RAM, set it in all the slots, the computer still only recognizes 8gb of the 16. I switched to one 8gb RAM, it worked. Switched to the other 8gb RAM and it worked, so neither are bad.

COLGeek has pointed in the right direction, I think. But you might need more. I am assuming that your external enclosure does not have its own power supply, so that you connect to it only one cord - the USB cable that plugs into your laptop. Thus the drive gets all its power from a USB port. The drives' specs on the WD website say it uses little power on average, BUT its maximum power draw is 1 amp - I presume that is at times like start-up when the disk must spin up to speed, which is exactly when your system would be trying to get a response from it. However, a standard USB2 port can supply at max 0.5 amps, so your unit might be underpowered just at a critical time.

Many enclosures for portable HDD's come with a special USB cable or adapter that has TWO plugs on the end that connects to your laptop. They look the same, but one is a "normal" USB connector, and the second merely taps into the power lines from the second USB port. In that way it can feed twice as much power (max) as is available from a single USB2 port. Do you have one of those cords? If not, look for an adapter that will feed two USB ports into one connector cord.

I had it plugged into the back in the first place, in my 3.0 slots. The drive powers up, the computer just doesn't recognize it. Kind of like a computer would do if you plugged an old cellphone into it. The cellphone would turn on and charge, but the computer wouldn't recognize any software for it.

I know the drives work because I use them on my laptop all the time.

 

[COLGeek]

Does it show up in disk management or in device manager, even as an unknown device?

 

[Zuckerton]

Does it show up in disk management or in device manager, even as an unknown device?

No, it does not. That's one of the things that's throwing me off about it. When I connect it internally, it recognizes it just fine. I played a few Wii games off of it and had no rendering issues whatsoever nor frame skips, it ran SSB Brawl at full speed.

And I found in BIOS that my 2nd RAM comes up as "Abnormal".

 

[Zuckerton]

Just an update on the RAM. It seems that ALL slots that the RAM is placed in on the left side come up as "Abnormal", but when the RAM that comes up "Abnormal" is placed in the motherboard on its own, it runs fine.

I can't RMA the board as the guy who sold it to me seems to have removed the Serial number from the board put stickers on the serial number on the box so that when I went to remove them to see the number, it ripped the number off and the guy is not returning my messages.

I bought the board back in February and was purchasing everything for it for the last few months as I'm on a limited monthly budget.

The system works just fine with only one stick of 8gb memory...still no idea why it won't recognize an internal hard drive in an enclosure plugged in through the usb, but will recognize it when plugged directly into the sata port on the motherboard.