Ive built my 1st pc but bios wont detect hard drives

[nsimpson72]

I have built my own pc (1st time of trying) everythings powering up but when in bios it states no drives detected.
I have 1 Western 1tb sata hard drive
1 western 500 gb sata hard drive
2 seagate dvd sata rewriters

my motherboard is brand new and quite high spec

really disappointed that Ive it a snag so would appreciate some help.

Ive checked and rechecked the connections and Ive definetely wired them up right.

 

[selayan]

Did you plug the drive into sata 6gb or 3gb port? What motherboard?

 

[cmadrid]

What do you have your drives set to in the bios as well

 

[cmadrid]

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=168595

 

[cmadrid]

might have some helpful ideas

 

[shanky887614]

I have built my own pc (1st time of trying) everythings powering up but when in bios it states no drives detected.
I have 1 Western 1tb sata hard drive
1 western 500 gb sata hard drive
2 seagate dvd sata rewriters

my motherboard is brand new and quite high spec

really disappointed that Ive it a snag so would appreciate some help.

Ive checked and rechecked the connections and Ive definetely wired them up right.

can you post the make and model of the motherboard


without this info we cant really be of much help

 

[nsimpson72]

Cache 2Mb
Supports Virtualisation Yes
No. of Cores 4
Description AMD Quad Core Phenom II X4 965
Manufacturer AMD
Clockspeed 3.4Ghz

Memory
Speed 1333Mhz
Description 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333Mhz Memory

Motherboard
CPU Support AMD Phenom II processor, Socket AM3
Chipset AMD 880G + SB710
Audio 7.1 channel HD Audio
LAN Gigabit LAN
Form Factor Micro ATX ( 9.6" x 9.6")
PCI 2
PCI-EX 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
1 x PCIe 2.0 x1
Max FSB Dual channel DDR3 1600(oc)/1333/1066
Memory Slots 4
Max Memory Capacity 16GB
Description AMD 880G Chipset Motherboard
Socket Type Socket AM3
USB 6
SATA Ports 5
E-SATA 1
IDE Ports 0
RAID RAID 0, 1, 10

 

[selayan]

Have you gone into Bios and set primary hard drive? If the hard drive has jumper cables for speeds you may want to adjust them to 1.5gb/s to see if that works. Also make sure that theya re plugged in to the right Sata ports. If that doesn't work check the drive's connectors and see if they are damaged. Try another Hard drive if available too.

 

[nsimpson72]

When I go into bios all the drives (hdd and dvd) are not detected. Heres how theyre connected:
1st drive 1 tb, 2nd drive 500gb. cable from psu with 3 sata power connectors connecting the 2 hdd. each hhd has its own sata data cable connected to sata1 and sata2 (theres 5).
the 2 dvd drives again connected to psu through sata power cables and data cables connected to sata3 and sata4.

the only jumper I see is the one to set the bios back to factory settings.

I have read the instructions for the motherboard and under installing sata hdd it states change on chip sata type to 'raid' save and exit and upon reboot press ctrl and f to go into the raid set up. Ive done this and in the raid menu it gives 4 options.
1. view drive assignment
2. define ld
3 delete ld
4. controller configuration

if I press 1, 2 or 3 nothing happens press 4 and it only shows the configuration number.

Sorry to be a pain about this but Ive upgraded my pc myself over the last few years and decided to have a go at building one and Ive come unstuck.....I just hope I havent wasted £500 on everything!!!

 

[cmadrid]

try setting to AHCI mode?

 

[nsimpson72]

already tried that, thanks

 

[selayan]

Try reverting to stock Mobo settings. I don't think you need to run RAID. Also is the 12v power connector from your PSU plugged into the 12v socket on the Mobo? Can you try that hard drive in another pc to see if it is detected? If it isn't it may be defective.

 

[nsimpson72]

stock settings are what I tried 1st. If it was just 1 hdd then I would say yes try in another mobo but its not detecting 2 hdds or 2 dvd drives

 

[selayan]

Then I would go ahead and say that the motherboard is faulty. If it can not detect either hard drive and either dvd drive. Try to RMA it to the company. What brand is it a Gigabyte or MSI? Each manufacturer should have warranty for at least a year. If its not been 30 days then RMA it to newegg if that is where you got it.

 

[nsimpson72]

Novatech Motherboard Bundle - AMD Phenom II Quad Core 965 - 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz - AMD 880G Motherboard With Integrated ATI Radeon Graphics

The specs are in prev post.

Ive contacted Novatech and Im waiting for their Technical team to get back in contact with me.

I will post again once I hear from them as I am beginning to think its the Motherboard, although they said they test them before shipping as its a bundle (cpu, cpu fan, ram already connected).

 

[selayan]

Yeh I bet it is the mobo, unless your connectors are not pushed in all the way. I have a 1tb sata 6gb hard drive that was detected immediately in bios but my Sata dvd burner was not detected at all. I had the data cables in I thought it would not detect because I connected a sat6 cable to a sata3 connector but that does not matter. Turns out my SATA power cable was not pushed in all the way to the DVD drive. Sometimes feels like it will break but it wont as long as u don't hulk smash it in.

That was why I was afraid of bundles. I was scared even when I ordered parts off newegg that they would be dead but its better to buy well known components for a buid, at least with good reviews.

 

[cmadrid]

novatech?? who is that

 

[cmadrid]

novatech?? who is that

 

[nsimpson72]

British based company specialising in PC component parts and completed builds.
www.novatech.co.uk

 

[nsimpson72]

update:
Ok so here goes. When every things connected no sata devices can be detected that's the 2 samsung dvd drivers, 1 western 1tb hard drive and 1 seagate 500gb hard drive. After checking the cables and making sure there all connected properly I checked each 1 in my old pc. Neither dvd driver would power up and both hard drives again could not be detected.
I then took everything to a local pc expert who connected other drives from another pc he had and all powered up, when connecting my new drives to an external source again none of them powered up. He checked the psu, motherboard and graphics card and are all working.
So the prognosis is that the 2 samsung dvd drives and the 2 hard drives are all faulty. I have packaged them all up ready to send back to you for replacements to be sent to me asap please. I will send them via the fastest way possible ie Express next day delivery before 1pm.
I checked with the PC expert in case I had done anything wrong and he said that my build quality was good and all the parts are excellent quality its just that Im very unlucky to get 4 drives faulty at the same time.

 

[nsimpson72]

previous post was a copy of an email to Novatech

 

[cmadrid]

Wow, that is pretty bad luck

 

[Proximon]

Only some electromagnetic event in shipping would do that. The chances of 4 different SATA devices all being faulty is miniscule otherwise.

OR your power supply is spitting out load spikes that is taking out your hardware.

 

[nsimpson72]

The Pc guy I spoke to checked the psu and said it was fine as he connected a different hard drive from another pc he knew worked and it powered up okay as thats the first thing he thought (load spike from psu).
Hopefully I will get replacements soon and will get back to you guys.

 

[Proximon]

Unless he put the PSU on an oscilloscope and voltage meter and measured the output at various loads, there no way he would know if it was good.

Most techs are under-informed about PSUs. That's not to say they are bad at what they do, many are great. They just happen to be behind when it comes to PSUs. I've spoken to many on this subject and they really don't know.

I don't know if that is your issue or not, but I can make a better guess about that PSU if you tell me the brand and model number, probably.