[PROBLEM] Motherboard not detecting graphics card or SSD as boot device

[Greytower]

I have quite a problem with my computer that I built about a year ago. it was working fine until about last week when I believe it installed a windows update and after that, I could not get HDMI or DVI or VGA output from my graphics card, and then later, my motherboard stopped recognizing my Samsung 840 pro 256gb SSD with a Windows 8 installation as a boot device.

I do still have access to motherboard-based graphical output and my bios, which is really hard to use and convoluted as hell.

Specs:
OS: Windows 8? (Or could it be windows 8.1 now?)
Motherboard: ASrock z87 Extreme4 (UEFI bios)
Graphics card: Asus GeForce gtx 660
CPU: Intel core i7-4770k
SSD: Samsung 840 pro 256gb

Currently, the problems that Im hoping to address here, is that my motherboard is not detecting my Asus GeForce gtx 660 at all whatsoever, and that my motherboard will not display my SSD with my OS as a valid boot device.

I've tried the following for the graphics card:
Moving graphic card to a different slot
Updating my UEFI bios
Unplugging and re-plugging PCIE cable

For the SSD:
I've tried re-installing/repairing my Win8 installation to no avail as it will not detect it.
I've tried booting into Ubuntu in order to try to format the SSD, to no avail as it will not detect it.
I've tried installing Windows 7, which came very close as I was able to access the command prompt and try to format from there, as it DID detect my SSD, but I could not as it said that the SSD was "write protected", meaning that I can apparently only format from the original computer.


My next plan for the graphics card was to download the bios driver from the ASUS website, but unfortunately, I cannot execute the drivers because of my other problem:

I have an SSD that has Windows 8 on it. I turned on my computer one day to find that it had no graphical output from my graphics card. Im assuming that somehow Windows 8 got updated and is either just a different version of Windows 8, or it might be Windows 8.1. I have no idea of knowing. Anyway, not only will my motherboard not acknowledge my graphics card, it will detect my Samsung 840 pro 256gb SSD, but claim that it only has 1gb of free space (which cannot be right) and will not detect it as a boot device.

Thus, with no operating system, I cannot execute the driver update that will most likely allow my UEFI motherboard to detect my graphics card.

My question is this;
Could someone from tech support possibly give me an update that I could mount to a USB and boot from it in order to update my graphics card? I cannot use the .exe I downloaded from the support section as I dont currently have a working operating system.

Furthermore, does anyone have any ideas as how to fix my SSD? I am totally fine with formatting it and/or installing windows 7, but I have no idea how to do so.


Thanks for reading
and please help me fix this 🙁

 

[Greytower]

|@@@@@\............|@@|.........|@@|...|@@/.\@\...../@/.\@@|.....|@@@@@@\
|@@@@@@\.........|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|.......@|
|@@..........@\.......|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|.......@|
|@@...........@\......|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|.......@|
|@@@....@@/........|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|......@/
|@@@@@@/.........|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|..@@/
|@@@@@@/.........|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|@@/
|@@@@@@\.........|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|
|@@@@@@@\......|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|
|@@...........@@\...|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|
|@@............@@\..|@@|.........|@@|...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|
|@@............@@/..|@@\........../@@|..|@@|...|@|...|@|..|@@|...|@@|
|@@@@@@@@/.....\@@\......../@@/...|@@|...|@|..|@|...|@@|...|@@|
|@@@@@@@/.........\@@@@@@@/....|@@|.....\@\/@/....|@@|...|@@|

 

[BrandonMc]

There's a couple of things I would try first:
Reseating both hardware devices (pull out and reinstall the graphics card, then disconnect and reseat the cables for the SSD). I know that's a simplified solution, but if it can get your graphics card operational that would be a step in the right direction.
Even though it should NOT have changed, I just recently had to resolve my MOBO not seeing my SSD as a bootable device. I had to change it from IDE to AHCI before it would do so.
You could also try running the install disk - I've never done an install of Windows 8, but I presume it allows you to delete partitions and format drives? Can you see your partition?
Another thought would be to run a CHKDSK from the bootable CD, and make sure that your SSD hasn't crapped out on you which is a sad but possible source of your issues.