ACER Aspire AX3300 not recognizing hard drive and optical drive,not booting to windows

IronFly wrote:

have you tried to connect HDD and DVD one at time? No

are they connected to power supply? both

have you tried different SATA cables? not yet,plan to do so.

 Shall I reset CMOS now or after trying different cables?

on thing to try is to reset CMOS:

unplug AC power cable

open PC case

move jumper on CMOS/NVram reset (it's in the top side of motherboard) Is it in location JBIOS1?shall I reset to default 1-2 or clear 2-3?

wait 5 minutes

place jumper in its original position

close PC case

plug back the AC power cable

 

try to boot to BIOS and check if HDD or DVD is recognised

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Hi,

Have just tried CMOS reset no changes.

Have noted while reconnecting PC,I connect the PS2 mouse to PS2 KB,and KB to PS2 mouse by error,the PC booted and recoginsed HD and Optical drive but displays error message that KB in not connected.the system did not boots up.

Any more help is appreciated.

Cables look ok connected,I tried reseating memory in the white slots no changes eithe.

Have tried this as well no changes,then usb KB,no changes.

Are memory populated correctly in white slots,or need to be both populated in the other black slots?

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IronFly wrote:

connect only keyboar on the correct position and try to boot.

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I have tried booting with PS2 KB only,no mouse,the HD was detected,but optical drive did not,the HD was shown on entering BIOS,on rebooting the HD and optical drive both disappeared.

Is there differences on booting with one ram instead of two?I will try this?or can I install one ram on the white slot and one ram on the black slot?

thank you.

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IronFly wrote:

not so much difference, just trying to narrow your issue.

 

i'm suspecting some issue on chipset, since device can't disappear from BIOS at random.

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Which chipset is to blame?

Any other tests to try?your help is very much appreciated.

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IronFly wrote:

SATA controller, since both DVD and HDD are randomly recognised; nothing that can be fixed without swapping the motherboard.

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What has caused it?any way to test SATA controller?

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IronFly wrote:

a lot of things can cause it.

 

you can't test it if BIOS doesn't recognise HDD or DVD.

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Is there way to use eSATA that this system has?or swap SATA connectors?

Is virus possible cause?or sudden voltage change?

Does this may have adverse effect on other components like CPU?memory?

Will motherboard replacement guarantee to solve this or there may be other causes?

thank you.

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IronFly wrote:

can be a faulty component or some issues on power supply (blackouts or voltage drops)

if eSATA uses the same chipset, nope.

 

i can't be 100% sure that replacing motherboard will solve, i don't have your system to test it by myself; if you have any PC repair shop around you, they can found the issue.

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Have just tried local PC repair shop,still issue not found,not sure what they have tested,I only noted ram has been reseated from black slot to white slots.Will try another repair shop.can RAM or CPU or power supply cause this problem as well?

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IronFly wrote:

not RAM or CPU, maybe a dying power supply if voltages are not correct....but it will a 10% of probability.

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Have just changed the power cable (external) and monitor,pc booted up and recognised both HD and optical drive,but when started windows it crashes,on rebooting both HD and optical drive disappeared again.
.

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IronFly wrote:

no more ideas on my side, sorry.

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Hi,

Yes of course,thank you very much for all the very kind help,I will take the PC to another PC repair shop,hoping for the best,if you are interested in updating you of the outcome,I will be happy to do so,please let me know.