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June 22nd, 2006 11:00

GX620 Drive 0 Not found: Serial ATA, SATA-0

Hello,

During reboots we ocassionally have Optiplex GX620's without any USB devices attached (besides mouse and keyboard), fail to find the SATA Hard drive. These are standard config GX620's with basic DVD-ROM's, Floppy, and 80 GB SATA Drives. Here are the tell-tale symptoms. Computer screen displays this error verbatum:

Drive 0 not found: Serial ATA, SATA-0
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility

Hitting F1 doesn't fix the problem
Doing a Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't fix the problem
Doing a COLD-BOOT (aka powering the whole PC down and turning it back on) fixes the problem 100% of the time.

To be clear, the error screen is after the bios, but before the Windows Boot Loader, and the Bios does not appear to see the drive either. Diags come back fine assuming the drive is detected.

Any idea's on what is going on. This is happening to enough of our corporate systems that I can't imagine we are the first to see the issue. I don't believe it is the same as the Dimension issues I have seen in the forums as there are not any USB devices attached beyond a mouse and keyboard (i.e., no thumb drives, card readers, usb hubs, flat panel monitors with integrated hubs, etc...).

Thanks,

Kevin

8 Posts

June 22nd, 2006 13:00

Sounds like you have a registry problem. I had a problem with my pc, where it would not recognize the video card during a reboot, but a hard restart it would. I installed a good regedit software, ran it, and the problem went away. I am just guessing here, but it is worth a try.

13 Posts

June 22nd, 2006 14:00

Thanks for the idea.  In my case however, the issue I am having is before the Windows boot loader is even kicking-in, and therefore no Windows registry has been loaded.  In fact, the hard drive isn't even recognized in the BIOS when it is having problems.  Nice idea, but I would like to hear a few more as well.
 
Thanks,
 
Kevin

8 Posts

June 22nd, 2006 16:00

I think what is happening is there is a bad entry in the registry pointing the BIOS to an empty hard drive slot. This entry is only accessed during a reboot, and not a hard restart. When I would try to reboot before, the DOS screen appeared, then nothing else, I could not even do a F2, or F8, or F12, it did not load that far. If I powered down completely then restarted, it would get to the BIOS screen, and I could change the display setting, and it would boot. Otherwise, during a reboot, I could not even get to the BIOS. It's worth a try anyway.

13 Posts

June 22nd, 2006 21:00

Do you have a registry cleaning software that you recommend?
 
Thanks,
 
 
Kevin

8 Posts

June 23rd, 2006 13:00

Fix-it Utilities 6, unfortunatly it is not freeware. I tried several freeware programs, but none of them would work. This one fixed the problem. If you are lucky this is the problem, if not I don't know what to do.

823 Posts

June 27th, 2006 12:00

This has nothing to do with the registry at all.

Make sure the SATA cable is in correctly.

41 Posts

July 9th, 2006 17:00

Agreed. Has nothing to do with the registry.

Try this:

1 - Try another SATA port - GX620's have 4 or 2 depending on what mobo they have in them. Make sure you enable that port in bios.

2 - Try another SATA cable.

3 - If possible, try another SATA drive.

4 - Last ditch effort, make sure you have the latest BIOS revision. A07 I beleive.

8 Posts

July 10th, 2006 13:00

Where would I find the BIOS revision, and is it a good idea to update if there are no problems?

13 Posts

July 15th, 2006 16:00

Still having the issue.  I will upgrade to the new A07 Bios and see if that helps.

July 20th, 2006 15:00

Also try resetting the NVRAM, turn on your Caps, Scroll, Num Locks. Then Press ALT - F, then ALT - E, then ALT - B. The system shout reboot after the Alt-B. If that doesn't work try resetting the BIOS using the RTCRST jumper on the motherboard.

13 Posts

July 27th, 2006 17:00

Thanks man, that worked!

No, even with the Bios upgrade it has not stabilized. I am trying putting the controllers into "Combination Mode" instead of native SATA mode. So far so good. I will report back.
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