Numerous odd problems affecting my build (HDD/SATA, USB, MoBo)
Numerous odd problems affecting my build (HDD/SATA, USB, MoBo)
Hey everyone, nice to share updates on the forum. It’s always a great spot, though I’m not heading back for anything too upbeat lately. My PC build has been facing some strange problems lately, and before I even think about going to the shop, I wanted to check if anyone else has run into similar issues with my hardware or any tips on what to try.
I have two hard drives inside the chassis—two SSDs and one HDD. The SSDs are mostly recent, with the first being an archive drive from my old 2014 PC (files were last updated in 2018), so I might be able to drop it out. It’s also a strange SSD hybrid and I’m surprised it’s still working. The second is a 1TB WD Blue drive from 2020, which holds most of my media files, documents, project resources—basically anything that doesn’t need to be on an SSD or isn’t software. There’s a lot of valuable data there.
Recently, Windows won’t recognize the disk at all, even though it’s fully plugged in. I’ve checked the SATA and power cables; they’re daisy-chained to the archive drive, which is fine. Still, Windows can’t find it. I’m hoping it’s just a cable issue—moving it to another tray and using the cables from the archive drive should fix it.
On USB, I’m worried some ports on my motherboard (ASUS Crosshair Hero VIII) are failing. Occasionally, after a restart, certain ports stop working unless I plug in something else or restart again. My Corsair mouse doesn’t work on any port except the front panel USB, which is weird. I’m not sure if it’s a power delivery problem or if a BIOS/CMOS reset would help. My knowledge is a bit shaky on this board.
The ASUS motherboard has been acting up lately, especially with boot times. There’s a code 9C issue that seems to cause long delays—sometimes the system hangs for 10 seconds to 3 minutes before booting. The Enter BIOS screen shows up but doesn’t get me into Windows for a solid minute. My main drive is an NVMe Samsung M.2 card on the main slot, so I’m not sure why it’s slow. I was worried about BIOS conflicts with my GTX 3070 graphics, but now it’s just a bit sluggish. The whole system feels fragile—if I press the power button hard, it crashes and sits on my desk. I’d better avoid touching anything while it’s running. Maybe loose front panel connectors are the problem? I’m either going to have to jump into repairs or risk making things worse.
Right now, I don’t feel confident about replacing parts, let alone not having a working PC. Any advice or precautions would be super helpful. Thanks for reading!
Replace the connectors on the motherboard. There might be something loose that's leading to unusual behavior.