Unstable internet connections and strange hard drive disappearance incidents
Unstable internet connections and strange hard drive disappearance incidents
PC Specs: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64 bit 850W Corsair 80+ Gold PSU Asrock Z170 Extreme6 Intel Core i7-6700K Nvidia RTX 2070 Super 16gb DDR4 RAM 1tb SPCC PCIE M.2 SSD 120gb Kingston SV300S37A120G 1tb Samsung 860 EVO 4tb WD HDD 1tb WD HDD BIOS has just been updated to latest firmware. As the title says, I've been having issues with my old pc, mainly an issue with my internet connection, and no one in the house has experienced any issues like mine. When I boot up my PC, the first 5-10 minutes (and every 15 minutes or so thereafter it does this again) are spent waiting for my PC to connect to the internet, not sure why, but there seems to be some sort of software issue happening because I have seen certain applications work, and certain ones don't, but it's never specific apps, i.e. Chrome works, but Steam doesn't, etc.. I thought it was something with the firewall, but I have yet to find a culprit in the firewall settings. I also have 2 HDD's I usually use for work and mass storage for my Steam library, and those have slowly started disappearing from my PC as well. It started with my 1tb drive, one day it was just gone in Windows when I booted, and soon thereafter it showed back up working fine, only for it to disappear along with the 4tb drive. They have stopped showing up in both Windows and my BIOS, so I'm not entirely certain what's happening there. So those are my two big issues currently. Troubleshooting steps already taken: So at first, I thought it might be a bad cable to my router, so I replaced that. Then I thought it was my aging motherboard, so I replaced my mobo, memory, and even added my buds old 6700K that has been lying around for a few years and reinstalled Windows, then I reinstalled it again on a different SSD. The problem still persists, no matter how many times I reformat my SSD's, I haven't reformatted my HDD's because I don't really have a backup for them just yet, so that will be my next step once I acquire some more HDD's, but I don't think that will fix anything anyway. I have also updated my router, modem, etc. I do plan on upgrading my aging rig soon, I just haven't had the time to do it. I think I've included enough information, if anyone knows what might be happening, or have an idea of where I should turn to, please let me know, and thank you in advance!
For the internet (looking at you, wired setup), I’d recommend turning off the firewall on the PC and resetting the modem to factory settings. You might also want to check a few cables to rule out a physical-port issue. Since you reinstalled Windows from the ground up, including all drivers, it seems the problem isn’t there. Regarding your HDDs… they could be failing. Not appearing in BIOS is a serious warning sign. If the issue persisted after changing the motherboard, I’d say it’s likely you tried to use them in another system—thus rendering them unusable. You might still attempt to run them on another PC. If they appear in BIOS but don’t function properly, try using software to inspect their status and health (many free options exist). Unless you verify the disks are working correctly elsewhere, it’s wise to unplug them temporarily to avoid further damage while you assess and back up your data properly.
I just tried turning off the firewall, but it didn’t seem to help. I’ll have to reset the modem when I’m back home. The cables are still the same, and I haven’t changed them before. I haven’t used any other machine’s HDDs yet, so I’ll try that later too. Thanks for all the advice!