Hard drive controller hang

I just purchased a kt3 ultra2 and stuck it in my system. Everything went fairly smoothly. I've been using MSI boards for years now. I turned my system on and got no video. So I look around the back and noticed that the diagnostic led's were hanging on initializing the hard drive controller. I turned it off and unplugged all my ide devices from the board, started it back up and got the same thing. Anybody know whats going on?

well if it matters (you see currently there aren't any drives connected at all and i still have the problem) i have a 40 gig western digital drive on ide channel 1, a cd-burner and a dvd-rom on ide 2, and 2 60 gig ibm deskstars one on each raid channel.

Similar Messages

975X Power Up Edition Hangs on "Initializing Hard Drive Controller"

Symptoms:
4 month old Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD drive would "hang" the system maybe 2-3x in the last month.
Upon reboot no boot device found. Power cable removed from PC, and plugged back in it would work fine.
I switched off my PC at 8am, come home at 5pm, switch on PC and no boot device found.
Remove power cable, problem persists.
Clear Cmos, problem persists.
Removed all other unnecessary hardware and tried different cables and ports, problem persists.
Reach conclusion SSD drive is dead.
Plug back in old Hard drive (Still fixed in bottom of PC, but not attached) and PC loads up fine.
Pc randomly restarts about 10x in the space of 24 hours, sometimes with the message no boot device found. (Power cable removal/plugging back in rectifies fault)
Now, problem persists also.
Remove all unnecessary hardware, and try again. Problem persists.
Clear CMOS.
Pc shows MSI splash screen, and hangs.
Removed even hard drive, same problem.
Checked D Bracket and I have RRGG which is "Initializing Hard Drive Controller" "This will initialize IDE drive and controller"
MOBO: MSI 975X Platinum V2.1
CPU: Core2Duo E6300 1.86Ghz
GFX: MSI N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5/OC
Memory: Corsair XMS2-6400 2048MB (X2)
PSU: Corsair TX650
HDD1: Corsair Force 3 120GB / HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 250GB
HDD3: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
HDD4: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Currently have GFX, 1 Stick of ram, the CPU and its cooler plugged in, that's it.
Any suggestions? I've searched this forum but there aren't any real solutions, one was dead and required RMA'ed, another one depended on the PSU, and another one didn't have enough power to the PCI-E card. (GFX)

Quote
Plug back in old Hard drive (Still fixed in bottom of PC, but not attached) and PC loads up fine.
Pc randomly restarts about 10x in the space of 24 hours, sometimes with the message no boot device found. (Power cable removal/plugging back in rectifies fault)
Just to be sure on this: What you are saying is that currently, it does not matter what kind of device is attached (SSD, hard drive, optical drive), you get the ""Initializing Hard Drive Controller" "This will initialize IDE drive and controller"", even though if there are no SSDs, hard drives and optical drives connected to the system whatsoever?

D-Bracket2: Initializing Hard Drive Controller

Hey guys, maybe you can help me out here?! My motherboard hangs up with D-Bracket 2 showing (1, 2 - red lights and rest green) Initializing Hard Drive Controller. I use Wester Digital HDD and also tried other HDD. However I tried running with just CPU, Video and Memory installed - but same message is displayed. It seems to me that it's not about HDD but HDD Controller on motherboard itself. My oppinion is that my motherboard is broken and I should contact MSI for warranty coverage. Thanks for sharing your knowledge in advance!
Motherboard: KT3 Ultra2 Series
HDD: Western Digital 60GB
PSU: ThermalTake 420 W - Runs fine on other system with even more load
CPU: AMD Athlon 2200+

Western Digital uses a jumperless setting when there is only one drive attached to a channel.
Also, insure the blue end of the cable is inserted into the board, and the black end is attached to the Master drive. The gray connector in the middle is for any slave drives.

Replace 1st Gen Apple TV Hard Drive Controller?

Hi, I am experiencing the following problem...when I reboot my first generation Apple TV that has been upgraded with a 750GB hard drive, I first get a black screen for several minutes, then I get a screen that has an Apple TV icon on it with a question mark above it. The Apple TV hangs up on this screen and will not go on to anything else. In my research, I have read that this either means that the hard drive controller has failed or the hard drive itself has failed. I am hoping that it is a hard drive controller failure. If this is the case, how do I replace the controller?
If someone out there know how to do this, I would appreciate a detailed explanation. I dont mind getting my hands dirty but please treat me like an idiot and give me step by step instructions (take it from the point that the bottom is off the unit and I am looking at the insides of the Apple TV). Also, what make and model controller would you replace it with?
I thank you ahead of time for your reply.

You might consider getting an external FireWire drive to store video, then link the video to iTunes on your Mac, where your AppleTV can find it.
That is my setup, as I have about 700 gigs of video (I don't have cable TV and buy my shows from iTunes). It is a bit of a pain, as after watching the show (I have my 1st generation AppleTV set to store only unwatched shows), I have to copy the video files from my Mac's hard drive to the FireWire drive, then delete the file on my Mac, and relink the video to iTunes from the Firewire drive. But it works.

Hey all - just found out my hard drive controller is gone for my macbook pro how do i go about replacing - can i buy the part online etc?

hey all - i need to replace my macbook pro hard drive controller - not sure exactly what to ask for or where to find it..
help please.

adrianfromfort lauderdale wrote:
hey all - i need to replace my macbook pro hard drive controller - not sure exactly what to ask for or where to find it..
help please.
Take a photo of the losing parts and send it to ifixit.com
They will advise you what to get replaced.
or you can bring it to Apple store (you need a booking slot) and get a quote.
Regards,

Initializing Hard Drive Controller?

Yesterday, the CPU temp spiked up to 60 so I disconnected everything and cleaned fan, cooler, and took of all old thermal grease and put new one. It's silver one. Anyway, I left like that for a night and this morning I tried to connect it but didn't work. I tried erasing all Bios and but nope. So I tired four led thing and it says 2 red top, 2 green bottom. The manual says
Initializing Hard Drive Controller:This will initalize IDE drive and controller. I touched nothing of harddrive or cd-rom, only the fan and cooler. Nothing shows up when I turn it on. Please help~

ok. I took off cpu and back on again, 2 red on top, 2 green on botton. Same. Took Ram off and on again, same thing. Could it be bios problem? It worked flawlessly until I did what I said .

KT3 Ultra2 stuck on Initializing Hard Drive Controller

AMD Athlon 2200
KT3 Ultra 2
Antec 400W
Maxtor 60G
512
I put the machine together and it does not display anything. On the D Bracket it shows 2 red 2 green "Initializing Hard Drive Controller". I have depopulated motherboard all the way down to just one stick of Ram, One hard drive the bare necessities. It still doesnt work. Swapped hard drives, video cards and Ram. Measured voltages for power supply. Rebuilt it twice from ground up. Reset CMOS. Still same thing. It shows the 2 red 2 green as soon as I turn it on, doesnt seem to be running any POST tests.
Any suggestions? :O

I am a 17 year old high school student who has put together a total of 12 machines. There are a couple of issues I would like to address:
1. Every PC I built was based around SOCKETA platform and EVERY board was an MSI.
2. I just finished building two machines around the KT3 Ultra-2 board (I am typing on now), have given the one to my uncle and aunt. NO PROBLEMS. XP2100 512 PC2700 Two 30Gb Maxtors RAID0 Saphire Radeon 9000 Pro 128mb DDR.... No trouble. They went together in about 45 minutes... I have hauled mine (I kept one for me - yippee!!) up to my cabin and back again... never ever failing...
3. I understand everyone's frustration in this issue, for it is DEFINETELY an issue, BUT, MSI I can guarantee is working out the solution and they stand behind their products. I was having trouble with an Nforce based board. Sent it back, got a new one in 4 days... That has been my only trouble MY ONLY TROUBLE. And on top of it, I later learn that it was my fault. I was the one who grounded mysterious pin 9 on the USB header... It was how the case came set up---you know with the front USB ports...
4. I also know that MSI's boards are the most stable I've seen . I've helped other students with home built PC's who use Gigabyte, ASUS, Abit, ECS... and I've seen trouble with all of them.
5. Stick with it. Don't give up. Get your board and if need be your proc. replaced, and move on. This board is worth it. It is so nice. I have had my machine on for two weeks straight. Running XP PRO. Nothing but solid.
6. WHY DOES EVERYONE BLAME EVERYTHING ON THE PSU??? I have used cheap-o 300W generic supplies (granted, I have never owned or set-up a GF4) but plain and simply put, I have not had any stable problems with MSI boards and cheap power supplies. MSI does an excellent job with their power stabilization portion of the board, and design their boards around imperfect voltages. Nothing is perfect. "30 amps", that's rediculous.
Anyway, I hope that I have changed a few minds about MSI and their boards, and that you will take the time to get your problem resolved. If you do, you will do just like me, and return to MSI for all of your computing mainboard needs.
-AlwayzAMD
MAXTOP case - ALLIED 350w ATX
MSI KT3 Ultra2
512Mb PC2700 DDR Ram (Samsung)
AMD Athlon XP 2100
Saphire ATI Radeon 9000 PRO 128mb
Thermaltake VOLCANO 7 HSF
2 92mm Case fans
2 30Gb Maxtors RAID0 (striping - sweeeet!)
Lite-on 16x DVDROM / 48x CDROM
Lite-on 48x24x48 Burner
Idle Temp: 38C
Load Temp: 44C
_____________________________________

Added hard drive, board hangs on "initializing keyboard controlle

System was working fine (845 G-Max L board), added new Seagate hard drive as slave, booted up, and D-LED panel now hangs on "initializing keyboard controller." I can't even boot up enough to play with BIOS settings. No other changes were made but adding a second hard drive. Even after disconnecting the second hard drive, I still have the same problem. Is the hardware damaged somehow, or is there any way to reset the motherboard?

Is this procedure (CMOS jumper) explained in the manual? (I am at work right now). The power supply has never had problems and powered a previous extra hard drive just fine. Is there any potential issues with the RAM?

Hard Drive Controller Configuration - Asus P9X79 Pro

I am building a computer for use with CS 6 Premiere Pro. I purchased an Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard. I have bought 4 drives. I plan to use a 256gb Samsung 830 SSD for the boot drive loaded programs and the operating system; two 500gb Western digital Velociraptor drives in Raid 0 for scratch disk; and a Hitachi 2tb Ultrastar 7K3000 drive for everything else. My question involves my confusion over selection of which controllers to attach the drive to on the Asus motherobard. The X79 chipset comes with 2 x SATA 6gbs and 4 x SATA 3gbs. The motherboard also has a Marvell 2 x SATA 6gbs controller. My initial thought was to hook the 2 WD drives to the 6gbs connector and create the RAID 0. I would then connect the Samsung SSD and Hitachi 7K3000 to the Intel 3gbs connectors. Am I doing this properly or should I be using the SSD on the 6gbs connector and the set up the RAID on the 3gbs controller? I read somewhere that it was not a good idea to use the Marvell controller for the SSD.

Thanks for your response Harm. The Marvel 9128 is described as a hardware raid host controller. "It features a hardware RAID to offload CPU and AHCI interface for inboard driver support."
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/datasheets/Marvell-88SE91XX-Host-Controllers.pdf
My understanding is that people often buy the Pro motherboard of the Asus P9X79 because of the presence of the additional Marvell hardware RAID controller that is not present in some of the other P9X79 versions. The Asus Drive Xpert tool appears to be a rebranded version of the Marvell based software suite used to manage the Marvell controller's RAID 0/1.
I agree with you that the better solution would be a dedicated RAID controller card. What is the best affordable solution available for a RAID controller card given the limited number of hard drives that I want to populate the RAID 0 with?

P55-GD65 hard drive controller issues

This just as confirmation of my suspicions - MOBO started stuffing up my PCs boot order (I have 6 hard drives) about 8 months ago. This means correcting it in the BIOS every time when this happened. Re-organising the SATA cables and drives according to number seems to have sorted that problem for a while, but not for long. Used the MSI update tools to keep things running sweet but then about a week ago my Windows 7 started freezing up for no reason. Normally about 5 minutes after logging into the system. Re-set button sorted that but it became more frequent.
Decided to use a secondary drive and re-install Windows on that drive. The installation goes smoothly until it re-starts to complete the installation and I would get an automatic Windows error that the drive is corrupt and should be checked. On a 60% full 2TB drive it took most of 5 hours to flag corrupt files.
A fresh re-install gave the same results. The original boot drive (1TB Seagate) refuses to start up (boot files missing). My ghost image refuse to write to the drive reporting errors.
Replaced the MOBO (Foxconn H77) and CPU (1155 Intel), same RAM and hard drives and everything is 100% in order. New 1156 board ordered (MSI H57M-ED65) as it seems that after 3 years of use this one has said it's final goodbyes.
Could've gone the AMD route but I like the i5 750 I have.

Read Moan Guide
Check each of your HDDs for problems with software provided by HDD manufacturer

Hard drive controller virus?

Last Monday (April Fool's Day) when I turned on my computer (17" 4.1 laptop bought September 2008, Snow Leopard), the hard drive started spinning up faster and faster, until after a few minutes it began to slow down and souund quieter. Ater about 17 minutes, it suddenly stopped spinning, and my computer behaved normally. I backed up the internal hard drive on an external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner and eUpdated the McAfee virus program and ran it on my hard drive. It took five hours and didn't turn up anything and didn't prevent the hard drive from spinning up when I started the computer.
I ordered a new hard drive and installed it yesterday. It didn't make any noise before it was formatted when I started up the computer on an external drive. I formatted the internal hard drive and then restored it with Carbon Copy Cloner. Then when I started up the computer, the internal hard drive made the same noise as before. It does this even when I boot on an external drive running Mountain Lion.
If a few minutes after I start the computer, I close the lid and put the computer to sleep, the drive stops spinning. If I wait an hour or two and open the lid to wake up the computer, the hard drive starts spinning as though it hadn't been interrupted. It continues for the same sum of times before and after the computer was asleep equal to the time it would have been spinning if I hadn't put the computer to sleep.
If this is a virus, where does it live and how do I get rid of it?

Roger Longley wrote:
Last Monday (April Fool's Day) when I turned on my computer (17" 4.1 laptop bought September 2008, Snow Leopard), the hard drive started spinning up faster and faster, until after a few minutes it began to slow down and souund quieter. Ater about 17 minutes, it suddenly stopped spinning, and my computer behaved normally. I backed up the internal hard drive on an external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner and eUpdated the McAfee virus program and ran it on my hard drive. It took five hours and didn't turn up anything and didn't prevent the hard drive from spinning up when I started the computer.
I ordered a new hard drive and installed it yesterday. It didn't make any noise before it was formatted when I started up the computer on an external drive. I formatted the internal hard drive and then restored it with Carbon Copy Cloner. Then when I started up the computer, the internal hard drive made the same noise as before. It does this even when I boot on an external drive running Mountain Lion.
If a few minutes after I start the computer, I close the lid and put the computer to sleep, the drive stops spinning. If I wait an hour or two and open the lid to wake up the computer, the hard drive starts spinning as though it hadn't been interrupted. It continues for the same sum of times before and after the computer was asleep equal to the time it would have been spinning if I hadn't put the computer to sleep.
If this is a virus, where does it live and how do I get rid of it?
No such thing. Your hard drive spins at a constant rate and remains at that rate while operational. I'm willing to bet what you're probably hearing is your CD/DVD drive. Eject whatever disc is in there out. It's either that or fans you're hearing. BTW, you're 6 days late with this.

Troubleshooting failed hard drive / connector / controller

Hi,
A couple weeks ago, I thought my Macbook Pro hard drive failed. At start up I received the folder with a question mark. I assumed that the hard drive failed and bought a new internal hard drive. After connecting the new hard drive and formatting it to Mac OS Extended file format (from a separate computer), I only got a gray screen at start up and nothing else. As long as the blank internal hard drive is in the computer I only get the gray screen at startup even if i connect an external hard disk with a working mac os x copy. When i remove the new hard drive and connect a bootable external drive i am able to startup. However, now the computer goes to sleep at the login screen and i am unable to wake it again.
Also, when i connect the old hard drive. The one i thought had failed to another computer, it works. I guess at this point something has to be wrong with the connector or the hard drive controller.
I don't have Apple Care anymore. I bought the Macbook Pro in 2nd half of 2009. It is the 13".

" I only get the gray screen at startup even if i connect an external hard disk with a working mac os x copy. When i remove the new hard drive and connect a bootable external drive i am able to startup."
So that points to a internal SATA cable issue. A know problem in these MBPs of this age.
"However, now the computer goes to sleep at the login screen and i am unable to wake it again"
l was working on a 2010 MBP that did that. Turns out to be the battery even tho' the system report seemed normal. If that's the original battery in there it's beyond it's life expectancy anyway since Li Ions have a limited lifetime.

Is an external hard drive (USB) dependent on RAM?

After a bad experience with another external USB drive, I have replaced it with a new Iomega eGo 320 drive. I don't have a lot of RAM on my G4 (768).
Overall, the new drive is great, but even though it is a portable drive, and meant to be plugged and unplugged, I tend to leave it attached for long periods of time. When the drive has been inactive, I notice that when I try to access it, I get the dreaded "spinning beachball of death" and can NOT get out of it. I have waited as long as 30 minutes, and it just never stops.
Does a larger capacity drive depend on the amount of RAM a cpu has when accessing the drive? Or is something else going on?
One thing I have done is to turn off "allowing hard drive(s) to go to sleep" in my energy saver preferences, but I have not had the drive plugged in since I did that, so I don't yet know if that will solve my problem.
Any thoughts as to why my drive is "hanging"?

Hi-
The spinning beachball would be normal, to the extent that the drive, if spun down, requires a bit of time to spin up again. This, however, is a matter of a few seconds (or should be).
Does a larger capacity drive depend on the amount of RAM a cpu has when accessing the drive? Or is something else going on?
I would consider this to be a possible problem of the external housing hard drive controller and OS X, or the chipset of the USB controller in the external housing and OS X.
The amount of RAM (yours is adequate), or the CPU speed would not have any bearing on the failure of the drive to return to an active state.
One thing I have done is to turn off "allowing hard drive(s) to go to sleep" in my energy saver preferences, but I have not had the drive plugged in since I did that, so I don't yet know if that will solve my problem.
This should keep the drive spinning, so it should respond quickly.
Generally speaking, external drives, should be firewire connected, rather than USB. If using a USB external drive, do not daisy chain the drive- always give it it's own USB port.
Other potential sources of trouble can come from using external drive "solutions" like the Iomega, the WD My Book, etc. The majority of these drive sets are aimed a PC users, with onboard controllers that are more often associated with Windows compatibility rather than Mac OS X. A sure sign of the "target market" is the default FAT32 format.......
I would keep an eye on the drive. I don't think that the behavior that you are experiencing is normal, and it could be that the drive housing does have a problem. It may be worth an email to Iomega support to get their take on the problem.

Why Can't I see or access my external hard drive anymore using finder

I have a MacBook using Lion 10.7.5 and I use a Seagate 1 TByte external hard drive to store large photo and video files so that these won't take up space on my system hard drive. I also use the drive to share files with friends, colleagues and family members. Just recently I was no longer able to see my harddrive when I plugged it into the USB port on the Mac. However, when using the Disk Utilities, I was able to see the hard drive but could not access or see the files. Therefore the USB cable and USB port is working from a hardware perspective. The light also was on when I plugged the hard drive into the USB port so I know the hard drive is working. I brought the laptop and hard drive to my local Apply store to see if they could determine the problem. They did everything I already did regarding the testing of hardware. They recommended that I reload my software because something in the OS must have gotten corrupted. I re-installed the OS and the updates to the version. The re-install DIDN'T help. Using Bootcamp with Windows XP which is installed on my MacBook, I wanted to find out if Windows would recognize the hard drive and also give me access to the files. Using Windows, I was able to now see the drive and access the files. I now know the hard drive works, the USB cable and port is working and windows gave me the ability to access all of the files.
THE FIX: The hard drive was stuck in the Windows Mount Mode and because of this, the Mac OS was not able to recognize the hard drive using finder in Mac OS. When I was still in Windows, I ejected or dismounted the dick prior to removing the hard drive from the MacBook. I then shut down Windows and restarted the Mac OS. Once the system was fully up, I plugged the hard drive into the MacBook via the USB port. The Hard Drive is now being recognized by my Macbook once more. I can again access all my files.
HOW THIS PROBLEM OCCURRED: While sharing my hard drive with a colleague to transfer some files on a PC using Windows, the colleague disconnected the hard drive from the PC after the files were transferred by pulling the USB cable out of the USB port without a software dismount or ejection. This caused the hard drive to hang in a "windows mounted state" even though there was no power to the hard drive. When peripherals are connected to either a Mac or PC systems, they should always to properly dismounted via a software dismount or a system ejection. Proper dismount of peripherals will always insure the closure and correct allocation of data within the booting sectors and data fields of the hard drive.

ld3mb wrote:
Thanks everyone. I suppose I'll just reformat for Apple. I need to use it for large files, and I suppose I could survive without editing ablities on Windows.
There's another alternative, format it as exFat, 4G limit does not apply and OSX + Windows will be able to read/write.

Can a hard drive be faulty without reporting any issues?

Hi all, advice really most appreciated Hope this isn't too waffley for you all...
I have a 24" intel iMac (Core 2 Dual, white version, stock 320Gb HDD). It is out of warranty.
Over the last few weeks it has been getting VERY slow before finally becoming unusable. This appears to be when any hard drive access is required. Finder windows were taking literally minutes to appear (with spinning beach ball).
I did all the usual stuff such as repairing permissions, verified drive and ran a full Onyx cleanup. This all made no difference. I ran a Leopard archive-and-install. This took 10 hours! I remember the original Leopard install taking 30 minutes so somethings not right here. No improvement. I formatted the drive using 'write zeros' - which estimated 3 days to complete, but I stopped it after 12hrs.
I did a time machine restore to an external firewire drive, which I have now been running from for over a week, without a single issue. All is back to normal speed. (I'm surprised at just how fast it runs from an external firewire 800 drive, as I expected to notice a difference - I don't)
So, I now have a blank internal drive to test:
I ran disk utility repair disk. All OK.
I ran Disk Warrior. All OK.
I ran Techtool Pro 4 full hardware tests including disk surface scan. All reported OK including hard drive controller.
I ran Drive Genius surface scan - zero bad blocks.
So, do I have a failing hard drive or not????
I have read about similar symptoms here for a failing iMac drive but usually one of the hardware tests reports bad sectors. I have no such results, or any other symptoms.
Advice most welcome.

Hi tvrs3
{quote:}So, do I have a failing hard drive or not????{quote}
Try the Apple Hardware Test on your Install Disk, it might find a funky Serial ATA connection or problem with the Serial ATA bus?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Sense all the other test say the HD is OK, you might try restoring the Internal HD from your working External HD?
1. While booted from and running your External HD open Disk Utility.
2. Select the Internal HD's icon on the sidebar, then click the Restore tab
3. Now drag the External HD's icon into the Source box, the Internal HD's icon into the Destination box and click Restore.
{quote:}(I'm surprised at just how fast it runs from an external firewire 800 drive, as I expected to notice a difference - I don't){quote}
I can also boot and run normally from a clone on my FireWire 400 External HD without noticing much of a difference.
Dennis

Hard drive controller hang

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for