[RZetlin]

I have a custom build computer with the following specs:

2 GB of RAM
Asus A8N-E Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ CPU
3 Hard Drives: WD - 120 GB, WD 250 GB, WD 500 GB
Windows XP SP3
Geforce 6800 Video Card

I have the computer for about 3 years now.

Lately my computer is freezing up.

The POST boot would sometimes not detect the hard drives - it would show up as "none"

I got the hard drives and placed them into a different computer and the drives work okay.

I notice on the motherboard, the fan for the Southbridge is not running. The fan seems to fused together.

Does the Southbridge on the motherboard control hard drive access?

I suspect the motherboard could be causing me issues but I need a second opinion.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

 

[Princess Garnet]

As that picture depicts, yes, the southbridge controls optical/hard disk/solid state/other drives. It sounds like the South Bridge/board is beginning to go bad.

 

[SCHUMI_4EVER]

My second system is almost identical except I have the OEM version of the board, the ASUS A8NE-FM and I too would place the blame on the board going bad, although checking the cables can't hurt of course.

 

[RZetlin]

So what are my best choice in this case?

1) Try and replace the fan*
2) Get a new motherboard along with a new CPU and RAM.
3) Get a new PC for under $500

*Update - I took out the motherboard from the case - it's the worst case scenario, the fan is bolted down to the motherboard.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

Strike could best advise you here he recently did a minor upgrade

 

[SCHUMI_4EVER]

At this point I would say get a whole new system...cuz that's what it's going to end up as anyways if you try and replace even a single component (Heck all this stuff was already rare when I upgraded last November...and now it's almost a whole other year later so you're not gonna find anything), relegate this system to dodgy backup system and get something new.

 

[Princess Garnet]

A new mainboard would obviously be less expensive and easier and directly get the job done of fixing this. That PC is far behind alot of the curves, but it isn't so old that it's unusable or anything.

Since you considered getting a new PC already though, that's what I'd advise. If that's a PCI-Express GeForce 6800, you could even use that until your next GPU upgrade/until you can add a new one for the other parts.

 

[LoneWolf]

keep the HDD and DVD drive (if any) and get a new pc. 500$ can get you a nice pc.

 

[gamefreak94]

I had the same issue a month or so ago, my WD 640GB would often go undetected. I suspected the HD itself or the Southridge was going bad and prepared to RMA it, but as a last ditch resort I changed the SATA cable, power cable and mobo slot to which the drive was connected all that once. That did the trick and my HDD has never given my any problems since.