Detecting Storage Devices [ Edited ]

[davemeech]

HP Pavilion Media Center m8530f Desktop PC

I have the above computer and have been running it for about 3 years now, it came with Windows Vista but I have since installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. As of recently my computer is no longer able to detect either my hard drive nor my DVD burner/player at boot (I get the error screen "detecting storage devices" and it hangs there), and I cannot access any of the options right at start up (like BIOS, system restore, set up etc.) as it still goes to the next screen and hangs at the "detecting storage devices" screen all the same.

This has happened to me with the original hard drive (750gb Seagate) and it is now doing it with the replacement 500gb Seagate I had just purchased to replace it.

Although it is worth noting that if I unplug it for a while and try it again it would sometime detect the old harddrive and go one screen further where it will prompt me to either start it in safe mode, some repair option or normal boot). Since replacing the hard drive, I have managed to boot it to the beginning of the Windows 7 installation the first time until it was stuck on finding drivers, where it suddenly wasn't able to detect the DVD drive. All reboots further led me back to the "detecting storage devices" screen detailed above, without the ability to enter BIOS or any of the other start up options.

Is this a motherboard problem? How are these types of issues to fix? Any detailed step by step help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Update

Through unplugging and reconnecting the power supply, I managed to get one step further again to a screen that says:

"Reboot and select proper boot device

or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

Pressing a key entered the blinking curser down two lines and it hung there instead.

[TheOldMan]

Taken from this page: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00899280&tmp_track_link=ot_faqs/top_issues/en_u...

1) Before you begin, remove everything from the computer (such as USB drives, and CD and DVD discs) and connect only the original mouse, monitor and keyboard.

2) Turn on the computer and press the F10 key repeatedly at the first screen to enter the BIOS Setup utility

3) Verify that a hard drive name is listed from the general screen.

There is a continuation from that point on the page.  Use it for troubleshooting any further and report back on the results.

[davemeech]

I have tried following those steps but I have not successfully been able to enter the set up BIOS.  On the first blue loading screen I would hit F10 and it would say opening set up, but it would then go to the next screen where it would hang at the "detecting storage devices" screen.

[davemeech]

After having the machine unplugged for about 15 minutes I tried again, I pressed F10 to enter set up and then it detected both the hard drive and dvd player before entering the BIOS.  In the BIOS I was able to infer that at that point the system recognized the hard drive and the DVD player.  Then it goes back to the "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"  This time, pressing a key will repeat the quoted message and continue to do so every time I press any key.

This is definitely sounding like a motherboard issue or some sort of connection from the motherboard to the hard drive and DVD player.  I have tried hooking up the hard drive and DVD players to other SATA ports on the motherboard but I keep on getting similar problems.

[TheOldMan]

I think you may be right on the motherboard being in trouble.