m8530f desktop PC with a m2n78-la mother board doesn't see my drives

[breed_corona07]

And another on bites the dust, this just happened to me yesterday, and I'm by no means positive but this could be the reason why... http://technorati.com/technology/it/article/nvidia-driver-causing-overheating-problems/ ... I  will probably be picking up the Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H as a replacement, its only $69.99 on Newegg.

[bomberbob]

Sorry to hear that. I think if people put some serious cooling on the NVIDIA chip, it may last a lot longer. Unfortunately people do not visit this site until it has overheated and the chip is dead. By then it is too late.

This message thread has continued for some time, yet I have seen no HP representative step in and offer any help, suggestions, or condolences.

I see where we are on their priority list.

The gigabyte motherboard I installed in place of the M8530F is running very well, I am extremely happy with it. I transferred the quad core CPU, memory, etc over to it and its very fast. 

[Mbourre]

my computer (hp p6122f) bit the dust last night 5 months out of warranty. i cant believe that this is such a common problem i have never had a motherboard just up and die on me in the middle of nowhere. i was just wondering what motherboard people were having luck with as far as replacement i don't want to have to get a new copy of windows due to hardware changes if possible but i also don't want to go with the same motherboard because i don't want the same problem in another year

[Big_Dave]

Mbourre,

If the motherboard is not a HP tattooed motherboard then the recovery disks will not work and Windows will probably become not genuine. 

[xtechie]

I can not believe that HP has not shown concern about all these failures.

I too have a m8530f system and it is exhibiting biohd-2 failure.

Checked the power supply for stability.-OK

Moved the sata cables to different ports with no change to symptoms.

Slaved a known good drive into the system with new cables- no change.

Reseated the CPU and reapplied heat grease. no change.

I will keep on looking for a solution and will call HP support.

[kindofblue]

Same PC, same problem -- 16 months after I bought it....   I read that if I use a non-HP replacement, Vista won't recognize the tatoo.  Is there any workaround for this?

[bomberbob]

I am afraid there is no workaround. If you install another motherboard (not a M2N78-LA) Vista will recognize the hardware differences and cry foul. You can call Microsoft to try and get it activated, but they say the copy you have is registered to the HP PC only (read the EULA), and changing the mobo to another maker makes it no longer a HP.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, eh? Buy another flawed motherboard to keep all your programs and files intact, or replace the mobo with a reliable one, and have to go buy a new operating system.

Its a shame people don't come here until their PC dies, and they start searching the web for a solution. By then its way too late.

[itwebpros]

I just ordered the gigabyte board per your recommendation.  Fits and works great with Windows 7!  Plug the Wifi and Card Reader into any available USB header on your motherboard.  You are only using one out of the two rows that a 9/10 pin USB Header has but it works and recognizes each device!  Thanks for finding this board.  My brother in law is happy that has his PC back in working condition.  I was struggling w/ replacing this board as everyone on the net in charging between 200-350 for a refurb replacement!  I recommend anyone with this same dilemma to go with this gigabyte option.  Not only is it a better board but also support 1080p output via HDMI.  It's no add on video card, but you can't ask for more out of a board that cost 70 bucks marked down from $90!

[itwebpros]

You will have to reinstall the OS.  Unfortanately, you probably don't have any reinstall discs as everything is on the recovery partition correct?  My advice is get your hands on XP or cough up the $200 and put Windows 7 on their.  You'll be much happier. 

[Caseystar]

Another fatality here to add to this long list....

HP 6157C with the M2N78-LA motherboard.

Initially I thought it was a bad drive, then overheating, but after cleaning everything up the problem remained. I was thinking the on-board controller was bad and replaced it with a SATA controller. As of last night that appeared to work, with no weird problems like before, except I couldn't get it to boot off the dvd drive to install windows. I'll be tinkering with it again tonight as I left it on all night to see if it would overheat.

So from what I gather from this thread, the northbridge (NVIDIA) is overheating or completely fried. Has anyone had any luck trying to keep it from overheating? I wonder if there is actually a fix to the overheating, rather than just replacing the board. However, if the chip is fried I definately understand the need to do so.