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

[bomberbob]

Words of praise from yet another satisfied HP customer.

I have a HP scanner. It still works, but it looks like something smoked on the inside of the scanner, leaving a smokey film on the INSIDE of the glass that ruins anything I scan. So this thing will join the other products I bought from HP, at the bottom of the county landfill.

[MrComp]

To those boycotting HP, don't forget to boycott Nvidia, because ultimately, Nvidia made chipsets that were notorious for overheating and they did not take responsibility for it and reimburse the manufacturers that used their chips. For the record, I've had a laptop from HP with a failed Nvidia chip (DV9000) and I have also had at least two customer computers (I am a technician) that failed with the M2N78-LA motherboard. The first one wouldn't recognize the SATA drives, the second will only turn on but no post, bios beep code - only the fans will come on.

[maple-canada]

Here is a technical artical for those who have interest and tecnhical back ground called:

Why Nvidia's chips are defective

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1004378/why-nvidia-chips-defective

[kiiyt]

Yes, that is correct, ultimately the root cause of the failures lie with Nvidia. However, we all purchased our computers from HP, who have a direct responsibilty to their customers regarding failures.

It is up to HP to negotiate directly with Nvidia reagrding compensation costs, etc.

[MrComp]

Yes, I agree, but to deny any responsibility so the CEOs can have their beach houses and yachts from their profits is unethical and bad business for Nvidia or HP. The chips were Nvidia and they may have worked fine on a test bench but in the real life world in a cramped laptop case with poor ventilation and a hot cpu, hard drive and other components it was doomed for failure. Any company is bound to have a problem products and make a mistake. It is how they deal with it that makes the difference between a good company and a great one.

[maple-canada]

That's why personally I wouldn't dare to buy any product which has Nvida chips in it. And thank god we have a lot of other choices nowadays. A lot of people may not know that a lot of smart phones have Nvida CPUs in there. Personally I wouldn 't choose any of those phones.

[T-n-T]

All I see is people moaning and griping, no real information since the first few pages of this thread... 

FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH A SEMI-SALVAGABLE CHIP I.E. NOT COMPLETELY DEAD YET...

If you're still able to POST or run the HP diagnostic to get that BIO2HD error or something like that, I forget the exact error... that means your Nvidia NB isn't exactly DEAD yet and there's still hope for you. Get a FAN on it quick, if you can replace the HS with a decent HSF using a thermal compound such as Artic Silver 5. After that take another step by lightening the load on that crappy Nvidia NB, getting a dedicated video card and sticking it in the PCI-e slot will help loads, even if it's a crappy card.

I got the system from a friend who's dad had been using it for some light graphical stuff, couldn't figure out why it kept BSOD and would shut off intermittently. I was able to run HP recovery and had everything reinstalled, but the problem would seem to come and go, did some research and saw what people said about the Nvidia NB. Problem would come when the temp in the room was hot or after a few minutes of gaming, system became extremely slow to the point of being frozen. I opened the case and had a fan blowing at the whole MB, seems to help a bit but if I took the fan away, within a few minutes the problem came back.  So point is, chip wasn't completely dead, but looking online I didn't see anybody with a solution to the overheating NB, even after I stuck a fan on it, proble would still come back when ambient temp of the room rose. Anyways, by just getting a Radeon HD 4850 and sticking it in there (replaced the stock PS with an Antec Power NEO HE 550) I'm able to run Diablo 3 on max settings with no fan directed at the MB and still no lock ups even during the hot afternoons.

So yes, if your system is still semi-functioning, getting a dedicated video card could bypass the heat problem generated by the crappy Nvidia NB, also a new HSF on the NB would ensure longevity.

[T-n-T]

All I see is people moaning and griping, no real information since the first few pages of this thread... 

FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH A SEMI-SALVAGEABLE CHIP I.E. NOT COMPLETELY DEAD YET...

If you're still able to POST or run the HP diagnostic to get that BIO2HD error or something like that, I forget the exact error... that means your Nvidia NB isn't exactly DEAD yet and there's still hope for you. Get a FAN on it quick, if you can replace the HS with a decent HSF using a thermal compound such as Artic Silver 5. After that take another step by lightening the load on that crappy Nvidia NB, getting a dedicated video card and sticking it in the PCI-e slot will help loads, even if it's a crappy card.

I got the system from a friend who's dad had been using it for some light graphical stuff, couldn't figure out why it kept BSOD and would shut off intermittently. I was able to run HP recovery and had everything reinstalled, but the problem would seem to come and go, did some research and saw what people said about the Nvidia NB. Problem would come when the temp in the room was hot or after a few minutes of gaming, system became extremely slow to the point of being frozen. I opened the case and had a fan blowing at the whole MB, seems to help a bit but if I took the fan away, within a few minutes the problem came back.  So point is, chip wasn't completely dead, but looking online I didn't see anybody with a solution to the overheating NB, even after I stuck a fan on it, problem would still come back when ambient temp of the room rose. Anyways, by just getting a Radeon HD 4850 and sticking it in there (replaced the stock PS with an Antec Power NEO HE 550) I'm able to run Diablo 3 on max settings with no fan directed at the MB and still no lock ups even during the hot afternoons.

So yes, if your system is still semi-functioning, getting a dedicated video card could bypass the heat problem generated by the crappy Nvidia NB, also a new HSF on the NB would ensure longevity.

[quinny714]

you seem to be a smart person but not smart enough to realize that once someone finds this thread...it's already too late.  Bye-bye HP.

[T-n-T]

And you seem to be able to read, but not literate enough to read what I wrote in big bold black letters and realize it's written for people whose PC haven't gone totally dead. And that's the whole point of this thread isn't it, because obviously the OP's PC still boots as does quite a few of the people that come to this thread, hence the title of this thread and a few pages into this thread, people's confusion thinking it's the SATA controller that's dead... of course you'd know that if you read through the entire thread... not... too smart... are you?