Hi there,
I have an Alienware Aurora 7500 running Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit, with AMD Athon 64×2 Dual core processor 5200+, with Nvidia 8800 GT (768 MB) dual graphics card, with 4 GB of RAM, motherboard is nVIDIA nForce 590 SLI, AMD Hammer.
I had an issue with the original hard drive it had, a 250GB drive, that for some reason it stopped working, at first appeared that hard drive died, but then I put it in an enclosure and it was working, but with limited access to certain files. Anyway, I purchased a new WD 1 TB SATA Caviar Green hard drive and I installed it on this computer.
At this point, you must be wondering why I didn’t contact Alienware for support: because I am not the original owner of the computer and Alienware refused to provide any information or any help about this computer.
Then, because I’m not the original owner of this computer, I had no restoration CD’s, no OS CD, no CD’s at all. I borrowed a Windows Vista Home Premium from a friend and I attempted to install Windows Vista 32 bit. However, the computer was not able to recognize the drive at all, not even in BIOS. I changed BIOS settings many times, but without any success. I searched online for possible problems, but none seemed to help.
A few weeks ago, as I was trying something different to make the computer recognize the new hard drive, I removed 3 GB of ram from computer (it has 4 1GB sticks) and the hard drive was recognized right away. I took this opportunity to install Windows Vista, I was able to boot to OS, I updated everything, using Windows update (about 80 updates), installed Firefox with pluggins, and installed World of Warcraft. After that, I was playing World of Warcraft for over 3 hours, trying my new clean machine, then it froze completely. I was unable to restart it normally, so I did a hard boot (pushed the power button on computer) to restart it. I was able to play again a little longer, then again it froze. After this time, I was unable to access OS again.
I have gone to BIOS to find out if there is something wrong there again and to check if hard drive is detected, but I can see that hard drive is not detected at all. Sometimes it is detected in BIOS, then I save and restart, but then it hangs at loading screen with the following error:
Verifying DMI Pool Data….. Update Success
Then nothing, the computer will not boot as it previously did. I have checked the BIOS settings for boot options and it is set up to boot from Hard drive, but there is something preventing it from doing it, which I cannot figure it out. Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
I have tried using the Windows Vista to “repair” but then it does not detect the hard drive. I don’t know what it could be causing this error.
Also, I have reset the BIOS multiple times, removed the battery/jumper, but nothing helps. I even purchased new RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134585&cm_re=KHX6400D2K2%2f2G_R-_-20-134-585-_-Product, but it didn’t help, thinking that the RAM was defective, but something else appears to be the problem.
On another note, the computer sometimes detects the hard drive (which is brand new) and sometimes it does not. Of one of those times that it detected the hard drive, I installed Ubuntu OS, was working fine for a few hours, I updated the system, then it froze completely, I powered down the computer manually, then the hard drive was not recognized at all anymore. At this point I don’t know what it might be causing the problem, as sometimes the hard drive is detected, but most of the time is not. If I get lucky, I will be able to select either Ubuntu or Windows Vista (both OS are installed on new hard drive), but in the past few weeks, I haven’t been able to make the computer detect the HD. Yes, I have tried several SATA cables and the different 6 SATA connections on motherboard, but still the same problem.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
