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So when I initially turn on my computer, it has always forced me to go through my BIOS screen to pick the HD I want to use to load my OS. I have 3 HDs connected through SATA. That was always annoying but I dealt with that extra step to turn on my computer because I couldn't find out what was causing it.

Now it's taken a step further into annoyance. I turn it on, it goes straight to BIOS but when I go to select my OS HD from the list of 3, only 2 HDs show up, neither of which are the one with my OS on it. So I have to pick one of the non OS HDs, get the Bootmgr error, restart my computer, go to BIOS again, THEN my OS HD shows up.

Help?!

Replace your boot drive?
Sounds like the drive's "time-to-ready" is becoming longer and longer.
Alternatively, try hanging it off a different SATA port (a lower-numbered one) and see if that makes any difference. I don't know for sure, but it could be something like this going on, too.

--Patrick

For the entire life of this iteration of my PC, for some reason the motherboard doesn't always recognize the HDD (I only have one). I basically have to keep restarting it until the HDD shows up during boot detection. I've tried changing the SATA ports, and nothing seems to help. I've pretty much resigned to fact that it's a little gremlin issue I may never be able to fix. Usually I only have to reboot once, but sometimes is five or six times.

Have you checked for a BIOS update for your motherboard?

ncts_dodge_man said:

Have you checked for a BIOS update for your motherboard?

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Nope, heard horror stories of updating Motherboards.

It's most likely a hard drive issue. I have a few PC's that do this too. It was always the Hd that caused it. Basically you couldn't boot from the drive with a cold boot, it wouldn't recognize the drive. When you did ctrl+al+del once it tried to boot the first time it would boot fine. 3 years later they're still working.

Shakey said:

It's most likely a hard drive issue. I have a few PC's that do this too. It was always the Hd that caused it. Basically you couldn't boot from the drive with a cold boot, it wouldn't recognize the drive. When you did ctrl+al+del once it tried to boot the first time it would boot fine. 3 years later they're still working.

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That's reassuring at least. It's not my main storage drive but it'd be a huge pain in the ass if it died on me.

Gilgamesh said:

That's reassuring at least. It's not my main storage drive but it'd be a huge pain in the ass if it died on me.

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I'm not saying it won't die, every piece of hardware is different, and it can be an indicator of a failing drive. I've just been lucky.

Mine was like I described straight out of the box and have been using it for about 3 years.

Gilgamesh said:

Nope, heard horror stories of updating Motherboards.

Click to expand...

The horror stories are almost always due to failed updates.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

The horror stories are almost always due to failed updates.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

I update the BIOS at my work on all of the PCs before I put them out - never really had much of a problem and have been doing this for almost 10 years. I had one PC that wouldn't recognize a new HD until I updated the BIOS.

It could just be a bug in the firmware for the SATA drivers for the motherboard, or, possibly the HD itself - though HD firmware udpates are much more destructive (esp. for SSDs) as it has the potential to wipe the drive.

Have you tried cold-booting it with just the OS drive connected to see if it boots up right away? How about changed SATA ports - the port itself could be bad too? The other thought I've had is are the drives connected up in order? It's less of an issue with SATA than before, but I have seen some oddness that if the OS drive is not in the first SATA plug it doesn't always recognize it.

Some drives also have a jumper or software option to disable something called SSC (Spread-Spectrum Clocking). If your motherboard does not fully support this feature, the drive will take longer to handshake (if it handshakes at all).

--Patrick

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z77V_PRO/

Is what I have. BIOS says it's dated 11/09/2012 and is version 1708.

The only updates I see are to add newer CPU support (which would only really be important if you use any of those newer CPUs), only other things I see are "optimizations" and "improve stability." Nothing specific to potential HDD issues in the BIOS notes, though they do have a troubleshooting page specifically for SATA issues.

--Patrick

I have to download a program and use it to disable my left at key or my computer will randomly think I'm pushing it down until I restart. Go ogling this I can't find a fix for it that works

Go ogling is now entering my lexicon.

CrimsonSoul said:

I have to download a program and use it to disable my left at key or my computer will randomly think I'm pushing it down until I restart. Go ogling this I can't find a fix for it that works

Click to expand...

I would just replace my keyboard at that point.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

I would just replace my keyboard at that point.

--Patrick

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I have it's not a keyboard problem, or a harddrive problem (my harddrive failed after this started and I had to replace it) and it's not the usb port because I've tried changing it...it's...something else?

What is most curious is that you say it only sporadically taps the <ALT> key (I assume that's what you meant). You can't just randomly short a USB connection and have the computer read it as an "ALT" keypress, certainly not reliably, otherwise you'd be getting other random keys being pressed as well. You have already tried a new keyboard (presumably not the same model of keyboard) and the issue persists, which means this is not something inside of your keyboard.
If you are positive that this is not merely the result of Sticky Keys becoming activated, then I would start trying to disconnect all other USB devices (yes, even the mouse) to see if it is repeatable. If it is, then you are looking for some misbehaving piece of software that is emulating keystrokes. If not, then it is probably something to do with your mouse.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

What is most curious is that you say it only sporadically taps the <ALT> key (I assume that's what you meant). You can't just randomly short a USB connection and have the computer read it as an "ALT" keypress, certainly not reliably, otherwise you'd be getting other random keys being pressed as well. You have already tried a new keyboard (presumably not the same model of keyboard) and the issue persists, which means this is not something inside of your keyboard.
If you are positive that this is not merely the result of Sticky Keys becoming activated, then I would start trying to disconnect all other USB devices (yes, even the mouse) to see if it is repeatable. If it is, then you are looking for some misbehaving piece of software that is emulating keystrokes. If not, then it is probably something to do with your mouse.

--Patrick

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I've bought a new mouse since then too lol. Googling it a lot of people have the problem with no sure fix

Honestly I would try a PS/2 keyboard next, assuming you have the ability to do so.

--Patrick

lol I haven't seen one of those in a LOOONNNNGGG time[DOUBLEPOST=1397680190,1397680118][/DOUBLEPOST]Apparently it is a mouse issue because I have this mouse.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1410359/alt-key-acting-as-if-it-is-pressed

just confirmed that's the problem

Huh. I used to have a mouse that would do something like this. The right-click would always send to the computer as ctrl+click or something. Guess I wasn't the only one.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Huh. I used to have a mouse that would do something like this. The right-click would always send to the computer as ctrl+click or something. Guess I wasn't the only one.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

If I program a mouse button to preform a keystroke it does the alt thing