Totally Snookered - All USB ports are down and no way to get to BIOS / Windows 7

[Cadence]

Hi,

I recently built my first PC as a retirement present to myself and thoroughly enjoyed the experience up until a few days ago.

My set-up is...

- Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
- AMD Phenon 2 X6 1090T 3.2MHz Black Edition with AMD standard cooler
- Coolermaster Elite 430 case with 5 fans
- MSI GTX 460 Cyclone
- Corsair Gold 650W PSU
- 4GB Corsair DDR3 1333MHz RAM
- 2 x Samsung HD103SJ SATA Spin Point 3 1TB Hard Drives
- Samsung SH-S223C DVD Re-Writer
- LG 21.5 LED 2ms Display
- Windows 7 running in 64 bit config.

Everything worked well from first set-up and I even managed to set up the hard drives in RAID 1 mirrored configuration. I have run AVAST anti-Virus from the start and have had no attacks that I'm aware of. About 10 days ago, I got an error message from Windows 7 on start up and chose the safe start and inbuilt diagnostics to sort the issue. The PC booted OK but when I looked for the root cause I noticed that my hard drive had mutated from a single 'C' to C,D,E & F! - it seemed that the first two drives held mirror images of my data and the last two had different sytem files for Windows 7.

From that point on I was asked to choose between 'Windows 7' (usually led to start up issues) or another variant titled Windows 7 recovered (not the exact wording but along those lines). The latter booted the PC OK and all was well apart from the multi drives. With the owners manual in hand, I went about trying to restore the RAID 1 config in the BIOS. It was clear that some of the original RAID settings had changes without my input. Initially I ended up with three drives showing - C,D & E! Only the latter seemed to have an operating system. I made further changes I thought were needed and was rewarded with just two drives now in RAID 1 format. 

I got all sorts of error messages from Windows 7 and went back into the BIOS a number of times. In the end I decided to re-install Windows as it was likely  that there was some conflict in the two version of the operating system that were previously on the drives. Because of the changes to the BIOS, I decided to select on the F key 'Optimised' setting choices shown on the BIOS screens. I then saved the settings and re-booted.

During the windows install I was asked the usual keyboard choice and country questions. I couldn't select anything as both my mouse and keyboard weren't working. I tried to get into the BIOS, but again could select anything. Tried Windows 7 repair disc, Gigabyte system disc and Windows 7 install disc. Nothing would respond to the keyboard / mouse. After studying the manual, I tried taking out the battery to reset the CMOS. That worked and brought up a new screen, however the inputs didn't work again and it defaulted back a saved version. I tried using a PS2 coverter for my USB mouse without success. After 8 hours I don't know how to get out of the puzzle?

Any help would be gratefully received.

Cheers

[Dark Mantis]

The next thing to try is to clear the CMOS for an extended period.

Remove the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery for at least one hour before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Opimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self like disabling the floppy drive, disabling the full screen logo and making the HDD the primary boot device and then press F10 to save and exit.

[Cadence]

Thanks for the feedback - I've followed your suggestions and will report back with the results in an hour or so.

Cheers

[Cadence]

Unfortunately the proposed fix didn't work.

I briefly had a panel appear on screen at start up with the choice to make changes or use the 'Last Known Set-up'. As the keyboard, mouse and all other USB remained dead, the choice timed out & defaulted to 'Last Known'. This takes me straight to 'Loading operating system - Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disc'.

When I insert the Windows 7 CD, I cannot select any of the install options so it stays on the opening page - choice of Language, Keyboard type, Country etc.

Any other suggestions how to get out of this catch 22 situation? Does the lack of USB mean that the 6 week old motherboard is trashed & needs to be replaced?

Many thanks for any further advice on this matter

[Dark Mantis]

Not necessarilly. If the BIOS is not set to power up the USB Legacy devices they wont work until windows loads drivers. It could be that the keyboard is faulty anyway. Have you got access to a native  PS2 keyboard?

[Tiger]

Samsung's Spinpoint F3 / HD103SJ Firmware update for AMD SB850:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=308

Included in the SB8xx RAID Driver for Windows 7 Applications Folder is the AMD RAIDXpert software application. After you have installed Windows 7, you should install it. If you ever need to rebuild a RAID 1 array, you can do it there. See optional downloads in this link:
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/integrated_win7-64.aspx#3

[Cadence]

Thanks Tiger - I'll certainly do that if I ever get into Windows & again.

I'll try to get my hands on a PS2 keyboard as previously suggested, however I've already  tried a USB mouse in the PS2 port using two different adapters and neither power up the mouse (it has a red light that glows when 'live'). Would this suggest that the PS2 port is also dead and there's no point in buying a PS2 keyboard?

I've submitted a technical query to Gigabyte, however they took a week to answer my last email during the build process.

Any more ideas on how to break into the BIOS to reactivate the USB ports? BTW I've noticed that the network port is flickering as normal so there's definitely power adjacent to the USB ports on the motherboard.

[Dark Mantis]

Well you could try getting the Backup BIOS to flash over the Main BIOS. If it is a corrupt BIOS htat is causing hte problem it should do the trick.

You can kick in the backup BIOS by shutting down the PSU from the wall, then hold down your case power button in and then turn on the power supply button, a few seconds later the board will start, shut off the power supply then.   Then you can turn on the power supply again and power up the board normally and DualBIOS will kick in.

If it doesn't work the first time you can try agian.