Z77-3DH Question: Is this a failing motherboard or something else?

[NormanW]

I am using a total Gigabyte system, Case, PSU and Motherboard.  The spec is:

Gigabyte Z77-3DH
4096 MB  DDR3-SDRAM
Intel Core i7  Socket 1155 LGA  3400MHz
2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT video cards

Over the past month I have been having intermittent problems with SATA hard drives not being recognised.

I am using three separate HDD's and an eSATA SSD.   The eSATA has the windows 7 Professional operating system (drive C). Drive D is 500GB and is solely for installed programmes, Drive E is a 1TB drive partitioned into three, holding a "My documents" drive, a drive for backup and a drive for videos.

What is happening is that randomly, even while the computer is on and running, one of the HDD's becomes inaccessible. 

Sometimes it is after bootup, but like just now, I could access all discs at bootup, then after around 30 minutes, I lost access to the third HDD ( drives E: F: G:)

I have changed the SATA cables and power supplies, without success.  I have altered where the different elements are plugged in (0 to 5, six is the eSATA).  I also have a media centre as a front panel, which is connected to a SATA port, but that seems unaffected and the DVD is seldom used now.

I stripped the computer, cleaned the dust, replaced everything and it has been OK for a week.

I wonder, can anyone suggest what might be the cause, or if there is a way to test the MB to see if there is something wrong?

The attachments are the PC wizard analysis of the MB and system.

Thanks for reading.

[DaveD]

Hi,

Did you ever resolve this problem?

I'm having a similar problem but with a Gigabyte Z170x gaming 3 motherboard. I originally thought it was a single SATA port problem corrupting a disk. I disabled that port & now have an intermittent problem of increasing frequency with drives 'disappearing' from my system, but are viewable when attached to an external case by USB.

[NormanW]

Hi,

Did you ever resolve this problem?

I'm having a similar problem but with a Gigabyte Z170x gaming 3 motherboard. I originally thought it was a single SATA port problem corrupting a disk. I disabled that port & now have an intermittent problem of increasing frequency with drives 'disappearing' from my system, but are viewable when attached to an external case by USB.

Hi DaveD

I didn't solve the problem under windows 7, but I have solved it, as follows.

The eSATA drive was 32GB, so I thought that I would get a larger eSATA and bought a 250GB and installed it as a replacement.  At the same time I did a clean install of Windows 10.  This was last summer, and "touch wood" the problem has not reappeared.

So I do not know whether it was that my eSATA drive 'C' boot drive was three quarters full, whether there was a problem with the eSATA itself, or whether it was a Windows 7 interaction with the motherboard, or something else.

I still have the same MB with all the same HDD's/DVD SATA devices.  The only thing I changed as the small eSATA and the OS.

So my answer is probably not going to be much help to you.  I'm sorry.

NW