help "reboot and select proper boot device

[manujg]

How it begin: I built a barebone kit from tigerdirect and the computer ran perfect for close to 4 months. But then i started getting these messages sometimes upon starting the pc: reboot and select proper boot device. Usually upon another boot the pc would load to windows xp, and no problems. Then the problem became an every day routine, and I consulted with a friend who is a tech and suggested maybe the power supply was weak and the hd wasnt getting good spin time, olright so i go upgrade a 450 watt ps to a 500 watt. Still no luck! I am suffering with the same issues still

information: My HD is A sata 160 GB. My cd-rom is master on IDE. Boot preference goes CD-drive, then HD. I have changed the order so many times and tried yet problem persists. Also disabled Onboard IDE and tried boot through ATA only, no luck there either. I flashed the mobo, and setup the bios again but still no luck. If i try to reinstall xp, get error message destination drive invalid, i try to reinstall via ghost cd! Took out the gfx card, and tried to boot - doesn't work. and final thing i did was play around with sata 1 and sata 2, keep switching the wires. Also raid is disabled in bios.

Also while pc was loaded in windows i checked HD via HDTUNE, and there was no errors within it . Another thing, I don't get the same errors if i load windows on IDE HD.


Pc specs: Asus m2n-mx se plus mobo, amd x2 5000 2.6 ghz dual core, 3 gigs ddr2 ram, 160 gigs western digital hd, 8800 gt 512 mb ddr3 ram..

 

[Hefemeister]

could be a slightly damaged sata cable. I did not see if you had switched to a new one in all of the things you have tried.

 

[manujg]

but bios detects sata. so i can see my hd on bios screen. But i can try getting a new sata cable and testing it. also if i am able to boot and i m in windows and i just manually restart it, it will boot and windows will run fine. the problem is getting the boot after shutdown

 

[manujg]

ok the problem still persits after using a new sata cable. The ide drive works and boots, but i can't get my sata drive too boot. Plus on diagnostics the drive shows no errors, " checked the sata drive via dos diagnostics software from western digital". If the sata port on the mother board is damaged do u think the bios will detect the sata drive in bios? or is there a possibility that the the drive has failed after 4 months of use and i need to replace it with a new sata drive? if there is anything else i can try, i would appreciate some tips.

thanks?

 

[kmote]

Sounds like an HDD problem to me. Do you have smart enabled and have you recieved any warning messages?