Help Appreciated: G75 Boot Media / Disk Error Problem (Intermittent and frustrating)

[salt.the.skies]

I'm pretty savvy at Google-Fu and handling my own problems, but the nature of this has made it difficult.

My laptop will randomly BSOD and crash, or grind to a halt and semi-freeze and not load Windows on reboot. Instead, it will randomly offer the "A disk error occured, press ctrl+alt+del to restart" and "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected drive" errors. This problem began intermittently about 6 months ago. I figured it was my hard drive failing, which wouldn't be completely surprising. Had the laptop about 2 years now. It seemed to be alleviated by removing the battery and running off direct power, then rebooting.

I kept at that for a while, reluctant to buy a new HD (nothing of value on this computer) until the problem became progressively worse. Eventually, I couldn't boot at all, just got the above error(s) instead. Or, it'd try to load Windows repair, hang up on the "fixing errors" screen for about 10 minutes, then tell me the errors couldn't be fixed.

I bit the bullet, bought a new hard drive.. install Windows 7, flawlessly... computer is performing perfectly fine and randomly, BSOD. Same error appears on reboot. After a while I decide to switch HD bays (this laptop has an expansion bay) and Windows loads perfectly fine until about 10 minutes ago. It then semi-freezes (Mouse movement, can sorta open items, ctrl+alt+Delete doesn't work, open window is unresponsive). So here I am.

When I access BIOS, SOMETIMES my hard drive will not even show up in BIOS (both previous and current HD's). Sometimes it will show up, in proper boot order but will still present one of the errors listed above. Also noticed a vague correlation between how long my computer is unplugged / dead and how often it'll boot up no troubles. Seems if I leave it off over night, I can usually get a normal boot up 75% of the time afterwards.

Things I have tried

Restarting.
CHKDsk / Seatools (Old HD had some errors, new one is fine)
Verified my boot order in BIOS
Windows Reinstall (New ISO also)
New HD (Works fine in other system)
Reseating / Switching HD bay
Flashed BIOS Update
Verified IDE/ACHI/SATA Bio Settings (anything off ACHI just causes Disk Error)


System:

Windows 7 Home Premium
Asus G75-VW Laptop
Intel Core i7 3610QM
DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM (32 GBs)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
Previous HD: Seagate Momentus 750GB
Current: HGST Travelstar 500GB


The only vague hint I've heard tell of is possibly my CMOS Battery dying?

Not sure. Help is much appreciated!

[Clintlgm]

Don't want to waste your time but do you have the latest Chipset drivers installed? IRST? Driver ?IME Driver. I would get the latest from Intel.
I agree with your first thought that the hard drive was failing. Since a new hard drive is giving the same Issues its logical that drivers or hardware.
It is possible for you to have gotten a bad replacement drive, have your tested with Hitachi Disk Diagnosis tool?
Hardware wise, you have already tested both slots, so all that leaves is bad connector ribbons or motherboard connections or the controller itself failing? Sorry I can't be anymore helpful.

[salt.the.skies]

Don't want to waste your time but do you have the latest Chipset drivers installed? IRST? Driver ?IME Driver. I would get the latest from Intel.
I agree with your first thought that the hard drive was failing. Since a new hard drive is giving the same Issues its logical that drivers or hardware.
It is possible for you to have gotten a bad replacement drive, have your tested with Hitachi Disk Diagnosis tool?
Hardware wise, you have already tested both slots, so all that leaves is bad connector ribbons or motherboard connections or the controller itself failing? Sorry I can't be anymore helpful.

There is no wasting my time on this. My knowledge (and ability to find new knowledge) have hit their limits. I also appreciate the confirmation on my initial suspicions, nothing worse than feeling you just made a dumb choice. Absolutely any suggestion is welcome.

I'm currently updating both my IME and Chipset drivers, I ran Seatools but I'll try Hitachi Disk DIagnosis tool on my next reboot.

[salt.the.skies]

Hitachi Disk Diagnosis confirms no errors. However I noticed on the "Health" section, the only alert they list as kind of high is the Interface CRC Error (7200~) which can be attributed to poor connection in cables or poor communication between motherboard and drive.

We will see if the recent updates help.

Also heard mention of other people downgrading to the MOBO version 207 from 213 for different drive errors. I may try that if all else fails.

[Clintlgm]

Yes I would do as you are, try everything software or driver related. to eliminate anything simple, if all fails then your MB or Connectors would be the culprit. Should that be the case I hope your still within your warranty period. And I Would PM cl-albert he is our "Customer Loyalty" representive here in this forum he can be very helpful with RMA he also is a pretty sharp tool on these notebooks.

[salt.the.skies]

Okay, so quick update.

After trying everything software/driver related, I finally tore down my computer.

I disassembled it, cleaned out the inside, tightened everything up and... I've been running solid for 2 days now, no errors, no nothing.

Maybe just a loose screw securing the connector? Not sure.

[Clintlgm]

Glad to hear everything worked itself out. and you are up and running again.

[BlackFireGamer]

Similar problem but mine wont post on start up any suggestions

[Clintlgm]

What are the spec's of you NB, OS, etc.
What was the last thing you did before this happen.