Intermittent network issues and odd HDD vanishing problem

turnturn1225 · February 2, 2023

PC Specs:

Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64 bit
850W Corsair 80+ Gold PSU
Asrock Z170 Extreme6
Intel Core i7-6700K
Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
16gb DDR4 RAM
1tb SPCC PCIE M.2 SSD
120gb Kingston SV300S37A120G
1tb Samsung 860 EVO
4tb WD HDD
1tb WD HDD

BIOS has just been updated to latest firmware.

As the title says, I've been having issues with my old pc, mainly an issue with my internet connection, and no one in the house has experienced any issues like mine. When I boot up my PC, the first 5-10 minutes (and every 15 minutes or so thereafter it does this again) are spent waiting for my PC to connect to the internet, not sure why, but there seems to be some sort of software issue happening because I have seen certain applications work, and certain ones don't, but it's never specific apps, i.e. Chrome works, but Steam doesn't, etc.. I thought it was something with the firewall, but I have yet to find a culprit in the firewall settings. I also have 2 HDD's I usually use for work and mass storage for my Steam library, and those have slowly started disappearing from my PC as well. It started with my 1tb drive, one day it was just gone in Windows when I booted, and soon thereafter it showed back up working fine, only for it to disappear along with the 4tb drive. They have stopped showing up in both Windows and my BIOS, so I'm not entirely certain what's happening there.

So those are my two big issues currently.

Troubleshooting steps already taken:

So at first, I thought it might be a bad cable to my router, so I replaced that. Then I thought it was my aging motherboard, so I replaced my mobo, memory, and even added my buds old 6700K that has been lying around for a few years and reinstalled Windows, then I reinstalled it again on a different SSD. The problem still persists, no matter how many times I reformat my SSD's, I haven't reformatted my HDD's because I don't really have a backup for them just yet, so that will be my next step once I acquire some more HDD's, but I don't think that will fix anything anyway. I have also updated my router, modem, etc.

I do plan on upgrading my aging rig soon, I just haven't had the time to do it.

I think I've included enough information, if anyone knows what might be happening, or have an idea of where I should turn to, please let me know, and thank you in advance!

Budget DIY · February 2, 2023

For the internet (by the sounds of it, it's wired, not wifi), I would suggest disabling the firewall on the PC, and factory reset the modem. Maybe even switch some of the cables, to make sure it's not physical-port related. Because you've reinstalled windows (with ALL of the drivers?) already from scratch (!), I don't think the issue is there.

For your HDD's... They might be dead. Not showing up in BIOS, is a crazy red, red flag. If the HDD issue remained after a mobo change, I consider it "having tryed to use it in a different pc", and thus broken. You could still try to get it working in an actual other PC. If they for some reason do pop-up in BIOS, and if you do manage to get them to work, use some software to check s.m.a.r.t. status/health. (there are many different tools for that out there, most of them are free)

Unless you've confirmed the disks are still healthy and functional in a different PC, I recommend disconnecting them from power, to prevent more wear/tear, untill you'd be able to really test those disks and be able to make full back-ups on the spot.

turnturn1225 · February 2, 2023

31 minutes ago, Budget DIY said:

For the internet (by the sounds of it, it's wired, not wifi), I would suggest disabling the firewall on the PC, and factory reset the modem. Maybe even switch some of the cables, to make sure it's not physical-port related. Because you've reinstalled windows (with ALL of the drivers?) already from scratch (!), I don't think the issue is there.

For your HDD's... They might be dead. Not showing up in BIOS, is a crazy red, red flag. If the HDD issue remained after a mobo change, I consider it "having tryed to use it in a different pc", and thus broken. You could still try to get it working in an actual other PC. If they for some reason do pop-up in BIOS, and if you do manage to get them to work, use some software to check s.m.a.r.t. status/health. (there are many different tools for that out there, most of them are free)

Unless you've confirmed the disks are still healthy and functional in a different PC, I recommend disconnecting them from power, to prevent more wear/tear, untill you'd be able to really test those disks and be able to make full back-ups on the spot.

Ok, just tried disabling the Firewall, that didn't seem to do anything. I'll have to factory reset the modem when I get home, and as for the cables, I've switched them before and haven't had any change unfortunately. I haven't tried using the HDD's in another machine, I'll try that later as well. Thank you for all the information!!!