"Disk read error has occurred", HDD or Motherboard?

[Kapaya]

Hello!

So, for a while this has been going on, and it's time to fix it. So basicly, sometimes when I start up my PC, I get past the Asus M4A78PRO Motherboard screen, the screen turns black and that "_" is flashing. Most of the times, it goes to the windows loading screen directly, but once in a while, it decided to go ape and give me the error message "Disk read error has occurred, press ctrl+alt+delete to restart". Now, to fix this sometimes a simple restart works just fine, but most of the times this happens I have to open my PC and actually change the port my HDD is connected to (1-6). After changeing the port it's connected to, the PC works wonders again, and all is fine. So I was wondering, what is it that does this? Is it:

A) HDD
B) Motherboard
C) Windows 7?

I've been looking around, but I cant seem to find a definite answer. I dont know if this will help but lately, my graphic drivers have not been working as they should be, sometimes my graphic drivers decide to reset by turning my screen black and then to normal again. At other times, the graphics basicly "breaks" and I have to restart my PC.


Cheers for any help!

[vesseblah]

Random boot problems are most likely caused by bad RAM or bad HDD. Start by doing the most complete HDD check with scandisc inside Windows, then download and run memtest from here -> http://www.memtest.org/
Also download SpeedFan and run the HDD S.M.A.R.T. test from there to see if there are any obvious signs of HDD problems.

If all of those pass without any problems, you could try doing clean install of Windows. If there are still problems remaining after format C: and full reinstall, most likely motherboard is failing.

[Robula]

If it is inconsistent then it's probably a HDD error. RAM problems don't generally produce "Disk Read Errors", not in my experience anyways, RAM tends to produce other errors or just restart your computer spontaneously. There's always the possibility that the ATA Controller on your MOBO is having problems.

Do double check that both the Power and SATA cable are properly attached, the connections aren't that great and can be a bit loose. If you get the chance, be sure to run a Windows Disk Check.
Windows Orb (Start) -> Type "cmd" into the box (without the quotes) -> In the black window type this without the quotes "chkdsk c: /f /r"
It will ask you to Restart, type "y" then press enter. Then restart your machine.

[vesseblah]

If it is inconsistent then it's probably a HDD error. RAM problems don't generally produce "Disk Read Errors", not in my experience anyways, RAM tends to produce other errors or just restart your computer spontaneously.

I guess you missed the other paragraph of OP where other errors and spontaneous restarts happen which is why RAM problem is very likely. Motherboard broken is 2nd best bet but it's easier to troubleshoot RAM and HDD first.