Computer crashes, doesn't display error and cannot find operating system

These last three days, after my computer has been on for 10-20 min it will crash. During the process of crashing, the screen will abruptly turn to black. The computer will then try to reboot; however cannot find the operating system and searches for it on the cd/dvd drive as a bootable disc. When I shutdown and restart the computer, it boots fine (asking to boot via safe mode though). I've been trying to figure out the source of errors and here were my steps:

1. Run memtest86 -> No errors
2. Run FurMark benchtest test twice (to see if it is a graphics card error and try inducing the crash) -> No errors (Scored a 2582)
3. Ran core temp logging before going to sleep so that it could log during a crash -> No temperature abnormalities (avg 31 -> 53 low high range is kept). There was a spike in core speeds by 500 in the last entry, but this happened earlier too. Speeds are kept at 1596.37 MHz normally but two spikes, one near the beginning and one near the end of the log file at 2095.24 MHz. I consider this low enough to be overlooked, but someone might disagree.

This leads me to believe that it might be a hard drive issue as after crashing, the operating system cannot be properly loaded; however:

4. Ran Seagate DOS test -> No errors were found

I am kind of stumped now. Previously I believed it was a power supply issue; however, given the fact that the operating system is not properly loading I believe there is another issue. Here are my current specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K (Sandy) Quad Core Processor
GPU: Sapphire 100312-3SR Radeon HD 6950, 2GB 2560bit GDDR5
RAM: Four 4 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
HDD: Two Crucial Solid State Hard Drive.
Boot: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 Data: Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2
Power Supply: Rosewill 80 plus Bronze Series - Series RBR1000-M

One last thing to note. I am unsure if this is an issue or not but, on the Boot hard drive it is nearly full with 4.69 GB free of 59.5 GB.

My last resort will be to re-install the whole computer; however, I'ld rather be sure that it is a software issue before doing this as I have a programming/development setup all ready and it's always a pain to re-install it.

 

Update: After the last crash, I ran seagate before restarting the computer. However, it could not even detect the hard drives... does this imply a motherboard issue?

 

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My initial thought without knowing more is that it may be a failing as opposed to a failed hard drive. Do you hear any unusual sounds such as a clicking or grating sound. If I am not mistaken (and I very well may be) seagate will detect disk errors on the plate but not actual physical problems with the drive itself.

Also you used the word drives (plural) do you have more than one HDD installed? Of course it may be any number of other things and I am not the most advanced person here so I am just asking a few questions to try to narrow this down.

 

Thank you for your quick reply. I have two drives currently installed, one for boot and one to hold data. They are both solid state so no sounds can be heard for failing. What worries me is that both drives disappear at the same time, and I would believe the probability of 2 solid state drives dying at the same time is low.

Boot Drive: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2
Data Drive: Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2

 

Hi Is your Bios recognizing the Drives.
I would be checking voltages.

 

Okay... you can all call me stupid if this turns out to have been the issue. I was rooting around my computer and saw that the 64gb hard drive's power cable was unplugged... not sure if I did it at that time or not but my current theory is that it was loose and would randomly disconnect/reconnect when the tower was bumped, causing the computer to go through this 'crash' thing. I checked the voltages and they're around 1.2 V (and on auto so I'd rather leave it). The Bios was recognizing my 256gb and not the 64gb, that's what led me to find the power cable being unplugged. I'll let the computer run for a day and post again later tonight/tomorrow to confirm/debunk this theory and, if confirm, mark the thread as solved. If it crashes again, I'm at a complete loss.

 

Well it turns out it's still something. Computer promptly crashed again while I was in class. After it's crashed, I open up the BIOS and none of the Hard Disks are visible in it. So something is dropping the SATA SSDs, causing the computer to crash and restart to nothing. I think it can be narrowed down to BIOS software or the motherboard.

 

Okay, I'm going to say it is solved for now. I ended up resetting bios settings to default, changing the settings for hard drives from IDE to AHCI and re-formatting and re-installing everything. So far nothing's crashed, but we'll see what happens over time.