This is probably the wrong place to ask these questions.. but I am desperate, delete or move the post if anyone wants.

Yesterday I accidentally pushed the sleep button instead of turn off when I wanted my computer to be silent. I got it back from sleep and turned it off regularly.

Today I turn it on, the bios is reset and it can't find any IDE drives at all. I am using 3 SATA HD's which I have never had a problem with. My dvd drive is dead too. It's just counting RAM now over and over and telling that I have no mouse, no hard drive.. etc. all I have is a keyboard and a screen.

So... this sleep button is.. kill your computer button or something ? It's the first time I accidentally pushed it. Or is there something easy I could do to restore them ?

I hate microsoft so much right now, thank god I have mac next to it where I can ask for help like this...

i put my computer into hybernating mode all the tiime with no problem mabey it is a isolated inncident hope you can resolve your problem

Technically the sleep button shouldn't of done anything

Have you tried to look at the settings in your BIOS?

Vepl

The first thing I would suggest doing [ if you can ] is a system restore,and see if thast fixes the problem.

Depending on the outcome,Ill look for another suggestion .

I need to know what Windows programme you are using ,if it isnt XP, please as well.

It's not a windows problem though, it's a BIOS one

noixiata, can you press delete to get into the bios?

to all : thank you for your ninja-quick response ! I even used to work with computers, I had no idea this could do such things. After reading up on what sleep mode does, it sounds like a peril for the machines.
It is supposed to save power so it does strange things to the voltage values to accomplish this.

kingtony : one of the IDE drives survived, the one with UO 2d on luckily Isolated seems to be a relative term, but you seem to be right.

Vepl : The bios is reset after the sleep button affair, and refuses to detect any IDE unit, not HD, not DVD and no floppy.

tabbitha : Windows is actually fine it seems, it just doesn't get to the point where it starts windows. If I move the working HD to another machine, it boots with pleasure. It counts RAM and talks about a PS/2 mouse which I never used. And it is XP yes.

Adam : yes, I can go to the bios menu. I do know a little about computers, just not enough it appears I am quite familiar with building them. So far it seems that the motherboard might be damaged from the sleep. But I'm not sure

Is this a laptop or desktop?

Whats the age/date of the bios and Motherboard.

Maybe your sleep put too much drain on an older battery and it's been slicked.

If you can replace the mobo battery?

Also check on the mobo for a jumper that will allow you total to reconfig its settings.

Before you try all that, turn it off.
Unplug the power cord, from wall first, then the PowerSupply unit, let sit 3-5 mins.
Plug it all back in, and try.

If conditions remain, then I'd see about Mobo battery replacement.

If Drive data is intact, then I'm going to point fault at Mobo layer, and a cheap 5 dollar battery is a good place to start.

If the mobo is too old and contains a "dallas" capacitor type battery module, then your stuck for new mobo of about 100 bucks.

Let us know how it turns out.

Good Luck,

Thanks mate

good luck i asked one of the techies over here at my job so he seemed a litle curious if he has anything knowledgble to say i will post it here

Thank you very much Kingtony, I did the same at work, and they actually fixed it. The machine restored itself properly and for now it is working, but they do indeed claim it is an unstable motherboard, although they have no evidence. The "crisis" is over and I can return to my schedule.

Again thank you so much guys! This is twice the response I got at a sucky tech forum which shall go unnamed..