hhd problems

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 5:01 pm

ive got a problem thats driving me crazy. after my pc has been on a while (1 1/2 - 2 hrs) it'll hang up. you can still move the cursor around but it shows the hourglass like its processing something. if i leave it like that it will eventually reboot. but in any case, whether it restarts or i restart it, when it reboots my hhd is missing. if i go from that reboot to setup, i cant get my hhd to show up. but, if i restart AGAIN, i can go into setup and find my hhd and save the settings. when it restarts SMART says everything is ok. after a hour or so the cycle continues. it was dong this a few days ago and i formatted and started over but that didnt solve my problem. i thought it might be a virus. its a 45 gig hhd WD white box oem. running on a 1400 athlon t-bird. also every now and then there is a slow clicking that seems to come from the hhd. it slow and in increments of 2 clicks. if i cant find the problem soon it will be in many peices due to a sledge hammer

anyone have any ideas? heres a little system info.

thanx-
mm

Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon-PECM, 1400 MHz (5.25 x 267)
Motherboard Name PCChips M830LR (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 AMR, 4 DIMM, Audio, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 735
System Memory 384 MB (SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (02/06/02)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS (32 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce2 GTS

Storage
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive MDT MD450AA-00BAA0
Optical Drive HP CD-Writer+ 9300 (10x/4x/24x CD-RW)
Optical Drive NEC CD-ROM DRIVE:28G

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 42931 MB (40572 MB free)

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12846

syb · Post by **syb** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 6:02 pm

I am thinking it's the hd. it could be a glitch in some software. sometimes they clash and screw each other up.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12847

Wren · Post by **Wren** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 7:50 pm

Could be the hdd. Just in case it is, you might want to back up anything you don't want to lose.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12850

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 7:50 pm

I think it's the HDD too, especially if you hear a sound, that pretty much gives it away, since you can still access it, backup everything on a different one (I recomend you go buy one and hook it up as slave) but start with the most important stuff, then maybe do an image copy but the reason I say to backup the most important is because an entire backup might or might not work, so at least get the important stuff backed up. Once that's done remove it and set the new one as master and see if you get the problem. If you do, then I'd guess it might be the motherboard or IDE controller or something. But I'm pretty sure it's the HDD.

By the way welcome to the forums.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12851

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:22 pm

thanx for the welcome. but i do hate that its under these circumstances that we meet

anyway, do you guys know any diagnostic progys that i could check it with? i tried the WD online diagnostic and it said everything was fine. this has got me puzzled. ive got a 10 gig that im gonna hook up to see if i have the same problems.

thanx-

mm

<---(that's one sick smilie

)

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12853

fishyfool · Post by **fishyfool** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:02 pm

the easy route to go would be hard drive, but...
i kind of wonder if you don't have some corrupt ram.
are you really running your system @5.25x267? or is it 10.5x133?
if it's 5.25x267 i'm surprised it even boots. thats waaaaaaaay out of spec.
start with the reboot, go to system properties tab to advanced, under startup and recovery click settings, under system failure uncheck automatically restart. click ok, then click apply.
now instead of a restart you'll get a BSOD. on the blue screen you'll see the exact cause of the failure.
when it does this, post back here with EXACTLY what is displayed.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12854

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 12:39 am

regarding the numbers- that info came from AIDA32 so i suppose thats right. im not even sure what that means though. im no pc whiz. i changed the auto-start though so ill post whenever it goes down again and i can see what it says. is there any way to change those #'s that you say are off?

thanks-
mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12856

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 4:18 am

well...........nevermind. its dead i think

i didnt ever get the bsod though. a dialog box popped up saying "unknown hard error". it did that a few times and then it wouldnt boot or anything. i put in the 10g and its running like new. marked down as a learning experience--the next one will be a quality drive with more than 90 days warrenty.

mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12857

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 9:35 am

Well glad you got it fixed, hopefully you did not loose too much data on the old drive.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12858

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 2:10 pm

about 30 gigs

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12863

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:04 pm

That's gotta suck! Hope you'll be able to get it back somehow. (download etc..)

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12866

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:48 pm

yeah it really does suck. is there any way that i could use it as a secondary device or do i just need to chunk it?

a little different subject: how does IRQ allocation work? there are several devices that have the same number. is that the norm?

mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12867

Wren · Post by **Wren** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:42 pm

I'm not familiar with IRQ settings but you might pick up some good info here.

http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin/perfo...ject=1036282433

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12869

fishyfool · Post by **fishyfool** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 7:44 pm

don't worry about irq's if you have xp or 2000, it assigns them as needed. you'll often see 5 or 6 or even 7 devices with one irq. (usually irq 9 or 11)
if you're running 9x then we can talk.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12878

fishyfool · Post by **fishyfool** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 7:47 pm

on your bad drive, it may still be usable as a slave or as a boot drive.
download the low leval format utility for your brand of drive and let it do it's thing.
it can fix quite a few things that windoze can't

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12879

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 8:47 pm

go to the ultimite boot cd site and get the copy of his iso there and then burn the iso on to a cdrom then stick the cdrom in the comptuer and reboot you will get lots of programs for checking the drives including one for wd drives.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12884

fishyfool · Post by **fishyfool** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 1:29 am

before i tell you how to change your multiplier, first go to http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002374/src/download.html
download and install wcpu31a.exe
it'll tell you far more than you want to know about your cpu.
run the program after installing, and find the box marked multiplier, and post what it says. i'm betting it's not 5.25. you or someone would have to know how to change the multiplier on the chip. red and company here at iceteks could do it no doubt, but you can't do it accidentally.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12893

fishyfool · Post by **fishyfool** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 1:35 am

here is a screen shot of cpuid running on mine.
as you can see, mine is mildly overclocked.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12894

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 9:27 am

fishyfool wrote: red and company here at iceteks could do it no doubt, but you can't do it accidentally.

Nope, not something you want to mess up on. Even with my not so good CPU cooling (my 6 fans are not enough I guess) I have still played with the multiplyer and such with no problems. The main rule of thumb is to go in the bios right after to check the temp, and not let it boot into windows so you can check your program - as it can be too late by then, if something is not right. I'm planing to remount my heat sink and clean it super well first in hope I get better cooling, my problem is not case cooling, but rather cpu contact with the heat sink.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12895

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 12:02 am

Fishy-
you were right on the multiplier. the AIDA32 progy is reading it wrong i guess. im going to have to do some reading up on having 2 hds. then ill attempt to add the fubar hd as a slave and see if i can correct whats wrong. i ran a seagate progy and it said on the surface test that something was wrong due possibly to restarting improperly. well i went through alot of that when it would restart and not recognize the hd. i had no choice but to restart incorrectly then. i dl'd the ubcd and will burn the disk tonight and see if it can help. ive got a long work day tomorrow so itll be tomorrow night before i get a chance to add the other hd. i really appreciate the help you guys have offered. the things ive learned about pc's have been strictly through trial and error and being on it alot. and i have a long way to go it seems before i will be truely knowledgable in the workings of these systems. so thanx for helping me stumble through this.

l8r-
mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12952

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 12:04 am

You might also want to check the article section for the hard drive article, might help you in installing it.

It's old enough so I don't remember the exact info I had in there but it's worth a check out.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12953

medicineman · Post by **medicineman** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 12:07 am

will this never end? now i keep getting the bsod. says there a problem with "Mup.sys" and then it says "page fault in non-paged area". then restart blah, blah, blah. this is what the other hd did when i finally just took it out (im on the 10 gig now). so maybe there's something thats screwing the hd up or the way it stores info. im gonna go get a smoke before i get my hammer out.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12954

fishyfool · Post by **fishyfool** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 2:55 am

i still think you may have some bad ram, or even maybe some heat issues.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12955

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 11:07 am

fdisk is for fixing the disk by formating it in dos and finding the amount of room you wish to make partitions on it for.

you will need to fdisk it if you want to get rid of all preivous data on the hd. and start with a clean slate.

you should find fisk if your in dos mode it is a dos command and if you have windows on the main drive it will be there. just WATCH WHAT DRIVE LETTER your going to Fdisk as it will wipe all data off the drive and you wont have windows if you pick the wrong drive. never fdisk drive c that is where windows is at.

once you get it fdisked you then reboot in to windows and go to the my computer area and you will see a drive icon for each partition you set up on that drive.

that means that windows is using one drive as multiple drives. so you will have to format each one and copy system files to them . all when you are signed in to windows (not in dos) Fdisk is only done in dos.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:12994

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 9:14 pm

glad to have helped you. and glad you got it taken care of.

yes the memtest is good to run.

and from time to time i would stick the boot up cdrom in the drive and boot up the computer so it will run. because more then likely it has a program on from the manufacture of your hard drive for scanning your hd. and that will really check it out for you.

FYI: for everyone

one thing i remember something about a WD hard drive? if you have one. then it depends on the price of them over here and the location of the place you bought it. as in good long time store or flyby night flea market type. in the latter of the two your going to pay less but it is a hd that was manufactured for overseas or out of the usa. and is not going to be supported by the usa support team. now if your over seas or in mexico or canada then you might get support.

but us in the usa when buying them cheap priced ones even from a good store are taking a chance with getting support. best to get number from box and call WD support and find out where it was to be sold at before you buy it.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13016