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this will be my last hd of that make. its been causing far too much trouble and i havent had it that long. my pc is still screwing up but since that drive is the slave its not as bad as it was. it'll just freeze for some reason. im going to run a few of the progs on the ubcd and see what it says. all the test so far have come up with no errors or problems, but i am having problems. anyway ill try for a little longer and get it fixed or ill throw it away if it wont stop hanging.

thanx again-
mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13023

do not be to quick to blame the hd.

as you might have seen in my post that i fixed my computer.

there is a driver from sound blaster live cards that will cause trouble with it needing rebooting after about 2 hours.

and the locking up sounds like heat troubles open your case though and look at the mother boad if you need to remove the power supply in order to see the whole boad then do so.

but check all the tops of the caps. the silver things with what look like x's on them. if one is looking like it is a fat balloon about ready to pop then your haveing trouble because of that. plus what ever made that have trouble.

and if one looks like it was blown open and you see the black insides then that is one that is dead and you might as well buy a new mb.


if all that is done and everything looks fine then it has to be one of the heat things.

check the cpu fan. check the case and the powersupply fans make sure you have all air holes covered or blocked off on the sides and top and bottom of case, you only want air coming in from front and going out the rear or top rear.

if you have an amd cpu then get the software cooler for it from majorgeeks.com that is called "vcooler" and set that up it will keep that cooler for you.

also besides the heat it seems like you might need new drivers for your computer go to drivers.com and join that site it is free then do a search for all the stuff on your computer. sound card, video card, net cam, usb ports and hubs, scanner, mouse, joy stick, keyboard, bios (if known) , monitor, printers, fax, modem network card, ata card, all the stuff you think is updated by going to update site at windows but is not.

they only have updates if the companys send them to microsoft.

the ones at drivers.com might be updated ones for you or might just be the same you have, either way you will be getting a fresh install of the drivers. and most have url's to the manufacture's site.

if you have a keyboard with the letters on a sticker or stamped in plastic of "C E " that is the Chicony Electronics company. their at www.chicony.com and have all their drivers up to date. you will need the model number from the keyboad to find it though.

do all the updating you can and system cooling. then see if that still messes up. then there is nothing else but the hd. or ram. ram will stick and lock when it is hot also. or when it is in heavy use by files that are not being used.

go to analogx.com and get his maxmem ram clearing program it is small c++ program and works on all windows os's. that might help also.

that is what i would do before comdeming the hd.



Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13026

thanx for the info RC. i started memtest this afternoon. well i got home and it was still going (9 hrs). im not sure how it works but it kept running the tests over and over. anyway, im gonna run it again when i go to bed and let it finish. i stopped it because there were some things that i needed to get done on here tonight. guess how many errors it was showing? think to yourself and make a wild guess. the tally upon termination of the program was : pass "23"-------errors "28,298". i dont know anything about memtest but that surely cant be good. im gonna check the mobo now like you said. but for some reason it only hangs on that hd (which is now a slave). i copied a couple of programs to that drive to install to see how it would act. the hour glass came up and the led light on the tower came on like it was doing something but it stayed like that. for like 5 minutes and then it would stop and the then the info for the software i was installing would come up like it was supposed to

beats me--

mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13040

mobo looks good.

mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13041

I would definatly say it's the ram! I ran a memtest before and it was 0 all the way. I never actually ran it on this PC though, something I'd have to try for fun. Fortunatly I've never had problems with ram, or any hardware now that I think of it. The problems I did have were related to something that could have been prevented. (heat etc) but some problems happen for no reason sometimes.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13046

i ran it again when i went last night and the final total came to:

pass- 1
errors- 38,698

i also ran the maxtor utility and it said the drive was bad, giving me the error code MDTS57, and it said to contact Maxtor.com. so i guess the drive was made by maxtor instead of WD. i went back to the oder site and in bold it said it was a WD but in small print it said it could also be a maxtor drive. i guess that flip a coin to see which drive they send you. so im contacting them to see what they say.

about the heat. i had one of the sides off of the tower. after reading RC's last post i put the side back up. i ran sandra '04 and got a mainboard heat warning @54 C. so i took the side back off and it went back to 49 C. like it had been. i guess i should remove ram stick s and keep running memtest to see which stick it is? i never got like a summery from the program, just that i had a heck of alot of errors. could some of that be due to the hd being bad and reading the cachable memory of that drive? (that may be incorrect or not make logical scense--ive been trying to read up on this ) ill continue to run memtest and await a reply from maxtor. i may just have to take it to someone and let them work on it. until then i will keep .

l8r-
mm

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13050

Wow 50C sounds quite high for a motherboard temp. Mine is usually at 25 and peaks at 30. But definatly the ram is bad, either the drive is too (coincidence) or that the bad ram is making it not working properly.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13051

ok ok ok

here is one thing you might try.

first though the heat going up with the side on is an inducation of bad air flow through the tower. (not enough intake and exhaust fans) or gray cables blocking air flow. 50C is hot. get the vcooler from majorgeeks.com if you have an amd processor. if you have an pent processor it should not be that hot either so get the cpu cooler that is for the pentiums.

yes the cpu cooler will keep the mb cooler also as it will keep the cpu from transmitting more heat in to the mother board.

ok you ran the memtest in dos.?

now there is one memtest that is just being made availble from ms. i cant remeber the link. but go to

http://www.techtv.com/thescreensavers

and look for the free file of the day link or shara's download picks you want to find the ones from the archives there is one in there from some time in october that is for the memory tests. it is from ms. called memory dinogstic you need to put that on a floppy and boot up with that in it will automaticly check all mem for your system and make sure it is good including ram.

if that program says error then there is bad ram.


Now you can find that Cdrom of windows 98 or 98 se on it. boot up the computer.

stick in the cdrom DONT INSTALL ANYTHING FROM IT. just want to browse it and look for the scandisk exe on it.

now when you find it you run the scandisk from the cdrom.

booting up from the start up floppy for win98 is better it should have scandisk on it as it is used to check before it installs windows 98.

try to scandisk that slave drive and do a full surface scan it will show you how many bad sectors if any is on the hard drive..

if the scandisk on the cdrom can not scan it then you will get messages saying so.
something like ( there are too many bad sectors on the hd to scan).

if you have winXp you need to do a run check disk at next boot just go to the my computer area and click on the properties for the drive you have trouble with and then click on the tools menu and then on the run scandisk. that will tell you it cant run scandisk as it does not work on the ntsf file format. and it will need to run checkdisk when it reboots and give you and ok button to click click ok and it will do the check disk on that slave drive.

you then will find out for sure if there is any bad sectors on it or not. if there is then it is dead.

but just because you ran the maxtor checking program on that drive does not mean it is a maxtor drive. i have that same boot up cdrom and it let me run maxtor on the seagate drive and wd's program on the maxtor drive.

you need to find out what drive you really have in there. go to the my computer icon on the desktop and right click that then choose properties in the menu

now click on the tabs until you see the device manager , in win xp it will be a button called device manager in win9x it will be a tab called device manager.

now you want to look for the hard drives it lists in your system click on each one you find and then click on the properties button on the bottom of the device manager panel (after you selected the drive to check) then it should tell you the manufactures name.

when you know what it is then you click on the cancel buttons to get back out of the device manager panels.

now you stick that boot up cdrom in again and reboot and run the program for that drives manufacture and make sure you pick the slave drive to tell it to check.

if you get all them bad errors on that check after you know the drives manufacture then it is either bad if it is any other manufacture other then maxtor.

if it is a maxter drive then there might just be the trouble with the drive overlay in meaning that you did not install the drive over lay maxtor supplyed with the drive.

get the cdrom and the floppy that came with the hd if it is maxtor and reinstall the maxter drivers and over lay follow the instructions on the floppy and cdrom books.

and dont forget to install maxtors EZ bios program. that is what they call the overlay. the overlays are sometimes needed with huge harddrives and always needed with windows 32 bit os's. like win9x and sometimes winxp was set up as a 32 bit format and not the ntsf format.. if scandisk ran on your xp then it is set up as 32 bit if it told you to run checkdisk on next boot up then it is ntsf format.


NOW IF ALL THE ABOVE WAS DONE AND ALL IS AS IT IS TO BE. then

there is one thing that might very well be the trouble.

WRONG SPEED ON THE RAM.

you might need to have pc512 if you have winxp you might also need to have pc133. some mother boards were made to use only pc100 and some where made to handle both pc 100 and 133. and some were made only to handle pc133

it is also possible you might have the wrong front side bus listed in the system config if you have a dell. as dell shipped some 2.34 cpu computers with ram for the 2.34 cpu but the cpu was really marked wrong and is a 2.35 cpu that messed me up with this dell. all my paper work was for the 2.34 and it was 2.35 so my new ram was the wrong speed when i got it.



you can also have a very old couple sticks of ram. meaning they were used in the shops computers they kept testing and the ram is fried. but most shops are able to track that ram just in all the different ram being used now it is kind of tricky to know what box the ram came from and they might have got the wrong sticks when they put them in.?



wow my brain is fried and i typed the message?

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13068

Mine's fried from reading it!

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13069

oh yeah wren sorry but i just edited it to add in more at the start of the message


Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13070

RC-
all i can say is thank you. i never expected to get that much info.

first off is the name of the hd: at device manager this is all the name i get : MDT MD450AA-00BAA0. (when i got the error code to contact Maxtor about, the code began with MDT and it failed that disk test)

Vcool: i installed and cant run it because it crashes every time. theres no fix at this time according to the documentation on their web page. current temps at this time according to Sandra '04--- board temp-22--cpu temp-33----power/aux temp--51.


i ran a different memtest that tests the ram or free memory (not in dos) and i had no errors. the memtest that had all of the errors was the on on the ubcd. ill get the one you were talking about and see what that does. but if it was memory that was the culprit, wouldnt it screw with both hds? ive had zero probles with my small hd.


i checked the ram and they are both 133 and ive had it for about 1 1/2 yrs with zero problems so they are correct.


im going to run scandisk and checkdisk now and will post back.


i recieved no software at all when i got this hd (the one screwing up). it was a drive in a white box and that was it. again, its my fault for going that route and getting it.

ill post back after the scan and chkdsk.

thanks again-

mm

should write caching be enabled on the disk? it is enabled but it said that a power outage or equipment failure would result in data loss or disk corruption. just a stupid question maybe.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13076

your welcome i try to help as much as i can and some times the info flows like a waterfall.



on the temps you posted though. that aux temp might just be the temp of the hard drive. or powersupply and that is fine there they will run hotter.

as for the vcool not running ? i am not sure what is causeing that it runs on mine?

might be just not because it is not needed as them temps are normal.

the ram is good that is great.

the mdt is a maxtor drive techknowledgie drive. so it failing the maxtor test is a major error.

you getting it in a plain white box was a mistake too they are either reconditioned ones or ones from the manufacture to the builders of computer systems,(and they have all the other books and tools and dont need them.)

i am saying that with this extra infor you said that it is a a major drive error might be in the smart system of the hard drive. go to maxtor.com and put in the number of the had and see if there are any known errors or needed updates for that drive or if they know that it is just a bad drive and needs replaced. a email to maxtor will be answered they are good about that.

but since it is working with the storage stuff just not the installing and other stuff and it massivley failed the test i am thinking the smart system is causing that error.

because i buy nothing other then maxtor or seagate hd's and i have no trouble here with my maxtors only the trouble with the large 80 gb one not being seen on the win98x but that was cause it needed extra hardware and was not the drives fault.

so contact maxtor and tell them the results of the maxtor test on that maxtor drive and they will beable to tell you just what to do with it as in make it a lamp or send it in for repairs or update it.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13084

If you have never done a bios update, I wouldn't recommend it. I think the risk is too great, but others may disagree.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13091

Yep it is a risk, unless you built the computer yourself, that way you know EXACTLY what's in there, but if it's like a compaq or something, you most likely don't have enough information on the motherboard model etc...

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13092

i always forget to log in

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13095

Does it always log you out or something? That seems to be a problem with IE users here. Not sure why. I have a "bad" habbit of using standard code around here.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13096

BY ALL MEANS LISTEN TO THE OTHERS AND if you want to listen me on this also then do.

DONT MESS WITH THE BIOS FLASHING YOU CAN REALLY SCREW THINGS UP.

i checked and in the other post i said update the bios (if known) the if known should have been typed as. (if you know what it is and how to do it)

sorry myfault i cut that one short on you.


so you took apart a gateway

i took apart a systmac one got only the hd left out of it

not getting scandisk to run is not your fault i said you would need to run the checkdisk if you had winxp.

so the new memory dignostic program found 4 errors. sounds like your ram is starting to go bad. could be dust though if you moved the ram sticks dust might have got under it. but more then likely its 4 errors in the ram.

some times good ram just goes on you.

no red it is not loging me out anymore been fine for the last 3 months on my end.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13097

No, I don't think you are paranoid. You gave them the serial number and model. Don't know why they need your credit card number to look up warranty info other than to verify date of sale. You might check your credit card statements for that.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13164

I agree with Wren they don't need it you can check the cc statment and tell them the date you bought it.


However I will go one step farther in saying.



yo dude their giving you the freaking run around.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13165

Yep, sometimes you just have to be persistent. I learned to keep copies of everything, receipts, rebate forms, the address of where it was sent to, even the barcode which you have to mail in for some things, scan it, print it. If that gets lost in the mail or the hdd goes you still have the info. It's what I call CYA!

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1527, old post ID:13167