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[H]ard Troubleshooting...

P

purg3d

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 1, 2006
Messages
133
1.33ghz Athlon T-bird
256MB Kingston ValueRAM
Epox 8kha Motherboard
Compaq 250w PSU

Was copying over some files between partitions within a HDD (40GB Maxtor). Error message galore, copy fails, data loss, bad sectors, ect.

Now slow startup, can't install windows via bootcd (random cannot read various files at points between "Extracting HAL" and prior to copying of windows files.)

Ran Memtest86+ and got 0 errors after 6+ passes. L1 cache transfers at 8156MB/sec, L2 transfers at 2499MB/sec and the memory transfers at 358MB/sec. In windows I get 190MB/sec.

CPU Stresstests come out fine after hours of use.

Replaced Components:
PC Chips M811LU Motherboard
Ultra X-connect 400w PSU
New HDD (Though I can't load an OS due to the above issues)

Same errors, same problems.

Here is a screenshot of CDSpeed.

I'm still leaning towards a memory issue (hence my other post in that forum). The components not replaced (CPU and RAM) are over 3 years old and have experienced extreme stress/possible overheating in the past.

Is my memory transfer rate a sign of a failing ram module? I would expect to atleast run memtest with 1/2 of it's maximum bandwidth. Could it be a bad CPU (There is a chip on the edge of the core)?

Temps dont exceed 55C under full load now, so it's not the northbridge (which is new).

Thanks.
 
I really wouldn't lean towards the memory if you received 0 errors under memtest. You said you have a new hard drive, did you replace the ide cable? It looks like a hd problem to me, but that could also entail the cable / ide port. BUT, since you just got a new motherboard the failed ide port doesn't sound right.

Is your hd and cdrom on the same ide channel?

 
There's a possibility that your cd drive has gone bad. A problem in a drive may cause the entire IDE subsystem to flake out. even on diferent channels. I've had a WD 4/3GB hard drive bring down my entire system once. My 160gb haccard drive access was slow, and I couldn't access my DVD drives that were on a different channel. Turned out to be some sort of conflict with the PIO mode of the WD, and the UDMA mode of the 160HD.

Ryan
 
KevinO said:
Is your hd and cdrom on the same ide channel?

Click to expand...

Yes it is, though I wouldn't think it would have anything to do with why I get random error messages installing windows... unless of course it writes the initial setup files to hdd, but I thought thoes items went directly to RAM.

I'll keep it simple-- run one cable to the cdrom and 1 to a hdd and then get back to you.

Thanks.

ryan_975 said:
There's a possibility that your cd drive has gone bad. A problem in a drive may cause the entire IDE subsystem to flake out. even on diferent channels. I've had a WD 4/3GB hard drive bring down my entire system once. My 160gb haccard drive access was slow, and I couldn't access my DVD drives that were on a different channel. Turned out to be some sort of conflict with the PIO mode of the WD, and the UDMA mode of the 160HD.

Ryan
Click to expand...

I'll try the hdd and cdrom on different channels to be sure. Would it be a good idea to disable PIO on the cdrom and UDMA on the hdd to see if anything changes?

I did swap out the cdrom w/ a cd-rw, but in my computer it wouldn't read cd-r's. I put it back in my brother's computer and it burned 2 coasters last night. Good 'ole technology.

Thanks
 
Make sure the master and slave settings are correct, OR that both are set on Cable Select (CS) if you keep them on the same channel. Normally they wouldn't be detected if they were both set to Master, but you never know.
 
purg3d said:
Yes it is, though I wouldn't think it would have anything to do with why I get random error messages installing windows... unless of course it writes the initial setup files to hdd, but I thought thoes items went directly to RAM.

I'll keep it simple-- run one cable to the cdrom and 1 to a hdd and then get back to you.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

No it shouldn't cause any problems being on the same channel. Just that if it was I would suggest swapping (like you are now) and see if the errors stay or not.

Good Luck!
 
I guess I was too concerned with the sustained rate transfer reading I was getting from the memory. Checking my brother's PC (1.1 celeron, sdram), I find that my memory is where it is supposed to be 119MB/sec (his) vs 190MB/sec (mine) courtesy of cpuinfo.

I also took the opportunity to put a cd-r in his cd-rw (the one that I swapped), and found that it wouldn't read. Ouch.

So it looks to be boiled down to a CD-ROM issue. I'll get a replacement and post my results.

Thanks guys :p
 
I would avoid having a CDROM and Hard Drive on the same Channel. In the past it has caused me problems.
 
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