Computer freezes after exchanging harddisk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ge
  • Start date Start date
G

Ge

Recently I replaced my Seagate Barracuda SATA disk by a Western Digital
Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS disk. From that moment my system freezes sometimes.
Most of the times it happens during boot. Sometimes I have to boot 5 or
more times. The system is dual-boot Linux (Ubuntu 7.04)
and Windows (XP Pro SP2). Both are affected.

I installed the disk in an old computer and ran HDDTune tests (surface
scan took 11 hours). Everything was OK. I ran the SMART tests. Everything
was OK. Everytime the system was frozen, the SMART UDMA_CRC_Error_Count
has increased.

I tried another port on the onboard SATA controller, tried another cable.
Problem is still there.

Any ideas what could be wrong here? How can I find the cause of the
problems (without spending money on a new motherboard only to find out
that that was not the solution)?

Motherboard: Asus A8N SLI DeLuxe (S939, nForce4)
Processor: AMD Opteron 165 (dual core, 1.8GHz)
 
Ge said:
Recently I replaced my Seagate Barracuda SATA disk by a Western Digital
Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS disk. From that moment my system freezes sometimes.
Most of the times it happens during boot. Sometimes I have to boot 5 or
more times. The system is dual-boot Linux (Ubuntu 7.04)
and Windows (XP Pro SP2). Both are affected.

I installed the disk in an old computer and ran HDDTune tests (surface
scan took 11 hours). Everything was OK. I ran the SMART tests. Everything
was OK. Everytime the system was frozen, the SMART UDMA_CRC_Error_Count
has increased.

I tried another port on the onboard SATA controller, tried another cable.
Problem is still there.

Any ideas what could be wrong here? How can I find the cause of the
problems (without spending money on a new motherboard only to find out
that that was not the solution)?

Motherboard: Asus A8N SLI DeLuxe (S939, nForce4)
Processor: AMD Opteron 165 (dual core, 1.8GHz)
Click to expand...

I've experienced a very similar condition recently. The solution in my
case, was to disconnect a usb scanner that was connected via an USB 2.0
PCI card.

Although this may well not fit your situation, I would advise that you
simplify your system as much as possible and see if the problem
persists. Go down to just one stick of memory, onboard video (or a card
if you don't have anything onboard) and a single hard drive. If you
still have the problem, swap out the remaining components to see if you
can make it go away.

This most likely does not sound like an appealing proposition to you,
but the effort will be partly mitigated by the satisfaction of
definitively finding the conflict. <crosses fingers>
 
Op Wed, 16 May 2007 19:31:03 +0000, schreef Grinder:
I've experienced a very similar condition recently. The solution in my
case, was to disconnect a usb scanner that was connected via an USB 2.0
PCI card.

Although this may well not fit your situation, I would advise that you
simplify your system as much as possible and see if the problem
persists. Go down to just one stick of memory, onboard video (or a card
if you don't have anything onboard) and a single hard drive. If you
still have the problem, swap out the remaining components to see if you
can make it go away.

This most likely does not sound like an appealing proposition to you,
but the effort will be partly mitigated by the satisfaction of
definitively finding the conflict. <crosses fingers>
Click to expand...

The reseller has replaced the drive, but the new one is having the exact
same problem. I tried the disk in another computer, and it worked without
a problem. In the meantime I used an old disk in my own computer, and it
worked without a problem.
I removed part of the RAM, the SCSI controller, and unplugged the USB
cable attached to my monitor. There isn't much else to disconnect. It's
all onboard. In the BIOS I already have disabled unused parts, like the
RAID controller, serial and parallel ports, second NIC.
The problem is still there.

So it looks like there is a conflict between the disk and the motherboard
(or chipset). S939 boards are getting hard to find, so I might have to try
a new board + CPU + RAM. Unless someone knows another solution or tip.
 
Ge said:
Op Wed, 16 May 2007 19:31:03 +0000, schreef Grinder:


The reseller has replaced the drive, but the new one is having the exact
same problem. I tried the disk in another computer, and it worked without
a problem. In the meantime I used an old disk in my own computer, and it
worked without a problem.
I removed part of the RAM, the SCSI controller, and unplugged the USB
cable attached to my monitor. There isn't much else to disconnect. It's
all onboard. In the BIOS I already have disabled unused parts, like the
RAID controller, serial and parallel ports, second NIC.
The problem is still there.

So it looks like there is a conflict between the disk and the motherboard
(or chipset). S939 boards are getting hard to find, so I might have to try
a new board + CPU + RAM. Unless someone knows another solution or tip.
Click to expand...

I think the jumper setting options are on this page (WD5000AAKS).
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1409

Try moving the jumper to what is shown in the "Opt1" figure on the page.
That will change the drive to 150MB/sec from 300MB/sec. Maybe the interface
will work better at the slower rate.

When you did the media scan for 11 hours on the other computer, were you using
the same SATA cable as in the busted config ? Has the cable ever been
"kinked", bent, or pinched ? A SATA cable should not be bent or kinked, for
best error rate performance.

Paul
 
So it looks like there is a conflict between the disk and the motherboard
(or chipset). S939 boards are getting hard to find, so I might have to try
a new board + CPU + RAM. Unless someone knows another solution or tip.
Click to expand...

Well, I suggest don't lose more time, sell the disk and buy another
one with similar specs but from another vendor.

If the disk is error free, then you can sell it on ebay for a good
price.
 
Stefano said:
Well, I suggest don't lose more time, sell the disk and buy another
one with similar specs but from another vendor.

If the disk is error free, then you can sell it on ebay for a good
price.

--
Now working at http://www.newonlineshopping.net

Books, Clothing and Accessories, Computers,
Electronics, Gifts, Jewelry and Watches.
Click to expand...

Dicconnect and reconnect the data cable, or try another cable. Computer
will freeze if drive stops reading data.
Run manufacturers diagnostic on hard drive, if fails, send it back

Mike..
 
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