Crazy HDD Problem?

  • Thread starter Thread starter R. Wink
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R. Wink

Help! I've got a MSI 815ET Pro M/B (MS-6337-200) running a 1 GHz PIII 370 socket processor with 3 sticks of 128 double sided
memory. Was running (2) Maxtor 91366U4 13.66GB ATA 7200 RPM drives, a CD and a CDRW. The box has a new 400 Watt P/s and a
new CMOS battery. It's one of 4 boxes that have been running 24/7 on a home wireless network using 2K Pro OS for over 6
months. I was using this box as a print driver for my plotter and laser printer and as a secondary files storage on.
Checked one morning and this box was having errors..something to the effect that some file or the other is inaccessible and
some programs were missing files. Ok, C:'s a bad drive, or so I thought. Changed D: to a Maxtor D740X-6L 20GB ATA 7200 RPM
drive, formatted it using FAT32 and used Ghost to make a copy of C:. Moved it over to C: and booted to Windows with no
change I could see..OK, must really be some bad sectors, so a clean install is in order. Reformatted C: using FAT32 and
installed 2K. Now C: will not boot at all, missing files such as "fastfat.dll" and other ".dll" files in the WINNT/SYSTEM
and WINNT/SYSTEM32 folders.
I've again formatted the original drive and the new drive with the problem seeming to get worse on each iteration. It's
almost as though something on the M/B is slowly going bad.
Would anyone care to venture a thought as to what is wrong?
R. Wink
 
R. Wink said:
Help! I've got a MSI 815ET Pro M/B (MS-6337-200) running a 1 GHz PIII 370 socket processor with 3 sticks of 128 double sided
memory. Was running (2) Maxtor 91366U4 13.66GB ATA 7200 RPM drives, a CD and a CDRW. The box has a new 400 Watt P/s and a
new CMOS battery. It's one of 4 boxes that have been running 24/7 on a home wireless network using 2K Pro OS for over 6
months. I was using this box as a print driver for my plotter and laser printer and as a secondary files storage on.
Checked one morning and this box was having errors..something to the effect that some file or the other is inaccessible and
some programs were missing files. Ok, C:'s a bad drive, or so I thought. Changed D: to a Maxtor D740X-6L 20GB ATA 7200 RPM
drive, formatted it using FAT32 and used Ghost to make a copy of C:. Moved it over to C: and booted to Windows with no
change I could see..OK, must really be some bad sectors, so a clean install is in order. Reformatted C: using FAT32 and
installed 2K. Now C: will not boot at all, missing files such as "fastfat.dll" and other ".dll" files in the WINNT/SYSTEM
and WINNT/SYSTEM32 folders.
I've again formatted the original drive and the new drive with the problem seeming to get worse on each iteration. It's
almost as though something on the M/B is slowly going bad.
Would anyone care to venture a thought as to what is wrong?
R. Wink
Click to expand...

Well, ghosting a drive with missing files to a new drive and discovering
the new drive also has missing files isn't a surprise: the missing files
aren't going to magically reappear during the ghost process.

The real question is why files are apparently 'missing' on newly formatted
drives after an fresh install.

I don't have a definitive answer but I do have a few questions. Has
anything changed?

You said the power supply is 'new'. How new? Did it start right after this
'new' power supply? Maybe it's not so great a PSU regardless of the numbers
printed on it.

Do a visual inside. Is it dirty? Clean it out. It could be overheating from
dirt and grime on fan inlets and the heatsink. And while we're at it, are
all the fans running? Reseat all the cards and memory.

Is the machine on a power strip, a surge protector, or a UPS? Those things
can all have problems too, believe it or not (I went almost insane on a
system with symptoms just like yours till I discovered it was noisy
connections in the 'heavy duty' power strip), so try removing them.

Check the large capacitors around the CPU socket and Vcore regulator area.
The silvery tops should be flat (although often 'grooved'. That's for
pressure relief: they bend upwards if over heated). Do any look like
they're 'bulged'? If so then they're bad and need to be replaced, or the
whole motherboard replaced.

Strip it down to the bare minimum to try an install: just video and one
hard drive. For example, I just pulled out a CD-RW that has some fault
causing random hangs on the IDE port, and I mean both of them. It causes
hard drive errors even though the CD-RW is on the second port. The point
is, faults in one place sometimes manifest themselves in obscure ways
somewhere else so get everything out whether it seems like it could be
related to 'the problem' or not.
 
Well, ghosting a drive with missing files to a new drive and discovering
the new drive also has missing files isn't a surprise: the missing files
aren't going to magically reappear during the ghost process.
Click to expand...
When I ran into the problem, it was missing only a couple of files. I shut the computer down shortly after running some
diagnosis and didn't turn it on until I replaced the HDD. A surface scan didn't reveal anything nor did the files appear to
be missing during a directory check.. They were just not being read.
The real question is why files are apparently 'missing' on newly formatted
drives after an fresh install.
Click to expand...
I don't have a definitive answer but I do have a few questions. Has
anything changed?
Click to expand...
Not that I'm aware of. The unit runs unattended in the garage office area and has for over six months.
You said the power supply is 'new'. How new? Did it start right after this
'new' power supply? Maybe it's not so great a PSU regardless of the numbers
printed on it.
Click to expand...
I put the unit in about 3 months ago.
Do a visual inside. Is it dirty? Clean it out. It could be overheating from
dirt and grime on fan inlets and the heatsink. And while we're at it, are
all the fans running? Reseat all the cards and memory.
Click to expand...
It's real clean inside. I have filters on the entrance air supply and it's in a semi-controlled air supply area. Yes all
the fans are running; have a ball bearing over the processor, a case fan and a P/S fan.
Is the machine on a power strip, a surge protector, or a UPS? Those things
can all have problems too, believe it or not (I went almost insane on a
system with symptoms just like yours till I discovered it was noisy
connections in the 'heavy duty' power strip), so try removing them.
Click to expand...
It's plugged directly into the wall socket on a 20 amp circuit with nothing else running.
Check the large capacitors around the CPU socket and Vcore regulator area.
The silvery tops should be flat (although often 'grooved'. That's for
pressure relief: they bend upwards if over heated). Do any look like
they're 'bulged'? If so then they're bad and need to be replaced, or the
whole motherboard replaced.
Click to expand...
All of them on the board are grooved. None look bulged, or discolored.
Strip it down to the bare minimum to try an install: just video and one
hard drive. For example, I just pulled out a CD-RW that has some fault
causing random hangs on the IDE port, and I mean both of them. It causes
hard drive errors even though the CD-RW is on the second port. The point
is, faults in one place sometimes manifest themselves in obscure ways
somewhere else so get everything out whether it seems like it could be
related to 'the problem' or not.
Click to expand...
I pulled one CD and the other HDD to do the install. I also polished the Windows CD in ensure readability. Only things in
the box was FDD, HDD, CD, video, the network card, 1 stick of 128 MGb memory, P/S of course, mouse and keyboard. Did finally
get the box to install and boot. Installed video drivers and rebooted. Reinstalled the other HDD and rebooted. Installed
the other CD and rebooted. Installed the network software, configured it and rebooted. Left it running, ate dinner and
tried to install (2K Pro) SP4. Got half way through and hung. Ctl-Alt-Del to bring up task manager and got plain blue
screen..explorer died off. Reset button and got "boot failure, insert boot disk" on POST attempt to read from the HHD.
Inserted CD and couldn't read the CD.
Might it be a heat related problem? HHD seems hotter than I expected.
R. Wink
 
R. Wink said:
When I ran into the problem, it was missing only a couple of files. I shut the computer down shortly after running some
diagnosis and didn't turn it on until I replaced the HDD. A surface scan didn't reveal anything nor did the files appear to
be missing during a directory check.. They were just not being read.



Not that I'm aware of. The unit runs unattended in the garage office area and has for over six months.



I put the unit in about 3 months ago.



It's real clean inside. I have filters on the entrance air supply and it's in a semi-controlled air supply area. Yes all
the fans are running; have a ball bearing over the processor, a case fan and a P/S fan.



It's plugged directly into the wall socket on a 20 amp circuit with nothing else running.



All of them on the board are grooved. None look bulged, or discolored.



I pulled one CD and the other HDD to do the install. I also polished the Windows CD in ensure readability. Only things in
the box was FDD, HDD, CD, video, the network card, 1 stick of 128 MGb memory, P/S of course, mouse and keyboard. Did finally
get the box to install and boot. Installed video drivers and rebooted. Reinstalled the other HDD and rebooted. Installed
the other CD and rebooted. Installed the network software, configured it and rebooted. Left it running, ate dinner and
tried to install (2K Pro) SP4. Got half way through and hung. Ctl-Alt-Del to bring up task manager and got plain blue
screen..explorer died off. Reset button and got "boot failure, insert boot disk" on POST attempt to read from the HHD.
Inserted CD and couldn't read the CD.
Might it be a heat related problem? HHD seems hotter than I expected.
R. Wink
Click to expand...

Sure, it could be heat. Could be the power supply too. The problem is,
almost anything can cause symptoms like that, including faulty memory.

I just finished working on a junker here that was acting very similar to
what you described and it turned out to be PC133 memory that didn't like
being run at 100. Tried 3 different CD drives, cables, XP CDs, and even an
alternate processor before I decided the "can't copy <file>" error wasn't
their fault.

You could also check the thermal compound on the CPU in case it dried or
migrated out. Swap IDE cables.
 
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