Hard drive problem

[Doughboy]

My PC's recently started locking up which seems to be hard-drive
related. The screen stay's OK and I can move the mouse cursor but all
the programs appear frozen (I did get a blue screen 'Kernel In-Page'
error today but that's the first time).

When I reboot, it freezes at POST after it detects and shows the DVD
drive. I can hear a hard-drive trying to spin up, but it never gets to
full speed and justs keeps trying. If I disconnect and reconnect the
power/data leads to the hard-drives (I've got two), the next time I
power-up it boots OK.

I've checked the SMART values of both drives, and no problems are
reported. It's not happening every 5 minutes, but at least once a day
for the last few days.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[old jon]

Download the drive test tools for your drive, create floppy disk. Boot with
floppy and physically test drive. This is if you think your drive is `on the
blink`.
best wishes..J

 

[kony]

My PC's recently started locking up which seems to be hard-drive
related. The screen stay's OK and I can move the mouse cursor but all
the programs appear frozen (I did get a blue screen 'Kernel In-Page'
error today but that's the first time).

Check Event Viewer.

When I reboot, it freezes at POST after it detects and shows the DVD
drive.

They're on same PATA channel? If so then unplug the DVD
temproarily, leaving only that (HDD) alone on the channel,
rejumpered if necessary (for example WD needs "single"
jumper setting for PATA versions).

I can hear a hard-drive trying to spin up, but it never gets to
full speed and justs keeps trying.

What power supply make/model? If it's questionable, take
voltage readings.

If I disconnect and reconnect the
power/data leads to the hard-drives (I've got two), the next time I
power-up it boots OK.

It's be a good idea to make a backup of the data on that
drive before doing anything more. Next, run the HDD
manufacturer's diagnostics on it.

I've checked the SMART values of both drives, and no problems are
reported. It's not happening every 5 minutes, but at least once a day
for the last few days.

Anyone got any ideas?

Also check the data and power cables, the contacts on them &
drive, and replace the data cable if you have a spare handy.

 

[Doughboy]

I checked the Event Viewer, and there's a fair few Errors relating to
the HDD's such as "The driver detected a controller error on
\Device\Harddisk1\D" which correspond to the times when the PC threw a
wobbly.

The two HDD's are on the Primary Channel and the DVD's Master on the
Secondary Channel.

PSU is a Tsunami A350ATX. I have replaced the fan on it, which
involved some rewiring, so it could be the leads are a bit dodgy.
Having said that, it's been at least a year since I did that, and this
problem's only just started.

I've run the (Seagate) HDD diagnostics, and it reports both drives are
fine so I suspect it's the PSU. It's been OK since I posted the
original message, but I'm gonna have to check it over thouroughly.

Thanks for all your suggestions guys.

 

[kony]

I checked the Event Viewer, and there's a fair few Errors relating to
the HDD's such as "The driver detected a controller error on
\Device\Harddisk1\D" which correspond to the times when the PC threw a
wobbly.

The two HDD's are on the Primary Channel and the DVD's Master on the
Secondary Channel.

You might temporarily disconnect all but the drive holding
the OS partition... and rejumpering that drive if necessary
for that configuration. Also check it's power plug, cable
contacts to it and the motherboard. Swap in a different
cable if problem persists. Controller errors tend to be a
physical problem, though that may not rule out the drive
itself.

PSU is a Tsunami A350ATX. I have replaced the fan on it, which
involved some rewiring, so it could be the leads are a bit dodgy.
Having said that, it's been at least a year since I did that, and this
problem's only just started.

If you only twisted the wires together, they may indeed
become intermittent after a period of time. Personally I
always solder and heatshrink wires because I consider it the
only really reliable method- and it's a failure point that
can cause several cascaded failures with a power supply of
questionable quality. Take voltage readings, with a
multimeter if possible. Your PSU may only be worth 200
"real" watts, relative to decent/accurately-rated brands.

I've run the (Seagate) HDD diagnostics, and it reports both drives are
fine so I suspect it's the PSU. It's been OK since I posted the
original message, but I'm gonna have to check it over thouroughly.

Thanks for all your suggestions guys.

If the system is working fine otherwise, and if your
voltages (both 5V & 12V) are similar, ie- not one a little
high and the other a little low (little meaning 0.3V or more
per each) then I'd sooner suspect something else besides the
power supply itself- unless the problem only occurs during
heavy load to the rest of the system, something particularly
CPU or video intensive.

 

[thefriend]

The spinning sound may indicate your heads on drive is going,
Diagnostics are genearly no good so that saying the drive is ok may mean
nothing.
Before though you go out and buy a new drive, I would advise backing up
your data and reformating the drive and putting software back on.

 

[Doughboy]

If you only twisted the wires together, they may indeed
become intermittent after a period of time. Personally I
always solder and heatshrink wires because I consider it the
only really reliable method- and it's a failure point that
can cause several cascaded failures with a power supply of
questionable quality. Take voltage readings, with a
multimeter if possible. Your PSU may only be worth 200
"real" watts, relative to decent/accurately-rated brands.

I did solder the wires, but didn't heatshrink. Instead I've just
wrapped tape round the joints to protect them, but I really should
redo it properly I guess.

I have added a USB 2.0 PCI card recently, but I wouldn't have thought
that would be enough to push the PSU over the edge, particularly as my
system's not exactly 'high-powered'. Having said that, I have had to
disable one of the USB Universal Host Controllers on this card because
it was on the same IRQ as my Graphics card, and was causing IRQL blue
screens. I've disabled the on-board USB 1.0 ports and I'm only running
my mouse via USB at the moment, so it's not having to provide much
power (if any).

If the system is working fine otherwise, and if your
voltages (both 5V & 12V) are similar, ie- not one a little
high and the other a little low (little meaning 0.3V or more
per each) then I'd sooner suspect something else besides the
power supply itself- unless the problem only occurs during
heavy load to the rest of the system, something particularly
CPU or video intensive.

Doesn't seem to be related to heavy usage. Often I leave it
downloading overnight, and it's locked up and won't reboot when I
check it in the morning. Whereas I can play games without it locking
up (touch wood!).

I'll have to test the PSU and tidy up the wiring first and if it's
still locking up, try stripping out the non-vital components and
adding them back one at a time.

 

[Doughboy]

The spinning sound may indicate your heads on drive is going,
Diagnostics are genearly no good so that saying the drive is ok may mean
nothing.
Before though you go out and buy a new drive, I would advise backing up
your data and reformating the drive and putting software back on.

I can see a reason to backup my data whatever I do, but how is
reformatting meant to help if the heads are going?

 

[kony]

I did solder the wires, but didn't heatshrink. Instead I've just
wrapped tape round the joints to protect them, but I really should
redo it properly I guess.

If the tape is still wrapped, another fix is to use some
liquid-skin types of insulators or just put a couple nylon
wire-ties around the tape (or both) to be sure it doesn't
unwrap over time. I still prefer the heatshrink but since
you'd have to cut and strip, resolder it all to do that, it
might be something to keep in mind for "next time",
providing you're comfortable with the current state of the
wiring.

I have added a USB 2.0 PCI card recently, but I wouldn't have thought
that would be enough to push the PSU over the edge, particularly as my
system's not exactly 'high-powered'.

No it should've be using that much power, but if the system
were barely cutting it, that could make things slightly
worse.

Having said that, I have had to
disable one of the USB Universal Host Controllers on this card because
it was on the same IRQ as my Graphics card, and was causing IRQL blue
screens. I've disabled the on-board USB 1.0 ports and I'm only running
my mouse via USB at the moment, so it's not having to provide much
power (if any).

Not a bad plan, I always disable anything I'm sure wouldn't
be used.

Doesn't seem to be related to heavy usage. Often I leave it
downloading overnight, and it's locked up and won't reboot when I
check it in the morning. Whereas I can play games without it locking
up (touch wood!).

Maybe a bad driver, won't respond to power management
wakeup... try disabling power management (or set to time,
intervals long enough that it doesn't put anything to sleep)
and see if that helps.

 

[Doughboy]

If the tape is still wrapped, another fix is to use some
liquid-skin types of insulators or just put a couple nylon
wire-ties around the tape (or both) to be sure it doesn't
unwrap over time. I still prefer the heatshrink but since
you'd have to cut and strip, resolder it all to do that, it
might be something to keep in mind for "next time",
providing you're comfortable with the current state of the
wiring.

Nice tips. I'll use them to secure the tape.

Maybe a bad driver, won't respond to power management
wakeup... try disabling power management (or set to time,
intervals long enough that it doesn't put anything to sleep)
and see if that helps.

When I first read this, I remembered that I'd had trouble in the past
with power saving (some component or other not compatible) but to be
honest, that may have been my last PC! Besides, if this was the
problem, I don't think the PC would have trouble cold booting. The
only relevant option I have enabled is 'Enable APM support', so if the
problem re-occurs, I'll disable that and see if it helps (at least
with the PC locking up overnight). Would I need to disable any PM
settings in the BIOS, or does XP override them?

I'm glad to say (touch wood) that the PC has been behaving itself for
the last couple of days, albeit with the side of the case off, so I'll
sort out the wiring and put it back together and see what happens.

 

[kony]

When I first read this, I remembered that I'd had trouble in the past
with power saving (some component or other not compatible) but to be
honest, that may have been my last PC! Besides, if this was the
problem, I don't think the PC would have trouble cold booting. The
only relevant option I have enabled is 'Enable APM support', so if the
problem re-occurs, I'll disable that and see if it helps (at least
with the PC locking up overnight). Would I need to disable any PM
settings in the BIOS, or does XP override them?

The system should keep the same (APM or ACPI) bios setting
it had when you installed windows. As for the monitor,
drives, etc, settings- disable those and use Windows'
settings as needed.

I'm glad to say (touch wood) that the PC has been behaving itself for
the last couple of days, albeit with the side of the case off, so I'll
sort out the wiring and put it back together and see what happens.

That would tend to suggest overheating, or less commonly on
cheap cases, the case is a little warped and some electrical
contact isnt' good, but securing the cover back on restores
the case to a truer shape.