Power supply or IDE fault ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony
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T

Tony

I have recently experienced a hard drive problem. It started with icons
images being mixed up on screen then system (w2k) would not reboot.
The hard drive works but the diagnosis says it has about 100 different
partitions on it from NTFS to FAT16.
I have also discovered my DVD writer only occasionally writes to DVD (w.o.),
most times to CD and never to +RW DVD.
The system now has a new hard drive and seems faultless and stable apart
from the DVD writer which appears terminally damaged.
My question is do you thing I have/had an IDE hardware fault, a power supply
hardware fault, or a spike on the mains power ?

Thanks
Tony
 
My system used to do that very same thing. My desktop icons got all messed
up, the system sometimes froze, but mostly crashed upon ordinary stress.
Everytime I had to unplug it to restart. Turns out I was underpowered.

I doubt it was a spike or dying PSU. Out of the 3 options you give,
hardware fault. How olds it? What size PSU, in Watts do you run? I've got
a 350W in this P3 box and 450W in the P4 box. PSU's run 20-60USD, you could
rule that out, by swapping it.

Your DVD problems are most likely seperate from the HD problem and maybe a
result of a smudge/fingerprint on the disc in question and nothing more.
Try a cleaner disc in it?

Did you take a screenie of that diagnosis that said you had 100 different
partitions? Would love to see that! HA
 
Thanks for this Brad. System is/was six months old P4 3G.
PSU is 450.
The DVD writer is definately up the creek as I have tried all the new media
it usually runs and it worked faultlessly just before the 'event'. I'm
leaning towards a 'spike' as the DVD seems physically damaged and I am
having difficulty believing anything other than a spike could do such
damage. I'm not sure yet whether the hard disk is physically damaged as I'm
still trying to recover critical data off it.
Tony
 
I have recently experienced a hard drive problem. It started with icons
images being mixed up on screen then system (w2k) would not reboot.
The hard drive works but the diagnosis says it has about 100 different
partitions on it from NTFS to FAT16.
I have also discovered my DVD writer only occasionally writes to DVD (w.o.),
most times to CD and never to +RW DVD.
The system now has a new hard drive and seems faultless and stable apart
from the DVD writer which appears terminally damaged.
My question is do you thing I have/had an IDE hardware fault, a power supply
hardware fault, or a spike on the mains power ?

Thanks
Tony

Run Nero Info Tool,
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/
and see what it's Configuration Tab and ASPI tabs say.All drives
should be in DMA mode and ASPI should be installed.
HTH :)




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If that 450W PSU is the same one that may have caused the physical damage
I'd junk it for good.
Think WD has a free diagnostic to check for damage, if you have another PC
you could plug it in.
 
Shep© said:
On Wed, 11 May 2005 08:40:11 -0000 If I have seen farther it is
because I have stood on the shoulder of giants "Tony"
<Tony@ilovespam.com> wrote :
Run Nero Info Tool,
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/
and see what it's Configuration Tab and ASPI tabs say.All drives
should be in DMA mode and ASPI should be installed.
HTH :)


Thanks for this - thought you'd cracked it - had two aspi files
missing...made no difference...bo hoo
At least I know all about ASPI now though.
Tony
 
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