Random Lockups ,Data corruption ,please help

[darkane]

I am in disaster and in bad need for expert help I am usually never a
clueless as I am now
I get random lockups total freeze on windows 2000 SP4 followed by dat
corruption on restart

its a total freeze just like god damn win98 I ve never seen this befor

no error messages to study and investigate

important notices : when this happanes its like an immidiate respons
to a click or a key stroke
and during extensive hard disk activity

one time i was using microsoft Word , with many programs in backgroun
, I lost my registry and restored a backup
second time I opened a streaming movie on WMP through firefox I los
firefox document and restored a near backup
now I am at risk of data corruption any time

I am positive my RAM is flawless I tested it before thoroughly
I don't know if a sotfware windows error can cause this
CPU temperature never goes above 45 celesius
HDD SMART check doesn't complain from errors
chkdsk reports no errors
surface test not done yet
no sounds or clicks from the HDD

I suspect power supply its a cheap crap but my system demands fo
wattage won't even reach 250 thus it has always been happy
with it , I used an online calculator to get a rough estimate
I suspect that adding a secondary 6 gig HDD used as Page file partitio
and file sharing partition , has caused the PSU
to not keep up with the system demands at certain moments

Celeron D 2.1 G , ASUS P4S8X-MX
512 RAM hynix 1 stick
80 GB HDD hitachi SATA
6 GB HDD seagate
DVD writter LITEON

that's all I can think of , and thank you in advance
and to hell with NTFS with its fancy "journaling system" claimed t
keep your data safe
I ve never benefited from this NTFS **** only harder to restore tha
FAT3

 

[kony]

I am in disaster and in bad need for expert help I am usually never as
clueless as I am now
I get random lockups total freeze on windows 2000 SP4 followed by data
corruption on restart

Check the usual things - temps, voltages, vented capacitors
on the motherboard and (after unplugging it from AC for a
few minutes, in that "cheap crap" PSU. It's probably the
PSU, if you wanted somewhere to look first.

Is there data corruption every single time you restart, or
just "often" but not always?

its a total freeze just like god damn win98 I ve never seen this before

no error messages to study and investigate

important notices : when this happanes its like an immidiate response
to a click or a key stroke
and during extensive hard disk activity

one time i was using microsoft Word , with many programs in background
, I lost my registry and restored a backup
second time I opened a streaming movie on WMP through firefox I lost
firefox document and restored a near backup
now I am at risk of data corruption any time

I am positive my RAM is flawless I tested it before thoroughly

Before what? Random things can kill parts that formerly
worked fine, but I agree it is not so likely the memory as
something else.

I don't know if a sotfware windows error can cause this

It can, but it's a lot less likely on 2K or XP than on 9x.

CPU temperature never goes above 45 celesius
HDD SMART check doesn't complain from errors
chkdsk reports no errors
surface test not done yet
no sounds or clicks from the HDD

I suspect power supply its a cheap crap but my system demands for
wattage won't even reach 250 thus it has always been happy
with it , I used an online calculator to get a rough estimate
I suspect that adding a secondary 6 gig HDD used as Page file partition
and file sharing partition , has caused the PSU
to not keep up with the system demands at certain moments

Percentagewise, the added drive isn't much more of a load,
it could be coincidental that the PSU was progressively
failing and it just happens to coincide with a period after
you had added a drive.

What make and model PSU is it? What is it's 12V current
rating?

Celeron D 2.1 G , ASUS P4S8X-MX
512 RAM hynix 1 stick
80 GB HDD hitachi SATA
6 GB HDD seagate
DVD writter LITEON

that's all I can think of , and thank you in advance
and to hell with NTFS with its fancy "journaling system" claimed to
keep your data safe
I ve never benefited from this NTFS **** only harder to restore than
FAT32

You might try leaving the system sitting in the bios (health
monitor menu page if there is one) to watch the temps and
voltages, and see if it freezes when windows isn't running.
If you have a multimeter you might take voltage readings.

 

[ElJerid]

I am in disaster and in bad need for expert help I am usually never as
clueless as I am now
I get random lockups total freeze on windows 2000 SP4 followed by data
corruption on restart

its a total freeze just like god damn win98 I ve never seen this before

no error messages to study and investigate

important notices : when this happanes its like an immidiate response
to a click or a key stroke
and during extensive hard disk activity

one time i was using microsoft Word , with many programs in background
, I lost my registry and restored a backup
second time I opened a streaming movie on WMP through firefox I lost
firefox document and restored a near backup
now I am at risk of data corruption any time

I am positive my RAM is flawless I tested it before thoroughly
I don't know if a sotfware windows error can cause this
CPU temperature never goes above 45 celesius
HDD SMART check doesn't complain from errors
chkdsk reports no errors
surface test not done yet
no sounds or clicks from the HDD

I suspect power supply its a cheap crap but my system demands for
wattage won't even reach 250 thus it has always been happy
with it , I used an online calculator to get a rough estimate
I suspect that adding a secondary 6 gig HDD used as Page file partition
and file sharing partition , has caused the PSU
to not keep up with the system demands at certain moments

Celeron D 2.1 G , ASUS P4S8X-MX
512 RAM hynix 1 stick
80 GB HDD hitachi SATA
6 GB HDD seagate
DVD writter LITEON

that's all I can think of , and thank you in advance
and to hell with NTFS with its fancy "journaling system" claimed to
keep your data safe
I ve never benefited from this NTFS **** only harder to restore than
FAT32

You don't say clearly if the problem started after adding the second HDD. If
yes, is the disk configured correctly (as slave on the same cable, or as
master on the second cable)?

 

[darkane]

-

I am in disaster and in bad need for expert help I am usually never as
clueless as I am now
I get random lockups total freeze on windows 2000 SP4 followed by data
corruption on restart-


Check the usual things - temps, voltages, vented capacitors
on the motherboard and (after unplugging it from AC for a
few minutes, in that "cheap crap" PSU. It's probably the
PSU, if you wanted somewhere to look first.

thank you very much I am relevied to get your help
-temperatures seem ok
-voltages they ahave fluctuation but i dont know the acceptable limit
of fluctuation but mine are like - or + 0.05 or so
-capacitors all I know about inspecting them is they should be straigh
and with no liquid spots beneath them i ll do it until you confirm thi
is right
-will check PSU
I must add that I only started using this machine on 24/7 basis abou
only 2 months ago I never even suspend it anymore , file sharing yo
know

Is there data corruption every single time you restart, or
just "often" but not always?

data corruption happens each time right after the Random Lockup
i restart my machine and I discover the corruption in files that wer
open during the Freeze

its a total freeze just like god damn win98 I ve never seen thi
before

important notices : when this happens its like an immidiate response
to a click or a key stroke
and during extensive hard disk activity

one time i was using microsoft Word , with many programs in background
, I lost my registry and restored a backup
second time I opened a streaming movie on WMP through firefox I lost
firefox document and restored a near backup
now I am at risk of data corruption any time

I am positive my RAM is flawless I tested it before thoroughly

Before what? Random things can kill parts that formerly
worked fine, but I agree it is not so likely the memory as
something else.

last tested it few months ago when first bought but it was ver
thorough
what you said is right I just hope this is not the case

-
CPU temperature never goes above 45 celesius
HDD SMART check doesn't complain from errors
chkdsk reports no errors
surface test not done yet
no sounds or clicks from the HDD

I suspect power supply its a cheap crap but my system demands for
wattage won't even reach 250 thus it has always been happy
with it , I used an online calculator to get a rough estimate
I suspect that adding a secondary 6 gig HDD used as Page fil
partition
and file sharing partition , has caused the PSU
to not keep up with the system demands at certain moments-

Percentagewise, the added drive isn't much more of a load,
it could be coincidental that the PSU was progressively
failing and it just happens to coincide with a period after
you had added a drive.

What make and model PSU is it? What is it's 12V current
rating?

sounds pretty reasonable maybe especially with the recent usage o
24/7
ok a detailed report will follow up in minutes , maximum half an hour
thanks a lot kony totally appreciated

-
Celeron D 2.1 G , ASUS P4S8X-MX
512 RAM hynix 1 stick
80 GB HDD hitachi SATA
6 GB HDD seagate
DVD writter LITEON -


You might try leaving the system sitting in the bios (health
monitor menu page if there is one) to watch the temps and
voltages, and see if it freezes when windows isn't running.
If you have a multimeter you might take voltage readings.

strange but smart idea how about using my old win98 partition ? I us
it for recovery purposes and temporary down times and it can never
have the
same possible software issue , if it's hardware the problem will appea
agai

 

[darkane]

I did like you said 14 hours in BIOS no crash the readings of th
meters are as follows
fluctuations

core ::: 1.392 -- [1.4v]
3.3 ::: 3.184 -- [3.3v]
5 :::: 5.2 -- [5v]
12 ::: 11.892 -- [12v] --12.002 v
and temperature is maximum 49 cel for CPU , max 45 cel for motherboar

 

[Mike Huskey]

I am in disaster and in bad need for expert help I am usually never as
clueless as I am now
I get random lockups total freeze on windows 2000 SP4 followed by data
corruption on restart

This MAY help.
Found this on the Web, it solved my problems.

-------------------

New build had the same Write Delay Failed on my WD3200KS drives. Never an
issue with my two Raptors. I could constantly recreate the issue. I even
create the condition when reading heavily from the drive to write to another.

After 2 days of searching and ruling out everything that it wasn’t, running
diags and on memory and drives, I was down to it being the MS XP driver for
the drives.

Since my Raptor drives worked flawlessly, I ruled out XP settings and any
chipset bottlenecks or heat problems. I looked into the drive capabilities for
differences.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/...asp?language=en

The Raptor support NCQ, as do the 400GB and 500GB versions of the of WDXX00KS
line (i.e. only on high capacity or high perf drives). The 250GB and 320GB
versions do not. After determining that XP hides these drive settings under
the SATA controller settings, I found that Command Queuing is enabled by
default for these drives.

My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager
Expand +IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
Select -NVIDIA nForce 590/570/550 Serial ATA Controller
Right click and select properties

Under Primary Channel or Secondary Channel you will see Master Drive listed
with Transfer Mode (Serial ATA Generation 2-3G) and 4 checkboxes:
X – Let BIOS select transfer mode
X – Enable read caching
X – Enable write caching
X – Enable command queuing

UNSELECT the command queuing option for your drives that do not support NCQ
and reboot your computer.

Verify your settings after reboot and you should have no more problems.

Apparently when pushed hard, XP started to send queuing commands that the
drives don’t support and then the errors pop up.

If you have followed a few of the Microsoft recommendations and turned off
your system cache for these for these drives, I recommend undoing that. Isee
about 5-20% better performance with it on, depending on the transfer
situation.

Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> WDC WD3200KS-00PFB0
Right click – properties. Policies tab. Optimize for performance.

Reboot again and enjoy a properly working systems (assuming you’ve covered all
of the other gotchas with your new hardware).

 

[darkane]

-

I am in disaster and in bad need for expert help I am usually never as
clueless as I am now
I get random lockups total freeze on windows 2000 SP4 followed by data
corruption on restart-

This MAY help.
Found this on the Web, it solved my problems.

-------------------

New build had the same Write Delay Failed on my WD3200KS drives. Neve
an
issue with my two Raptors. I could constantly recreate the issue.
even
create the condition when reading heavily from the drive to write t
another.



http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/...asp?language=en


UNSELECT the command queuing option for your drives that do not suppor
NCQ
and reboot your computer.

Verify your settings after reboot and you should have no more problems

thank you mike very much
I am on win2000 SP4 and the HDD is hitachi diskstar 80GB sata 150
but the properties of the drive include only one box "enable writ
behind cache"
properties of the channel also doesn't have anything because actuall
the SIS sata channel controller gets recognized as "standard PCI IDE
but it works as SATA , I remember that SIS confirmed its ok for th
device manager to read it as PCI IDE i read about that when i firs
bought the drive
besides i ve heavy loaded the drives for long time without problems
I think that mistakenly thought I have a NCQ hard and a non NCQ har
disk
actually both are old and without NCQ
hitachi SATA1 only 80GB main drive
seagate 6GB page file drive
so what do you think ,and what is your opinion about the PSU ?
btw the link to western digital didn't work it includes ..... do
characters not accepted
thanks agai

 

[darkane]

Still in deep trouble i will try restoring an image of windows whic
should not have the bug so if it happens again i will know its hardwar
but i ll need your help again to determine it more accurately i hop
kony is still with u

 

[darkane]

Still in deep trouble i will try restoring an image of windows whic
should not have the bug so if it happens again i will know its hardwar
but i ll need your help again to determine it more accurately i hop
kony is still with us

i think i am clear now yet not sure what the problem was
i restored a windows backup to another partition and it worke
flawlessly when I brought it back to the right physical location
the problem showed up again , so I relocated the windows partition t
the position I knew to work well and its perfect now except ofcourse
had to deal with drive letter nightmares
thanks to everyon