Strange hard drive problem

Tygur · 06-26-2002, 02:17 AM

Here's the problem: All my apps would suddenly start freezing up all of a sudden one by one. It seems that they're freezing up when they try to access the hard drive. The hard drive led either remains constantly on or constantly off (not blinking). I am forced to push the reset button, because shutting down doesn't work. Then when the computer tries to restart, it doesn't detect either hard drive on the primary ide controller. So I open the computer and poke around (literally). I just make sure everything's plugged in all the way. It is, just like it was last time the problem came up. But when I close the computer back up and turn it on, it starts up like nothing was wrong (the hard drives are detected now). I've tried just shutting it off and turning it back on, but it seems that it doesn't work again uless I reach in and poke my finger around. I suppose it's possible that it just needs to be off for as long as it takes for me to open it and close it.

This did happen in the past, but it only happened maybe once or twice in the past couple months. Now it happened several times today, so I'm ready to start replacing hardware. But I don't know what to blame.

This might be heat-related, because it has been very hot here lately, and the computer isn't in an air-conditioned room. Also, I tried changing the IDE cable, but it didn't fix anything.

I'm thinking about blaming the power supply. Does that sound right? Also, what else can it be?

Bob The Great · 06-26-2002, 02:40 AM

Hmmm... Do you do a lot of hard drive switching? Like do you often change your configuration, add, or remove drives? If so it might be a strange problem that I have run into where the bios actually seems to get confused and start putting in ghost drives. Drives that have been their before or not put anything in at all. I fixed that by reseting my bios. Before you do that though I'd look for another suggestion as most people have tweaked their bios up a bit.

What type of HD do you have? Also what is your mobo brand/model?

You say that apps freeze. That means you were actually in your OS? Then you rebooted, poked around and found your computer not to register them at all, and then rebooted it and it worked fine. Did it register any other drives i.e. cd-rom? If so that says HD. If not that says to look elsewhere.

Tygur · 06-26-2002, 02:54 AM

I don't do a lot of hard drive switching. The two hard drives in there right now have been there for months. They are both Western Digitals. One is 40GB, the other is 80GB.
The Mobo is an FIC AD11.

Quote:

Originally posted by Bob The Great
You say that apps freeze. That means you were actually in your OS? Then you rebooted, poked around and found your computer not to register them at all, and then rebooted it and it worked fine. Did it register any other drives i.e. cd-rom? If so that says HD. If not that says to look elsewhere.

I was in the OS (WinXP Pro), using it like normal. Then the apps start freezing up and I can't shutdown, because windows freezes up if I try. So I hit the reset button. Then I'm looking at the POST screen you get when you turn the computer on. Instead of listing the hard drives I have, it says None for both of them. So I shut it off, open it up, poke around (not really changing anything), close it up, then turn it on. Then it works fine. If I just shut it off and turn it on (after waiting a couple seconds, of course), it doesn't work.

Tygur · 06-26-2002, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bob The Great
Did it register any other drives i.e. cd-rom? If so that says HD. If not that says to look elsewhere.

I just read the rest of your post. I can't believe I missed that. I have a CD-RW drive and a DVD-ROM drive on the secondary controller. Both were recognized fine. The two hard drives are on the primary controller. If it's the HD, then which is it?

Brainchild · 06-26-2002, 03:56 AM

If it doesn't find either HDD on IDE channel 1, then I would say it could be a faulty IDE controller.

Ace McGirk · 06-26-2002, 04:06 AM

I would say put a fan near the drives if this happens a few minutes after startup.

switlikbob · 06-26-2002, 11:46 AM

I have had a similar problem with the system halting when trying to load apps...it turned out that the HD had bad clusters...to remedy the problem, I used ghost to image the drive...make sure you check the "ignore bad clusters" option. When the drive to drive image was complete, I had no problems. Hope this helps.

sulusulu · 06-26-2002, 12:40 PM

If you haven't already, you might want to double check to make shure the hard drives are set up correctly in a master/slave combination. You might also want to try puting the hard drive on the secondary comtroller to see if that works. You could try unpluging your cd-roms to lighten the load on the power suply.
I hope this helps.

John

Tygur · 06-26-2002, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by switlikbob
I have had a similar problem with the system halting when trying to load apps...it turned out that the HD had bad clusters...

Well, I don't think bad sectors could prevent the BIOS from recognizing the drive. If I'm somehow wrong, somebody let me know.

Quote:

Originally posted by Ace McGirk
I would say put a fan near the drives if this happens a few minutes after startup.

Good idea. For now, I swapped in a power supply in from another computer. If the problem comes up again, that'll be the next thing I try.

Quote:

Originally posted by sulusulu
If you haven't already, you might want to double check to make shure the hard drives are set up correctly in a master/slave combination. You might also want to try puting the hard drive on the secondary comtroller to see if that works. You could try unpluging your cd-roms to lighten the load on the power suply.

Well, I already set up the hard drives correctly as master/slave when I put them in months ago, and they've been running fine until recently. As for the second half of your suggestion, I think I'll give that a try if other things don't work out (changing the power supply and running the fan).