Strange Re-Occuring Problem

[Dominus]

Recently, in the past month, I've been experiencing some strange problems. As I boot Win98, I attept to log into windows networking, and as I press the enter key to submit my password, nothing happens. This persisted no matter what I tried. I then created a new partition (D:\)to backup data. Once the data was backed up, I rebooted and got a "While initilizing device, VK" error. This usually happens when I'm using a PCI bus frequency greater than 33mhz. So I then set my mobo back to the CPU advertised speed, rebooted, and reformatted drive C:\. This happened about 2 weeks ago, and I formatted the HDD and re-installed from backup. Before I formatted, I ran scandisk from the DOS prompt, and it discovered a couple bad sectors over critical system files. This seemed to be the trouble (at the time), so once scandisk marked them, I moved on with the format.

About 2 hours later, the backup restoration was complete, and I had a working system again. However, today, the same problem occured (once pass was submitted to windows networking, nothing happened, NAV5 was open, and the desktop did not load.) This time however, no new bad sectors were found, and all system files seem to check out. Also, I'm no longer overclocking. I installed no new software and no new hardware. Safe mode is accessable, and I removed all installed software, same prob. Is this a software fault, damage to the system due to overclocking, or is the old Maxtor 8.4GB HDD on it's last legs?

System
-------
P2 333 SL2KA (was OCed to 400, 4*100)
128 MB PC100 SDRAM (generic)
ASUS P2B rev 1.02 mobo
Good ol' Maxtor 8.4

Also, I soldered another fan onto an unused power cable. I did this around november, and it hasn't caused any problems, but when I tried out MotherBoard Monitor 4.0, it sounded an alarm saying my +3.3v voltage setting was at 3.49v. Perhaps this is causing the downfall of the ol'Maxtor?

Thanks for any comments/advice.

[LJE2]

Maybe the data that you backed up, was corrupt, so when you reformated and then restored this data, if it was the problem in the first place, you have just reinstalled the problem.
On the voltage problem it sounds to me like it's your power supply, if you soldered the fan to the unused power connector, in series with the connector it would reduce the voltage on this connector, if you soldered the fan in parallel it would reduce the current on this connector, you have excess voltage, I don't believe this is the fault of the soldered on fan but a faulty power supply

[This message has been edited by LJE2 (edited 06-14-99).]

[Dominus]

I can't see how that is possible, as the backup data was 2 monthes old. But it's a possibility. I'm going to get a Maxtor formatting/repair util and see what that can do, and then try a clean install of win98.

[Susan]

Also, I soldered another fan onto an unused power cable. I did this around november, and it hasn't caused any problems, but when I tried out MotherBoard
Monitor 4.0, it sounded an alarm saying my +3.3v voltage setting was at 3.49v. Perhaps this is causing the downfall of the ol'Maxtor?

Perhaps

[LJE2]

It is possible that the 3.49 volts is causing data to be corrupted on the hard drive, but I don't believe soldering on the fan caused it, it think it's your power supply, look at my edited post above.

[Dominus]

Ok, I'll add a new case w/ 300w power supply to the list. It's going to have to wait though. My computer funding is rather low due to kitchen upgrades. But as soon as this system hits the 18 month obsolescence mark, it's getting an overhaul, and the ol'Maxtor is going in the Old HDD home.

btw, the backup is re-installed and working again. Lets see if it happens again in 2 weeks or so.


update: I low level formatted the HDD using MaxDiag, and performed a clean install of win98. I hope that fixes it
[This message has been edited by Dominus (edited 06-14-99).]

[This message has been edited by Dominus (edited 06-15-99).]