Hard drive problems, CRC errors and lockups.

[Spanky]

Ok I'm having major problems with my computer.

I'm going to explain in detail so this might be a tad long.

I put in an upgrade a couple weeks back, A duron 750(volcano2 HSF with arctic silver), enlight 7237 case with 300watt PSU and an asus A7V133.

So the problem is that when I'm installing games Either my computer will lock up. OR If I'm working with zips/rars/aces, I get CRC errors or lock ups.

At first I figured my D: drive (10.2gig 7200RPM fujitsu) was going bad cause I was trying to install most stuff on that.

My smaller drive C: (3gig fugitsu) is my main drive with windows on it (I know windows should be on the other one and it will be shortly).

Then I tried putting stuff on C: and I'm getting errors on that one.

So these are the causes I could think of.

Heat
Viruses
Bad drives
Bad cables
Some wacky VIA problem

Heat
------
I don't think its heat cause the hard drives don't get to hot, BUT my CDROM drive does get REALLY hot, its not making its own heat but absorbing heat from the CPU I guess.

Viruses
---------
I downloaded the mcafee virus scaner and updated its definitions and it doesn't find anything, I told it to scan both drives including in zips.

Bad drives
------------

Both of these drives worked fine before the upgrade and I ran fujitsus hard drive utility on both of them and they came through clean. I can't think of any other tests can you?

Bad Cables
------------

I'm using the cables that came with the new board, both are 80pin the C: and the cdrom are master and slave on primary, and D: master on secondary. I am going to try swaping cables but I just can't see why both are bad when they are brand new? Yes I have tried reseating them.

Wacky via problems
--------------------
I don't know at all, I remember some large file problem with via but I thought that was fixed, I have not however downloaded the newest bios or via 1 in 4 drivers for the board.

So does anyone have a clue?


Could it be the heat of my CDROM?

Is there a better virus checker out there?

Has anyone ever gotten 2 bad cables with a new MBoard? Or is using the 80 pin cables with my older drives a bad idea? (I think the 10 gig is ata66 but I'm not sure)

Is there any better ways to test my drives other then trying to install the games that give me problems?

Is this a sign of the wacky via problem?


Any solutions or even diagnostic ideas would be great as this is REALLY annoying. I was about to buy a new hard drive but if its happening with both I feel that would just be a waste of money.

I'm going to try keeping the cover off to keep the drives cooler and using some older 40 pin drive cables.

[MaxVal]

I recently had problems similar to what you are experiencing. Turned out to be overly aggressive RAM settings in the BIOS.
Try dissabling advanced features and slowing timings as a test.
MAX

[Spanky]

Wacky, I have never even thought of that.

I don't think I'm doing anything crazy with it right now but I'll double check.

Thanks for the tip!

[Spanky]

Well I ran the system with the case side and front off and a fan blowing in so that tested the heat issue and I tried slowing down my ram.

It still locks or gives CRC errors

Any other ideas?

[otheos]

OK:
the A7V133 has two problems:
1. Data corruption on the VIA controller due to the VIA bug (actually an SBLive problem)
2. Data corruption on the Promise controller.

Now go here and search for posts regarding fixes. As far as I know the later Promise drivers and Asus BIOS correct theses issues.

You will definitely find your answer there!

[Spanky]

Well I tried the via fix last night and it still didn't help. I'm going check out that link though, it does seem like they might have some ideas.

They should at least be able to tell me if its the classic 686b bug.

Thanks alot for the link


Oh yeah, I'm not runnning the promise controller, I don't have the drivers installed and I don't connect anything to it, and its disabled in my windows, system.

Do you think pulling out the SBlive would help troubleshoot? As in does the problem go away when people replace the card?

[Spanky]

Well I just tried pulling the soundblaster live from my system and at least is doens't lock now but it does give me CRC errors still.

[radio1_mike]

Are the bad CRC errors coming from a CD-RW burner? If so, it could just be bad media.

Another few ideas would be to:

1) Manually set your disk transfer speed, in your BIOS; if you can.

2) Disable DMA.

3) Go to the drive manufacturer's website and see if they have any diagnostic software. For instance, Western Digital has online drive diagnostics that can help you determine if your drive is kaput.

HTH-
Mike