[Purgatory]

Okay, I'm sorry about posting all this crap about this problem. I thought this time I'd place as much information as possible here, and state my problem and see if there is anything that I can do.

Now, my computer specs are.
------------------------------------------
Windows XP Home with SP2 installed.
Intel P4 2.8Ghz
768MB of RAM
nVidia Geforce FX5200
s661gxm-U motherboard.
ST3120026A--Hard drives, Seagate I believe.
ST3160023A
Creative SB Live! series Sound Card
DVD-ROM disc drive
and a CD Burner.
Broadcom Net Xtreme Gigabyte Ethernet Card.
-------------------------------------------

I've just started getting this problem not that long ago, I've reformated my computer once to try and fix it
that didn't seem to work. I tried using some beta BIOS off of the Aopen website, after much hassel I finally upgraded the BIOS, but the problem returned. Now after a few days, the problem has happened again.
I've even ran the disk check at startup to verify data and fix bad sectors, not sure if it did anything. But after that the problem went away for those few days, and now it just started again.

My computer will utterly and completely lock up, the HD light on the front of my case will stay lit up, and sometimes it will eventually reboot, showing that my Master drive as "None", I sometimes had to open the case, unplug the drive, and then plug it back it for it to be recongized. When the PC locks up like this, I can't access the task manager at all, my keyboard doesn't work, my mouse stops moving, it's like the whole screen is just stuck! I have to power off then power on to use my computer again.

So.. should I just reformat again? or.. is there something else I can do?
and if I reformat again, what messures can I take to make sure the drive is completely cleaned and starting fresh again for Windows XP.

Many thanks in advance.

Edited by Purgatory, 29 May 2006 - 07:25 PM.

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Since you've been inside to unplug HD, I am sure you checked fans, cleaned as needed while case was off. You might try downloading Everest Home Edition or SpeedFan and check your temps, fan speeds, harddrive and power supply stats.

Ron

[Major Payne]

Since you've been inside to unplug HD, I am sure you checked fans, cleaned as needed while case was off. You might try downloading Everest Home Edition or SpeedFan and check your temps, fan speeds, harddrive and power supply stats.

Ron

[Purgatory]

I have speedfan, here's what it shows.

Temp1-38c
Temp2-38c
Temp3- -55c
HD0-50
HD1-53
Temp1-40c

That's what it shows, never really used this app before, so let me know if there is anything else I can provide.

[Major Payne]

If I converted temps correctly, both Hard drive temps seem a little high. According to manufactures, the normal recommended working temperature of a hard disk is 35-40°С. Once it rises by just 10°С – from 40°С to 50°С, the safety of its work becomes more than two times less!

Temp 3 is for what???

Power supply voltages and fan speeds ok?

Ron

[Purgatory]

Okay, remember not sure how to work speedfan or where to look for these things you requested, I don't know what temp3 is for.. I don't know how to get a log file from speedfan, my hard drives are stacked vertically right next to each other, this is how the comp shop guy arranged my tower after installing the motherboard stated above.



Well.. I tried to attach the screenshot, but it tells me this "The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments." Even though at the bottem it says I have "Global Space Left: 2mb" The screenshot is only 724kbs... *shrugs* No idea whats wrong there.. but anyways.. I'm at a loss..

Anything else I can provide that will help?

Edited by Purgatory, 30 May 2006 - 03:16 AM.

[Retired Tech]

Run Everest Home, click + next to computer, click sensor, wait a moment, it may then show temp 3 as AUX or something

[Purgatory]

Here's what it says...

Field Value
Sensor Properties
Sensor Type ITE IT8705F (ISA 290h)

Temperatures
Motherboard 41 °C (106 °F)
Aux 38 °C (100 °F)
Seagate ST3120026A 52 °C (126 °F)
Seagate ST3160023A 53 °C (127 °F)

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.47 V
+2.5 V 2.61 V
+3.3 V 3.31 V
+5 V 4.97 V
+12 V 11.58 V
+5 V Standby 5.00 V
VBAT Battery 3.26 V
Debug Info F FF FF FF
Debug Info T 38 41 201
Debug Info V 5C A3 CF B9 B5 D5 A0 (47)

[Retired Tech]

As Ron said, those are high for the hard drives, at 53C some PC's would have shut down, at 60, almost all would

Does it mention cases fans lower down?

[Purgatory]

No it does not... seems like Dell didn't put any in there.. This computer is about 2 and a little more years old. With an updated motherboard, and a some RAM, and a FX5200 graphics card..

So you think the heat of my hard drives might be the cause of my lockups etc?

[Retired Tech]

I have 35C with 3.5 hours on

Adding fans is straightforward and not an expensive thing to do

[Purgatory]

Well.. if this is what might be causing my problem.. I think I'll try seperate my hard drives and rearange somethings see if I can get them apart.. and I'll eventually invest in some fans as soon as I can.

[Purgatory]

Well, I turned my PC off, moved somethings around, removed my floppy drive, though I should be able to put that back in.. Seems like the morons down at my local computer shop don't know as much about PCs as some.. I have my slave drive vertical against the front of the tower, where both were mounted, I placed my Master drive on the bottem of the tower, it's not mounted, just laying there.. thats the best I could do.. if nothing bumps the desk or hits the tower, should this be a problem? after having my PC off and turning it back on with the hard drives not huggin each other, seems the temps are sticking around the norm.., I've also broken my side panel lol And I found a really small room fan, it's quite tiny, so I set it up next to my tower, and it's blowing air to the inside of the case, mainly focused on the hard disks....

Hope this solves my problems...

Until I can buy a new PC

Edited by Purgatory, 30 May 2006 - 01:22 PM.

[Major Payne]

Hi:

Post your HD temps while operating this way. I'm curious to see if they have dropped (should have). Interesting arrangement.

Ron