[dfacto]

Hello, first post. Was driven to seek some help because lately my computer seems to be nosing into a death spiral, and I'm not so happy about it.

To start:

-AMD 64 3200
-ASUS A8N SLI
-Maxtor 250 gb + Maxtor 320 gb HDDs, both SATA
-1024mb DDR-400 RAM in two sticks (Corsair)
-NEC DVD-RW and Liteon DVD-R
-450 Watt generic PSU
-2 PCI cards.

Basically, this started about a month ago when my old 250gb HD started clicking from time to time. I was a little freaked out because I've heard of the "click of death" and decided to investigate. In the Event Viewer I got an error (event ID: 51) which says that "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation." I went online, tried most of the solutions (mess with paging file, chkdsk, swap RAM slots, swap cables and ports, etc) and it didn't help. I figured I would go and get a new HDD just in case my old one decided to crap out because I have a lot of data on it and it would really stink to lose it all. So now I have a brand new 320 gig SATA.

I installed this, hooked it up and copied all my data files to it. I also decided to just make it my primary and installed XP on it as well, changed drive letters, but kept it on the secondary SATA slot. The problem was that I was still receiving the same clicking and the same paging errors with the new drive. Then a little later I began getting Event ID: 11 "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\CdRom0." and my cdrom would make noises from time to time when a disk was inside. Both the paging errors and the controller errors would lead to a short freeze, after which my computer would keep on going as if nothing had happened.

Then it started getting worse. In addition to these errors I started getting event ID: 51 for my cdrom: "An error was detected on device \Device\CdRom0 during a paging operation." And now every once in a while my HD would click, my computer would freeze and then stay that way. OR the freakier alternative where my HD would click and then my screen would suddenly turn into a moving vertical interference pattern and stay that way until I manually restarted.

At this point I started to suspect that it had little to do with my software (after cruising threads on Event Id:51 and trying some solutions) and decided to unhook my TV tuner card and my old HD altogether. I also swapped my 320 gig HD to the primary SATA slot.

This seemed to kill the problems for about a day, but then it came right back, albeit with decreased frequency, and only on my HD. Today I got the full program again though, with cdrom errors, HDD paging errors, freezing that I couldn't recover from, etc. Additionally, now I have Event ID: 7036 "The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service entered the running (replaced with "stopped" in some of the messages) state.", and Event ID: 7035 "The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service was successfully sent a start control." showing up all over the place in my event viewer, which is a new development.

All in all I suspect some sort of hardware error, but I'm not really sure. I've heard of mobo SATA or IDE controllers causing trouble, I've heard of PSUs causing trouble, CPUs as well, and I can't rule out some sort of XP BS as well. I'm pretty sure it isn't my drives because they all check out fine, and the HD is brand new.

Anyone have any clues? Would really appreciate some opinions on what's going on, since I need this thing for work. :/

btw, Hijack this and my virus programs come up clean.

 

[hwm54112]

check the transfer mode of all drives. to check transfer:

start>rite click my computer>properties>hardware tab>device manager>expand ide controller>rite click on primary ide channel>properties>advanced settings>

Transfer mode should be DMA if available
Current Mode should be dma not PIO

The imapi messages appear to be normal start up info messages. check the times listed in the message and see if they coincide with when you are booting the computer

Defrag your hdd's as follows (could stop the paging errors)

Disable hibernation in control panel>power options

Set virtual memory initial size to 0, set maximum size to 0-

Start>right click My Computer>properties>advanced tab>in the performance box>settings>advanced tab>virtual memory box

Turn off system restore

Reboot

Defrag drive- if your internet is cable or dsl-disconnect modem, disable antivirus software

Re-enable all of the above- set virtual memory initial and maximum size to 1.5 or 2 times physical memory


Bill

 

[dfacto]

Thanks for the replz hwm.

I tried all of that, but unfortunately the paging erors are still there, with no change in frequency. The HD was set to the proper transfer mode, and curiously the DVD-R that wasn´t acting up was set to PIO. I wset it to BIOS control and it´s on DMA now. The DVD-RW isn´t returning errors anymore, but it still seems to make noises from time to time. I also noticed that my HD clicks more often than it returns paging errors. Sometimes it will click, the comp will freeze for a second, but no Event ID 51 will appear in the event viewer.

There are also some extra things that might be related that I should mention.

-In my power settings in BIOS each voltage is approximately .1 to .3 volts lower than the ideal (12 volt, 5 volt, etc) that is listen to the left of the actual voltage. Is that normal or should the voltages be higher?

-My Network card has been acting up over the past few days, and I believe it has been causing windows to start slower as well. All of the sudden it started to take a long time to detect DHCP settings, and it won´t connect to mz building´s LAN network for at least 2 minutes after boot or coming out of standby.

-A mysterious unknown PCI device has cropped up in my device manager that won´t install because the comp can´t find a proper driver for it.

-The paging error is on the D partition, which is where all of my program files and documents are. My actual XP installation is on the C partition which has never returned any errors. Enabling a paging file on D didn´t make a difference, and neither did disabling it and defragging. Currently there is no paging file on D.

-The paging errors crop up all the time when I´m working with Adobe Photoshop, where I often work with huge 300 mb files. This makes sense of course, but I found it interesting that some of those PSD files refused to be defragged on the C partition, but the copies of those files on my D partition defragged just fine.


All I can think of for now. Luckily my comp works, but I´m living in constant fear that something will screw up all of the sudden and I´ll have to either grab new hardware or spend another long day formatting and reinstalling everything. :4-dontkno

 

[Kalim]

Hi

Set VM initial size to the total size of your RAM and the max to anything about 1GB above. Then click, Set near that.

D/l and run Sensors View and post back the temperatures and voltages.

The IMAPI service is in connection with burning and its nothing to worry about.

 

[dfacto]

minimum VM at 1024, max at 2048

 

[hwm54112]

It seems to me you have a couple of driver issues going on. Find the driver for the unknown device as outlined here pci device find or possibly Unknown-Device-Identifier- (never used it myself)

Uninstall and re-install the nic card and drivers

The paging errors are not necessarily related to a pagefile, they can be caused by any input/output read or write operation

 

[Kalim]

The 2nd application link given above will work fine. It tends to show all the unsigned drivers.