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Hi there
Recently i was called by my brother to come and look at his computer as it was acting very strange. I powered up the computer fine untill we get a serious system fault message. So okay fine, i attempt to do a 'sfc' on the computer from where the real problem arises. The computer seems to try to power down completely (not reset as you can tell by that horrible clunking sound it makes). But it never manages to do it, it seems to try but to no avail. So i disconnected devices like optical drives and the additional hard drive and the problem was solved it didnt try to shut down. I completed the 'sfc' and started to reconnect devices one by one but left the 2nd hard drive disconnected. Now the computer runs okay but the windows boot-up is painfully slow.
My brothers power supply is 500W and not even a year old. Is the power supply packing up or is there to many devices attached? Why is windows now loading so slowly, silly question but is this to do with the power aswell?
Computer setup
Windows XP
ASUS Motherboard (Forgotten Model Number)
AMD Sempron 1800+
2 x Kingston 256MB PC3200
ATI 9800 (I think 128MB)
500W Power Supply
LG DVD Optical
MSI DVD-RW Optical
Maxtor 40GB Drive
Seagate 20GB DriveThanks for any help
That second hard drive that is bad could have shorted out your IDE cable.
If they were on the same cable.
Either way first thing I would do is try a new IDE cable and have serious doubts about that second hard drive.
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Just saying you have a 500W PSU doesn't mean hell of a lot...some are good, some are garbage. What brand is it & how many amps are on the +12v rail(s)? If you don't know, open the case & check the label
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thanks guys
the power supply is made by casecom i got the following specs from reviews customers posted on the website i ordered the power supply from for my brother.
Outputs are:
+3.3v - 28A
+5v - 40A
+12v - 17A
-12v - 0.8A
-5v - 0.5A
+5vSB - 2.0Athe other thing is that i have the same power supply in my computer and have the same sort of equipment in it.
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Not bad specs, but not great either. There's more amps on the +5v than are necessary...more on the +12v would have been better. It *should* be OK though.
Is this a socket A system? What's a Sempron 1800+? There is no such model...unless he has it clocked wrong? And if that's the case, I would double check ALL the BIOS settings to make sure they're setup correctly. Do not simply use "fail-safe defaults" or "optimized defaults"
How are the IDE devices configured? The optimal config was just discussed yesterday:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/wwwboard/forum/42069.html
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The computer may be running really slow because one or more drives have been set to PIO mode, rather than a UDMA mode.
The bad hard drive may have caused XP to set the hard drive(s), and possibly your optical drives, to PIO mode.
See this, and if any are in PIO mode, try re-setting them.
http://www.computing.net/hardware/wwwboard/forum/41305.html
.........................If any won't re-set and are "stuck" in PIO mode, you can get them to re-set this way.
Caution - if you are leery about editing your Registry, have someone else do this!
Using System Restore to go back to a previous time may be an alternmative to this, but that will not help if the drive you have disconnected has been having problems for some time previous.Start - Run - type: REGEDIT
Make sure the display on the left is at the beginning of the "tree" by going to its beginning and clicking on the first entry.
Search for: MasterIdDataChecksum (case doesn't matter)
NOTE: all instances should be found here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-(after that it varies)DELETE the entry on the right that has MasterIdDataChecksum in it (RIGHT click on the highlighted entry to find Delete).
Press F3 to search for more of the same - there will probably be at least two, or more.
....Make sure the display on the left is at the beginning of the "tree" by going to its beginning and clicking on the first entry.
Search for: SlaveIdDataChecksum (case doesn't matter)
NOTE: all instances should be found here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-(after that it varies)DELETE the entry on the right that has SlaveIdDataChecksum in it (RIGHT click on the highlighted entry to find Delete).
Press F3 to search for more of the same - there will probably be at least two, or more.
.......Close Regedit. Reboot.
Check your drive settings in Device Manager - they should all be at their maximums that both the drive and the mboard supports, if there is nothing wrong with the drives of their data cable connections.
.......The reason this works:
When a drive is detected by XP as causing too many data errors, it will add to lines in the Registry - the ones with MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum - something that forces the drive into using the slower PIO mode. It is possible for a good drive to get set to PIO mode if another drive, particularly if it is on the same data cable, is causing data errors.
When you remove the line, the extra bits that force PIO mode are removed along with the rest of the line.
If you look at the Registry again after this procedure, the MasterIdDataChecksum and SlaveIdDataChecksum lines will be there again, but they don't have the extra bits that force the drive into PIO mode.If the problem has not really been resolved, e.g. there is a problem with a drive or it's data cable, XP will eventually force the offending drive(s) to use PIO mode again.
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Oops. Should have been....
See this, and if any are in PIO mode, try re-setting them.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx
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sorry about that it seems i accidently typed a '1' instead of a '2'. Which would mean that its an AMD Sempron 2800+ and yes its using Socket 'A' technology.
The hard drives are simply configured as 'Master' and 'Slave' dasiy chained of each other.
I belive the second drive isnt faulty as i only disconnected it to reduce the amount of juice the sytem required from the power supply. Also to see if the problem was down to a faulty power supply.
I will also check to se if the master drive is running in PIO mode instead of UDMA.
Could it be possible that the power supply isnt working to its max anymore. Could the integrity of the components affect its max output?
Many thanks to jam and tubesandwires for there valuble input so far as my knowledge is only mid-range.
Cheers
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"....horrible clunking sound it makes...."
"...So i disconnected devices like optical drives and the additional hard drive and the problem was solved ..."Sounds to me like there is something wrong with that second hard drive.
Optical drives don't make clunking sounds, unless something has come loose inside them, and should make very little or no sound at all if they have no cd in them.
Hard drives can make clunking sounds while they are dying.
Disconnecting a hard drive to lessen the load on a power supply doesn't amount to much - they draw less than 2 amps each total from both 5 and 12v, more when they spin up but probably not more than 5 amps, and that will have little effect on a 500 watt PS. The optical and floppy drives draw next to nothing when they have no disk in them.Get a free diagnostic utility from the manufacturer of your hard drives web site, and test your drives - some will test all the hard drives if you have at least one drive of a certain brand (e.g. Maxtor's PowerMax)- others may test only their own brand (e.g. a Samsung one).
Yes there could be something wrong with the power supply, but that won't normally make the system suddenly run slower. That's why I suggested checking to see if any drives are in PIO mode - since you say both hard drives were on the same data cable, there is a good possibility of that.
The PS being only a year old doesn't mean much - especially if it is an el-cheapo power supply, it could very well be failing. And el-cheapo power supplies often can't actually achieve the wattage rating stated, although you probably don't need more than 350 watts for your system in this case.You should look in your bios Setup at the current voltage readings - +3.3, +5, and +12v should be within 10% of nominal values. The cpu core voltage(s), usually listed as Vcc, should be within 5% of nominal value(s).
The power supply fan should be spinning the speed it is supposed to be (some spin slower when the PS is cooler) - if it is spinning too slow, or has stopped, the power supply will overheat and eventually fry itself. Cheap PS's may have cheap fans that have sleeve bearings instead of ball bearings, and they can start to fail in a year or less - and they can make noises while failing. Sniff the fan outlet area of the PS when the power is off - if there is a strong smell of burnt wiring / burnt plastic, the PS has been overheating or is defective, regardless of whether the fan is okay or not.
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