Hello! I have been having massive problems (http://computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/12243.html), and wonder if the problem could be a bad IDE controller or hard drive. Scandisk (in Win98 before I formatted) and CHKDSK (Win2K) aren't finding any problems with the HD. How can I test the HD more thoroughly, and test the IDE controllers at all? Thanks, Porter

Hey man, first off you did the best thing already, loading win2000, been running it for almost year and half including beta. it is the most stable ever. i have been running both win200 pro and win2000 server. very stable. as to the hard drive, go to web site of hd manufacture. they should provide a testing utility good luck

Ben, Thanks for the help. I did that, the utility created a boot disk and I booted from that and ran the thorough diagnostics on the drive. No errors found. I am still wondering if the problem (lockups. see http://computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/12243.html) that I'm getting are IDE controller-related or chipset related. I swapped video cards to an old Voodoo3, still have problems. Yanked my sound card, still have problems. Ran 3DMark 2001 (since, unlike the games, it doesn't access the CD drives), and it locked up. Still haven't heard back from the mobo or chipset manufacturers (FIC and VIA respectively)...big shock there. Anyone have any ideas how to isolate the cause of lockups using 3D acceleration? Also the prob I was getting w/ the "bad block" on the CD-ROM when running Black and White. What about a motherboard diagnostic that can test the IDE controllers, chipset, etc? I'm at wit's end! Thanks, Porter