SCSI Computer problem

[Saaby]

My dad just got a Western Digital Caviar 120 Gig Special Edition 8Mb Cache drive. It's IDE. It's (supposedly) as fast as SCSI /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif


Maybe you ought to try one out. It does seem like a speedy drive and 120 gig is nice too (To put that into prospective my laptop has a whopping 4.1 or 3.9 or somewhere around there)

 

[Stingray]

Have you tried updating the bios yet?

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

People tend to forget that there is even a BIOS battery. Usually a lithium coin type.

I am one of those that doesn't believe in overclocking.

I have never used anything SCSI and have never had a new IDE HD die on me.

The reasons I have never used SCSI are SCSI adapters are far too expensive for me, and the HDs are also way too expensive.

 

[DieselDave]

I looked at the bios when I got it back the last time and I have the newest version.

 

[Stingray]

Dave, it sounds like you've swapped out everything hardware wise that could cause this problem except the CPU and motherboard. I'd swap out the CPU next and see if it cures it. If you need it, I have a Celeron 400 mounted on a Slot 1 adapter module sitting in my parts box. If you want to borrow it for awhile just to see if that's the problem, just cover the postage and send it back intact when you're done.

Also, just another thought, do you have any cards that are being assigned different IRQ's each time you boot up. It may be that every once in a while an incompatible card (often a network card) gets stuck sharing an IRQ with a video card that doesn't like sharing with it. Even though they both have IRQ sharing capabilities, sometimes two cards can't get along together on the same IRQ. Oftentimes, it's a network and video card. If so, try to lock down the IRQ's in the bios or in device manager in a known good configuration and see if that solves the problem. BTW, what operating system are you running?

Steve

 

[Stingray]

deleted duplicate post

 

[NightStorm]

Dave,

Have you checked the error code against the link I provided you? If so, what is it indicating?

Dan

Just a note on the side: NICs should have their own IRQ.

 

[Stingray]

[ QUOTE ]
PercaDan said:
Just a note on the side: NICs should have their own IRQ.

[/ QUOTE ]

If possible, oftentimes it's not, especially with W2K

 

[NightStorm]

[ QUOTE ]
Stingray said:
[ QUOTE ]
PercaDan said:
Just a note on the side: NICs should have their own IRQ.

[/ QUOTE ]
If possible, oftentimes it's not, especially with W2K

[/ QUOTE ]

Or Win98 for that matter. However, I have been able to achieve this by marching the cards around in the PCI slots. Currently, my NIC shares an IRQ with my modem. No real conflict is present as neither card is used simultaneously.

Dan

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

If you read my post, it mentioned BIOS battery, not version.

I have an ASRock mobo, made by Asus Group, and it has less BIOS settings for the user, than many other brands. Missing from that is the ability to assign slot IRQs, among other things.

 

[Stingray]

ASRock and ASUS are two different companies. ASRock is an extremely low end board made for the very low cost segment of the marketplace. They work OK for about a year in my experience. ASUS is generally considered to be one of the best motherboard manufacturers in the world, and the P2B was their top of the line consumer PII board when it came out. YMMV (no offense intended)

If the BIOS battery goes bad, it's usually apparent by the BIOS settings resetting whenever power is disconnected and by the time being reset as well.

 

[Stingray]

Dave, did you ever figure this one out?

 

[DieselDave]

Dave, did you ever figure this one out? No I'm afraid not. It is back burner at the moment.

I will try a new battery and pull everything out and put it back together in a week or two. I don't have the patience for pulling it apart right now, I'm afraid something may break when it flies across the room and hits the wall.
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