Hardware Issues

LatecomerX SG

For those who haven't seen my earlier posts, I have recently upgraded my computer with a new hard disk drive and a pair of RAM modules. Everything was working fine before the hardware upgrade, just that it was a little slow and I thought it would be a good time to do an upgrade and a Windows re-installation. It seems not after all.

I need help in identifying the source(s) of all these issues so I can send the faulty component(s) for RMA or exchange. But in any of the cases below, if you think it could be caused by software (anti-virus, firewall etc), please let me know. I'm using Kaspersky AV 7 and Comodo Personal Firewall (coincidentally abbreiviated as CPF) 3.

1. At random times, usually after a system shutdown, the system won't boot up (no beep, no display output, disk activity lasted a few seconds before stopping) unless I repeatedly power up and power down the system a few times. From Google, it was said that this could be due to an insufficient power supply or a bad HDD. Which is more likely to be happening? I have listed my specs below.

CPU: Intel E2200
Mobo: GA-965P-DS3
RAM: 2x DDR-800 1GB
HDD: Hitachi SATA 500 GB, 16 MB cache
Optical drive: LG IDE 18x DVD-RW
Graphic card: Asus X1900XT 256MB
PSU: Enhance 460W

2. File transfers become very slow on random occassions. When it happens on a folder move (aka cut-and-paste), the folder and one single file will be created on the destination folder, but this file is inaccessible while the original one at the source folder remains there (remember, this is not a file copy but a file move).

After that, it either takes a damn long time before a "Preparing to move..." dialog window appears, or that window doesn't appear at all with both windows displaying the list of files and folders for the source and destination becoming "Not Responding". The disk activity LED light on the casing only lit up occasionally, meaning that the HDD is not "busy" at all. I can't help but to wonder wtf is actually going on within the drive.

When the files are not moved and I try to shutdown the system, a popup window will appear and warn me that Windows is busy doing something.

So, could the cause simply be the HDD? I was actually thinking the culprit is my motherboard, because I have a very similar issue with the optical drive as well (see #3).

3. Unable to read discs at random (again) times. A few nights ago, my second sis wanted to watch Death Note: The Last Note, so I inserted the disc which I burned the movie on, and double-clicked on the drive. It showed me this error instead:

"The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."

Right-clicking and selecting Explore gave me the same error as well. I was quite fed-up with the computer, and my sis ended up watching it on Crunchyroll instead.

Then just yesterday morning, I was desperately trying to install a printer to print out a medical form from TP's site. After I popped in the disc that came along with the printer, I tried to access it but nothing happened. The My Computer window became "Not Responding" instead and I just kept waiting until I couldn't be any more patient and did a restart.

Issue #1 came back and this time, for some weird reason, the LED light on the optical drive kept blinking every time I power the system up, even though I have set the first boot device to be the HDD. And it just won't boot, while the LED light remained blinking. What is my computer thinking exactly? Pressing the eject button wouldn't work as well until I tried to do so between the time the power button is pressed and the time the LED light starts to blink. After the disc was out, the system finally booted up, and I then decided to Google and download the driver online instead.

Hardware experts, if you can tell what is going on within my computer, please cast your verdicts, and I shall exile the guilty ones back to their distributors for RMA or exchange as soon as possible. And if any more info is needed, just post back and let me know.

MyPillowTalks SG

Well, for the powering up issue, you can check that the battery is properly inserted, by kicking your case hard a few times, which the better alternative is to open up to see your battery. After kicking your case a few times, check that all the wires are connected properly....

From what i see, the 460w seems to be enough

Test the Power supply

remove the grphic card, and also remove the power plug that is plugged into ur grphic card(if im nt wrong, the one u using is plugged into a PCIx16, and needs a power?)

If after removing the graphic card and u still can't power up, it might be the HDD, since the Power supply gt enough power...

at random times it would not boot up....maybe is the HDD already.... download speedfan(freeware), open the program, on the top there is a lot of tabs, click on S.M.A.R.T, then select ur HD from the dropdown box, click the "?" on the right to see wad everything means, and also look at the performance/fitness level... or click the 'perform an indepth anal-ysis on the HDD

File transfer slow.....have a feeling it is the HDD liao....

nt sure for the unable to read disc....maybe the HDD cannot initialise the signals

BTW, ur mobo may also be the culprit...if possible test with some other HDD if u have....

me not beri good at this, but worth a try

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Issue 1 - 460W PSU may seem enough. But no harm adding more.

Issue 2 - Good ole Windows. If you ever crash it or if it ever crashes, the first few times it starts up, it will give problems.

Issue 3 - The last I had this issue, it's because the darn optical drive spoilt, not motherboard. And I wasted a good few hundred on replacing one. -_-

And almost all the cases I had had a spoilt optical drive rather than spoilt motherboard. I've learn this hard, I never replace mobo unless nothing works. So far, other than the bad lesson, such issues have been fixed successfully without an expensive mobo replacement.

I suggest you replace the optical drive first, before replacing the mobo. If you suspect HDD problem, backup your files, install Linux over it. Copy over some big files and see if the same issue occurs. Most likely if it hangs for Linux, your HDD is facing problems.

Although Linux is technically different from Windows, if copying and pasting can fail in Linux, you can guarantee that your HDD is nearly gone case. Backup while it's working.

If Linux has got no issues with moving files, it would be Windows. It's not uncommon for Windows installation to fail WITHOUT warnings. I had a few... and went ahead to reinstall again. Which solves it fine.

And the HDD LED light is a pretty bad indicator for Windows. If Windows is ever stuck without warnings, nothing in the world will know until something tries to end it. In this case, a rebooting or shutting down will produce that error that you experienced.

LatecomerX SG

From what i see, the 460w seems to be enough

Test the Power supply

remove the grphic card, and also remove the power plug that is plugged into ur grphic card(if im nt wrong, the one u using is plugged into a PCIx16, and needs a power?)

If after removing the graphic card and u still can't power up, it might be the HDD, since the Power supply gt enough power...

File transfer slow.....have a feeling it is the HDD liao....

nt sure for the unable to read disc....maybe the HDD cannot initialise the signals

BTW, ur mobo may also be the culprit...if possible test with some other HDD if u have....

me not beri good at this, but worth a try

Are you referring to "CMOS battery"? I think I got that well fitted on the motherboard.

And here's the SpeedFan in-depth analysis for my HDD.

maurizio13 SG

i had this problem of slow hard disk b4

i repartitioned, reformat and reinstalled the OS again.

i don't know the problem with your intermittent boot up issue.

could be due to your graphics card also

i had problems like this just before my graphics card burnout.

how old is your graphics card?

hiphop2009 SG

disconnect ur optical drive.

see how it goes.

on one occassion, my desktop happens to be like dat, den when i remove the optical drive, suddenly everything back to normal. den i realise it is my optical drive at fault.

LatecomerX SG

Issue 1 - 460W PSU may seem enough. But no harm adding more.

Issue 2 - Good ole Windows. If you ever crash it or if it ever crashes, the first few times it starts up, it will give problems.

Issue 3 - The last I had this issue, it's because the darn optical drive spoilt, not motherboard. And I wasted a good few hundred on replacing one. -_-

Although Linux is technically different from Windows, if copying and pasting can fail in Linux, you can guarantee that your HDD is nearly gone case. Backup while it's working.

Hmm...I didn't think the problems could be caused by the optical drive before. In fact, I forgot to mention that it was detached from the motherboard before the upgrade because my IDE cable was not long enough to connect both my old IDE HDD and it. Maybe it's the sources of all these issues after all. I'll try removing it along with Pillow's suggestions and see how it goes once I'm free from work and games.

maurizio13 SG

do you have another hard disk with OS?

can plug it in and see if it's still slow copying files.

LatecomerX SG

disconnect ur optical drive.

see how it goes.

on one occassion, my desktop happens to be like dat, den when i remove the optical drive, suddenly everything back to normal. den i realise it is my optical drive at fault.

Looks like Anty was spot-on.

LatecomerX SG

i had this problem of slow hard disk b4

i repartitioned, reformat and reinstalled the OS again.

i don't know the problem with your intermittent boot up issue.

could be due to your graphics card also

i had problems like this just before my graphics card burnout.

how old is your graphics card?

Hmm, so you think it's a bad Windows installation as well? I'm considering to do a Windows re-installation if I manage to solve the boot-up problem and the HDD slowdown issue remains.

My graphics card is about 18 months old.

LatecomerX SG

do you have another hard disk with OS?

can plug it in and see if it's still slow copying files.

I just wiped my old IDE disk two days ago. But I suppose I can boot from an USB external HDD, right? I'll try installing XP on mine and update you guys when I get it tested.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Bad Windows installation is usually the cause. Have you tried defragmenting and checking for errors for your hard disk?

If after all these nothing works, might want to reinstall Windows and see how things go.

No telling if the graphics card is still working. Try plugging it in to another computer and see if the same problems occur.

By the way, I can't view the your HDD report. It keeps re-directing me to the main page.

maurizio13 SG

Hmm, so you think it's a bad Windows installation as well? I'm considering to do a Windows re-installation if I manage to solve the boot-up problem and the HDD slowdown issue remains.

My graphics card is about 18 months old.

My old X700, lasted around that time too, lucky it was still within the warranty period, end up paying a couple of tens of dollars to get it shipped

to China for replacement.

LatecomerX SG

Bad Windows installation is usually the cause. Have you tried defragmenting and checking for errors for your hard disk?

If after all these nothing works, might want to reinstall Windows and see how things go.

No telling if the graphics card is still working. Try plugging it in to another computer and see if the same problems occur.

By the way, I can't view the your HDD report. It keeps re-directing me to the main page.

I haven't done a defragment yet. For error checking, you mean run a chkdsk on the system partition? I don't have another system that has a PCI-e port though. For the HDD report, the forum backend has double-encoded the URL for some reason. I'll paste it below as text instead.

http://www.hddstatus.com/hdrepshowreport.php?ReportCode=2391559&ReportVerification=A35663DA

ndmmxiaomayi SG

http://www.hddstatus.com/hdrepshowreport.php?ReportCode=2391559&ReportVerification=A35663DA

Yup. Just don't need to fix the errors...

Hmm... since you don't have a system that has another PCI-e port... then I guess we have to leave this alone first unless you've got spare graphics cards.

LatecomerX SG

My old X700, lasted around that time too, lucky it was still within the warranty period, end up paying a couple of tens of dollars to get it shipped

to China for replacement.

I hope it won't be coincidental. The place to RMA my current graphics card (Ban Leong) is so ulu and hard to locate, I had to take a taxi and walked for 10 - 15 mins on the previous occassion. Or maybe I have a bad sense of direction.

eagle SG

disconnect ur optical drive.

see how it goes.

on one occassion, my desktop happens to be like dat, den when i remove the optical drive, suddenly everything back to normal. den i realise it is my optical drive at fault.

That happened to my laptop. But after a month, by not doing anything at all, my laptop became all right by itself when I put back the optical drive.

Then I realised it wasn't the optical drive at fault (the only difference heh heh), cuz I tested it on my friend's IBM laptop. I was thinking that it might be the driver's problem for my case.

Anyway, yup, just try unplugging the optical drive and see if it helps in all 3 issues. In my case, it just displayed Internal Power Error and refused to start up...