Is this HD failure?

matt11601 · 02-04-2007, 09:50 PM

I've been experiencing some problems with my carPC lately. Here's the story: About 4 weeks ago my carPC would freeze for about 15 sec and then resume again. Then maybe 5 min later, it would repeat the process. I know it would freeze because RR would stop scrolling the title and the music stopped.

In addition to this, my carPC would lock up altogether every now and then. Sometimes I thought the carPC was freezing, but after 2 or 3 minutes it would never come back so that's when I knew it locked up for good. Annd on top of this, my carPC would just go to a black screen out of nowhere. The monitor display would go black and the music would stop. I know the monitor was on for sure because the screen was obviously still on, but there was just no signal being sent it. One important thing, the TS never said "No signal" or anything like that.

For about a week these were only problems. Then it got worse. I would have boot problems where the computer could not find my HD. I would also have random BSOD before Windows resumed from hibernation.

One quick thing I tried was to replace the ribbon cable. I got a new rounded cable and inserted it in the secondary just to see what would happen. After doing that, I've been free of boot up problems, BIOS finding the HD problems and random lock ups and random freezes.

But one problem still remains, the carPC will go black out of nowhere. It's pretty much random and it's the only problem I've been experiencing for the past week. All the other problems seemed to have gone, but this one remains.

I know this a long post, but I just wanted to give details so we don't waste each other's time.

I'm wondering if this is a failing HD. The thing I'm confused about is why most of my problems are gone, but only one remains. It seems like the new IDE cable fixed some things, but I'm still having that "screen going black" problem. I've never experienced HD failure before so I was wondering if this is m problem?

Thanks for any input you can offer. And I haven't concluded it's HD failure, but I just don't know what else it could be. An thoughts?

-Matt

PS. When my carPC locked up, froze or went black, the fan was still spinning and my amp was still on. So I know for sure power was still going to my carPC and my amp.

Specs: MII10000, 256MB RAM, WinXP Pro SP1 (nLite), 60GB HD, TS, No USB peripherals, Front End is RoadRunner set as shell

2k1Toaster · 02-04-2007, 10:25 PM

I had similar problems with my setup. I made a thread called "my CarPC is emotionally attached to me" because it would do this only when I got out of my car.

But a windows reinstall fixed the problem. So that leaves me to conclude that bad sectors have developed from roadbumps and such, so a good checkdisk where it moves all files out of the bad sectors should be the problem.

So yes, I concurr it is a HD problem.

matt11601 · 02-04-2007, 10:29 PM

Ahh forgot to mention to that. The first thing I did after putting in the new IDE cable was to run Windows ScanDisk and it reported no problems. It did not fixed bad sectors or try to recover any. But I could have missed it.

But, I'm assuming this does not rule out HD failure?

2k1Toaster · 02-04-2007, 10:47 PM

The beginnings of a HD failure it could be. Also the scandisk included in windows is not a great tool. The one that XP uses before it installs is pretty much the same thing but it has access to all sectors because none are used up for windows' files. So try to run that before XP loads. Like a 98 startdisk or a linux live CD or something so you can read the entire disk, not just the free parts of XP.

matt11601 · 02-04-2007, 11:31 PM

At this point I'm hoping it is HD failure because then I know the problem. If not, then I gotta start at the beginning and try to figure out what's going on whether it be hardware/software/car related.

Thanks 2k1Toaster, I'll try scanning with a different program. Won't be able to run that scan for 5 days (busy week), I'll resurrect this thread then.

volum3rider · 02-05-2007, 12:50 PM

I have had a very similiar problem before. What hard drive are you using (i.e. 3.5", 2.5", 1.8") and with what connection to your motherboard ( i.e. 44 pin to 40 pin)?

For my situation, it happened to be a loose connection for the molex connector on the the 44 pin to 40 pin cable. Eveytime I would go over even a tiny bump, it would freeze. I was just fed up with it and soldered it directly to a 5 volt line from my power supply. Works perfectly now. One main sympton of this would be my computer would freeze for about five minutes and then resume like nothing happened.

matt11601 · 02-05-2007, 03:40 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by volum3rider

I have had a very similiar problem before. What hard drive are you using (i.e. 3.5", 2.5", 1.8") and with what connection to your motherboard ( i.e. 44 pin to 40 pin)?

For my situation, it happened to be a loose connection for the molex connector on the the 44 pin to 40 pin cable. Eveytime I would go over even a tiny bump, it would freeze. I was just fed up with it and soldered it directly to a 5 volt line from my power supply. Works perfectly now. One main sympton of this would be my computer would freeze for about five minutes and then resume like nothing happened.

Interesting, it does sound similar. I'm using a 3.5" HD. When my computer would freeze (meaning not lock up completely), it seemed to happen when going over bumps. But it seems like those problems are in the past now considering I changed my IDE cable. But who knows, it may still be a problem considering all my problems have been random.

Thanks volum3rider, I'll add that to my list. Now my list is 1) run a more thorough scan and 2) check HD connections.