PC problem

[John Cafarella]

Hi,

I've got a PIII-933, ASUS CUSLC-2 mobo, running stripped down win 98SE. A
while ago I had what appeared to be a HDD problem which manifested itself as
EXTREME slowness of data transfer. I straightaway bought a new drive and
the problem seemed to go away. Testing of the old drive in a different
machine didn't find any problem with it though.

The problem has recurred, but not quite to the same degree, but occasionally
it returns to normal. When the system is in trouble, I have difficulty
playing back even one track without breaks. Shutdown can take a couple of
minutes whereas usually on this system, it is within a second or two of
hitting the shutdown confirm dialog.

Checklist:
-No new software installed recently
-Control panel/system shows no red flags
-Bios is set correctly
-Intel UDMA diagnostic says UDMA-4 is currently in use
-HDD activity light stays on when it's having trouble
-HDD cables are securely plugged all the way in.

Any clues?
My No.1 suspect at this time is the HDD controller (mobo). If nobody has
any better ideas I thik I'm gonna replace it.

What's a good non-VIA chipset mobo?

Thanks for your help, guys

--
John Cafarella
EOR Studio
Melbourne Australia
[ cafarellaj at powertel dot com dot au ]

[Geoff Duncan]

"John Cafarella" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> I've got a PIII-933, ASUS CUSLC-2 mobo, running stripped down win 98SE. A
> while ago I had what appeared to be a HDD problem which manifested itself
as
> EXTREME slowness of data transfer. I straightaway bought a new drive and
> the problem seemed to go away. Testing of the old drive in a different
> machine didn't find any problem with it though.
>
> The problem has recurred, but not quite to the same degree, but
occasionally
> it returns to normal. When the system is in trouble, I have difficulty
> playing back even one track without breaks. Shutdown can take a couple of
> minutes whereas usually on this system, it is within a second or two of
> hitting the shutdown confirm dialog.
>
> Checklist:
> -No new software installed recently
> -Control panel/system shows no red flags
> -Bios is set correctly
> -Intel UDMA diagnostic says UDMA-4 is currently in use
> -HDD activity light stays on when it's having trouble
> -HDD cables are securely plugged all the way in.
>
> Any clues?
> My No.1 suspect at this time is the HDD controller (mobo). If nobody has
> any better ideas I thik I'm gonna replace it.
>
> What's a good non-VIA chipset mobo?
>
> Thanks for your help, guys
>
> --
> John Cafarella
> EOR Studio
> Melbourne Australia
> [ cafarellaj at powertel dot com dot au ]
>
>

Hiya John,

I had a problem which sounds like this which was actually being cause by the
onboard USB port! It had become physically damaged somehow and made the
computer unstable intermittently. I tried new HDD, reinstall, etc, but
nothing permanently fixed it. When I was gong thru the BIOS turning
un-needed things off, when I got to turning the USB stuff off, it worked.

I havent had a problem since.

Probably a long shot but I thought I'd mention it!

Good Luck!!


Cheers


geoff


--
Geoff Duncan
Gherkin Productions Limited
Wellington New Zealand
www.gherkin.vze.com

[John Cafarella]

"Geoff Duncan" > wrote in message news:rL79b.1294>
> Hiya John,
>
> I had a problem which sounds like this which was actually being cause by
the
> onboard USB port! It had become physically damaged somehow and made the
> computer unstable intermittently. I tried new HDD, reinstall, etc, but
> nothing permanently fixed it. When I was gong thru the BIOS turning
> un-needed things off, when I got to turning the USB stuff off, it worked.
>
> I havent had a problem since.
>
> Probably a long shot but I thought I'd mention it!
>
> Good Luck!!
> Geoff Duncan
> Gherkin Productions Limited
> Wellington New Zealand
> www.gherkin.vze.com
>
Thanks Geoff,
I don't think I've got USB enabled (one of the things stripped out tin the
WIN98 install) but it's certainly worth a look in the BIOS.

Started researching mobo/CPU. ASUS P4P800 and a P4-2.4G 800Mhz FSB looks
like it might be good. The price difference between AMD/Intel doesn't seem
to be as great as last time I looked.

--
John Cafarella
EOR Studio
Melbourne Australia
[ cafarellaj at powertel dot com dot au ]

[Ethan Winer]

John,

The fix could be simply defragmenting the drive.

--Ethan

[John Cafarella]

"George Perfect" > wrote in message
>
> Might be worth swapping out the drive data cable(s). UDMA-4 needs an 80
> connector cable which always look like a problem waiting to happen in
> those cheap old crimp-on connectors. It only takes one connector to go
> intermittent for the controller to decide to throttle the data transfer
> rate way down to good ol' IBM PC standard speeds - which sounds like
> what you are getting.
>
> Just a thought.

And a damn good one too. Thanks.

--
John Cafarella
EOR Studio
Melbourne Australia
[ cafarellaj at powertel dot com dot au ]

[Geoff Wood]

"John Cafarella" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Ethan Winer" <ethan at ethanwiner dot com> wrote in message
> ...
> > John,
> >
> > The fix could be simply defragmenting the drive.
> >
> > --Ethan
>
> It's been a little while since defragging, but as the problem appears or
> disappears on a random basis whilst playing back the same data, I don't
> think that's the problem.

I have had problems with 80-pin ribbon cables. Try ensuring no sharp bends,
possibly causing signal 'relections' (=errors) at high data rates (
transmission line theory !), and the conductor can be quite fragile.

geoff

[John Cafarella]

"Geoff Wood" -nospam> wrote in message
...
>
> I have had problems with 80-pin ribbon cables. Try ensuring no sharp
bends,
> possibly causing signal 'relections' (=errors) at high data rates (
> transmission line theory !), and the conductor can be quite fragile.
>
> geoff

I'll install a new cable tonight and report back. Tnx
--
John Cafarella
EOR Studio
Melbourne Australia
[ cafarellaj at powertel dot com dot au ]

[John Cafarella]

"Ethan Winer" <ethan at ethanwiner dot com> wrote in message
...
> John,
>
> > the problem appears or disappears on a random basis <
>
> Based on that I agree it's probably not fragmentation. Hey, it was worth a
> shot.
>
> I also agree with the advice to check the cable, and change to one with 80
> pins if it's not already.
>
> --Ethan

Changed the cable out last night, and so far the problem seems to have gone.
* sigh * I HATE intermittent faults. Is it REALLY fixed? will it crap out
on me on the session this weekend?
--
John Cafarella
EOR Studio
Melbourne Australia
[ cafarellaj at powertel dot com dot au ]

[Ethan Winer]

John,

> I HATE intermittent faults. Is it REALLY fixed? <

Well, that's better than changing the cable and still having the problem. At
least this way you can *hope* that it's fixed!

--Ethan

[John Cafarella]

"Ethan Winer" <ethan at ethanwiner dot com> wrote in message
news:LVKdnVo1ee7U6_WiU-> > I HATE intermittent faults. Is it REALLY fixed?
<
>
> Well, that's better than changing the cable and still having the problem.
At
> least this way you can *hope* that it's fixed!
>
> --Ethan
Hope don't cut the mustard when it dies in the arse halfway through a
session!

Cheers
--
John Cafarella
EOR Studio
Melbourne Australia
[ cafarellaj at powertel dot com dot au ]

[Gary]

George Perfect > wrote in message >...

>
> Might be worth swapping out the drive data cable(s). UDMA-4 needs an 80
> connector cable which always look like a problem waiting to happen in
> those cheap old crimp-on connectors. It only takes one connector to go
> intermittent for the controller to decide to throttle the data transfer
> rate way down to good ol' IBM PC standard speeds - which sounds like
> what you are getting.

I've found that all 80-pin cables are not created equal - some have
one wire cut away in the middle. I tried using an 80-pin cable that
came with one mobo on another one and it did not work... can't
remember if it was just slow or refused to work at all.

[Pete Larson]

On 18 Sep 2003 09:54:52 -0700, (Gary) wrote:
>
>I've found that all 80-pin cables are not created equal - some have
>one wire cut away in the middle. I tried using an 80-pin cable that
>came with one mobo on another one and it did not work... can't
>remember if it was just slow or refused to work at all.

Every 80-line cable should have one wire disconnected at the middle
connector for 'cable select'. I forget which pin that is. Even
40-line cables were supposed to have that but it saved a few cents to
forget it. That line is for using CSEL instead of Master and Slave
jumpered on the drives. End connector will automatically be M and
middle will be S. Of course if M and S are set by jumper, the CSEL
signal is ignored.


Pete Larson
(Remove XPAM for personal reply.)