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Okay, there's two major problems with my computer that are really beginning to annoy the bejesus out of me... they might be linked in some screwy Microsoft-induced not-workingness but I'm not sure...
1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally. Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works perfectly. Any suggestions?
2. Windows XP keeps freezing. In many ways this is worse than the BSOD, because it allows you no hope of recovery and forces you to reset. Normally I wouldn't mind to much, comes with the territory when you use MS products, but virtually every computer session is ended by this annoying problem. I've lost essays and posts on here all because, out of the blue, it decides to freeze up. Everything is frozen, you can't move the cursor or press CTRL+ALT+DEL. The whole bloody thing just stops until you manually restart.
Can anyone help? Do it for the sake of my computer, I'm on the verge of putting a fist through the monitor.
1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally. Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works perfectly. Any suggestions?
2. Windows XP keeps freezing. In many ways this is worse than the BSOD, because it allows you no hope of recovery and forces you to reset. Normally I wouldn't mind to much, comes with the territory when you use MS products, but virtually every computer session is ended by this annoying problem. I've lost essays and posts on here all because, out of the blue, it decides to freeze up. Everything is frozen, you can't move the cursor or press CTRL+ALT+DEL. The whole bloody thing just stops until you manually restart.
Can anyone help? Do it for the sake of my computer, I'm on the verge of putting a fist through the monitor.
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Okay, there's two major problems with my computer that are really beginning to annoy the bejesus out of me... they might be linked in some screwy Microsoft-induced not-workingness but I'm not sure...
1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally. Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works perfectly. Any suggestions?
2. Windows XP keeps freezing. In many ways this is worse than the BSOD, because it allows you no hope of recovery and forces you to reset. Normally I wouldn't mind to much, comes with the territory when you use MS products, but virtually every computer session is ended by this annoying problem. I've lost essays and posts on here all because, out of the blue, it decides to freeze up. Everything is frozen, you can't move the cursor or press CTRL+ALT+DEL. The whole bloody thing just stops until you manually restart.
Can anyone help? Do it for the sake of my computer, I'm on the verge of putting a fist through the monitor.
1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally. Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works perfectly. Any suggestions?
2. Windows XP keeps freezing. In many ways this is worse than the BSOD, because it allows you no hope of recovery and forces you to reset. Normally I wouldn't mind to much, comes with the territory when you use MS products, but virtually every computer session is ended by this annoying problem. I've lost essays and posts on here all because, out of the blue, it decides to freeze up. Everything is frozen, you can't move the cursor or press CTRL+ALT+DEL. The whole bloody thing just stops until you manually restart.
Can anyone help? Do it for the sake of my computer, I'm on the verge of putting a fist through the monitor.
Mr. Happy wrote:
> Okay, there's two major problems with my computer that are really
> beginning to annoy the bejesus out of me... they might be linked in
> some screwy Microsoft-induced not-workingness but I'm not sure...
>
> 1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally.
> Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always
> acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message
> saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works
> perfectly. Any suggestions?
This is a serious problem, but I reckon it's more to do with the BIOS than XP. It surely shoudln't have ANY trouble recognising or reading ANY IDE device. Have you checked the cables are OK?
> 2. Windows XP keeps freezing. In many ways this is worse than the
> BSOD, because it allows you no hope of recovery and forces you to
> reset. Normally I wouldn't mind to much, comes with the territory when
> you use MS products, but virtually every computer session is ended by
> this annoying problem. I've lost essays and posts on here all because,
> out of the blue, it decides to freeze up. Everything is frozen, you
> can't move the cursor or press CTRL+ALT+DEL. The whole bloody thing
> just stops until you manually restart.
Hrm. Is this just an IRQ issue? XP could be loading drivers or mounting devices (or similar), does it happen totally randomly or do they happen near a definable even? Either that or it's a hardware fault, possibly your PSU or RAM failing.
> Okay, there's two major problems with my computer that are really
> beginning to annoy the bejesus out of me... they might be linked in
> some screwy Microsoft-induced not-workingness but I'm not sure...
>
> 1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally.
> Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always
> acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message
> saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works
> perfectly. Any suggestions?
This is a serious problem, but I reckon it's more to do with the BIOS than XP. It surely shoudln't have ANY trouble recognising or reading ANY IDE device. Have you checked the cables are OK?
> 2. Windows XP keeps freezing. In many ways this is worse than the
> BSOD, because it allows you no hope of recovery and forces you to
> reset. Normally I wouldn't mind to much, comes with the territory when
> you use MS products, but virtually every computer session is ended by
> this annoying problem. I've lost essays and posts on here all because,
> out of the blue, it decides to freeze up. Everything is frozen, you
> can't move the cursor or press CTRL+ALT+DEL. The whole bloody thing
> just stops until you manually restart.
Hrm. Is this just an IRQ issue? XP could be loading drivers or mounting devices (or similar), does it happen totally randomly or do they happen near a definable even? Either that or it's a hardware fault, possibly your PSU or RAM failing.
Theres alot of things it could be but I'd say its a fair guess the 2 problems are linked. Try to pin point when these things are happening. Is it really random, or is eg the crashing happening what the second hard-disk is being accessed or only after you've accessed certain software.
I have encountered a similar thing on win2k, in that case the HD was failing. The errors on the HD were causing win2k to crash completely.
Apologies if this is too obvious (sorry don't know your computer knowledge) but make sure you run scandisk (thorough mode) on both drives and see if that reports anything.
If that yields nothing, you might consider a reinstall of XP. Also try opening the case, and make sure the HD leads are in firmly. If you're still have problems, unplug the second HD and see if it still crashes.
Sorry I can't be much help....
-G
I have encountered a similar thing on win2k, in that case the HD was failing. The errors on the HD were causing win2k to crash completely.
Apologies if this is too obvious (sorry don't know your computer knowledge) but make sure you run scandisk (thorough mode) on both drives and see if that reports anything.
If that yields nothing, you might consider a reinstall of XP. Also try opening the case, and make sure the HD leads are in firmly. If you're still have problems, unplug the second HD and see if it still crashes.
Sorry I can't be much help....
-G
Solution = Windows XP is crap!
Like Turbonutter said, the second problem may your RAM failing. Take out all but one of your DIMMs and use your PC for a while; if there are no problems swap your DIMM with another one and so on. If they all seem to work, try them in a different slot until you have eliminated all possibilities.
If that doesn't help, consider replacing your case's power supply unit.
If that doesn't help, consider replacing your case's power supply unit.
I am tempted to think that the second problem is something to do with the RAM, the upgrade I got was 133Mhz, whereas the rest is 100Mhz, but I was assured that the 133Mhz would just operate at 100Mhz anyway... BIOS and windows detect the RAM fine, so it doesn't seem to be causing any problems on the surface...
There is nothing that is triggering the the computer to freeze otherwise, no common event that makes it happen, sometimes I can use the computer for an hour and nothing will happen, other times I will have to restart five times in twenty minutes.
The Hard-disk is equally puzzling. It's not the cables because BIOS is detecting it, and Windows acknowledges its existence, but sometimes when I log in, it says the drive is unformatted, and other times it works normally. I'm not entirely sure why it's doing it either, as I don't make any changes that suddenly make it appear again, it just happens.
Is there a possibility I need to alter the jumper settings on the primary drive to make it aware of the secondary drive?
There is nothing that is triggering the the computer to freeze otherwise, no common event that makes it happen, sometimes I can use the computer for an hour and nothing will happen, other times I will have to restart five times in twenty minutes.
The Hard-disk is equally puzzling. It's not the cables because BIOS is detecting it, and Windows acknowledges its existence, but sometimes when I log in, it says the drive is unformatted, and other times it works normally. I'm not entirely sure why it's doing it either, as I don't make any changes that suddenly make it appear again, it just happens.
Is there a possibility I need to alter the jumper settings on the primary drive to make it aware of the secondary drive?
IDE busses:
You can have 4 IDE drives. You have two busses on one motherboard, and each can accept a master and slave device. Your HDD 1 (c:\) must be on the Primary bus, with its jumper set to Master. So, I'm guessing you have two drives left. This is what I'd do:
Attach both drives to your Secondary bus. Set the hard drive as Master and the CD-ROM drive as slave, and plug them in. Make sure your BIOS detects them. If you have two CD-ROM drives, set your secondary one as Primary Slave. This is on the basis that the Primary bus, with your master HDD on it, should have its bus pretty much to itself to let it run efficiently. Hard drives should be master wherever possible to increase performance.
However:
I would take out HDD 2 and see what happens. If it is failing, and Windows is using it as virtual memory, then you're going to get vital parts of it faulting, which leads to a high Windows mortality rate.
You can have 4 IDE drives. You have two busses on one motherboard, and each can accept a master and slave device. Your HDD 1 (c:\) must be on the Primary bus, with its jumper set to Master. So, I'm guessing you have two drives left. This is what I'd do:
Attach both drives to your Secondary bus. Set the hard drive as Master and the CD-ROM drive as slave, and plug them in. Make sure your BIOS detects them. If you have two CD-ROM drives, set your secondary one as Primary Slave. This is on the basis that the Primary bus, with your master HDD on it, should have its bus pretty much to itself to let it run efficiently. Hard drives should be master wherever possible to increase performance.
However:
I would take out HDD 2 and see what happens. If it is failing, and Windows is using it as virtual memory, then you're going to get vital parts of it faulting, which leads to a high Windows mortality rate.
Mr. Happy wrote:
> 1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally.
> Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always
> acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message
> saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works
> perfectly. Any suggestions?
I'm uncertain if it's a similar problem, but I got a new IBM 82GB drive and then I partitioned it and it kept coming up with errors, losing data, disk not appearing, 'incorrectly formatted' messages etc. etc. especially after any sort of crash.
In the end I ran one of the disk tools things from the IBM site and it's been perfect ever since - not had a problem, only that I can't partition the drive.
I guess it might be worth checking out the drive manufacturers website.
> 1. Windows XP will only recognise my second hard-disk occasionally.
> Well, it will only recognise the data on it sometimes; it always
> acknowledges that there is a disk there. Sometimes I get a message
> saying that the drive is unformatted, and other times it works
> perfectly. Any suggestions?
I'm uncertain if it's a similar problem, but I got a new IBM 82GB drive and then I partitioned it and it kept coming up with errors, losing data, disk not appearing, 'incorrectly formatted' messages etc. etc. especially after any sort of crash.
In the end I ran one of the disk tools things from the IBM site and it's been perfect ever since - not had a problem, only that I can't partition the drive.
I guess it might be worth checking out the drive manufacturers website.
Mr. Happy wrote:
> ... the upgrade I got was 133Mhz, whereas the rest is 100Mhz, but
> I was assured that the 133Mhz would just operate at 100Mhz anyway...
I was told this too but had nothing but problems. Stick to the same speed for all your DIMMs.
> ... the upgrade I got was 133Mhz, whereas the rest is 100Mhz, but
> I was assured that the 133Mhz would just operate at 100Mhz anyway...
I was told this too but had nothing but problems. Stick to the same speed for all your DIMMs.
Well that's what you get for buying IBM.
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