Urza9814 Posted May 26, 2005 Report Share Posted May 26, 2005 Ok...ever since I got this new Maxtor 200GB HDD, this comp has gone to hell. Both Linux and Windoze don't work right...they keep going all screwy...can't really be more specific than that, 'cause it's a buncha stuff...but...let's see...on linux, I have to open up mcc on every boot and set my mouse to something else then back before it'll work...that's the main annoyance...and on windoze I'll be sitting there...doesn't matter what I'm doing...it just happened while playing a game of SOLITAIRE...but all of a sudden the video card will crash (though it usually can fix itself) or worse, the entire screen will just kinda turn to one color...whatever the main color on the screen was at the time. Also, my HDDs have gone corrupt about 3 times now...and I've reinstalled Mandrake about 5 since the last corruption...the mouse worked the first but then something else screwed up (don't even remember)...and windoze I've reinstalled a few times...reinstalled my video driver a lot...DLed the latest updates (that made it even worse)...so since my HDD is still under warranty...could that be the cause? The thing is, the video card issues sound weird to me for a HDD as the cause, and my other two HDDs got corrupted too as soon as I plugged 'em in to try to transfer to this new drive...so...is there some kinda test I can run on this or something to figure out what my problem is? Or should I just try a different drive and see what happens? The problem is the problems are uncommon enough to make trying a different HDD a pain (only every few hours...can't just plug it in and find out...and some days it seems to work almost fine) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 you forgot to tell us which kind of hdd your maxtor drive is (ata, sata, usb). some info here would be helpful. if i were you, i would remove the drive for now and test your box with another hdd. if everything runs pretty good, there is a significant chance that you got a faulty hdd... i never heard that maxtor drives cripple a windows system without doing serious harm to them before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 could possibly be power supply, hard drive, or video card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted May 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 (edited) Hmm...I googled around a bit and a few other people seem to have had this problem... It's a Maxtor 200GB ATA133 drive, model 6B200R0. I saw a thing on a site saying to go into CMOS and set it to LBA...so far no problems, but I only did that about an hour ago, so... I'll try to test it in my bro's comp sometime...maybe when he's at work someday...dunno though...I can't seem to find a way to re-create the problem or predict it, so...not sure if that'd work or not. edit: ...and, about 2 minutes after posting that, it crashed again...so...that didn't work Oh, and I just remembered there's another screwy thing I forgot to mention. Whenever I try to open up 'My Computer' in windoze, it locks up, I have to kill that, which then causes explorer to crash, so I've gotta use CTRL-ATL-DEL to get that running again...hmm...I suppose that'd be a real easy way to test it on my bro's comp...now I just have to hope he's working tommrow. Edited May 27, 2005 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 What's "this computer" which freezes? Mainboard is of special interest. Are you sure the BIOS supports HD's larger than 137GB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 Sounds like a power supply problem to me. Only common factor that fits all issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 As lxthusdan said, it is probably the power supply. It is also possible that the mainboard is the villian. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 I vote for the mobo (just to alienate from the previous two mandy geeks! :D ), but my very next bet would be the PSU, as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 I agree that the psu is the most likely cause. The other likely suspects are ram and the ide cable(s). If you have some extra ide cables around, try swapping them. Also, reseat your ram and run memtest on it overnight; see if any errors are reported. You may have bumped something when you installed the drive. To check the drive, download the diagnostic utilities from maxtor's website: http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/m...&downloadID=113 and put the drive through it's paces. They usually want you to do this before they will give you an rma anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 i don't think the mobo is the problem here (e.g. support for hdds 137+ gb). in this case, the box wouldn't have started any operating system. as the bios detects the hdd and can set it to lba, it definitely looks like a power supply problem imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted May 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 (edited) yea...I thought it was the mobo at first myself...but...since the problem seemed to have originated when I plugged in the HDD, either that's the problem or I bumped something while installing it...reason I thought it was the mobo though is 'cause it's a REALLY cheap mobo...QDI KuDoz series... The PSU is pretty good though...well, I think so anyways...came with the case, Antec PSU I believe (Raidmax case)...the case was $70 and it's not really that fancy or anything, so... I'll try the HDD in another comp probably in about an hour...see if that's the problem...I kinda hope so, 'cause that's still under warranty. edit: Ok, that didn't work...windoze got a BSOD, and Mandrake failed to start X...so I'm burning their utility thing now, but from what I've read of other people with this problem, it usually doesn't find anything. Edited May 27, 2005 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 oh... if both machines get "instantly killed" by the maxtor drive, then i would return the drive to the shop immediately and try another manufacturer (e.g. samsung or trek-stor (never had problems with these)). the hdd must be faulty imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted May 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 oh... if both machines get "instantly killed" by the maxtor drive, then i would return the drive to the shop immediately and try another manufacturer (e.g. samsung or trek-stor (never had problems with these)). the hdd must be faulty imho. no...only the other machine gets INSTANTLY killed...this one runs, it just runs like crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 Hard drives either run or they don't. Even data errors are more likely a ram issue than a hard drive. A utility must run overnight, just like checking ram. I still am on the power supply. If I had it on the bench, that is what I would swap out first. After checking all connections and slot insertions, as already suggested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 oh... if both machines get "instantly killed" by the maxtor drive, then i would return the drive to the shop immediately and try another manufacturer (e.g. samsung or trek-stor (never had problems with these)). the hdd must be faulty imho. no...only the other machine gets INSTANTLY killed...this one runs, it just runs like crap. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ah.. okay. i see. i misunderstood your post. sorry. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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