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General discussion

Click! Click! Click!

Mar 9, 2005 1:50AM PST

I've been working on my 'puter as of late, having some trouble with it rebooting at random times. The HD starts to clicking and then "Poof!"
I'm at BLUE SCREEN and it starts dumpin' memory to reboot. Sounds like a HD failure, right? Well, I ran a diagnostic from Maxtor ( my HD maker) and the HD checks good. Now I'm thinking cables. Any ideas? None of this crap started to happen until I loaded SP2, so I unloaded it and rolled back to last working config. Still clicking! I've also unloaded all unnecessary programs,( games and crap like that).I defraged, 86% free space and 1% fraged. Still clicking, but not as often. I also ran the PC Pitstop system check. It reported everything was good except the uncashed speed was 3M/s, well below the average of 43M/s. A scheduled antivirus (AVG) just ran and crashed.(did not complete). During the run, the program would stop/pause and then, click, click and start up again, but finally went to BLUE and rebooted.
I've had numerous error codes, mostly f4,03,ect.

System Info:
Processor
Model : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Speed : 3.02GHz
Performance Rating : PR4010 (estimated)
SMT Support : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Standard
L2 On-board Cache : 1024kB ECC Synchronous ATC (8-way sectored, 64 byte line size)

Mainboard
Bus(es) : AGP PCI IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
MP Support : 1 CPU(s)
MP APIC : Yes
System BIOS : Award Software International, Inc. F1
System : Magnell
Mainboard : Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 8IPE1000P-G
Total Memory : 1023MB DDR-SDRAM

Chipset 1
Model : Giga-Byte Technology 82865G/PE/P, 82848P DRAM Controller / Host-Hub Interface
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 201MHz (804MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 1024MB DDR-SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : ViewSonic VX900-2
Adapter : RADEON X800 PRO
Adapter : RADEON X800 PRO Secondary
Adapter : RADEON 9800 PRO
Adapter : RADEON 9800 PRO - Secondary

Physical Storage Devices
Removable Drive : Floppy disk drive
Hard Disk : Maxtor 6Y200M0 (189.9GB)
CD-ROM/DVD : SONY DVD-ROM DDU1613 (CD 40X Rd) (DVD 5X Rd)
CD-ROM/DVD : _NEC DVD_RW ND-2500A (CD 40X Rd, 32X Wr) (DVD 5X Rd, 4X Wr)

Logical Storage Devices
1.44MB 3.5" (AHappy : N/A
Hard Disk (CHappy : 183.1GB (158.5GB, 87% Free) (NTFS)
Dise_backup (DHappy : 6.8GB (5.4GB, 79% Free) (FAT32)
CD-ROM/DVD (FHappy : N/A
Removable Drive (GHappy : N/A
Removable Drive (HHappy : N/A
Removable Drive (IHappy : N/A
Removable Drive (JHappy : N/A

Peripherals
Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 1 COM / 1 LPT
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 82801EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 24DD
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : Plantronics USB Audio Adapter
USB Controller/Hub : USB Printing Support
USB Controller/Hub : USB Mass Storage Device
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Keyboard : Easy Internet Keyboard
Mouse : Logitech-compatible Mouse PS/2
Human Interface : HID-compliant consumer control device
Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device

MultiMedia Device(s)
Device : Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
Device : Creative Game Port

Printers and Faxes
Model : EPSON Stylus C84 Series


Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Home (Win32 x86/IA32) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 1)

Network Services
Adapter : Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter, Copper RJ-45

Please Help.

Discussion is locked

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me too, sorta
Mar 9, 2005 1:59AM PST

I had the same problem w/a IBM laptop HDD. It was fairly new, but second-hand. I've still got it (pack-rat...)and if somebody has ideas, I'll try using it again. Hopefully somebody has some ideas/solutions.
The blue screen/memory dumping was a new experience, so i put the old hdd back in.

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Computer re-set problem
Mar 22, 2005 3:22PM PST

The probem - your computer arbitrarily resetting/rebooting is due to a motherboard failure. I say this out Of personal experience. Either your video controller (built into your motherboard) or yoru dma controller is failing. Nothing wrong with your hard disk drive. Once you replace the motherboard, this problem will cease. Good luck.

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One or the other
Mar 23, 2005 12:49PM PST

I found the power supply just on the edge of failing would work and then either reboot or cause HD clicks as the HD can't get going. It may settle down but it always comes back. replace with a higher wattage unit. Also, closely inspect the mtrbd. capacitors for any bugling, leaking, distented ones as they cause the same. Plus, understand the caps inside the p/s unit cause similar problems. Here is a link for troublesome caps:
http://www.overclockers.com/topiclist/index23.asp#REPAIRS
However, a bad HD can be at fault as well.
enjoy -----Willy Happy