Event ID 51 Error

Hi,

I have 3 Windows partitions. C:, the Windows XP partition, E: a Vista partition, and F:, a partition to store important documents and stuff. I only scanned C: because that's where the pagefile is and thats where the error occurs.

Like it said in that link you posted, I went to My Computer, right-clicked my HD partition, clicked properties, went to the Tools tab, and clicked Check Now. I selected both options (Automatically fix for file system error and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors). It told me to restart and I did.

Checkdisk came up and it scanned the HD through a 5 step process. It took forever, but my computer restarted again and a screen came up saying MY DISK IS CLEAN. So that means its not a bad disk.

But someting weird did happen. After the computer restarted after the Checkdisk scan, the evnt 51 errors didn't come up this time in event Viewer. Weird.

Also, in that link, it says that the majority of problems is caused by NCQ (Native Command Queuing) technology. It said:

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"NCQ is an innovation featured in SATA drives.

IIRC Seagate (http://www.seagate.com/products/interface/sata/native.html) drives were the first to bring it in.

Seagate/Intel have a great joint whitepaper(in PDF) (http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/06/60/66002_66002.pdf) they released which is a nifty little overview of the process.

I usually describe NCQ a SATA drives ability to remember and execute multiple commands with greater efficiency as it remembers the position of the drive head and is able to select the next data transfer to minimize seek/rotational latencies.

Indeed, NCQ has a bearing on pagefile as it is an interaction if read/write on the disk. Please note that the event ID that was being generated in this instance is a generic one - indicating that an i/o(in/out) process isnt agreeing with windows virtual memory.

Unless you went exploring into hex error codes it is reallyhard to tell what the *specific* problem was. As NCQ is a modified way of achieving i/o process, it is not unreasonable at all that this could be perhaps causing your problem.

MS has more info on optimising pagefiles (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314482) but it seems you have a good grasp on that.

Another really important thing to consider here are transfer rates. SATA can achieve 3gbps. If a 3gpbs drive is being used at 1gbps this event error can also be generated. Most SATA drives come with little jumpers to 'dumb them down' to 1.5gbps if the drive is having trouble talking to the mboard.

In any event, a variety of solutions seem to work for people with different mboards/chipsets - though the A8n seems to be a common thread. I myself have an a8n but have never had a problem...perhaps my components have the most recent firmware in them ?? who knows !!

Still, disabling NCQ has solved the problem for many people, but you need to remembert that the drives capability to perform in its most efficient capacity is being disregarded when you do this....so its not really a 'fix' in a true sense, but a workaround.

Nice work though stoffe Let us now if you have any more probs with this error."

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My drive is an NCQ drive so that might be it. What do you think?

Thanks

Hi,
I ran CHKDSK (checkdisk) on my HD and it came out clean. Then after my computer restarted, I checked the Event Viewer and this time, the error didn't come up when the computer started. I restarted again and still no error. At first I thought that CHKDSK fixed it but then I remembered that right before I ran CHKDSK, I uninstalled a program called MSI Live Update. It is a program that was on my graphics card utility CD that is supposed to update the VGA Drivers with one click.

The program has been nothing but trouble to me on my computer. I have had previous experiences where the program causes (different) warnings in Event Viewer related to security threats and stuff. The program sometimes causes missing DLL error messages too, so I got tired of it and completely uninstalled it. Anyway, if I need new drivers, i'd much rather use MSI Live Update Online (its the same as Live Update except you run it on the web so no modifications to your computer are made.

Anyway, I don't know what fixed it (for now), Checkdisk or Uninstalling MSI Live Update. I'm still not 100% sure the problem's gone though. I'll post back if it comes back.

Thanks for all the help

Hi,

After leaving the computer off overnight, when it started up this morning the Event 51 errors came back. So, hoping it works (Which it probably won't), I switched the page file to a "System managed size". If nothing works, I think I'll just ignore it for now.

Also, I don't know if this is normal, but I realize that even though I have 400MB of unused physical memnory (RAM) out of my total 1GB of RAM, 700MB of the page file is being used. I just thought that the page file was only supposed to be used if the system runs out of physical memory... Any thoughts on that?

Thanks

You can adjust the page file,LINK,this link has pictures you can click on to expand.

Tom

Thanks Tom,

There was a lot of good stuff on that page. Which ones specifically should I follow do you think? Moving the pagefile is not an option for me because I don't have a second (physical) hard drive.

Thanx again

I was referring to "Have the initial size be at least 1.5 times bigger than the amount of physical RAM. Do NOT make the Pagefile smaller than the amount of physical RAM you've got installed on your system."

Increase the size on your HD,check the first picture there that you expand.

Tom

Hi,

The pagefile size on the system managed option is around 2450MB so thats more than enough (1024 x 1.5 = 1536).

Anyway, after changing the pagefile option to "System managed", the problem SEEMED to go away. The computer was left off all night and when in started up this morning, there were no errors in the log. I'll post back if there are any more developments.

Thanx