Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Win XP freezing while unraring...ID 9 error?

Mar 4, 2004 2:54PM PST

Well good old WinXP is making me grow old too fast again. I replaced a hard drive not long ago because of similar problems, starting to think it's XP or my motherboard...so here's my problem.

Been running XP fine and dandy for months, no problems since replacing my HD. Suddenly the other day, I get a lockup while unzipping a large .rar file. I figure it's the file causing it, no big deal. Well it now locks up every single time I try to unzip any .rar file that is large. I checked the event log and it told me:

Source: ultra EventID: 9
The device, \Device\Scsi\ultra1, did not respond within the timeout period.

Of course MS is about as helpful as another hole in the head, their support doesn't have any information on this error code, which begs to ask the question, if they don't know what it is, why does it have an error code? Anyway, I digress.

I had a similar problem several months ago, but then it would lock up while downloaded using one particular program...Xnews. After a few weeks of freezing, I think the HD ended up getting corrupted and I had to get a replacement. I do remember one significant event, the fist time it locked up, it told me after a while that there was an I/O problem and that my disk was possibly full.

Any help would be appreciated and possibly grow some of my hair back.

Thanks,
jester@vnet.net

Info:
WinXP Pro - SP 1
AMD Athlon Processor - 1.1Ghz
1.0 GB PC133 Ram
ASUS A7V MB
ATI Radeon 8500 video card
Maxtor 233GB harddrive (140 GB free)

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:Win XP freezing while unraring...ID 9 error?
Mar 4, 2004 8:15PM PST
http://www.eventid.net/displayqueue.asp?eventid=9 finds discussions on this.

If this was my machine, the BIOS would be current, I'd drop back to 512M, I'd have a 450Watt PSU (doesn't matter if it worked before, such things degrade) and I'd see what a DRIVE FITNESS TEST reports.

I'd also try latest motherboard drivers.

There is no "do this" to cure this one.

Bob
- Collapse -
Re:Win XP freezing while unraring...ID 9 error?
Mar 4, 2004 8:24PM PST

Googling the event log found THESE . Take your pick. Understanding them is another topic.

- Collapse -
Re:Win XP freezing while unraring...ID 9 error?
Mar 4, 2004 9:48PM PST

Here's an update...

I downloaded several other programs to try to unpack the .rar files...all failed. I tried unpacking old .rar files that I know are good, and I have the same problem. It seems that there is a problem just unpacking the large .rar files, no matter what program I use. Could this be some kind of funky corrupt .dll file? Does anybody know the exact process winrar goes through to unpack a file, I.E. what .dll's does it call?

By all accounts, it looks like my HD is structurally fine. I ran several diagnostic tests and all were successful. I looped about 6 hours of music while I was out and no lockup. I downloaded 5+ gigs of junk from Xnews to test the HD, no problems. It's just this one nagging issue, but it's a big issue for me.

Thanks for your help so far,
jester@vnet.net

- Collapse -
Your email address is showing.
Mar 4, 2004 9:54PM PST

I can delete the posts with it on demand.

In closing, no indication you tried this with one stick of memory. If you won't test such things, it could be a sign that you won't use what the forum suggests. If not, where do we go from here?

Some will dig in their heels and state "it worked before." Which is nice, but it doesn't work today.

What answer are you looking for?

Bob

- Collapse -
Re:Win XP freezing while unraring...ID 9 error?
Mar 5, 2004 6:26AM PST

Update #2:

Bob, I tried your suggestions today. I pulled all the RAM except for one 512MB chip, same problem. I put in just one 256MB chip, same problem. I also checked my power supply, I already have a 450Watt supply, replaced it about a year ago. Asus hasn't updated a driver for my MB in a long time, I have the most current. My BIOS is also current. I appreciate the help though. Here is what I did discover:

I have two hard disks, one smaller one I use for archives. I moved the large .rar file to the smaller HD, and viola, WinRAR can handle it there! I still refuse to believe that my large HD is failing, all other performance and tests seem to go against that theory. I remember the last time I had this problem it was when I had used approx. 100GB of my HD, as is the case here. Could this be a problem with large disk support by XP? Or maybe a hardware limitation with the outdated Asus MB? I'm at a loss right now, I'll try most solutions I'm given.

Thanks,
Kevin W.

- Collapse -
That's a good CLUE!
Mar 5, 2004 7:18AM PST

Before you go running a drive fitness test, fit a new shiny 80 conductor IDE cable. Your post hasn't revealed the gory details of connections, cable type and jumpers.

The large disk support in XP was in SP1 for IDE drives past 127 (or 128?) GB.

I have heard no reports of an issue.

Bob

- Collapse -
Re:That's a good CLUE!
Mar 5, 2004 8:00PM PST

Bob,
I'll try fitting a new cable sometime on Sunday, after all my 12 hours shifts are up. I can't remember if I replaced the cable when I replaced the HD, but I'll try anything right now. I appreciate your help thus far though, thanks for taking time to help people out like you do.

Kevin

- Collapse -
WAG...Just wondering...
Mar 5, 2004 8:14PM PST

...you said.."I remember the last time I had this problem it was when I had used approx. 100GB of my HD, as is the case here".

Now System Restore uses 12% of your HDD which in a 120 GB (115 GB actual size) would mean 11.5 GB is reserved for SR.
So if you encountered this problem when you've used up 100 GB the low disk space could have triggered this problem?

Which also might explain why when you move some files from the 120 GB HDD to the smaller drive the problem disappears?

As a test try and reduce the reserve space for SR or do a disk clean up to regain some space on the 120 GB HDD.

- Collapse -
Re:WAG...Just wondering...
Mar 6, 2004 9:10PM PST

David,
Thanks for the suggestion but I think you misunderstood. My current HD has about 130GB of free space, the full capacity is 230GB. I've seen Winblows use some pretty big swap files, but 130GB better not be happening!

Thanks again,
Kevin

- Collapse -
4GB swap/paging file limit.
Mar 6, 2004 10:32PM PST

The VM is limited to 2^32 or 4GB. So beyond that the OS can't go. It's why the move to 64-bit this year. This month showed another step to 64-bit with 64-bit laptops arrivals.

My best advice is still for people to not over spend on new hardware and wait for the 64-bit market flip. If they want to stay 32-bit and its limits, then they can do so cheaply. Even my new laptop plan changed last week as I see 64-bit laptops roll out at the near 1000 buck range. We will not see a premium price it seems.

1. More to your issue, the temp space on all drives should be at least 2 to 4 times the file size that you are working with to be sure that this is not the issue.

2. Some limit the paging file in search of some speed gain. When you see an issue like yours, it's best to just push the swap up to 4GB and try to let windows manage it.
Bob

- Collapse -
Re:4GB swap/paging file limit.
Mar 8, 2004 9:18AM PST

Okay, still chugging along with little success. I swaped out the cable today for a shiny new IDE cable and no success. I also upped the swap file size with no results. I'm not sure how to increase the Temp file space, if you can help me with that.

I'm starting to wonder if this is a hardware issue, maybe beyond the HD. I've had this old Asus A7V MB now for a few years, maybe its time is up? Any suggestions for a new MB where I could keep all my peripherials and RAM?

Thanks for everybody's help, I would still be at square one if it weren't for you guys, specially Bob.

Thanks,
Kevin

- Collapse -
Temp file space = easy.
Mar 8, 2004 10:24AM PST

1. Empty the Temp files by running Disk Cleanup and check off all the boxes.

2. Did we cover off the motherboard BIOS being current?

3. Any oddities like tweaking the OS? I dropped a hint to let Windows manage the swap. But some try to (over) control temp, swap, where programs install and posts like yours result. I wish Microsoft would let people do such tweaks without side effects.

Bob

- Collapse -
Re:Win XP freezing while unraring...ID 9 error?
Mar 8, 2004 10:38AM PST

I'll try the temp file thing...

More about my system...

Asus A7V KT133 MB
Bios is 1012a (Beta) - Asus informed me that this is the final A7V bios and the only one that supports large disk support.

Thanks,
Kevin

- Collapse -
EUREKA!
Mar 8, 2004 11:25AM PST

Well I think I figured it out! Thanks to Bob, I really started looking into the driver issue. I was browsing the Asus website and noticed that they released a new Ultra100 IDE Controller Driver that was intended for the A7V133. I have the older A7V, which they didn't recommend it for, but I figured I have nothing to lose. I had to force WinXP to install the driver, navigate through the warnings and such, but it installed fine. I rebooted and viola, winrar works again, no lock up. So far, everything seems to be resolved, I hope that was the fix, not the workaround.

Thanks for everybody's help, I was about to break down and spend money, glad I didn't.

Kevin