My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

keropi

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My main PC has an Asus P5Q motherboard... a really nice one with many features and 6 SATAII ports ... In the 1st SATA port I had a 500GB Seagate HDD for boot. I began to notice some noises, like the heads continuously were trying to read/write a bad sector or something... Plus in windows log there were some "error in ideport0" , the 1st SATA port with the noisy HDD... So I downloaded Seagate tools for windows and did some tests on the drive, one of which failed.
No biggie I thought, it is just the HDD dying... so immediately it got replaced with a new 1TB drive, I did the migration with a program in Hiren's boot CD (can't remember which ATM) , there was no data loss or any problems, and the new drive just worked. But since this week something strange happened: when the pc was booted after a night's time , it would just stick forever in the loading bar of Vista, and the HDD light would light for 0.5 sec, and then again after 2 secs... this went on and on for a good 5 minutes, with no result whatsoever.
A reboot fixes the problem and windows boot fine, again with NO data loss , or damaged files! I decided to investigate more into this, so I took the pc to my workplace, cleaned it with compressed air :nod: and replaced the SATA1 port cable , that was indeed looking flacky (cheap china cable IMHO), with one of the cables that came with the ASUS mobo. I booted again , after ~10hrs being turned off, and it was perfect like before! I have tried booting several times in the day, all was good!
So I naturally thought , nice nice :thumbsup2: it was the cable! I went back home at afternoon, and booted once again fine! Then around 00:30 I decided to power-off the pc and go to bed. I pressed shutdown and went to wash my teeth... when I returned several minutes later I saw the pc was still working on the logging off screen (it was not hang, it never did that) and guess what: the HDD led was blinking like it did when it tried to boot.... :pirate:
WTF is going on? there is no freeze, no data loss, just annoying retries to access the HDD!
I know it is not good, anyone ever faced a similar problem? Next thing I will try it not to use the 1st SATA port anymore, maybe it is broken somehow... or is it a problem with the migration software I used to copy the boot partition from the 500GB HDD to the new 1TB one? :shrug: though I doubt this is the cause of the problem (the 500GB HDD works fine after testing on another downloader-pc in my office, that stays on 24/7)
The mobo still has a good 2 years guarantee , but if I give it back I must wait for it to be checked, which means no main pc for ~10+ days , maybe 2 weeks... not a big deal BUT it can be a waste of time too, since returns are always "difficult" , and the problem in question does not happen every time...
I am open to suggestions :grouphug: :thanks:

ps. I was considering migrating to a i7 machine, and now I see there are i5's available too? :blink: I got confused :ROTFLOL2: then I thought it again since getting new hardware seems a waste of money for now, considering I have an E8600 c2d@3.16ghz and a gigabyte 216cores GTX260 vga... plus the fact I don't really play games on pc nowdays, I prefer them on the X360 (unless diablo3 get released :jester: )
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

Have you tried running sysoft sandra and seeing where or if it gives up??
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

nope.... I do heavily extracting from this drive (after download that is) and did not crap out on me... Will try it though, no reason why not (y)
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

If you wanna stick with Vista:

Strip the rig entirely. Put the bare mobo on workbench with a big 12V battery. Put the Battery earth to one of the Mobo mounting holes & drag the Positive terminal all over as many components on the board as possible. 45Amps should be good to get you an RMA.

Alternatively, try installing WinXP & see what happens then. (y)

i5 compared to i7 is like 975 chipset to 965 chipset. :wink:

Kin
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

LOL Kin, I might just do that...
I doubt Vista are to blame, some times the HDD will "stuck" before POST too now that I remeber better... Also with vista it was working fine for almost a year...
Meh, I think it just bit the dust...
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

How many hard drives do you have fitted to the rig & have you tested the PSU with a load tester?

Kin
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

there are 3x1TB seagate HDDs inside now, plus a sata Optiarc dvdr , the GTX260, the E8600 and a SB XiFi Elite soundcard with it's 5.25" bay and 2x2GB DDR2 sticks, (plus a floppy + media reader) all powered with this PSU: COOLERMASTER RS-620 REALPOWER M620 620W that is supposed to even power a SLI setup as I have read when I got it...
I have no psu tester though... if the psu was to blame, surely there would be errors in other ports too, right? :?:

I must state that once the system does power-up fine, it is ultra stable and never gave me any problem...

PS. Kin, if I try the 12v battery route, will there be visible damage? like burns?
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

RE the 12V battery trick:

It depends how long you arc the positive for, how juicy the battery is & what component it's frying at the time. :ROTFLOL2:

I've seen RAM module caps along the edge connetor go up in whisps of smoke whilst glowing red for using 12V with 1amp.

Thats quite a stack of hard drives on a very average PSU. A Tagan of same size would handle the Hard drive hammering, as would PC P&C but in all honesty, 4 big drives like that over time will knacker the hard drives & strain the whole electrical system, meaning the Mobo components, PSU, components plugged into the mobo...blah blah blah. Load causes strain; weaker components mis-behave; ripples ensue from these factors & then all kinds of wierd things start occuring, but the weakest components will always show first. Hard drives are a killer of PSU's & the GTX260 adds to the load, never mind the CPU.

I've lost count of the number of 550W PSU's that have died on me over the years. I've seen a stable rig go unstable for putting a brand new 5th hard drive on an Antec true Control 550W. Took it off & the rig was fine again. 4 weeks later, I started crashing thanks to a Maxtor drive on the rig giving errors on the test software. I ended up scrapping another 2 x Seagates in the following weeks, binning the blumming PSU & starting again. :|

Kin
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

The review links you provide dont add up. The Spec says 1000W output & 1200W output. :shrug:

This Link is the one you refer to I think?
Now this PSU has 3 x 12V rails making it very cheap & nasty to support 4 x BIG hard drives with GTX260 etc.

What you really need in any PSU is 1 BIG 12V rail with as many AMPS on it as you can get. Add to this factor a good brand name such as PC P&C; OCZ; Tagan ; - & you won't go far wrong. Your components will last longer for it.
Be really crazy like me & have a Filter wired into the House Electricity supply. The ring main that provides power to my Computers & Home Cinema/Hifi set up all come off the filter. No spiking/minimal ripples = less strain on components. (y)

In all honesty, I think you're seeing the start of events after the aftermath. The aftermath being, your 3 x 12v railed 620W PSU has been well hammered, courtesy of 4 BIG hard drives & nVidia's thirsty for juice GTX260.

Kin
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

I will look to it, by removing 1 HDD , thanks KH!
ah, just to correct thing, I have 3 x1GB HDD's , not 4 :ROTFLOL2: but the 4th will come soon enough :woot:
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

With Multi-Railed PSU's like yours, you can share the loading very simply. Feather all the cables you can hook up & actually use & spead the devices accross the connections. Don't hang all your hard drives off the same header cable for example. Graphics is dedicated to the leads, but check your manual with the PSU & see if you can suss out which Rails run what ports from the PSU sockets. Sprinkle the hard drives accordingly to soften the load. (y)

Hope that makes some sort of sense m8y.

Charlie
 
Re: My pc keeps getting "Error on ideport0" , hdd behaves

I have actually done that, the dedicated green ports feed the GTX260 , and there is 1 cable feeding 2 HDD's and the other the remaining HDD + DVDR ...
the floppy + livedrive do get some power too, I can't remember from where but I doubt they drain the rail :ROTFLOL2:
 
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