Announcement

**The PIT** · 6 February 2000, 09:08

Do the errors crop up on just one drive?
Sometimes different hard drives don't like working together. First of all check that you've got the master and slave settings set properly. If you have then you can try switching the channels and see if the errors still occur. If they stop brilliant if they continue the next step is using one drive at a time. Do this until the error re occurs you may have change the settings of the drive to cable select. By the way this includes swapping your dvd around as well.
It sounds like scandisk is restoring from the backup file allocation.
Another thing is to check the hard disk settings in the Bios and see if they agree with what is displayed on the hard disk. It's unlikely but it's possible that Bios is incorrectly detecting the hard disks.

**RAB** · 6 February 2000, 10:32

If you are constantly getting crosslinked files, you have big problems. I strongly suggest you back up what you need on one of the slower drives. Then put your Maxtor on the first IDE channel as Primary. Reformat the Maxtor and reinstall Windows from scratch. I know this is drastic, but once constant crosslinked files start showing up, its often the easiest solution and will end up being less time consuming than constantly chasing down corrupted files. Plus, you will be amazed at how well things run on a freshly formated, clean installation of Windows.

RAB

[This message has been edited by RAB (edited 06 February 2000).]

**Kruzin** · 6 February 2000, 10:47

Thread relocated to the General Hardware forum...

**Mellow_Dude** · 6 February 2000, 15:32

CMB,

This may not apply to you but I had crosslinked files occuring from fresh installs of Win 98 due to ma bad CPU (Hope not after your last hassles!)

Until I replaced the CPU I chewed through 3 or 4 fujitsu DMA66 HD's which would bring up a registry error upon bootup and chew out some bad sectors on the drive. I tried everything but the CPU (HD's, Vid cards, M Boards etc). All did the same with errors and cross linked files etc.

I now run with a TMC Via 133 Mboard, PII 300 SL2YK @ 450 (Warrenty Replacement) and seagate DMA33 6.5 (Slow but Stable under Warrenty.

Like I said, it could have nothing to do with your probs but might be worth considering. After all you did have a dud MBoard, did it also damage your CPU?

I never was told by the countries Intel importer what the actual problem was with my old CPU except that it was definately faulty after running sweet for 1.5 years.

Mellow

**CMB** · 6 February 2000, 17:14

ABIT fixed, but all new data integrity problems???

hey all.. my harware seems to be fine now..
i can run supreme snowboarding, lemans 24hrs TR4, BUT when i try to run UT it gets a general protection fault and doesnt get further then the intro....

I also have corrupted files sporadicly and when i run scandisk i am getting
-found 2 copys of fat3s table allocation-
i delete to fix it.. but it doesnt help
it just finds same error next time i run it.
it also constantly finds different files and folders crossedlinked or occupying the same space and has to delete both files in questions to fix it?

so if my theroy holds.. demos would run ok because they are smallish files. UT is a couple of hundred meg so that would make it more vulnerable to data corruption. Correct?

So am i right in thinking i have a data integrity problem? and if so.. how do i fix it?

I have a MAxtor 20gig UDMA/66 on IDE CH3
and BIGFOOT 12gig and IBM DTTA 16gig on the IDE CH4 as master and slave respectively

and i have my 2xDVD drive on IDE CH1 Master.

oh and i have an ABIT Be6 and all that bollocks... (described it to many times to care any more :O)
please refer to thread
"MAX UNABLE TO PLAY 3D GAMES" to find out
Thanks..
hope you all can help me again..

Would it make a differnce if I connected my Hard Drives on IDE 1+2 .. or how about just the Maxtor on IDE 3??

**stevenscott** · 6 February 2000, 21:15

FYI< for those that do not have an Abit MB, it has some unique features to Abit and the IDE, SCSI< and etc, so people with Abit MB's or knowledge of them helps these unique problems more. There is a learning curve and some luck involved.

------------------
Home:
Server:
I run a Matrox Marvel G400 AGP with an:
Abit BE6 MotherBoard
Win98
Adaptec CD Creator 4
Pentium III 450
128 MB Ram
SB Live
Maxtor 13 GIG HD
2 3com Nic cards
Wingate 3.05
1 Symbios SCSI for my HP Photo Scanner
Boca 56K Int. Modem
Mitsumi 4801-TE CD-R
MS Precision Pro Joystick
Surfboard SB1200 cable modem
Shamrock 17" Monitor
HP OfficeJet Pro 1175Cse 4/1 printer/Scanner/Fax/copier
-------------------
Client1:
AbitBX6 MB
Win98
Celeron 300a
Maxtor 6.4 GIG HD
128 MB Ram
Netsurf NIC
SB Live sound card
Teac CDRom
Matrox Mystique G200 video card
Boca 56K Int. Modem
MS Precision Pro Joystick
Shamrock 15" monitor
----------------

**The PIT** · 7 February 2000, 01:53

Don't tell cmb that he now needs a new cpu he's just got motherboard.
By the way backing up a hard drive thats giving errors may mean your just backing up errors. Hopefully you've got a backup before the errors started.
Have you tried swapping the drives around yet?

**CMB** · 7 February 2000, 04:42

hey people...

just got back online....

I went to start up my PC and got a windows protection fault. reformatted and reinstaleld everything. reinstalled powerdesk Liveware 3 and then internet stuff
and then i rebooted and it said
"registry error, windows will now back up a safe registry"
then i rebooted and it was like id just reinstalled...." i had to put all the drivers back on , then it did it again.

I sometimes use a program called GHOST to restore my system. So i have been using that, to restore it to how it was at the end of last year. When i boot up after re-ghosting it redetects all my new motherboard then all devices then its ok. I have noticed though. that the file im restoring is 11471 and the disk im backing it upto is 11479??
could this be the drive being detected wrongly? anyhow.
I now have IDE 1 the bigfoot 12 (master and boot driver) and IBM 16ig as slave
and IDE 2 my DVD
IDE 3 is the Maxtor

Scandisk errors seem sporadic.. sometimes all drives are fine.. other times one is funny other times all are. And no matter how many times i run scan disk it still find 2 copys of the fat3s thingy and then always finds different files to fix or correct??

u really think it could be my CPU????

I spent yesterday trying to get a working system all will be fine then when i boot up i get blue screen of death or registory errors. my CPU is NOT overclocked so i dont know what the prob is ive tried with only one memory stick in and with all. right now its all but no difference

I booted up this morning and it was ok, whereas last night i got blue screen
A friend said he'll by my ABIT of me if i were to get a new motherboard (maybe a gigabyte or something dunno) maybe i should be getting a CPU?

I just want it working properly.. grrrrrrr

**CMB** · 7 February 2000, 17:50

OK.... I just installed and played a lovely game of UT???? whats going on???

I ran scandisk and it found errors in the internet explorer folder but i was online at the time so that could acount for it...

There are also 2 copies of fat allocation table on drives D,E, and F, My maxtor is E+F becuase i partioned it. So whats going on..

All is fine now.. but i can guarantee it will crash at some point. its just my luck. also i dont want to be capturing gigs of video of there going to be stored incorrectly...

Do you think My processor could be seated incorrectly... anyway to check? with this new motherboard i got different types of black things to guide it in with if you know what i mean. The others had slidy things on wherer one position was up and the other was down. These have pushy things at the side. where you just slide the processor in. then presumably push the pushy things to enable you to take it out...

any suggestions.. i dont think its heat cos the cpu is always around 41-45 degrees always has been.

Is there someway i could make sure my CPU is in correctly?

I have never had any bad sectors reported on any of my drives.

I want my scandisk errors to stop
anyone know how?

**CMB** · 7 February 2000, 17:52

hey people...
i ran UT again in the afternoon and it crashed out.. when i rebooted it said system registry error.. backing up a good one and then restored a backup from an hour or so earlier????

i dont get it...

i ran my friends high tech diagnostics thing and it says that the memory allocated in A000 FFFE on my Matrox 32mg failed its test????
so its saying the memory in my max is bad.. but there again it also says i have no sound card installed??? the fool
there again i can play other game demos fine.. just not the UT game.. could thi sbe because UT taxes the processor more.. and thats why it crashes out?

I cant see bad memory on my graphics card causing system registiry errors though and that nice chap above whos name i forgot said his CPU did the same..

I am seriously considering going out tomorrow and buying a P3 600 .. when i think back the only thing i havent replaced is my CPU, the motherboard and grahpics card have changed and i cant see all my memory dimms failing...

anyone come up with any ideas or is it my CPU?? please give me feedback cos i want to act soon.....

**Mellow_Dude** · 7 February 2000, 19:02

CMB,

Can you borrow a CPU from someone you know. Your symptoms sound exactly like the problems I went through about 3 - 4 months ago. I was lucky because my mate worked at the store I got the system from. I just took some beers down after work and we just swapped things out trying to diagnose the problem. The only thing he didn't stock was another CPU. We swapped the ram, modem, vid card (G400 and TNT2) as I thought my G200 Millenium might be stuffed. Floppy drive, CD Rom and HD's were swapped multiple times along with 2 x 440BX M/Boards and the Via 133 Slot 1 board I use now.

Only after swapping the CPU did the problems (Cross linked files, blue screen errors, game crashes and registry errors) go away.

When you installed Win 98 did it perform a scandisk during every setup reboot (It shouldn't!). When you run scandisk and watch the yellow progress bar at the bottom of the window does it jump backwards occasionally.

When my registry errors came up at reboot I heard my drive grind repeatedly over one point before saying that it couldn't read the HD.

When I formatted the drive to reinstall Win 98 fresh it said I had 0.32Mb of bad sectors every time with every drive.

My old CPU was a PII 266 by the way.

Read my old posts and replys. As I said this may not be your problem but we can't ignore the possibility.
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/005282.html http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000515.html http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000509.html

Regards and good luck.

Mellow

**CMB** · 8 February 2000, 01:47

ive never had any bad sectors on my drives.
but when running scandisk.. the bar does jump back to the begining a few times...

windows didnt run scandisk everytime. But its a rare install of wndows when i dont get MCD something or other errors as im actually installing. My Maxtor Hard drive also grinds away for no apparent reason. sometimes recovering. sometimes crashing out, unable to read.

im at an impass now. Ive got friends with P3's but they know the problems ive had. And i dont think theyd be keen to lend me there CPU's. in case i fry them. I dont think id be keen too if the situation were reveresed. So i have a choice. I can go out today and buy a new CPU and if that fixes all. I dont mind i really dont.... But...

if it doesntfix it, im back to square 1. Its like throwing good money after bad. So im not sure what to do. I have symptoms exactly as you describe though And it does make sense. Its the only thing i havent changed. Logic says this is the thing thats wrong. But we all know how useful logic is when it comes to PC's :O)

On a lighter note im running our of places to buy things from. I dont wann go back to software warehouse. I used to buy my main stuff including this processor which is only about 4 months old from a place where my friend worked. But he got sacked (long story) but it was unfair. And he openly says that if i take it back, they will pretend to test it for a week and then tell me its ok. cos thats what he used to be told to do
this is also the place that stocks 32mg marvels and tells people that a K6 333 i sequivalent to a P3 450 ????

theres a local shop about 10mins from me thats just refitted. I might give them a call and see what they have in stock.

What would you reccomend?

I am having extremely similar problemss.
should i take one last PC risk?

**RAB** · 8 February 2000, 07:27

Just a thought, but have you tried turning off DMA on all your hard drives and CD/DVD drives? This might slow things down just slightly, but it might point to your problem. If that fixes the problem, then its a matter of finding which drives work together and which won't on the same IDE channel.

You also said you have your 2x DVD on Primary IDE channel 1. Your Windows boot drive should always be Master and Primary on channel 1.

RAB

**CMB** · 8 February 2000, 09:40

Yep
Im running like i always did
IDE 1
MASTER 12gig
SLAVE 16gig

IDE 2
MASTER 2xDVD
SLAVE -Non

IDE 3 (UDMA 66 thingy)
MASTER 20gig Maxtor UDMA 66
SLAVE -Non

IDE 4
master and slave = nope nothing there

apart from the Maxtor and IDE 3 and 4 then all is as it was.. also when i think of it.. i had the registory errors before. only less frequent. When i backed up my system with GHOST and then checked the image file for integrity it said it was corrupt.. and if writing weired files and crosslinked files are symptoms of CPU failure like in Mellow_Dudes case then it all makes sense

There was once a time when my PC didnt start at all and I shat my pants :O) then i unplugged the CPU and put it back in (this was before xmas) all was well.
But after that troubles started.. so It seems like when i think about it i can trace it back to this event..

It seems that no PC shops in Hull Stock CPUS or have non instock, all the mail order companies such as simply, Dabs, insght are all expecting stock too.
Quaytech, despite its fault and what ive heard had put the bits in my PC and 2 friends and they have been ok. They said they are getting in some P3's tomorrow
I can get a P3 600 for 319
so im thinking of doing that.....

any more input from you helpful folks???

Announcement

ABIT fixed, but all new data integrity problems???

ABIT fixed, but all new data integrity problems???

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