Flakey hardware?

[alpinetech]

I just purchased a new computer system. the Asus Vintage 2-AE1
It has these chipsets VIA K8M800 VIA VT8251
I Purchased a samsung HD160JJ hard drive. Formated it with Windows Management Console and received an error of:
Logical Disk Manager - "The format did not complete successfuly". Then the drive completely disappears from explorer. When trying to find it in DOS it says Cannot open volume for direct access.

I then took the hard drive back and got a new one (same model)
I am getting the same problem with trying to format it.
I then went to samsungs website to download there hard drive utility for it. i ran it from dos.. and from windows. both getting errors..

Thats my hard drive issue. the other issue is. ive had this new computer for 1 week. ive had to reboot it manually 3-4 times already. (i wonder if thats because of the hard drive doing things or i wonder if its the motherboard flakeyness)

Should i just get WD or Maxtor?
Does anyone know if the Samsung drives are generally flakey?

thanks

 

[alpinetech]

forgot to mention..
If i reboot the computer the hard drive partitions DO show up again until i start copying something to it.
I just sent over about 3GB and when it was about 90% complete it failed. error message is -- Delayed write failed
This error may be caused by failure of your computer hardware.

hmmm
should i run partition magic or something?

 

[dglienna]

You might have a bad stick of memory (SIMM)
Remove one at a time, restart, and see if you can determine which one is bad (that causes errors formatting)

-David
2006 Microsoft Valueable Professional (MVP)
2006 Dell Certified System Professional (CSP)

 

[clav]

Check BIOS setup and reconfigure for "failsafe". Sounds like a timing issue between RAM and HDD. If that works then change 1 setting at a time (reboot/restart) and see what difference it makes. It's a fine line between optimum performance and haywire. It is tedious unfortunately but they are only glorified toasters after all... heh heh

 

[alpinetech]

I think you may be right about the memory problem.
When i was purchasing the RAM the rep told me it was generic noname. Plus.. it says 512mb on the chip but actually registers at 448mb. there may be a faulty module or something.

clav.. i tryed to find a failsafe mode. the only thing i can think that it might be is SMART mode. everything is set to "auto" aswell.

tomorrow im putting in a new memory chip. we shall see what happens

 

[paparazi]

alpinetech
It could be memory but the reported 448mb isn't a fault! this motherboard uses integrated video and the missing 64mb is this onboard VGA using part of the system memory.
I would also recommend swapping the hard drive IDE or SATA cable, just in case!
Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[G0AOZ]

The reason your system "only" reports 448Mb RAM, is probably because the on-video adaptor is using some of your main RAM. If you disabled the on-board video and use a separate plug-in video adaptor, you ought to see the full 512Mb reported.

Just because your memory module has "no name" doesn't necessarily follow that it's faulty! Try running some memory tests before you lash out on buying more new stuff. There are free memory checkers you can download, like

http://www.memtest86.com.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[BadFrog]

Be careful with those memory checkers as others have pointed out here in various other threads, they are NOT always accurate!

That being said I also suspect bad memory here but it wouldn't hurt to swap the hdd cable as paparazi suggested.

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein