[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar See my post here for some troubleshooting tips if any of the advice in this thread doesn't help.

nice! thanks

 

[10068]

I should mention that i'm running on Balanced power supply at this point, into my PC's PSU.... could this be causing the problem? my voltages in BIOS are flawless....

 

[james__bean]

I had this problem the other day as well. I just got an new motherboard, processor and video card. I installed everything, but then when I installed the drivers for the EMU card it started giving me those errors. Eventually I just updated my bios and I haven't had the problem since. I'm still having a problem with the digital card on my 1212m not being recognized, but since I use the analog outputs anyways I'm not going to bother with it. I think I'm going to try that apic thing though, that would only take like 6 seconds to check.

 

[Snake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek while i've got the attention of computer people ( ) i might also ask.... sometimes i get this problem where i pop in a CD, then the drive dissapears when the cd should have autorun. like the drive literally dissapears as if it's never been connected to my system.

Let's forget the IRQ issue for a bit. This issue might be either showing more information as to what is going on with the system, or indicating a greater problem.

This problem is indicitive of either bad CD drive, bad motherboard, bad +/- 5V (if the CD is still spinning but Windows does not display), an error in Explorer to properly update itself after the kernel mounts the volume or a failure in the UDF / packet (if you are using Roxio or similiar) subsystems.

First, I want you to look in XP's event viewer to see if any failures are being reported.

If you see no errors (if you wish, clear all events in all 3 logs, reboot, and then try the system out to remove earlier events and make the log easier to read) I need you to try putting in a CD. If you get that Explorer error go into the Device Manager and check 2 things - does the CD-ROM still show up in CD devices, and does the IDE subsystem (the parent device and the 2 channels) also still properly show up even though Windows Explorer does not do anything with the CD.

Ah, remote system diagnostics. Joy.

 

[10068]

oh, another question. "32bit transfer" on IDE drives is Disabled by default.... i had it turned on until today (reset BIOS settings to default and went from there, just in case some problems were being caused by BIOS). should i have that on or off? and yes, my HDD and CDROM are on seperate IDE cables.

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snake Ah, remote system diagnostics. Joy.

my own personal Tech Support. muahaha

i may just RMA my cd-drive, because it has tons of crackles in the signal when i play and even when ripping cds now.

think it got damaged in transit from washington.

also, i will probably RMA my power supply because i remember having problems with it in the past. it started working again, but that doesn't mean it's undamaged.

because of the power supply issue, will check into getting RMA for my motherboard too.

i would really rather just start fresh, knowing my hardware is good, then trying to diagnose between 10 different possible problems when the hardware was just broken to begin with yknow?

oh, also, when i try to overclock (even by 5%) or run at "max possible speed" any component, my motherboard announces that "CPU Overclocking Failed". i'm pretty sure my CPU isn't bad, so this might be indicitave of either bad mobo or bad PSU. or both. lol. like i said, i really think trying to just RMA everything would be more worth it at this point.

 

[Snake]

OK. That will certainly (and hopefully) cure everything without question. If you can, and wish, to do that jump on the chance.

 

[10068]

What? Now the "My Computer" icon is displaying in 256-color, and Diablo II shows my system pagefile as 2500mb when it's 1500mb. it seems like my computer just loves to spawn wierd inexplicable problems. would that be a bad mobo?

 

[10068]

Looks like time for a format

I think i have a virus but can't detect it or fix it. niiiice.

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snake does the CD-ROM still show up in CD devices, and does the IDE subsystem (the parent device and the 2 channels) also still properly show up even though Windows Explorer does not do anything with the CD.

No CD drive. But everything else shows up fine. I have virtual DVD drives from Daemon Tools, and they are still appearing.

BTW I think the other problem (bluescreen) was my RAM timings, i lowered them from 2 2 2 5 -> 2.5 3 3 6 and it seems to be working okay. no more supercharged ram though

hehe

my perfectionist side says just RMA everything, but my lazy side says try to just format, update BIOS, use aircan ,etc, and get things working that way. hmmm

 

[Snake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek No CD drive. But everything else shows up fine. I have virtual DVD drives from Daemon Tools, and they are still appearing.

Well, if you are losing the CD drive in devices then it's the CD drive, the +/-5V power, the IDE cable or the IDE motherboard interface that's the problem. Most likely, especially based upon what you have mentioned, it's the drive.

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snake Well, if you are losing the CD drive in devices then it's the CD drive, the +/-5V power, the IDE cable or the IDE motherboard interface that's the problem. Most likely, especially based upon what you have mentioned, it's the drive.

How'd you get so good at this?

See that's why I suck at hardware problems, I can never think of all the possibilities and just end up getting really frustrated. I need someone like you inside my head as an alterego

What else would be non-working if it was the 5V power? i've ruled out the IDE cable as it's new, and besides I remember swapping cables when this problem appeared. pretty sure it's not the IDE interface itself, as my harddrive works well. though i do remember it (the IDE interface) acting funky. like it doesn't like to have SATA disabled, otherwise the drives don't detect correctly. and i'm using PATA.

 

[Snake]

If it were the +/-5V out of the PS the entire system would be unreliable and quite flakey. The 5V runs the motherboard and all logic circuits of all drives - the 12V on drives is used to power the rotate motor, and possibly the head actuators, exclusively. A good quality motherboard might have enough cap filtering, and a good enough voltage regulator, to avoid stability issues with poor 5V input but drives do not have that level of filtering and are therefore much more intolerant.

You may want to check the power connector running into the CD drive. If you have a spare connection from the PS available switch connections used to the CD drive to see if that helps. The Molex connectors for power use spring steel push-fit male/female barrel-type connectors to make the electrical contact. Over time, through poor handling or frequent connect/disconnects, the female connector can expand it's inside diameter making for very poor electrical connections. If this is the problem switching connectors, or using a small pair of needle nose pliers (or jeweler's screwdriver) to gentle squeeze the female connectors closed slightly, may help.

Most likely if XP is losing detection of the CDROM whenever you are trying to use it shows a flakey CDROM drive. You should try replacing it.

 

[10068]

Yeah I really don't think 5V is the problem, it shows constant 5.08V in BIOS.

next time i have my case open i'll fiddle with the cables

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snake Most likely if XP is losing detection of the CDROM whenever you are trying to use it shows a flakey CDROM drive. You should try replacing it.

Not whenever. SOME times. that's the wierd thing. i think i've narrowed it down to audio CDs but not sure. and once i tried to disable Digial Audio on the drive for diagnostic purposes, and it's enabled again... apparently... but i don't think it really is. so basically it SAYS it's using digital audio. but i think it's lying. just a wierd drive