Delayed Write Error and thats Just The Start!, problems with delayed write, new hard

[chidge]

Hi all,

 

I am having a bit of a problem (big understatement) with my PC and for the life of me cant work out what the issue is.

 

I am running an :

AMD Athlon 3000+

Foxconn board with VIA Kt600 Chipset (VT8237 south bridge)

3GB ram,

ATI Radeon 9550,

1 x 250GB western Digital drive,

1 x external 1Tb backup Western Digital.

Windows XP Professional Service pack 3.

(she is around 5 years old and much loved)

 

The problem is around a month ago I had the dreaded delayed write error on my machine (my firt viewing of this beast), no new hard ware, in fact the only thing that had changed was me running automatic updates on my PC and installing several security updates from Microsoft head quarters... - Anyway that caused a huge amount of pain and ended up corrupting the 250 GB Western Digital drive i had at the time (it ran really slow took 55 counts of the blue swipe passing by on XP splash screen). So i went and bought a new hard drive and an external backup again. The old drive wasn't being picked up by windows so i put it in as a slave and get-data-back picked it up and I eventually didn't loose any of my work! (note lots of stress, hair pulling, beard greying and time taken out from the above statement)

 

So i then reinstalled windows, no problems for a week or so then I got the dreaded Delayed write again (yes I know on a new hard drive) alarm bells started and I reinstalled windows again (quicker as I can now do it with my eyes closed).

 

So here I am thinking thats it, thats all fixed and then last night I had a delayed write failure again - this time on my external USB 1TB drive. I was watching a video in windows media player (from the external drive) and it stopped - windows said it couldn't find the file and then the delayed write error appeared!) Anyway I quickly turned my machine off and went to bed.

 

So at 5 am this morning I lay in bed thinking really is this all happening again! and I turned my machine on. Now this is a symptom that has happened since all this has been going on, I turn my machine on - it bleeps and then it doesn't leave the Foxconn boot screen. Usually I just reset it and its fine (this has been happening say once a week sometimes once a month since I have had this computer) - this morning it took 5 goes to get it to restart (don't know if that will help the diagnoses) Anyway my PC has now booted - it looks and runs Ok (11 blue swipes on the XP splash) and all drives are there and intact - I am now running a full virus scan.

 

The thing is I think this is something beyond a new hard drive and I don't know what it could be? Is my CMOS battery failing (I am not getting any error messages) do I need to re-flash my bios (I really am scared about doing that)..... All i want and need is a stable system to work on and at the moment I just don't feel it is stable. I have googled the delayed write error without much joy (there seem to be many with this issue and ATI related) and performed all here:

You receive an error message when you save or move documents in Windows XP: "Delayed Write Failed"

 

I don't have or ever performed the large system cache registry fix that people say maybe an issue.

and to be honest I am at a real loss as to what to do.

 

Does any of this shout a glaring problem to anyone?

 

thanks in advance for any help you can offer me.

 

*One other thing to note the delayed write either occurred when I was watching a video (179mb(ish) video via windows media player) or whilst using Photoshop (CS3 - scratch disk was different from the drive reported in the delayed write error) and the file open at the time was around 20mb in size. My system has been stable and fine for years (5 of them) and I have pushed her quite hard (I am a web developer using a local DEV WAMP setup and all the gubbins that goes with that I also have the CS£ web suite installed on my machine - so nothing that would cause untoward system stress...

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Tootech]

Have you had a look in the Event Viewer when you get the errors - bad drives normally throw an error like "Device /HDD 0 had bad block or similar"

 

When you first installed Windows on the new drive did you download and install the up to date chipset drivers for your board - if not you ought to do that.

 

Tha fact that you have the same issue with an external USB drive would suggest that its either your mainboard that is failing or the chipset drivers that needed installing.

 

BIOS battery makes no difference - if you have noticed the time and date go back to old default settings after the machine had been powered off for a while it may be going. Once the machine is powered it makes no difference.

 

Just wondered how many forums you've posted the problem on - I found one this morning, could you let us know where you have posted so we can keep an eye on other ideas - it saves doing the work twice. Thanks.

[chidge]

Have you had a look in the Event Viewer when you get the errors - bad drives normally throw an error like "Device /HDD 0 had bad block or similar"

 

I will have a look once antivir has finished its scan in safe mode

 

When you first installed Windows on the new drive did you download and install the up to date chipset drivers for your board - if not you ought to do that.

 

Yup of the top of my head (on my mac at the moment) I installed the latest 4-1 via chipset (for the kt600) 5.24a i think it was

 

Tha fact that you have the same issue with an external USB drive would suggest that its either your mainboard that is failing or the chipset drivers that needed installing.

 

Agreed, but as said above latest chipset drivers installed - I hope its not my mainboard

 

BIOS battery makes no difference - if you have noticed the time and date go back to old default settings after the machine had been powered off for a while it may be going. Once the machine is powered it makes no difference.

 

Ok not sure why but I had a niggeling feeling it maybe this

 

Just wondered how many forums you've posted the problem on - I found one this morning, could you let us know where you have posted so we can keep an eye on other ideas - it saves doing the work twice. Thanks.

 

6 including here (see below), to get a wide spread of opnion rather than cross posting or wasting peoples time. I need to get this sorted ideally today as I have a huge schedule and cannot afford anymore downtime!

 

 

Delayed Write Error and thats Just The Start!, problems with delayed write, new hard - MajorGeeks Support Forums

 

Delayed Write Error And Thats Just The Start!, problems with delayed write, new hard - The PC Guide Discussion Forums

 

Delayed Write Error and thats Just The Start!, problems with delay

 

http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/windows-2000-and-xp/8320-delayed-write-error-and-thats-just-start-problems-delayed-write-new-hard.html

 

Delayed Write Error And Thats Just The Start! - Suggest A Fix PC Support Forums

 

thanks

[chidge]

and here (cant edit above post)

PCTech Forums • Delayed Write Error and thats Just The Start!, problems wit - View topic

[chidge]

Ok so event viewer shows the following:

 

last night (and quite a number of times since I reformatted the drive) I have the following error:

 

Source:disk

Event Id: 11

the Driver detected a controller error on Device\harddisk0\D

 

this happened specifically last night at

 

22:19.32

22:20:43

22:20:47

 

then I get the following error at 22:20:47

 

Source:atapi

Event Id: 5

A parity error was detected on \Device\IDE\IDEPort0

 

and then one more of:

 

Source:disk

Event Id: 11

the Driver detected a controller error on Device\harddisk0\D

 

at 22:20:47

 

I then get a warning (not sure of the relevance to this issue) at 22:21:21

 

Warning: Print

cat:none

EventId: 4

Printer Adobe PDF is pending deletion

 

 

Looking back through the logs (I haven't used event viewer before so became intrigued) to the day I reformatted (last wednesday) I have had a number of the Event Id: 11 errors exactly the same as above everyday.

 

To add when I reformatted I did a full NTFS reformat as opposed to a quick one, Installed Xp. Downloaded Service pack 3 and all the extras with that. And this hard drive is brand new - it came from a reputable company last week.

 

Oh this isn't looking to good is it. I wait with anticipation on your reply. But I must say I am confused as to how I have had a total of three hard drives (two brand new) fall over on me I thought Western Digital were good (they have been for me)

 

Thanks

[chidge]

Also sorry forgot this I got the following error logging on this morning 9:15:23

 

EventId:51

source:disk

An error was detected on device:

\Device\Harddisk1\D

during a paging opertaion

[chidge]

most productive other post so far

 

Delayed Write Error and thats Just The Start!, problems with delay

[Plastic Nev]

OK, I know you are desperate for a fix, so understand you posting on multiple forums, at least thanks for that honesty

Normally we refuse help on the grounds that advice from different sources can conflict and possibly lead to expensive damage to your system.

So having said that, if you have a trawl round you will find some folk have a dislike of Western Digital drives.

From your event log reports it does look like you have a pending drive failure, so I suggest replacement, and with a different make.

Also having looked on that other forum, I see mention of both CCleaner and also the drive controller, all possible faults.

The drive controller would need a new MB to fix, if that is indeed the problem.

If you used the registry cleaner part of CCleaner that also can make a real mess of your registry. In these operating systems since the advent of XP there is absolutely no need to even consider trying to remove bad registry entries, the operating system itself recognises and ignores them anyway.

Nev.

[chidge]

OK, I know you are desperate for a fix, so understand you posting on multiple forums, at least thanks for that honesty

 

Sorry I didn't realize - not meant in a bad way at all probably a by product of my frustration with this...

 

Normally we refuse help on the grounds that advice from different sources can conflict and possibly lead to expensive damage to your system.

 

Understood - I am responsible for any actions

 

So having said that, if you have a trawl round you will find some folk have a dislike of Western Digital drives.

 

both my hands up now :)

 

From your event log reports it does look like you have a pending drive failure, so I suggest replacement, and with a different make.

Also having looked on that other forum, I see mention of both CCleaner and also the drive controller, all possible faults.

The drive controller would need a new MB to fix, if that is indeed the problem.

If you used the registry cleaner part of CCleaner that also can make a real mess of your registry. In these operating systems since the advent of XP there is absolutely no need to even consider trying to remove bad registry entries, the operating system itself recognises and ignores them anyway.

Nev.

 

Lots of horrible things to think about here. I am going to post my Everest log on the other forum as asked and I am considering reformatting and installing without using CCleaner. See what happens then, if i am still getting errors send the drive back and get a new one, if i am then getting errors get a new computer!

 

Oh man I so don't have the time or money for this! Heres hoping its CCleaner.

 

thanks for the help (will keep this open as any more suggestions are welcomed)

[Tootech]

It looks like controller errors, and I see you have some useful advice from another forum so there's no point going over your disk checks again.

 

Have you checked/changed your BIOS settings along the way?

 

I'm thinking things like IDE Busmastering - should be on, checking the DMA mode of the drives etc.

[chidge]

I am just coming to the end of chkdsk /r on my external hard drive and will post the results in the other forum and no I haven't touched my BIOS at all.

 

But a strange thing - since I have reinstalled my via chipset drivers (as advised in other forum) I am now no longer getting the above errors in my event log... in fact all the errors and warnings from the last three days have disappeared... I wont hold my breath quite yet but will see what happens after the chkdsk.

For me alarm bells are ringing on CCleaner as I initially used it a while ago because my machine was slow and then a few days later I got my first WDF. (I hope so)

 

This for some reason (call it intuition) doesn't feel like a controller failure - as it happened suddenly(not that id know) and surely a controller failure would mean I could re install and run a system for a week or so before it fails again? In fact the system is stable enough now for me to boot it and run a chkdsk from the cmd line - surely controller errors would stop this from happening?

 

Anyway will post back more between here and there you guys have really helped today and I feel like at least there maybe an answer rather than voodoo stabs in the dark!

[chidge]

Anyway will post back more between here and there you guys have really helped today and I feel like at least there maybe an answer rather than voodoo stabs in the dark!

 

So the conclusion that has been reached here - it maybe an issue with the driver controller but for the moment after a number of fixes and chkdsks shes seems okish. (she doesnt seem to be booting quite as she has done in the past).

 

I have got a new motherboard sat on my shelf and I am back working. If I get DWF's again or controller issues on the boot screen I am going to replace the motherboard, but for the moment not at all ideal but I have a fierce deadline and am working and backing up on my external drive regularly for that.

 

Thanks for all your help.

[Jelly Bean]

My opinion is the hard drive could be on its way out.

 

Check cables are fully seated to the hard drive and mainboard,check that the cables are not damaged.

 

Download/install the Western Digital hard drive diagnositics tool and run.

 

 

WD Support > Downloads > Select Product#

 

chkdsks shes seems okish.

 

 

Results were?

[Tootech]

Thanks for letting us know how it is running at the moment.

 

doesn't feel like a controller failure

 

Maybe not - but board failures come in all sizes and flavours. I wonder how a controller failure feels :)

 

Anyway, best of luck with your new found stability, come back and let us know if it throws a wobbler again.

[chidge]

My opinion is the hard drive could be on its way out.

 

Check cables are fully seated to the hard drive and mainboard,check that the cables are not damaged.

 

Done all seated and new cables

 

Download/install the Western Digital hard drive diagnositics tool and run.

 

 

WD Support > Downloads > Select Product#

 

 

Results were?

 

Done both passed quick test

 

please check the other forum post here (not promoting the otehr forum just here and there have both really really helped me out)

[chidge]

Thanks for letting us know how it is running at the moment.

 

 

Maybe not - but board failures come in all sizes and flavours. I wonder how a controller failure feels :)

 

:) maybe in the future there will be a connection between intuition and computer failure! You never know...

I have an underlying feeling that there is a very big problem - but in all honesty as long as I get through the next few weeks and finish this project and I loose no data I will run her into the ground (shhh) and buy a n-e-w one at christmas :)

 

 

 

Anyway, best of luck with your new found stability, come back and let us know if it throws a wobbler again.

 

Will do. Thanks again.

[chidge]

Anyway, best of luck with your new found stability, come back and let us know if it throws a wobbler again.

 

Ah ha ha ha Ah (slightly over tired/worried laugh) the story is not over yet!

 

link

[chidge]

Changed the motherboard(no where near as hard as I feared) - to find out the new motherboards AGP slot didnt work! Looked at the sky waved my fist and cursed then went and bought a new machine.

 

Thanks for all the help guys.