Massive Chronic Unsolvable Computer Failure Problem- Please help!

[sakanau]

I built my computer about two years ago. At that point, its specs were:

mobo: Asus A8N-SLI
cpu: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
OS: Windows XP Home Edition SP2
power supply: Antec TP-II 550
GPU: BFG Geforce 7800 GTX OC 256 MB
Memory: 1GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2
Hard drives: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM SATA (two of them, not in RAID)
Case: Lian Li PC-V1200B


I put it all together and it worked perfectly fine for about two months. Then, one day, after windows loaded, my mouse cursor started freezing up, everything started responding extremely slowly, and I got a blue screen of death. I restarted it and it worked fine. Since then, it would randomly either work or freeze up a couple minutes after starting up and give me a blue screen of death. It also occassionally froze on the windows xp loading screen, and I also got errors saying that it couldn't detect the disc. This got progressively worse until it wouldn't start up at all.

I thought there was a problem with the northbridge on my motherboard, since the northbridge fan had started making loud noises around this point and it seemed to be overheating. I ended up scratching the motherboard slightly while attempting to replace the badly designed fan. Anyway, I ended up having to buy an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe to replace the mobo. It worked fine for a while, then the fan died again and I ended up having to replace it, successfully this time, with a good heatsink.

The new mobo worked fine for a couple months. Then I started getting the same errors again: freezing up after loading windows, random blue screens of death (with many different random error messages), and being unable to detect the hard drive. When it worked, it would great, and when there were errors, it would slow down to a crawl. Eventually it reached a point where windows wouldn’t even load any more. I thought there might be an issue with the hard drive controller or something, so I tried moving my hard drives to different SATA ports (there were a total of four ports). Miraculously, after moving my drives to different ports, the computer worked perfectly again. For a few months. Then, every few weeks, I would start getting various errors and BSODs and have to move the hard drives to different ports again. It got progressively worse such that no matter which SATA ports I chose, I would keep getting these errors.

Eventually, earlier this summer, my GPU died and I decided to get a new mobo, cpu, GPU, power supply, and memory, hoping this would finally solve my errors once and for all. I also installed an extra side blower to cool down my components even more.

New specs:

Mobo: Intel BOXD975XBX2KR LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor – Retail
GPU: EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail
Power Supply: 750W

Once again, my computer worked perfectly fine, not to mention extremely fast, for a couple months. Then I started getting a new error! I already made a post about it on a different forum a while ago, but no one responded. Anyway, here is the post so that I don’t have to write it out all over again:

“I've been getting this "Windows - Delayed Write Failed" error for quite some time. It's strange though, because it seems to be happening totally randomly.

Here's what happens:

I could be using firefox 2 mins after I start up my computer or be playing a game 4 hours after I start my computer and then a delayed write failed error (or several) suddenly appears from the taskbar in the lower right corner of the screen, failing to write either a system file of some sort or a file related to whatever program I happen to be using at the time. Then everything becomes extremely choppy and eventually totally freezes up. I then have to manually restart at which point it will either work normally or be slow and then freeze up during startup. For some reason, moving my HDs to different SATA ports (since my mobo has 4 ports) tends to fix the problem for a while before it starts happening again.

Does anyone happen to have any idea how to resolve this problem or what is causing it? Is my HD failing, does it have to do with my drivers/firmware/bios, or is it some sort of software bug or conflict?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

(btw there don't seem to be any problems with the disk when I check it with chkdsk or the seagate disk checking utility)”

I also started getting:

“Windows - System Error
Unknown Hard Error

And when I clicked OK, it just reappeared. When I tried to shut down, my computer locked up, so I had to shut down manually.”



So instead of getting blue screens of death, my computer would give me Delayed Write Failed errors and Unknown Hard Errors and freeze up. Switching SATA ports miraculously still worked, but it kept getting worse and worse. I figured that my main hard drive with windows might be dying, so I replaced it with a 320GB Western Digital (rather than Seagate) hard drive. I formatted it and reinstalled Windows XP Home from scratch. So I now had an extremely clean install of Windows.

Once again, my computer worked perfectly for a couple months (no more delayed write failed errors!) but then I started getting yet another new error. One day, my computer started taking about four times as long as normal to start up, and then all sound become extremely choppy. Also, all programs ran kind of choppily and took longer than normal to start up. I tried reinstalling my sound drivers but it was still bad. Then I tried switching my hard drives to different SATA ports, and the problem was miraculously fixed. Then, about a week later, my computer started freezing up randomly and it started happening again. At this point, my main hard drive had been moved from the 1st port to the 3rd port and my 2nd hard drive had been left in the 2nd port. Moving my main hard drive to the 1st port didn’t fix the problem, but moving it to the 4th did fix it, at least for now.

PLEASE HELP ME! I have no idea what is wrong! I have already replaced nearly all my hardware, I’m using a fresh install of windows, and am still getting similar problems. This defies all logic. Is it a software issue or an issue with my hard drive controller? Is it because I am using two hard drives but they aren’t in RAID? Do I need to install some sort of new driver or firmware?

Thank you!

 

[edfair]

This is a feeing based on similar failures I've noted. Is your power supply a dual supply one? And the switch is set on the right input voltage?
Do you have another power supply available for testing?

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[burtsbees]

Sounds like either the power supply or where your computer is physically. When you take the cover off to move the hdd's to different sata sluts, do you notice any of the heatsinks clogged? Do you have a dog?
Also, have you tried different SATA cables? Those things can be trouble, since they are usually stiff---the wires come loose from the connector terminals inside the connector boot. Trust me---I stripped one down and had to hardwire (solder) it to my mobo for it to work again. So far, it has been a year!

Burt

 

[edfair]

You might also try taking the computer to another location, say a friends house, to see if there is any environmental issues that cause the problems.
I've seen sags in the power create grief and had issues with AC peak voltages in a location that had a number of switching power supplies clipping the tops.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[sakanau]

Well, the 750W power supply I am currently using is extremely reliable. The specific brand is PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad - Copper EPS12V 750W Continuous @ 40°C (825W Peak) Power Supply – Retail. Plus the issue continued to occur even I replaced virtually all my hardware (including my mobo and the previous 550W power supply). The issue occurs regardless of the building where my computer is plugged in. So I can basically rule out the power supply as the issue.

I also replaced most of the cooling in the system recently, and I am certain nothing is overheating.

The issue is also not with the SATA cables themselves. I have tried several different cables with the same results. I don't have any pets either.

 

[burtsbees]

The only other thing I can suggest is a virus...or, take the thing to a priest and have him excise the Spirits of Infermity from it.

Burt

 

[sakanau]

Alright, I've solved the problem, with the help of someone from a different forum.

The cause of the problem was that my main hard drive was being set to PIO mode instead of Ultra DMA mode for certain SATA ports on the motherboard. This is due to some terrible safety feature in Windows that reduces an HD's transfer mode after six cumulative time-out or CRC errors.

The solution is a quick reg edit that can be found at

http://my.afterdawn.com/ketola/blog_entry.cfm/178

:

The easiest way of fixing the problem is opening up the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

And going through the sub keys (0001, 0002 etc. -- actually the HP laptops had keys starting from 0003 for some reason). You can identify the correct channel by the DriverDesc value. Once you've located the correct sub key, you should see a MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum entry. Just delete it. If you see a MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed (which was the case with the laptops), you might also want to reset it to 0xFFFFFFFF to make sure Windows re-checks the device timing properly.