Problem with Western Digital Green drive and Asus motherboard
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From: Rod Speed on 4 Dec 2009 12:24 annily wrote > Rod Speed wrote >> annily wrote >>> Rod Speed wrote >>>> annily wrote >>>>> A few weeks ago, I bought a cheap PC, without operating system, >>>>> and installed Windows 7 on it. >>>>> It developed a problem where the system woould freeze for 30 >>>>> seconds or more at seemingly random intervals, with the hard disk >>>>> LED on solid. I originally thought it was a problem with Win 7, >>>>> since other people had reported similar symptoms with that. >>>>> After quite a bit of troubleshooting, trying things that had >>>>> apparently worked for other people and getting nowhere, I decided >>>>> to try Win XP on the same hardware. Lo and behold, it had the >>>>> problem too. >>>>> I then installed Win 7 on an older Dell system. This worked fine, >>>>> so I began to suspect that it was some sort of hardware-related >>>>> problem with the new system. >>>>> So today, I replaced the WD drive with a Samsung HD502HJ, and >>>>> after several hours running, the problem has not occurred. >>>>> The WD drive is a WD10EADS. The motherboard is an Asus >>>>> P5KPL-AM/PS. >>>> It would be interesting to see the Everest SMART report on the >>>> WD10EADS. It may just be retrying on errors and eventually >>>> succeeding and thats what is producing the pauses. >>>> http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181 >>> I did run the WD diagnostic utility on it, and it didn't find >>> anything wrong. I think that showed the SMART figures (at least something I ran did) and they were all within >>> bounds. >> What matters is ANY pending sectors or reallocated sectors with a pause like that. > I don't know what is meant by pending or re-allocated sectors. They are items in the SMART report. Reallocated sectors are sectors that the drive has decided are bad and has reallocated on a write. More than one or two indicate that the drive is dying. Pending sectors are sectors that the drive has decided are bad because they need to be retried but have not yet been reallocated because they have not been written to since they went bad. They may well be what is producing those 30 sec freezes if there are any in the SMART report.
From: Rod Speed on 4 Dec 2009 12:27 annily wrote > Gregory Shearman wrote >> annily <annily(a)ihopethisdoesntexist.com> wrote >>> A few weeks ago, I bought a cheap PC, without operating system, and >>> installed Windows 7 on it. >>> It developed a problem where the system woould freeze for 30 >>> seconds or more at seemingly random intervals, with the hard disk >>> LED on solid. I originally thought it was a problem with Win 7, >>> since other people had reported similar symptoms with that. >>> After quite a bit of troubleshooting, trying things that had >>> apparently worked for other people and getting nowhere, I decided to try Win XP on the same hardware. Lo and behold, >>> it had the problem too. >>> I then installed Win 7 on an older Dell system. This worked fine, >>> so I began to suspect that it was some sort of hardware-related >>> problem with the new system. >>> So today, I replaced the WD drive with a Samsung HD502HJ, and after several hours running, the problem has not >>> occurred. >>> The WD drive is a WD10EADS. The motherboard is an Asus P5KPL-AM/PS. >>> Another interesting point is that the new Samsung drive does not >>> show up under Disk Drives in Device Manager, despite the fact that >>> it shows in the BIOS and works fine. I've never seen that before. >> I run the same Western Digital HDD. It's a SATA drive and I've had no >> problems at all with it running under Linux. I've had the drive for >> around 6 months now. > Good for you, but not particularly relevant to my problem with the > drive under two different versions of Windows and presumably > different hardware from yours. I certainly was not suggesting that > the drive would cause this symptom in all cases. I can only assume I have a fairly unusual configuration. Or you just have a dying drive and the Everest SMART report will prove if that is the case. And you need to ignore the OKs and concentrate on the RAW numbers, particularly the reallocated and pending sector counts.
From: Clocky on 4 Dec 2009 18:22 "annily" <annily(a)ihopethisdoesntexist.com> wrote in message news:0089ff5a$0$8191$c3e8da3(a)news.astraweb.com... > Rod Speed wrote: >> annily wrote: >>> Rod Speed wrote: >>>> annily wrote: >>>>> A few weeks ago, I bought a cheap PC, without operating system, and >>>>> installed Windows 7 on it. >>>>> >>>>> It developed a problem where the system woould freeze for 30 seconds >>>>> or more at seemingly random intervals, with the hard disk LED on >>>>> solid. I originally thought it was a problem with Win 7, since other >>>>> people had reported similar symptoms with that. >>>>> >>>>> After quite a bit of troubleshooting, trying things that had >>>>> apparently worked for other people and getting nowhere, I decided to >>>>> try Win XP on the same hardware. Lo and behold, it had the problem >>>>> too. >>>>> I then installed Win 7 on an older Dell system. This worked fine, >>>>> so I began to suspect that it was some sort of hardware-related >>>>> problem with the new system. >>>>> >>>>> So today, I replaced the WD drive with a Samsung HD502HJ, and after >>>>> several hours running, the problem has not occurred. >>>>> The WD drive is a WD10EADS. The motherboard is an Asus P5KPL-AM/PS. >>>> It would be interesting to see the Everest SMART report on the >>>> WD10EADS. It may just be retrying on errors and eventually succeeding >>>> and >>>> thats what is producing the pauses. >>>> http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181 >>>> >>> I did run the WD diagnostic utility on it, and it didn't find anything >>> wrong. I think that showed the SMART figures (at least something I ran >>> did) and they were all within bounds. >> >> What matters is ANY pending sectors or reallocated sectors with a pause >> like that. > I don't know what is meant by pending or re-allocated sectors. > Rod is obsessed with SMART but the problem with SMART is that it can show nothing wrong right up to the point of terminal failure. I had a similar problem once with a flakey SATA cable which would cause the computer to stop responding for 30 seconds or more with the HDD light on. Often the system would revocer but sometimes it would lock up requiring a reset. Reseating the cable fixed it temporarily until it would work loose again over time. Replacing it with a better quality cable fixed it. SMART showed nothing wrong but clearly there was a problem.
From: XR8 Sprintless on 4 Dec 2009 23:27 Clocky wrote: > > Rod is obsessed with SMART but the problem with SMART is that it can show > nothing wrong right up to the point of terminal failure. > > I had a similar problem once with a flakey SATA cable which would cause the > computer to stop responding for 30 seconds or more with the HDD light on. > Often the system would revocer but sometimes it would lock up requiring a > reset. Reseating the cable fixed it temporarily until it would work loose > again over time. Replacing it with a better quality cable fixed it. > > SMART showed nothing wrong but clearly there was a problem. > Very good answer. The major problem with SATA drives are the cables. Good quality cables have a little metal clip on them to connect them to the device and to the motherboard. So many problems are caused by cables that do not have clips or cables that are not seated firmly on the contacts. If the cable does not feel firm when you put it on the drive, use a different cable.
From: annily on 4 Dec 2009 23:32
Rod Speed wrote: > annily wrote >> Rod Speed wrote >>> annily wrote >>>> Rod Speed wrote >>>>> annily wrote > >>>>>> A few weeks ago, I bought a cheap PC, without operating system, >>>>>> and installed Windows 7 on it. > >>>>>> It developed a problem where the system woould freeze for 30 >>>>>> seconds or more at seemingly random intervals, with the hard disk >>>>>> LED on solid. I originally thought it was a problem with Win 7, >>>>>> since other people had reported similar symptoms with that. > >>>>>> After quite a bit of troubleshooting, trying things that had >>>>>> apparently worked for other people and getting nowhere, I decided >>>>>> to try Win XP on the same hardware. Lo and behold, it had the >>>>>> problem too. > >>>>>> I then installed Win 7 on an older Dell system. This worked fine, >>>>>> so I began to suspect that it was some sort of hardware-related >>>>>> problem with the new system. > >>>>>> So today, I replaced the WD drive with a Samsung HD502HJ, and >>>>>> after several hours running, the problem has not occurred. >>>>>> The WD drive is a WD10EADS. The motherboard is an Asus >>>>>> P5KPL-AM/PS. > >>>>> It would be interesting to see the Everest SMART report on the >>>>> WD10EADS. It may just be retrying on errors and eventually >>>>> succeeding and thats what is producing the pauses. >>>>> http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181 > >>>> I did run the WD diagnostic utility on it, and it didn't find >>>> anything wrong. I think that showed the SMART figures (at least something I ran did) and they were all within >>>> bounds. > >>> What matters is ANY pending sectors or reallocated sectors with a pause like that. > >> I don't know what is meant by pending or re-allocated sectors. > > They are items in the SMART report. > > Reallocated sectors are sectors that the drive has decided are bad and has > reallocated on a write. More than one or two indicate that the drive is dying. > > Pending sectors are sectors that the drive has decided are bad because > they need to be retried but have not yet been reallocated because they > have not been written to since they went bad. They may well be what is > producing those 30 sec freezes if there are any in the SMART report. > > OK, thanks. When I get the WD re-connected, I'll have a closer look at the SMART report. -- Long-time resident of Adelaide, South Australia, which may or may not influence my opinions. |