4300 boot problems

Question

Over the past year I've had a few problems:   4300 750 Mb main memory 60 Gb hard disk BIO A06 Win XP SP2 + all high prio security updates Purchased 2001   Recently I got the same problem. After being on holiday I turned the PC but after a while it crashed. Eventually, it wouldn't boot, and I was getting a blue screen with UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. Tried booting in safe mode, but it got as far as \windows\system32\drivers\agp440.sys and then re-booted itself.   So, I re-built the system, including a reformat of that hard disk partition 2 yesterday (no bad sectors were notified, for example), and all seemed OK - it warm re-started several times OK during the re-build process. I turned it on this morning (cold boot) and it could not find the hard disk - SETUP said that the primary drive was unrecognised and you could also hear the hard drive re-trying to find data. I then turned off and turned on again and all was OK.   Is this a physical H/W problem or some sort of S/W problem. I've been having similar problems for about the last 9 months - even giving the case a short thwack sometimes helps (I know, probably not the best thing to do). It does sound like the hard disk is on the way out.   All help appreciated.   David

Hydralisk00222 · Answer

davidncohen wrote: It does sound like the hard disk is on the way out. sure does. get it replaced.   if you run to test it, run dell diagnostics from the resource cd

davidncohen · Answer

Thanks - which particular diagnostics should I run from the Resource CD?   David

shesagordie · Answer

davidncohen

Run Dell diagnostic's extended test, read, write, verify, on the hard drive, not the quickie express test.

How to use the Dell's Diagnostics Utility

Bev.

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davidncohen · Answer

Bev,   I don't have the 'Boot to Utility Partition' option. I do have a Drivers & Utilities CD which states it has Diagnostics and Utilities on it - I did install this CD but couldn't see anything specifically relating to the hard disk - am Imissing something?   Regards,   David

davidncohen · Answer

Thanks - I'll try that.   My wife just logged out of her account and got a blue screen:   PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA   screscan.sys   Re-booted and all OK for the time being, but obviously it doesn't look good - is this a hard disk problem or main memory?   All help appreciated.   David

shesagordie · Answer

David.

Choose 'Run Specific Tests'.

Scroll down to the last paragraph of the link I posted, or if you still have the Owner's Manual that was shipped with computer package, the procedures for using diagnostics should be listed.

I noticed that Dell use 'Resource CD' instead of the 'Drivers and Utilities', their mistake.

Bev.

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davidncohen · Answer

Bev,

Thanks. OK, I figured out how to use the Drivers & Utilities CD:

Diagnostic Build 1080
Note, after doing all tests I realised I didn't clear NVRAM as per web instructions - is this a problem?
Quick Test - "H/W performed optimally"
System memory extended test - "H/W performed optimally"
IDE DISK 0 Extended Test:
- Confidence_Test-Read_Test: Block 6337592 Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected
- I then relaised that the test stops after this as the default is to report just a single error - I then change this to 9999 errors and ran it again:
- - Confidence Test - 6337592 (same error as above)
  - Device Self Test - Pass
  - Read Test - 6337592 (same error as above)
  - Verify Test - 6337592 (same error as above)
  - Write Test - 6337592 (same error as above)

So, looks like one bad block:

How come this wasn't spotted during the format I did of Partition 2 during the XP install?
Can I log this as a bad block so XP recognises it some how
What are my options from here - I feel at least I know more about what might be causing the problem

All help appreciated.

David

davidncohen · Answer

Also, if it's of any value, ran a CHKDSK:

C:\DOCUME~1\DAVID>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

58548892 KB total disk space.
   6882832 KB in 35486 files.
     10440 KB in 2528 indexes.
         4 KB in bad sectors.
    106008 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
51549608 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
14637223 total allocation units on disk.
12887402 allocation units available on disk.

Another questions: Will C: Properties - Tools - Error Checking help fix this (or this this just the same as the DOS CHKDSK?)

All help appreciated.

David

Message Edited by davidncohen on 01-03-2008 03:47 AM

shesagordie · Answer

David.

The hard drive is failing and should be replaced.

Is this the original factory installed drive?

Bev.

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davidncohen · Answer

Bev,

Thanks for the response. Yes, it's the original factory installed disk. I have ordered a new disk, which I hope is the right one (I looked elsewhere in the forum to see if there were any max size limitations). This is what I've ordered:

Seagate HD Barracuda 7200.10 160GB 3.5 PATA 7200rpm 8Mb Cache - ST3160815A

Regards,

David

shesagordie · Answer

David.

I would reconsider using a 160gb hard drive.

The D-4300 has a BIOS limitation of 137gb, therefore the largest hard drive supported is a 120gb hard drive, unless you install a PCI controller card.

Dell apparently never updated the BIOS to support large drives.

Bev.

Ps. Seagate is a good choice, especially with their five year warranty.

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davidncohen · Answer

Bev,

Thanks for the reply. Will the 160GB disk work at all, but just the additional space not be seen by XP? (is it best to create a partition only as big as 120GB?). If it won't work at all, this is a pain as I'll have to send it back! I did take a look at other postings about this and there were some that suggested that size wouldn't be an issue. Note that I upgraded the BIOS to A06 for XP SP2 - is this the most up-to-date?

All help appreciated.

David

Message Edited by davidncohen on 01-04-2008 03:11 AM

shesagordie · Answer

David.

All I can say is, try it, you should have one primary C;/partition of 137gb.

Bev.

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davidncohen · Answer

Bev,

Just to say many thanks for your time and help so far:-)

Update on using my new disk:

When creating the initial NTFS partition, XP setup gave me a default maximum value of 131GB. I took the default and created this, and after it also reported that there was an 8MB unpartitioned space left.
Interestingly, my H/W setup recognised the disk at 160GB, it's full size.
However, after copying the initial setup files to the new partition, it seemed to go round it in circles for a while saying that there was already an operating system on the new partition, and warning me about overwriting it.
Eventually, it seemed to "have a word with itself" and settled down to proceed with the install proper, which completed OK. I then installed all the applications etc. etc. etc. - I now have a working system.
Properties for C: state that the capacity is 137,427,943,424 bytes 127GB
If I take a look at Computer Management-Storage-Disk Management this reports:
- Disk 0 / Basic / 149.05GB Online comprising:
- - C: 127.99GB NTFS Healthy (System)
  - 21.06GB Unallocated

So, presumably I could create a new partition in the 21.06GB Unallocated part of the disk, and this would have a drive letter of D:

Interestingly, whilst using this tool I discovered that it's possible to create a path for my F: USB memory stick and mount it in an NTFS folder (say, for example, C:\USB\). This means that I don't have to use drive letters (in case they change, say caused by creating a new partition, or adding another hard drive) in my MS-DOS batch file I wrote for backing up my files to memory stick. I can just use the path instead. In my previous life in the IT world of VAX/VMS this was similar to assigning logical names for disk drives.

David

Message Edited by davidncohen on 01-06-2008 09:56 AM

Message Edited by davidncohen on 01-06-2008 04:48 PM

shesagordie · Answer

David.

Yes, you should be able to create a second partition with the unallocated space and assign it a drive letter, using XP's disk Management, without a problem.

Bev.

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4300 boot problems

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