Mitius said:
Well unfortunately no zip drive. Started with drive0 seagate, drive1 seagate
(getting errors), and drive2 Western digital. I disconnected drive1 and of
course the western digital took over not only the drive1 lable but also the
drive1 errors.
very very wierd! you disconnected the drive, and left that interface
unconnected, and the error moved!
Were the second seagate and the WD the master and slave on the same
controller? If so I'd say the controller is bad, or the cable. Is it an
80-wire cable (blue connector at motherboard end, black and grey at drive
ends)? When running higer DMA modes you must have an 80-wire cable (40
pins, but 80 wires). Ensure the cables are well seated. If this error is
recent, and all was well before for a long time, I'd suspect the
controller is failing. Is system running hot? Is power supply from a
"good" manufacturuer? Both could cause slow degradation and intermittant
errors. Also memory; you could try running memtest86+ from a floppy and
let it run for a few hours; should return ZERO errors if all is well;
even 1 error is not good.
Diagnosing this sort of thing can be very hard. and frustrating. think
hard about what has changed recently. do the standard maintenance things
(virus scan, spy scan, clean out dust in pc, check all fans, reseat
everything, etc).
Perhaps time to shop for a new motherboard! If system is more than 2
years old then it was time anyway...
$200 buys a new AMD 64 motherboard and fast processor these days; even
less if ya go Semperon. Mem runs about $40 if you need it, new Antec box
w/ power supply runs $65. Keep all your other parts if they're good.
Good Luck!