Hard drive errors

I bought a WD 120G 7,200 rpm ATA100 drive off eBay which is generating some errors in the event log during boot-up. There is a 10-15 second delay while Windows XP boots.

The drive is attached as a slave on the primary IDE cable.

The first error in the system event log is:

The device, \Device\Scsi\nvidesm1, did not respond within the timeout period.

I then get several of the following warning system events:

An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation.


When I unplug the slave drive I get no errors at all. So, it's either the drive or some conflict in my setup.

I've noticed that the primary IDE drive (Maxtor) is ATA133 whereas this new one (Western Digital) is an ATA100. Would that cause any conflicts?

I downloaded the Western Digital Lifeguard Diagnostics utility and ran an extended test on the drive which came up with no errors.

After these initial errors (which happen before the event log has started - the times in the event log show this) I get no errors at all and the drive is working perfectly.

I use the boot loader BING. If I go into maintenance and play about for a few seconds before booting I get fewer errors in the event log when XP starts (though I always get at least one).

It seems to be a problem when the drive is starting and all works fine once it's up and running.

Anyone else had something similar?

 

Just to update.

I've double checked when I boot while delaying in BING and, in this case (30 seconds) I get no errors in the system event log.

 

I spoke too soon.

The errors are re-appearing. It seems that I must do something in BING which activates the drive well before windows boots to get rid of the errors.

 

Are you using the nvidia ide driver? If so try reverting to windows default one and see if that helps

oldmx

 

It is using the nvidia IDE driver.

How do I revert to the windows default one?

 

As a follow up:

I selected the 'Update Driver' option which installed the drivers for 'Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller'. This caused the dreaded BSOD at startup.

I restored the system from a backup.

When I then selected the 'Rollback Driver' option it was going to install the same driver ('Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller') so I clicked cancel.

Help!

 

I often rename (and move) any driver the wizard is trying to force down my throat (and wont work anyway)
once the little blighter cant find what its after it will eat most anything you feed it (that will actually work)


good idea to move it back to its original location and rename it back again however once youve succeeded


but generally I reload chipset drivers from their own install ap
that would generally overwrite whatever isnt functioning
if necessary uninstall the whole shootingmatch from device manager and reboot
then reinstall from the chipset ap

 

My current driver is:

NVIDIA nForce(TM) IDE Controller
Date 13/12/2002
Version 5.10.2600.307

If I try to use the MS drivers I get a BSOD (even if I disconnect the IDE slave drive).

I found driveragent.com which scanned my drivers and recommended that I install an updated driver dated 24/04/2006. They want $29.95 to download drivers for my system. Will they be available free elsewhere?

I tried to find which driver I need using google without luck. I've been to the www.nvidia.com web site, checked their download driver pages but there doesn't seem to be a category for IDE controllers. I searched their site for nvidesm.sys/nvmdcoi.dll but it came back with no results.

I tried ftp.nvidia.com but no such server exists.

Does anyone know where I can find / download the drivers dated 24/04/2006?

TIA.

 

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp > Platform /nForce Drivers > whichever mobo chipset platform your running > whichever OS

those are the IDE drivers they are integrated into the total chipset package
consider the southbridge chipset typically handles I\O handling to the CPU for the PCI bus which the PATA (IDE) is a sub bus of as well as SATA, USB, ect via either integration into the southbridge itself or forwarded from dedicated discreet chips (an SATA RAID controller onboard for instance, onboard gigabit NIC chip, firewire, ect) in addition to various PCI cards

handling all that at the hardware level is done with PIRQ routing and at a higher level by busmastering drivers
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/func_Mastering.htm
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/pciMastering-c.html
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/modesDMA-c.html

so its all rolled into a chipset driver package but device manager employs terminology which is sort of myoptic
pretty funny they wanted to pick your pocket like that

 

Thank you very much indeed Ice_Czar!

I've downloaded the new drivers for the IDE controller and my problem has gone away. No more warnings or errors in the event log.

I think I found the cause of my original problem. I found the inf file for the previous driver install on my C: drive and it seems that the suppliers of my m/c ("MESH Computers") optimized it for ATA 133. As the slave drive is an ATA 100 I think it was taking a while for the NVIDIA drivers to work that out, hence the delay.

This was the old inf file (I think the value for TransferModeTiming was the cuase of my problem):

;
; Copyright (C) 2002 NVIDIA Corporation
;
; nvhdc.inf - Installs the generic IDE driver with the ATA-133 keys
;

[Version]
Signature="$Windows NT$"
Class=hdc
ClassGuid={4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Provider=%NVDA%
DriverVer=05/13/2002,6.1.2600.0
CatalogFile=nvide.cat

;[SourceDisksNames]
;1 = "NVIDIA IDE Update Disk"

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir=12

[Manufacturer]
%NVDA%=NVIDIA.Section, NTx86.5.1

[NVIDIA.Section.NTx86.5.1]
%NVDA_IDE%=NVIDE,PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0065

[NVIDE.ntx86]
Include=mshdc.inf
Needs=pciide_inst
AddReg=NVIDE.AddReg

[NVIDE.AddReg]
HKR,, TransferModeTiming, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, \
"18", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"0", \
"15"

[NVIDE.ntx86.Services]
Include=mshdc.inf
Needs=pciide_Inst.Services

[Strings]
NVDA = "NVIDIA"
NVDA_IDE = "NVIDIA NForce MCP2 IDE Controller"
REG_MULTI_SZ = 0x00010000



Once again, Thanks!!!