System event reports problem

Hans Manhave · June 29, 2010, 11:06:59 AM

How do I go about finding the problem?

The machine certainly has (or had) a problem. I came in this morning, screens black. Wouldn't come on with keyboard or mouse activity. Power was on as DVD drive open/close proved. Rebooted. XP cycling dots stayed on. Turned off. Rebooted in safe mode. Didn't complete. Restarted in regular mode and left the room. Annoyed. Came back to a network login. Connected network cable, let it sit for a few minutes and I logged in. Machine appears to be fine (I'm typing this on it). Checked log and system log (see attached) showed these problems. Nice, but I don't know what to do about it. I can suspect a power failure, this is NE Texas after all.

Thoughts?

Bloody Jack Kidd · June 29, 2010, 11:08:55 AM

what are the details of the disk events?

you could have a drive failing.

Jeff Zylstra · June 29, 2010, 11:24:56 AM

Perhaps running a chkdsk on your lunch hour would be a good idea. And what is this IASTOR that you speak of? A lot of things are considered a "disk" by Windows so maybe it's not your hard drive that's complaining. Anything from digital cameras, to USB hard drives, to CD-ROM drives or other USB powered items are considered as "disks" by Windows. Whatever device this is might not support write caching. I've had this before with redirected folders when I inadvertently unplugged a network cable and it couldn't write to the server drive.

Have you checked your device manager for any yellow exclamation points indicating an ongoing hardware issue? Sounds like plenty of fun is heading your way!

Hans Manhave · June 29, 2010, 11:31:52 AM

Detail of 'disk' listing:

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

The iaStor error is: The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.

I believe Harddisk0 is the first hard drive, I only have one. I have no idea what the 'D' stands for.

I have an external USB HD attached, but that one isn't known as D:. There are many USB ports on the machine itself (8 total) and a couple more on the monitor.

Bloody Jack Kidd · June 29, 2010, 11:35:12 AM

HD0 will be the first drive - find out the make/mfr, and download their bootable test CD image, burn it and run it.

Hans Manhave · June 29, 2010, 12:30:14 PM

It's an ST3250310AS 250GB SATA. I'm wondering if a buying another SATA drive, installing Windows, joining the domain, installing all the office pieces (yuk) is faster than trying to fix this. Of course, this has to happen at the end/beginning of the month when there are many accounting things to be done.

Running SeaTools. Not too informational, I must say. SMART passed. Now doing a Short drive self test.

Update: Short test found nothing. Now proceeding with long test.

Hans Manhave · June 29, 2010, 04:38:12 PM

Ran chkdsk. No errors. Rebooted. "Page fault in non-paging area". Googled. That error can mean a gazillion different things. Disk, memory, virus scanner, any other installed program etc.

Where to start?

Bob · June 29, 2010, 05:05:55 PM

Based on wording, closest hit I could find.

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/12946/?o=0

Thread even mentions this:

Re: Event ID - 51 - An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation
allright, i found out that \Device\Harddisk0\D

Ben Thoele · July 02, 2010, 09:19:58 AM

What model computer is this?

Hans Manhave · July 02, 2010, 10:26:21 AM

A Dell Precision T3400. This did appear to be a hard drive failure (bad sector-s). I obtained Spinrite 6 and it appears to have cleaned up the problem. I keep saying "appear" because I'm still a bit shell shocked from the experience.

Jeff Zylstra · July 02, 2010, 11:01:53 AM

Quote from: H_Manhave on July 02, 2010, 10:26:21 AM
A Dell Precision T3400. This did appear to be a hard drive failure (bad sector-s). I obtained Spinrite 6 and it appears to have cleaned up the problem. I keep saying "appear" because I'm still a bit shell shocked from the experience.

Drives are too cheap. I'm not sure I would trust that drive again. I'd replace it, but keep the drive around just in case. If it happens again, I'd look at the drives controller electronics on the motherboard. As Ronald Reagan used to say "trust but verify".

Jim Jensen · July 02, 2010, 12:24:20 PM

Quote from: H_Manhave on July 02, 2010, 10:26:21 AM
A Dell Precision T3400. This did appear to be a hard drive failure (bad sector-s). I obtained Spinrite 6 and it appears to have cleaned up the problem. I keep saying "appear" because I'm still a bit shell shocked from the experience.

Oh crap. I'm working on a T3400 as my primary machine. I hope my HD came from a different batch or manuf. than yours.

Cale Stultz · July 02, 2010, 02:46:29 PM

Hans,

Just a guess, but is your USB HD powered by the USB bus? If so, you may be causing some problems there. If that could be the case you may want to try a powered USB hub.

Another possibility may be that the power supply on the computer is failing.

Hans Manhave · July 02, 2010, 03:10:38 PM

It is an internal SATA drive. Model #ST3250318AS, I believe. They appear pretty popular, after two years they are still being sold. $69 for a replacement model. New one made in China, old one from Taiwan.

Power supply would be the next thing. I will replace the drive and install a dual boot WinXP / Win7-32bit so I can start considering a TAM upgrade too. Just are a lot of little software pieces (non-data) that have to be reinstalled so I was really happy to, at least temporarily, get the machine going again.

The Spinrite tech people are pretty responsive, but I believe it is a bot system (or "expert" system) that does the replying. Somehow they were correct even if it seemed to give standard answers.

Jeff Golas · July 19, 2010, 03:03:57 PM

If that were me, seeing how the drive is still working...

1. Buy New Drive
2. Use software they usually include (or get freebie imaging utility like CloneZilla) and copy the drive
3. Insert New drive and enjoy.
4. Beat old drive senseless with hammer (to protect data) and chuck it in the recycle bin.