Need some help diagnosing a problem

Hughsy · 30 Jul 2009 at 20:45

As of late my PC will lock up with my monitor going black and the sound looping over and over until I turn it off via the power button. It only appears to happen in games aswell, with it varying from hours to days on when it occurs. The mouse freezes aswell and I cannot get back onto windows.

I viewed Event Manager after the recent freeze and I got this error:

Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort2, did not respond within the timeout period. Source (Atapi)

Idle temps:

40c - cpu
50c - gpu

I've ran mem test and changed drivers on my GFX card with the problem still existing.

System in sig.

Any help please?

SpiderX · 30 Jul 2009 at 20:52

that error suggests somethings wrong with your cd/dvd drive.
do your games read the dvd/cd?

Hughsy · 30 Jul 2009 at 20:53

The recent one I was playing had the disk in the CD-Drive so yes, but I play WoW also and it does freeze on that quite frequently and a disk is not needed for playing.

SpiderX · 30 Jul 2009 at 21:07

hmm...could try taking out the cd drive for a few days, and see if you still get the freezing issue

Hughsy · 30 Jul 2009 at 21:10

Ye, I was just about to try that. If the problem stops happening I guess my WindowsXP and Games may not have been installed properly because of the faulty CD Drive.

Zerolimitz · 30 Jul 2009 at 21:14

could also be the power supply maybe if you have 1 spare try change and see if you still get the same problem?

Ultim8 · 30 Jul 2009 at 21:20

genrally this indicates a fault with hardware or a heat problem, hence it only happens when your pc is continually using resources, i would try running prime first to see if you can replicate the crash and that should point you in the direction of the cpu, if thats not the cause then the graphics maybe the problem.

Failing that it could be your PSU.

HTH

Ulti

Hughsy · 30 Jul 2009 at 21:21

Zerolimitz said:
could also be the power supply maybe if you have 1 spare try change and see if you still get the same problem?

Yea, I have already tried that and problem still there.

Hughsy · 30 Jul 2009 at 21:59

\Device\Ide\IdePort2 corresponded with my CD-Drive within the bios so I have disconnected the CD-Drive and will go about my daily routines and see if the problem persists.

Hughsy · 2 Aug 2009 at 02:24

ok.. so my PC was rock solid for 2 days straight but just now my PC locked up on world of warcraft and the sound looped continuously and I left the PC for 5minutes and it was still doing the exact same. I had to restart it via the Power Button. Nothing has been reported in Event Viewer. The only thing which is not new in the last few months is the CPU / Hard Drive / CD-Drive.

Any new ideas?

PakJai · 2 Aug 2009 at 02:35

I think it's something to do with your optical drive.
Have you been writing and copying or installing something with your optical drive lately?
If it was indeed your rom drive, then there's a chance that some of the data copied over got corrupted.. Try removing your rom drive and then rerolling your system to the last working setting (which I presume was 2-3days ago).

Then give it sometime and run your pc without the drive for awhile. If it remains stable, then you'd probably have to replace your rom to a new one.

Hughsy · 2 Aug 2009 at 02:38

ok i just ran chkdsk and Errors were found. Does that mean my Hard Drive is buggered and can this cause my games to crash?

PakJai · 2 Aug 2009 at 02:46

Basically IDE is a hard Drive / Optical Drive Controller and Adapi is the driver for your cd rom.

You have to break things down and try fix it in a logical way, testing things one at a time.. My suspicion is that your cd/dvd drive is having issues and if you have been using it, then the likihood of you copying corrupted data on to your hard drive is fairly high.
Hence why I suggest you to disconnect your cd/dvd rom from the ide connector and boot from your hard disk. Once inside window, unistal anything that you have installed in the past 2-3 days and then reroll your system back to how it was 3 days ago.

Hopefully this will correct and stabilize your system.
I don't think it's a heat issue personally. Just give it a go and see if it works, if it does, then it's worth while replacing your old optical drive for a new one. They are very cheap nowadays, can pick a decent one up from OcUK for about £20

Hughsy · 2 Aug 2009 at 02:51

PakJai said:
Basically IDE is a hard Drive / Optical Drive Controller and Adapi is the driver for your cd rom.

You have to break things down and try fix it in a logical way, testing things one at a time.. My suspicion is that your cd/dvd drive is having issues and if you have been using it, then the likihood of you copying corrupted data on to your hard drive is fairly high.
Hence why I suggest you to disconnect your cd/dvd rom from the ide connector and boot from your hard disk. Once inside window, unistal anything that you have installed in the past 2-3 days and then reroll your system back to how it was 3 days ago.

Hopefully this will correct and stabilize your system.
I don't think it's a heat issue personally. Just give it a go and see if it works, if it does, then it's worth while replacing your old optical drive for a new one. They are very cheap nowadays, can pick a decent one up from OcUK for about £20

I have had the CD-Rom disconnected for the last 3 days and I have not installed anything in those 3 days either apart from 1 game. The same sort of crash has occured quite regularly before this post anyway. I think my next step will be to do a format with a different CD-Rom from my 2nd PC and will just go about my daily routines and hopefully it wont happen again. You think this will be a good way to go about this?