Hard drive shutdown problem in Vista not XP 4 times drive shutsdown and spins up

[thegorx]

I've got Hard drive shutdown problem in Vista not XP "on shutdown"
4 times the drive sounds like it shuts down and spins up again the forth time it shuts down. Any one of the sounds are what you might expect the you shutdown a system, when the heads park but it does this three more times until it shutsdown.

I was thinking oh great the drive is going, but the sound doesn't sound bad or unhealthy it just shuts down and spins up and the spins up quiet and smoothe. So I just decided to try XP on the same drive same partition "formated'. So far it shuts down as normal.

Next I guess I'll try Vista with another drive.

This is a western digital WD2500JS SATA drive I've read where the YS has a problem with RAID and there is a firmware update but this is a JS and no RAID. Right now it's looking like a conflict between the OS or drivers and the drive.

I just wanted to write this down if anyone is interested for one or if anyone has experienced this or perhaps there is a setting that causes this ?? ?

Of course I'm still not discounting the drive has a problem but it tests fine and so far it only has this issue in Vista.


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Well, I took the system back to where I first made an image of the vista partition and the problem is not there, I was wondering why I didn't notice it earlier. So I guess I'll just have to see if it will recreate the problem or not. So this problem may not be a Vista specific problem.

 

[andersmaah]

Hi,
That's interesting, because my computer is experiencing exactly the same problem with Vista. It was not there after a fresh install, and it seems that the problem with the hard drive (trying to shut down 3-4 times during Vista shutdown) has come after an OS update or other software install.

I have a dual boot machine with XP and Vista, and the problem does not exist with XP. I have two internal hard drives, where one is a Western Digital Raptor. The other drive might also be a WD, but I haven't even checked that brand (it came installed with the system).

For reference, my MOBO is a Asus M2N-MX with the latest BIOS update. I updated the BIOS fairly recently, so that could be the reason. But if this problem also occurs with other hardware, then I suspect a Vista OS update is to blame. Could it be related to WD drives? (did not find this in their list of known Vista-compatibility issues)

May I ask what MoBo you have? If you find out what's causing this, please post your findings. (I'll do the same if I find it out)

Regards,
Anders

 

[imported_craig]

so has anyone figured out this weird 4 click shutdown by the hard drives in windows vista? I have the exact same problem with my vista 64 and sata drives (no raid)

 

[chief2punks]

Ditto: I have 3 hard drives, one with Vista 32 bit. On occasion it refuses to shut down. I don't believe this is a problem with Vista as much as configuration, drivers, hardware and my MBR.

I had Linux, XP and Vista running perfectly for a while until I monkeyed too much. Then out of the blue, XP did a check disc for consistancy on bootup. It deleted tons of files and destroyed Vista. I've had problems ever since.

I also had trouble reloading Vista. I didn't experience that the 1st time around. I finally figured out that the OS was detecting my SOLOGEAR 12 in 1 card reader and it was freaking out so I yanked it out. No problem loading Vista now.

I am experiencing trouble with all my OS's at this point. I think I should've loaded the raid driver when prompted. Linux and Vista are definitely at odds at this point.

 

[imported_craig]

I have no troubles at startup.

clean vista install

just the shutdown is where the drives shutdown/startup shutdown/startup shutdown/startup shutdown...

Im afraid this is going to destroy them alot sooner than expected.

please help

motherboard= asus m2n32-sli-deluxe
amd x2 5000+
2gb pc2 ram
2 sata 250gb hard drives (no raid)
vista 64 bit
latest n force 590 drivers installed

 

[andersmaah]

Craig,
Let's see if we can find the root of the problem by ourselves, until an official fix/notice is published.

First, I see some things in common:
1. Both of our computers have an Asus M2N-series motherboard (you have the M2N-32-sli-deluxe, I have the more simple M2N-MX)
2. Both of our computers have an AMD X2 5000+ CPU
3. Both of our computers have 2 GB RAM.
4. We both have the latest N Force drivers installed (of course, according to our respective motherboards)

What brands are your hard drives?

It would also be interesting to hear what motherboard the initial poster (thegorx) has.

From the information so far, I would suspect this could be related to the N force drivers (which are still in beta, right, and known to have quite many issues) for the Asus motherboard.

 

[imported_craig]

Im not sure of the brand of hard drives. but they are sata(no raid)

I think you are right its the nforce drivers. that could be the only explanation.

I might be doing more harm than good, but at shutdown I make sure the computer shuts down after the first click of the hard drives.

 

[andersmaah]

If it is the nforce drivers, there should be quite many computers experiencing this problem at the moment. Let's see if more people will find this thread and post. The more people who report this problem, the faster we will see a fix for the problem. I would suggest contacting the company where you bought your computer (as they too can contact Asus/Nvidia for a fix), as well as Asus (if you bought the motherboard separately.

I have started a forum thread at Asus, too:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view...oard_id=1&model=M2N-MX
(title: Hard Drive Issue on Vista wih Asus/Nforce)

 

[imported_craig]

computer is built by me. so no one else to contact really except individual manufacturers.

until fix is made...im just shutting it down on first click meaning that the hard drives "should" be parked correctly. I will drop in here time to time to see if anymore people have this problem. have a good one.

 

[thegorx]

Well this is an Acer Aspire e380 I think it may be a foxconn board although that's not relevant it's listed a an Acer board.

NVIDIA MCP61 chipset

like I said I restored a backup image and the problem went away


I haven't been working with it for awhile and I'm not in a hurry to recreate it even if I knew how.


** It does seem to driver related since I tried updating drivers, problem started again.
I'll look into it more later

 

[andersmaah]

Update:

A couple of days ago, NVIDIA released an updated SATA Controller driver. The update came, at least for me, through the regular Windows Update, so it was just to click to download and install.

After the update, the problem with hard drives turning on and off 4 times disappeared.