Hardware issue....no cable installed error??

[Bluto]

Hi All...

I'm having what I THINK is a hardware issue. At first I thought it was a virus (or whatever). I have scanned and scanned and scanned my system. I have a resident, active antivirus program that is updated at least once a day (AVG), and I have several others I use to run scans anytime I'm going to be away from the computer. I keep the system clean, and not junked up. It's defragged and cared for. I've had this box for (and I know what you're thinking) about 7 years, maybe 8, or 9 even. It has a master/slave HDD set-up and I just added an external USB drive in the last few months.

The OS is XP Home. I keep that updated as well. I'm not really a gamer, so I don't have anything taxing on it.

So, a couple days ago it suddenly started running slow. the UI was a little jittery using the mouse, like something was running in the background, hogging up the resources.

I have several utilities that shows all the running processes and so forth. I didn't notice anything 'suspicious'.

I ran many scans, both in normal mode and safe mode. Nothing has turned up.

After doing this a few times booting and re-booting I started seeing a message during the boot process that says something about an IDE cable 80 or something not installed. I've never been able to see the whole thing as it doesn't stay on long enough.

Believe it or not, but I do actually take the cover off the box and clean it from dust every so often, so it's not horribly dusty, and when I do I'm very careful.

I've never seen this message before....don't know what it means, but wonder if this has anything to do with the sluggish behavior.

When I listen to streaming radio on the web the sound is jittery, like the computer just doesn't have enough balls to drive it...if that makes any sense.

Like I said, it's been a good system. I've kept it up, it never gets moved, and I'm the only one that uses it.

I don't think it's a virus, and now I think it's this hardware thing......does anyone have any idea what this is about, and obviously....how to go about getting it corrected?

By the way...if anyone needs it, I have a CPUID text file of the system I can past here.

Anyone?.....ideas?....help!

Thanks

 

[mfenn]

Sounds to me like your drive is going bad. Try downloading the manufacturer's diagnostic tools and running them.

 

[Ketchup]

It could also just be the cable. Quite a few times I have spent time looking at the drive itself when the cable was causing the problems I was seeing.

 

[Bluto]

I have a defrag utility that says the HD's are all good. I'm sure that's not 100%, and I don't mean to question your suggestion mfenn. I appreciate it, but I will look into getting the diagnostics, thanks

ketchup79.....yeah, that's what I am wondering. But would a bad cable also cause the system to run at what seems like half it's normal speed? I mean, put on the internet, open a couple pages, listen to streaming music and the thing is so slow.....wth. Bad cable cause this?

 

[Ketchup]

I have a defrag utility that says the HD's are all good. I'm sure that's not 100%, and I don't mean to question your suggestion mfenn. I appreciate it, but I will look into getting the diagnostics, thanks

ketchup79.....yeah, that's what I am wondering. But would a bad cable also cause the system to run at what seems like half it's normal speed? I mean, put on the internet, open a couple pages, listen to streaming music and the thing is so slow.....wth. Bad cable cause this?

It could if you don't have a lot of memory.

 

[Bluto]

I've got 1 GB RAM

Today I took the system down, pulled the cards, reinserted them. Checked CPUID. It seems to 'see' all the memory. And all this just started rather suddenly about 2 days ago.....it's really wacked.

 

[Ketchup]

I've got 1 GB RAM

Today I took the system down, pulled the cards, reinserted them. Checked CPUID. It seems to 'see' all the memory. And all this just started rather suddenly about 2 days ago.....it's really wacked.

You have ENOUGH RAM, not A LOT of RAM. Let me explain my earlier statement. Normally, you hard drive is loading stuff into RAM for the CPU to use, until the CPU doesn't need anything that isn't already in RAM. If you run a lot of apps, your memory is going to fill up faster and use your hard drive more. And therefore, your computer is going to be sluggish, even when surfing the web (if you are having a hard drive issue). You mentioned you use AVG. That program uses a ton of RAM.

Here is a little test. When the computer is really slow, is your hard drive light on constantly?
Oh, and just to rule something out, make sure write caching is enabled in device manager.

 

[Bluto]

Ok....good to know about the RAM, thanks. Actually the write caching is already set on the drive. I did not know that one, thanks (again).

The slowness starts right at boot-up. The whole system is about half as fast as it was when all this happened. It's like someone flipped a switch and said....'your system will now be half as fast'!

I replaced the 80-core ribbon cable today ---- nothing. Cleaned fans (for cooling) ---- nothing.

Could the hard drive be getting ready to take a dump? Why the speed change? Why so sudden, and why is it not randomly fluctuating in speed/performance if something is going bad?

Just doesn't make sense.....yanno? Seems like a fix is there...somewhere. I looked in the BIOS...cleared the BIOS, replaced the battery (it WAS getting old), and I'm still getting that IDE cable 80 thing during the POST.


Oh, almost forgot, the HD light is disconnected. I can see it in there, and have referred to the MOB manual, but it doesn't seem to be working. So I can't see when the drive is being accessed other than just listening....<sigh>

wtf

 

[Bluto]

I got it.......finally.

I found the solution on another website --- http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/01/22/2126205/how-to-diagnose-a-suddenly-slow-windows-computer

The HD managed to get itself into a PIO mode instead of a DAM mode. I went into device manager, uninstalled the IDE driver for that HD and then rebooted, and the system is right back where it was. Peppy, quick, responsive and working just fine.

Just thought I'd pass this along to you,and anyone else that may have looked at this thread. Thanks for your help ketchup79.....and on this whole site you were the only one to offer suggestions.

 

[Ketchup]

Glad I could help, and glad you found an answer. That is a strange one, for sure. PIO mode, wow. That brings back some memories!