Please help me solve this mystery!

[TheNiceGuy]

First of all, thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some much needed advice! This issue has recently possibly cost me some valuable data from work, so I'm at a loss.

Anyway, since building this system (in my sig) 2 years ago, I have had frequent missing NTLDR, System 32, or other simular errors which lead to a corrupted main HD, and require a complete reformat. Occasionaly, I could fix the error by swapping HD cables around after the error.
This week, the same thing happened, but it also corrupted my 320 G data HD. I have left it unplugged for now, in the hopes that I can salvage some of the data. Meanwhile, I have reformated the main drive, and am slowly doing the tedious process of installing and updating all my programs, etc.

I have been unable to figure out the problem in 2 years. I have tried various BIOS and driver versions, but to no avail. The problem strikes without warning.

This most recent data HD corruption could be blamed on a series of power outages over the last month while up/downloading to that drive. However, it doesn't explain the previous 2 years of the issue, with no power outages to blame.

Any ideas? Replace hardware? A certain BIOS/Driver combo? I have no idea where to start.

Also, how can I recover my data HD?

Please help a novice out.
Thanks!

 

[velis]

Are you overclocking? If so, do you make sure your PCI frequency is locked to 33 MHz?
Do you install NVidia IDE drivers? Don't.
Please run memtest to see if your RAM is OK. Also run Prime95 to check for any stability issues.

That's about all I can come up with right now. I have basically the same computer. Using latest MB drivers without NAM, sound and IDE. Sound drivers I get directly from realtek (edit: only because the nvidia ones do not support SPDIF output). Until I had a 6600GT, I used 80 series driver, i think it was 84.21 (newer ones were having problems).

 

[oynaz]

I suspect either your mobo or RAM is defective.

 

[Seekermeister]

I have no idea of what caused the problem, but you should be able to fix it by running CHKDSK /R in the Recovery Console.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: TheNiceGuy
Please help me solve this mystery!
same bizzare issue - for 2 years!

Sometimes a reboot clears my "NTLDR missing" problems up.
But... Google is your friend

 

[bruceb]

Try new IDE cables to the Hard Drives especially if they are the Ribbon Type
It is very easy for one or more wires to break inside the Ribbon and you may
or may not be able to see it ... failing that, I would install a seperate PCI IDE
CARD and see what happens ... it is possible the MOBO IDE controller is going bad

 

[Bozo Galora]

I would say all the suggestions here are good and pertinent, every last one of them, esp RAM and Nvidia drivers

However, you do have that one Joker in the deck - Win MCE
Personally, I would remove all the related MCE hardware and do a repair install with your OEM install disk but not use the disc 2, in other words just XP SP2. You can always add it back later. Just to check where the prob arises from, and eliminate one possibility.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/mediacenter.mspx

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Blain
It's an NTLDR winter.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thanks for all the replys folks!
I'll try to work through all the comments in a thourough fashion. If anything comes to mind, shout out.

-I don't do any oveclocking or the like. All stock stuff on my PC. I haven't used the NVidia drivers for a long time, since everyone found out they were buggy a couple years ago. I'm now running a program called Stress Prime 2004 in Blend Mode. It's supposed to test the cpu and memory. I'll let you know how it turns out. Is this the equivelent of Memtest86 and Prime95?

-Is there a way to test the mobo?

-I have tried to fix it by running CHKDSK /R in the Recovery Console several times in the past, all of which ended up in Recovey Console telling me the errors were unrecoverable. I ended up reformating.

-Reboot did not fix any of my NTLDR issues. As I mentioned above, NTLDR is not the only error that appears. I have also had System 32, corrupt files, and harddrives disapearing from XP and sometimes the BIOS. In most cases it appears without warning or having made any major changes to the PC (such as a new program or HD). Occasionaly before crash the HD will make a strange ticking noise and the mouse will lag.

-I have changed the cables in the past. They are the small red ones for new drives. But it seems unlikely as everything was brand new. Would a seperate PCI IDE CARD bypass the MB? Is there a way to test the MB without having to buy more hardware?

-XP MCE, I don't actualy use the MCE components, and have no hardware for it, but I have all the software installed from the disks and updates. Should I uninstall them? How can I do that?


I just tried to hook up my corrupted data HD to use GetDataBack utility. On powerup it locked at the BIOS startup picture. Second try it locked and then crashed in windows startup. Third try it booted into xp, but the corrupted drive was not there. So I rebooted, and it gave me a missing System 32 error at startup. So I powered down again and disconnected both data drives. Started up as normal. I'm reluctant to hook either data drive up again, because in the past, when the PC was acting this way, the next thing to come was getting massive errors on my C drive, and me having to reformat.

Is it likely that the MB disk controler is screwed up? I have been getting these kinds of erors from build. Also, it won't read my flashdrive anymore, and shows my printer as being a "removable disk".

Anyway, thanks again all for taking time to read my mystey!


EDIT:
Is there anything I can do as 'preemtive medicine' to get XP up and running if this happens again? All I can think of is the "copy e:\i386\ntldr c:
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\" trick. But I don't think this will work for the variety of errors I get, such as System 32.
And how can I recover the data HD when it is invisible to BIOS?

 

[wraith3k]

I had an issue in which every once in a while my computer would BSOD during bootup. It turns out if I left the nvidia mixer open (the nforce utility for changing audio settings) for several hours, it would corrupt my registry and I'd have to use a system restore point to fix it. The only way around it was for me to simply not leave the utility open for any extended amount of time. I have no idea if this is related to the issue you have, but I noticed you have an nforce4 board, so I thought I'd mention it.

 

[oynaz]

After reading your last post, I am 90% sure that your motherboard is the culprit. Unfortunately, I can think of no other way to fix it apart from borrowing another somewhere and see if the problem goes away.

 

[Bozo Galora]

c'mon man, run memtest 86+ from floppy, stop debating
http://www.memtest.org/download/1.65/memtest86+-1.65.floppy.zip

Run Seagate drive fitness test - full - just do it!!
(and make sure drives are jumpered as SATA 1 not II)
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/B7a.html

Do a FULL CMOS reset (lNote down current BIOS settings before hand)
Turn off PSU switch, unplug PSU, take out battery, short CMOS pins, wait at least one hour, unshort cmos pins, replace battery, plug in PSU put rocker switch back to on. Go into bios and restore settings.

Try different power supply.

and if it passes those 4 (which it wont) then do a repair install of XP with SP2 from install CD (not MCE anything) - you lose no data
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI

 

[TheNiceGuy]

-thanks Slug. I normaly use the Realtek driver, but switched to Nvidia last week. I just switched back to the Realtek just in case.

-Oynaz, I also have a hunch its the MB. This board reported a pile of troubles on release.

-Thanks for the info Bozo.
-I ran memtest86 (v3.2) for 23 passes (about 10 hours). no errors.
-I did a full CMOS unplugged, left the pins shorted overnight, then restored the previous BIOS settings. The BIOS settings I have are default, except for disabling (under Onboard Device Config Menue): NVRAID; Silicon SATA controller; case open warning (different menue IIRC). I didn't touch the other SATA options under the HD settings.
-Seagate Tools. I ran ALL the tests on the Seatools disk a year or so ago on both 120G drives, passed with flying colors. I will test all the drives again, including my new one, a total of 560G, so this may take a while.
I did notice that my drives appear twice on the Seatools menue (under "Unknown Controller", and "Other Seagate Drives"). So when I select all tests, the same drive gets a full test twice (very time consuming). Is this normal?
Also, my drives have no jumpers, so I cannot select SATA 1 vs SATA 2. I checked in the BIOS menu, and can see no option for this (unless it is phrased differently). So I ran the tests as is.
I will run all the Seatools tests on all drives and memory devices again. This will take a while.

As for the PSU, I am reluctant to shell out another $200-$300 to import another suitable PSU (I live in Japan). I already had to buy another PSU shortly after build time (despite my original being more than suitable), because the A8N-SLI is extremely difficult about PSUs (single/dual channels on the 12v line, blahblahblah). My current PSU is in my sig, and should be fine. It also has 3 voltage indicator lights on the back which always look fine when I check.

The MCE thing is the last on your list I can try after these Seatools tests are done.


Any ideas?

 

[Bozo Galora]

Good man. Now you have been eliminating the possibilities one by one - like Sherlock Holmes - lol

here the SATA 1 jumper diag for Seagate - bottom
http://www.benmacre.com/images/sata_ii_jumpers.jpg

not that critical, but you used the wrong memtest - use linked 1.65 memtest 86+, not memtest 86 3.2 (3 passes are fine)

next item - last bios was 1016 (10/21/05)
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/A8NSD016.zip
there is now an 1805 BETA bios (11/06/06)
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/1805.zip
what do you have??
I think 1805 is worth a shot

next - need you to go in device manager and note exactly what drivers you have loaded for seagates, MS or Nvidia and which version. NV drivers are notorious for corruption probs.

Despite all of the above, I am now getting a bad feeling about this........
not even being able to get into getdataback sure looks like bad drive - as in bad drive physically - bearing, electro motor, HDD controller chip (not mobo), scratches in platter etc.
the way to tell is try a free live linux distro like knoppix and put bootable ISO on CD, boot to it and see if you even see any data. This may ultimately require the freezer one shot thingy time.
I really think in this case, Spinrite may be your new best option, since it can refresh magnetic domains
http://www.grc.com/sr/testimonials.htm

Just as an aside - MCE is a mess - they have three update "rollups" so far, but this would not freeze getdataback, but prob not relevant here

 

[Seekermeister]

When I have had a NTLDR problem, there was no HD corruption per se, I just ran CHKDSK /R in the Recovery console and all was well.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Bozo-
-I should mention that after CMOS clearing, XP is still showing: a phantom 3.5 Floppy; and my printer/scanner as both a scanner and a ?removable disk?, but not as a printer.

-I still haven?t plugged in the 320G data drive in XP, for fear of a crash.

-I had trouble accessing the memtest site, so I used the one I had. I will try again with memtest86+ as an iso (I have no floppy).

-As for the HD jumpers, I see them now, but only the 320G drive has what looks like the switch. The other 120G data drive and 120G main drive do not have switches. I didn?t alter them in any way since build. How can I switch them? And is it necessary?

-I finished testing most of Seatools, except for the duplicate drives (will finish them tonight) under ?Other Seagate Drives?. As I mentioned, the drives appear twice in Seatools, under one menu branch titled ?Other Seagate Drives?, and under another branch titled ?Unknown Controller?. Is this normal?
The tests I ran so far showed passing all physical tests, but all 3 HDs failed the ?File Structure Test? with ?critical errors?. Here?s the results:

My main drive (120G, 0x80):
-?One or more errors were found in the index.?
-?One or more errors were found in the metadata file records.?
-?Other errors were found?
My corrupted data drive (320 G, 0x81):
-?One or more errors were found in the index.?
-?One or more errors were found in the metadata file records.?
-?Other errors were found?
-?Errors were found in one or more file records?
-?One or more file names contained errors.?
My other data drive (120 G, 0x82):
-?One or more errors were found in the index.?
-?One or more errors were found in the metadata file records.?



-As for BIOS, I am using 1004. I never went further than this, as I didn?t see any of my critical issues addressed in the descriptions. Everybody warned me not to update the BIOS unless absolutely sure it would fix my problem, as they said more problems could happen. I am a PC novice, so I don?t know about those BIOS revisions.

-Here?s the driver I?m using for my main drive:
http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p124...emon/?action=view&current=Picture1.gif
I?ve used the default XP ones since shortly after build 2 years ago. The other 2 HDs should be the same driver.

-I will check on getting rid of all the MCE stuff.

 

[Bozo Galora]

Well, that screenshot explains some things, glad I asked
I didnt want the HDD drivers, rather the SATA controller drivers you were using
You have no drivers loaded for SATA of any kind (the yellow question mark)
see here (ways down)
http://www.seagate.com/support/ts/sata/drive_setup/win98_me.html
Thats why you are getting unknown controller message - the seagate DFT check has to use"naked mode" first then try thru "invisible controller"

You have no jumper because the first SATA drives that came out were "phoney SATA" - just PATA with a bridge chip. So you are also using "mixed" SATA - bridged, generation 1, and generation 2 with backwards capability to gen 1.
FWIW: you must put boot O/S SATA on SATA 1 - far right lower.

Since I ASSUME you have these all hooked to the 4 NATIVE NVIDIA SATA ports with SATA cables (and NO IDE HDD), they have defaulted to running in so called "IDE mode" or legacy mode with MS or NV drivers. Since you are running in IDE I need to know what drivers are installed to IDE ATAPI controllers in dev manager - I'm guessing nvidia

In BIOS
Does your boot O/S HDD show as FIRST SATA master?
I need to know the 8 entries you have for the "advanced/onboard device config" (page 93 of your manual)

You are going to have to install nv sata/RAID drivers..................
platform nforce drivers/nforce4 series AMD/Win XP/
(V6.78 IDE/SATA drivers 6.66 WHQL inside)
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
I believe you can just select SATA driver install.
We may have to change a few things in bios
You are going to have to go to recov console and run (type in) FIXMBR command on O/S drive (enter its number)
And like I say, if you have critical data on one drive - Spinrite will save your ass.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Bozo-
Its almost 5am here, so I gotta get to bed. I will read through your post carefuly tomorrow if I can, and see what I can do. Looks good. I just wanted to say that I got ALL my data back, yahoo! I risked plugging the drive in again, and this time GDB saw drive and I was able to copy all 91G onto my C drive. I quick formated the data drive, and have set it to copy back. Its doing it now so Im off to bed.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Ah, what the heck, I?ll try one more post before bed.

The data has all copied back to the data drive. Is it safe to erase it off the main drive now? Is the data drive safe after that quick format? I tried to do a normal format in windows, but it locked up. Everything seems back to normal now otherwise.

You said: ?You have no jumper because the first SATA drives that came out were "phoney SATA" - just PATA with a bridge chip. So you are also using "mixed" SATA - bridged, generation 1, and generation 2 with backwards capability to gen 1.
FWIW: you must put boot O/S SATA on SATA 1 - far right lower.?
I?m not sure I follow you. What exactly should I do?

Ya, all the drives are hooked with SATA cables to the native ports. Here?s a couple more shots of the drivers:
http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p124/keylimelemon/


ya, the O/S HDD show as FIRST SATA master in BIOS. Under "advanced/onboard device config", the 8 ?IDE fuction setup? options are all enabled. The options under ?NVRAID Config? are all disabled. However, . under "advanced/onboard device config" the ?Silicon Sata Controller? is disabled.


I thought the Nvidia SATA drivers were the ones everyone says to stay away from, and that Windows? are better?
And when I tried FIXMBR in the past after HD issues, it rendered my drive beyond repair. Will it work ok?

 

[Bozo Galora]

glad to hear GDB finally kicked in - lucky you
as far as what to do about dif SATA - theres nothing to be done, they are as they come, just not good idea to run dif types on same chip
yes, you are running strictly MS drivers, SATA in legacy IDE mode, which are less trouble than NV >NORMALLY<


Heres what I think: (assuming you never overclocked the PC either unknown by you or deliberately - your board does have auto overclocking)
I think you had a head crash on the data drive (less likely - 2 drives head crashed at same time). Formatting marks bad sectors to be avoided, and bad sectors either stay fixed (avoided) or tend to increase with time. But your prob is off and on, indicating physical damage to platter. Thus the GDB probs. GDB sw should never crash even with bad sectors or even no O/S. Thats why sys32 missing and ntldr missing only sometimes is bad.
You should think back to remember if the PC was dropped or kicked over by your dog, or if there was a huge power surge, or if the Japanese 100V doesnt work well with PSU, or if you may have scraped mobo traces with a screwdriver.

Off and on probs also means you have to check your cables REALLY CLOSE as to good contact and no cracks, both data and power. Sometimes you see XP, sometimes not. Sometimes you have sys32, sometimes not. Sometimes GDB works, sometimes not.

I anticipate one day your drive will make a series of clicks and say bye bye.

I might note that this is clasic behavior for bad caps, but yoiur board is ASUS and only 2 yrs old.

I think you should do a repair install with an XP SP2 CD (not MCE) at the very least - you lose no data or apps, just XP settings - cant hurt. This will redo ntldr and sys32 if needed. But I dont think they are corrupt - just "missing" at certain times
It would be very interesting to see if you could repartition (alter) the data drive with disk manager in any way (merge/expand/new). This would be the ultimate test for useability.
It would either freeze XP, make the drive unbootable or force a fix of file directories.

If you want to be absolutely sure your data is safe, you are going to have to buy a new seagate for data drive. Most peeps wouldnt even stop to think about it, but I realize most folks around the world dont throw money around like we do.
And like I mentioned twice, if you want the best shot at REFURBING your drive via software, you will need to use Spinrite.

I also think its bad policy to run shipping bios of mobo (you said you had troubles from beginning)

 

[Bozo Galora]

and just for my own personal giggles, I would be curious to see screenshots of ptedit, both prim and extended
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis......da/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip">ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/............/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip</a></a></a>

edit: and you might want to put your finger on drives to see if one is really hot, or use HDD Temp software - dunno if it will work with your mobo chip, you may have to turn on SMART in bios.
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/monitor-hdd.html

edit 2: just as an aside, since you are in Japan you can get metadata eroors if you use unknown to system language like Chinese or Japanese text symbols.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thanks again for your help Bozo

Ya, I was pretty happy about the recovery too!

So basically all I can do now is repair XP, and try a new HD?

Will a new HD fix this? I used the 2 120Gs since build 2 years ago. The 320G was added a couple months ago. All the drives have had major issues of some kind come up.
I am very careful with all the hardware. I don?t mind buying a new drive, but it can?t be that all 3 drives have had mechanical errors, and buying a 4th will fix all that.


As for SATA drivers? what should I do? Erase the MS ones and try the NVIDIA for a while?

I have not installed the overclocking or other utilities (NOS, Cool n Quite, etc) that came with the board.

The data drive that got corrupted was my new 320G drive. It?s the best model of them all, so I?m surprised if it has had mechanical failure already.
I should add that the GDB program itself never crashed. It just couldn?t find the drive the first try. Neither could XP, or even BIOS.

The Japanese 100V thing should be OK. I know heaps of people with laptops, PCs, Xbox360, etc from the states here, and no issues. I was told that the transformers are more than able to handle the 10-15v difference.
And I believe my PSU has built in power surge protectors.

The only thing in this realm I can think of is that since October we have had frequent power losses in our house, as in the whole house breaker going. I have been doing a lot of down/uploading onto the 320G drive, often when a blackout occurred. Could this damage the drive this quickly?
On a related note, during the 2 years of having this build, I often get lockups requiring a manual turn off. These appear to be from running a high end online game, or running too many apps at once. Could this damage the drives?

As for BIOS version, my board shipped with 1001. I updated to 1004, as that was the one which seemed to address any relevant issues. I couldn?t find anything in the newer BIOSs outside of OC issues and new CPUs. I was told not to update unless the description specifically says it will fix my issues, otherwise I may get more unrelated problems. But if you recommend it, I can try the newest one and see what happens.

I just hooked up all drives. The drives are currently running: 120G main = 34degrees Celsius; 120G data = 40degrees Celsius; 320G data = 43degrees Celsius.

Here?s the ptedit:
http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p124/keylimelemon/

 

[xtknight]

I'm 95% sure from what I've been reading that a component on your motherboard (probably chipset) is damaged. My A8N-SLI Deluxe's secondary ethernet controller died, and the chipset fan also died. The board wasn't made real well. NCQ is known for causing data corruption on the nForce 4 chipset.

Be SURE that your SATA ports are not being overclocked by even a fraction of a MHz (how to be sure, I really don't know). I've corrupted data by OCing the A8N-SLI D. I believe putting them on nForce4 controller ports 3&4 locks the SATA frequency, but I'm not sure. NCQ can also cause data corruption. To be honest with you, I would just put the hard drives on the Silicon Image controller and see how things go.

It doesn't sound like your memory is the issue. You've tested that enough. I doubt that lack of power is an issue but I don't know about the 100V thing.

Make sure you're completely reformatting the drives (including partition table and master boot record). Even a full format of C: does not erase these. I would write zeroes repeatedly to the first 5000K or so of the disks. Even formatting C: just formats the partition and doesn't wipe the boot sector anyway to my knowledge (C: is a partition). Also make sure to clean the boot sectors of your partitions. I think format will do this, but I'm not sure.

How often does the problem occur where NTLDR will just stop functioning? This happens on every drive, correct? Also can you provide a complete layout of how all your drives (hard disks, floppies, cd-roms) are connected to their respective controllers? Also note whether or not you're using RAID at all or what mode the controllers are in (PATA emulation or native SATA AHCI).

 

[Bozo Galora]

I like working with you because you do what is requested

In no particular order....
Power failure are not really the issue. Modern HDD auto park the heads if it has loss of power. The spindown RPM parks the heads. The prob is what happened to cause the power loss - in your case enough amps to blow a wall breaker. I once lost 2 HDD after a nasty lightning stike that blew the transformer on the power pole.

Your HDD temps are O.K., I always run front case fans on them and keep temps below 26 at all times
Low temps are the key to HDD longevity.

Freezeups in games is usually buggy games that need patches or overheating GPU, or insufficient power supply or insufficient graphic power in vidcard. 6600GT is a bit on the weak side.

If you change to NV drivers now, SATA will run in native mode, I would hold off until you gat things figured out.

Heres the interesting thing. I think I discovered the "cant find it", sys32 missing, phantom Floppy, etc. prob. in ptedit screens
SATA 120 and SATA 120 are both in ptedit as booting drives. (07-80's not 07'-80 and 07-00 !!!!)
I think windows (and GDB) are confused at boot looking to see which one to boot from.
Thats why they work on second try.

Since you are in IDE legacy mode you do have master slave.
Also seagate disk wizard always makes a first partition as primary/active if drive is by itself.
I THINK it makes other connected drives (even SATA) primary automatically also.
So you need to go in disk manager and confirm this (screenshot please) <<<<<<<<<<
In legacy mode, sata1 is master sata2 is slave, sata3 is master, sata4 is slave.
So we just have to take away active, for sure, on 120 -2 drive, remove primary designation possibly.
I guess SATA1 socket is master, SATA2 socket is slave, SATA3 socket is master, SATA4 is slave. We could put drives in 1, 2 and 4. No IDE drive jumpered as slave will boot, possibly no drive in SATA slave position will either.
We also have to see in BIOS if we can make other two (120-320) drives non master, but still on. (BIOS Main Screen) I cant see what options are avail in manual.
Also in Power screen we need to see if we can change first boot "removeable" to floppy (SATA is hot swappable - heh) Cant see those options either.

This is the source of all your probs, I think - LOL.
Now it all makes sense.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thx Xtknight-
I?m not running RAID at all. My sata drives are connected with sata cables to the normal sata ports. I have one DVD RW that is connected with the standard ribbon cable. I have never enabled the NCQ function, was warned not to on Anandtec.
In retrospect, I believe I have used the same 120G drive for 2 years as the main drive. It has required reformatting from these errors many times. My data drives, IIRC, have never lost data until recently ? and when they did, it was in conjunction with the main drive crashing.



Hi again Bozo-
If you?re Sherlock, I guess that makes me Watson. lol
Anyway, had a very frustrating couple days. Everything was working well, and tried the repair install. Something went wrong and had to reformat again. Been installing, updating, downloading, favoriting, passwording, drivering, etc. ever since. Anyway, here I am again.

Regarding the power- the problem is not enough power coming in the house as a whole. I checked with the owner and apparently the house is not set up well and if more than a couple of appliances are used at once, the main breaker flips. It may be possible for the power company to up the Hz (I think it is currently 50Hz), but he's not sure the house can accept that. May or may not be related, but I have been getting low power warnings for the video card regularly at startup.

Disks-The phantom 3 ½ floppy is always there, in addition to the HDs. And my printer/scanner is shown as separate entities, a scanner and a removable storage drive ? but not as a printer ? although it works fine.

I swapped the SATA cables to ports 1,2,4, with 1 being the main 120G HD. Here are some screenshots (literally!) from BIOS. They were all I could see relating to the disks:

http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p124/keylimelemon/

BTW, the options under ?Extended IDE Drive? are ?none? or ?auto?. Under ?Access Mode? are ?large? or ?auto?.

?I THINK it makes other connected drives (even SATA) primary automatically also.
So you need to go in disk manager and confirm this (screenshot please) <<<<<<<<<<? ?Where is disk manager? An XP utility?

?Also in Power screen we need to see if we can change first boot "removeable" to floppy (SATA is hot swappable - heh) Cant see those options either.? ? And where is this? In BIOS? XP?



As a side, it has been my hunch that something on the MB was to blame, because as xtknight mentioned, there have been many issues reported on the A8N-SLI.
Also, I am suspicious of the power issue.: Japanese 100v; fussy A8N-SLI; and most recently an older house with known power issues and GPU warnings. Too many unsettling factors. BTW, initially I bought a very good Seasonic PSU made for Japan 100V, but it seemed as though the A8N-SLI refused it because of the dual 12v rails. So I bought the OCZ, and now the Season sits in the garage.

Issues which may/may not be related: During the recent install of XP, the screen flickered occasionaly (as in went black for a moment then on). Also, no Internet explorer icon was installed for either version. And my user name does not appear under "Processes" when I Cntr/Alt/Del.