Stop: c0000218 Unknown Hard Error

[Skypix7]

Hi:

I could use some good advice please:

new system has run flawlessly for about 3 months.

Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Quad 6600 2.4 gHz cpu
8 GB RAM ( DDR 667, I think it's Kingston)
Nvidia 7600 GS with 512MB, PCI Express
lots of hard drives (1.3 TB total storage), some IDE, some SATA
3 DVD burners

plenty of fans, cpu runs around 25 -30 degrees Celsius

Recently I had a 10 day disaster after trying to install XP on another drive after having VISTA 64 bit up and running for 2.5 months. Entire system, both OSs, hard crashed, took days to solve the problem, two subsequent installs with more problems...finally got it going. There is a very specific, safe way to do 2 OSs with Vista as recommended by the vendor who sold me my barebones system.

I'm a bit off track on my own thread, but the short tell is:

disconnect all hard drives except boot drive.
Install XP first.
power down
disconnect all drives except Vista drive (a separate hard drive, not just another partition)
install Vista.
Reconnect all drives. Use bios each time you boot up to select drive that has the OS you want to boot up on.

It's a minor a nuisance...an extra 30 seconds or so...but it's been rock solid......

Until this:

BSOD and Stop: c0000218 Unknown Hard Error

It happened 2 days ago. I rebooted, and didn't even get the safe mode screen, it just booted up normally and ran fine for the next two days.

Then again this morning (both times BTW were in the morning, it was cold in the apt, around 50 degrees), same error message. Rebooted, this time I did get the f8 screen, I selected Boot Normally, and it did just fine. Running just fine now.

Suggestions I've picked up off the net:

1. corrupted registry
2. faulty memory (there is some other related evidence of this: when I was reinstalling the OSs, at one point I could not even get the system to boot, after a power down, from the Vista CD!) I did a full memory test, but I've read even that isn't always conclusive. I even pulled all the sticks and tested each one separately in slot 1. A-OK.
3. direct X 9 problem
4. a true COLD boot problem...the suggestion is that first time I boot up in the morning, go into Bios, let it warm up for 5 minutes, then proceed. The suggestion is that the computer for some reason needs to physically get warm.

In truth, #4 is compelling as I never had this problem until it got colder (I live in upstate NY and I keep the thermostat around 55 in the office overnight. The actual room temp is a bit colder than that.)

I also checked Windows error log, and got this error 3 or 4 times:

The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort5, did not respond within the timeout period.

And over the last 2 weeks, 20 or more disk errors of this nature:

IO_WARNING_PAGING_FAILURE
some kind of disk error, most of them have event ID 51

There are other random errors but these were the two in multiples.

Anyway, I've served this up in hopes it might help others with similar problem, and to request any other troubleshooting suggestions beyond the 4 above

thanks for all help

Jim

 

[Smilin]

A stop 0xC0000218: STATUS_CANNOT_LOAD_REGISTRY_FILE
Is a failure to load a registry file. This is almost always caused by filesystem problems.

A Stop: c0000218 Unknown Hard Error is a non-microsoft error. The C0000218 is a microsoft code but not that text. If that's truly the text that is being displayed then the stop is being generated by a 3rd party driver (which are allowed to issue a STOP with any reason they choose)

System event IDs: 50, 51 are disk I/O failures (and typically lead to a 55, ntfs corruption).

It looks to me like you are having a hard disk or controller failure. See if you have any 5,6,7, 9, 11 events in the system log to help isolate disk vs disk controller.

You're also probably in some dire need of a chkdsk. On a misbehaving controller a chkdsk can go very bad though. Be sure you have backups of the important stuff and then kick off a chkdsk /R


If it sometimes fails at boot and then sometimes works, it's very much a hardware problem but power supply becomes suspect. The load on the PSU is much higher at boot than during normal operation. If temperature seems to be a factor it makes me think expansion/contraction...make sure all your cabling is tight.


HDD/Controller should be your focus I think.

 

[Skypix7]

Thanks Smilin, you were right on target as it turns out.

I was going a bit nuts trying to figure this out...it worked okay for awhile, then started locking up in mid-compute, so to speak, then I couldn't boot into XP or Vista (each on a separate drive, and clean installed.

best way to do that by the way is to disconnect all drives, install the XP OS first, make sure everything is working fine, then disconnect all drives except the Vista drive. Install that OS. Make sure it's working properly. Then connect everything back up. Then make sure you don't get corrupted boot records in either OS, which was the problem that plagued me for two weeks back at the beginning of October.)

I was about ready to chuck everything out the window...it's been weeks and weeks on and off of computer problem solving rather than work, in which I'm severely behind.

Anyway, you won't believe what it turned out to be.

Because of all the XP-installed-after-Vista-problems (which required, eventually, two complete reinstalls), I had left the side panel of the case opened. A couple days ago, it fell over. Since it has a fan built into it, the power cable that runs to the fan jerked on the cable bundle inside the computer. I took a quick look inside the computer, and everything looked okay, so I didn't think anything of it.

As it turned out, it had jerked on the power cable of the drive that was causing me all the problems. Apparently, I'm guessing here, I was getting intermittent power to the drive.

I didn't discover it until I, following the advice of the techie who sold me the computer,disconnect all the other drives. In doing so I noticed the power cable was not going on to the XP drive properly. Closer examination revealed that the little tab on the hard drive that has the power connector gold plate thingies had a small sliver broken off on the corner.

That made the connector kind of wobble going on, so I put it back on, put the SATA cable back in, which butts right up against the power connector, then I taped the two together and it's been working fine ever since.

Problem solved, it was indeed the hard drive, thanks very much.

 

[Smilin]

Woot! Right on man, I'm glad I was able to help.