[1lacca]

I have a bit dated box (AMD Duron + ASUS A7V) that I use for browsing, testing and SSH things. It worked fine, but started to randomly reboot one or 2 weeks ago, and after rebooting I got a primary harddisk failed error. OK, I've changed the harddisk and reinstalled CP from scratch, but the same thing is happening. I think I've changed the IDE cable and the power cables, too. I've unplugged even the CD just in case. The same thing is still happening - with slight variations, like last time after reboot the BIOS reported an incorrect size for the primary master harddisk ( the slave was ok).
Did anybody see something like this? I think the harddisks can be ruled out, so it can be the CPU, mobo, or the power supply - maybe RAM-, but as I don't have spare parts, I can't check it. It is from the time of faulty electolyte capacitors, but I think Asus wasn't affected by this phenomenon. Can this be a dying chipset, or what?
Funny is that it is always the primary master harddisk that fails, and I don't think that it is overheating, as it was running so far ok for years, and it didn't happen while copying around 20 gigs, but it did while watching a movie.
The harddrives were also different (Seagate barracua, and IBM deskstar - not the deathstar series..)

Hm, maybe I'll try to plug it onto the secondary IDE ports, but I guess it won't make any difference...

[eLliDKraM]

I'd bet that your problem lies within your memory.

[1lacca]

Thanks man, I'm gonna try that one too as I have two sticks in it, but I assumed that the BIOS uses the same addresses during boot, so the random errors wouldn't suggest a memory problem- anyway I am looking at the pricelists now...

[Thorian]

You may want to pop the case and look for bulging or leaking capacitors.

The ASUS A7N's that we used here in 2001 - 2003 have all failed there will be a capacitor that smooths out the power for the memory I bet ya that is poped

[1lacca]

Looks-like the point goes to eLliDKraM, as I could not find any popped capacitors, but when I removed one of the memory sticks things cleared up - putting back the other instead produced much funnier things.
However it looks that already enough damage has been done on the first partition, as even executing a dir on C: threw some errors, so the battle is still not over...

Btw Thorian, did you have problems with A7N8X-es, too?

[Thorian]

we bought a bunch of a7n8x-x motherboards to replace the crap that was in a bunch of out of warrenty gateways. ( stupid company with their 6 yr old tech on lifesupport ) well needless to say after about a year or 2 they started exibiting the same issues that the OEM Gateway motherboards did.
Blown Caps causing instability. we were also runnning a few Soyo Dragon's and I think they got their caps from the same shit OEM that Gateway and Asus did cause they leak and blow also.

I could rant on about the crap quality of all motherboard manufacturers the past 3 years but that would be beating a dead horse.

Just Google Blown Capacitors and click any link you will see what I mean

article about blown caps and class action lawsuits

[1lacca]

Thank you Thorian!

So far I knew only about the blown capacitors on Abit boards, and I was only looking for those popped caps. Anyway, I think I am lucky, as my A7V long survived the similar Abit ones from that time - and looks-like it is still doing fine.
Well, I hope my A7N8X is gonna be another lucky one, too...