Why would you hate it ? Nah, quite on the contrary, you'd just love to prove me wrong on something, anything
Actually, you couldn't be further from the truth, <i>especially</i> because this is in a thread to help someone with a problem. Unlike you, I'm not petty enough to even think of it.
it would be a shame for the original poster however, if you abuse this thread to try and do just that, creating alternative universes again to prove the unprovable.
You really need to get a life. Not only are you delusional, but you're seriously warped to even be thinking like that.
I know there is an ECC algoritm in ATA, but that wouldn't cause (noticable) slowdown, and no retransmission, it works pretty much transparently like ECC RAM.
Hello? Are you even trying to make sense? Just what do you think that it's for? It just flat out fails if it detects a simple checksum error? That'd be downright stupid. Like just about every communication protocol with error checking to ever be written, if an error is detected the data request is resent. Generally most protocols will attempt three times before raising an error.
If it where as fault tolerant as you seem to suggest, bad ATA cables or too high overclocks wouldn't cause the HD corruption that is seen so often.
That might be true if it was a two way system, but generally it isn't.
Considering the error in measuring such values, these seems perfectly healthy to me.
How nice for you. I however don't see being a mere away 0.02V from the maximum allowable <i>over</i>volting to be perfectly healthy, and believe that the poster should be made aware of this so that they can make their own decision about trusting it.
Further more, harddisks are powered by the 12v rail afaik. 12.29V is a-ok.
...
Nothing would burn at those voltages.
In an exceedingly quick search I found <A HREF="http://www.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/documentation/data_sheets/maxline_iii_data_sheet.pdf" target="_new">this PDF file</A>. Note that it specifically states "<font color=red><b>Voltage Requirements 5V+/-5% 12V+/-10%</b></font color=red>". So not only do hard drives use the 5V line as well as the 12V line, but they also <i>could</i> burn at +5% of the 5V lead.
but if a ball bearing is wearing out for instance, no diagnose pogram will pick it up until it causes the disk to fail.
1) Most hard drives today use fluid bearings, not ball bearings.
2) The description of the noise sounds a lot more like a head dragging than a bearing clicking IMHO.
BTW, I assume he just ran a surface scanner, which would certainly not detect these kind of errors, and will keep claiming the disk is okay until the day it fails to spin up.
Do you even know what you're talking about? Surface scanners pick up physical errors <i>long</i> before the drive fails to spin up.
Head clashes ? Damaged platter ? What on earth makes you think that ? A head crash will kill the drive, or at least data, and would have been picked up even by a surface scan. Highly unlikely that happens every time he boots.
That's exactly my point. That's what the noise described sounds like to me. It <i>is</i> highly unlikely, and <i>were</i> it happening so frequently it'd be a serious problem. Since the surface scan didn't pick up any such errors however, that rules this out as being the most likely cause of problems. So whatever <i>is</i> causing the disk's noise is <i>not</i> the immediate problem. It may be indicative of a problem down the line, but the system clearly has more pressing concerns than that.
Agreed, but since none of his symptons seem to indicate a ram error
None of course <i>except</i> for the failed memtest and sluggish behavior that <i>could</i> be indicative of undervolted RAM.
and MS memory diag test completed without error
I don't even know what test this is, but if it's from MS that already makes it suspect IMHO.
Might be an incompatibility between memtest and his motherboard or videocard as well for all I know.
Right. Because video card incompatabilities with memtest happen all the time... :\ Are you trying to spread disinformation on purpose or what here? What could possibly inspire you to say something like that? I mean <i>other</i> than your petty and childish behavior.
And even if the memtest failing is correct, he cearly has another issue as bad ram doesn't cause long delays in windows either.
Long delays? Not usually. Usually bad RAM causes lockups and blue screens. And slightly undervolted RAM generally causes short delays.
One component having possible problems (hard drive making noise and possibly slowing Windows down) is one thing. But two components having possible problems (memory not completing memtest) indicate something else common to these components may be causing them to behave abnormally. And that pretty much indicates either power supply or mobo.
Neither makes sense to me. One or the other *might* cure memtest failing (but I doubt it already), but neither will cure his slowdowns or HD clicking sounds.
Considering how much sense you're making, I'm not surprised. The HD clicking sounds could be the head dragging, or possibly even the head <i>over</i> shooting and dragging on restraints because of overvolting. And the performance problems can be from HD delays, or any number of delays from other components that could be caused by a funny power supply.
Is either a guaranteed fix? No. Would a more dependable PSU or slightly upping the VDIMM in any way hurt? No. So even if they don't fix, they don't hurt to try either.
<pre><font color=purple><i>Jesters do oft prove prophets.</i> -Regan in
King Lear (Act V, Scene iii) by William Shakespear</font color=purple></pre><p>@ 187K -> 200,000 miles or bust!