zzzzara@my-deja.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've had a strange problem for a while, with Windows resetting
> occasionally without warning. Most of the time it works fine. I ran
> chkdsk /4, and got stuck at 11% of stage 4. It does the same if I boot
> from my spare hard drive, so I guess it can't be a software problem.
> The seagate diagnostic tools (run from a boot CD) hang as soon as they
> start the quick or the full disc check.
>
> Seems fairly clear there's a hardware problem. Before I get a
> replacement drive... is there a way to check that it is the drive at
> fault and not the controller/motherboard? Some more sophisticated
> diagnostic software, perhaps?
>
> (Ideally I'd test the drive in another PC, but I don't really have
> access to one.)
>
> The drive is a SATA Barracuda 7200.8 and the motherboard Asus A8V.
>
> thank you for your time!

I'm thinking most likely jumper settings are at fault. Somethimes wrong
jumper settings like having 2 masters actually kinda sorta tries to
work, instead of the more usual: "you have dirves on this cable?
Really?".

Check to make sure everything is Kosher, as far as jumper settings go.
Master on the end of the cable, slave on the middle. If you use cable
select, it's all devices on the cable, or none of them.

Another posiblilty is bad cables themselves, though it's rare. Double
and triple check to see that everything is properly seated. Yet another
is bad ide controller. It's also possible to have TWO bad drives. Alas.

Since you've got the case open, check your motherboard for bad
capacitors (little soda cans), if any are bulging or leaking, they're
bad.

And blow out the dust, it's probably not your problem, but it's a
routine maintanence thing to be done anyway.

Download and run memtest86+ from www.memtest.org to check RAM.

A very powerful diagnostic is MHDD, use it as a boot CD. Ignore
anvanced features, just hit f4 twice to run a scan.

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/