Extremely Annoying Problem... help would be great ^^;;

[Mandragora]

Hi :)

There's something really odd about my computer... for example when I minimise a program it freezes for a second or two... and when I play a movie file on Media Player, it freezes when i quit and sometimes when I start...

And sometimes my computer freezes for not much reason at all, apropos of nothing =/

So I thought there might be a faulty IDE cable or something; I replaced both my IDEA cables and it's still happened...

BUT... when I had only my main hard drive and my burner (which has its own problems, but let's not go there lol) connected up, it worked fast and fine without any freezes.

Any ideas what it is? Maybe having 2 hard drives, a burner and a DVD rom is too much for my computer or something?

For info: I'm running Windows 2000 on a PIII 733 megahertz with an integrated motherboard, an an NVIDIA VANTA 16 meg PCI graphics card.

Pretty crappy I know but it certainly shouldn't be freezing like this...

[Robert]

How much ram do you have?

How many hard drives? What speed are they? How many RPMS are they?

[Mandragora]

256 RAM

2 hard drives.

Main one is 40 gig, 7200 rpm

Secondary one is 10 gig, 7200 rpm if memory serves.

[Robert]

Originally posted by Mandragora
256 RAM

2 hard drives.

Main one is 40 gig, 7200 rpm

Secondary one is 10 gig, 7200 rpm if memory serves.

I'd suggest more ram and tell us how your devices are connected.

Main Drive & CD-RW?
Seond Drive & DVD?

[Mandragora]

*nods* more RAM might work.

Yeah, main drive and burner, secondary drive and DVD.

[AdY]

Check for them to be installed & working in UDMA / DMA mode, and not PIO Mode..
I had the same problem when i had two HDD's - the second wouldn't start in DMA, but only in PIO Mode 4 :(

[Moonman]

Wouldn't be PSU related? Long shot. I agree though, get some more ram :p

[Bruce]

Originally posted by Mandragora

Yeah, main drive and burner, secondary drive and DVD. You'd be better off putting your 2 HDD on IDE 1, and the DVD and CD-RW on IDE 2.

The optical drives are much slower than any hard drives, so you'll get better performance when they're on separate channels.

I'd also suggest the same thing Ady did. MAke sure your devices are running in DMA and not PIO.

[Robert]

Originally posted by Bruce
You'd be better off putting your 2 HDD on IDE 1, and the DVD and CD-RW on IDE 2.

The optical drives are much slower than any hard drives, so you'll get better performance when they're on separate channels.

Beat me to do it. Always place the CD-RW on it's own IDE or with a slave device. Never place the hard drive and cd-rw on the same ide.

hmm i cut myself.. oh well

[Mandragora]

Thanks for the advice everyone :) I'll follow it and see how it goes. I'll keep you informed!

[Mandragora]

I'm sorry for double posting...

I redid the IDE cables, it's still freezing...

And all the drives start up in Ultra DMA mode (as far as I can tell), but all of the drives apart from my burner has mode 4... My burner has mode 2. What's that mean...?

Thanks for your help again ^_^

[Weirds]

Are you having lots of stuff on at start up?

[Mandragora]

Hmm I guess I do... but even when I don't this happens.

And... I fount out that neither of my hard drives is on DMA! Thety're both on PIO mode and I can't seem to turn DMA on them... =/

[tandoc]

how does one make it go to DMA? isn't that off processor hard drive whatchamacallit?

is it possible for CD-RW's aswell, as i never have been able to burn above 16x on my 48x burner

[trenzterra]

Also try defragmenting