IDE and Cable Select options

[Channel Hopper]

And, one last issue preventing transfer of all the data to the new drive. After about 95% of the 'documents and Settings' folder moved, the system stopped owing to one document that had a name that was too long and had to be deleted.

Will now attempt the Outlook Express magic.

 

[Channel Hopper]

All Outlook Express folders moved over, just carrying out one more AV and malware scan, just in case.

 

[Mickha]

Check out the Users set up, in Explore to see if anything else needs transferring, I know in Vista that the contacts folder is separate, as is Pictures and Music, I think a lot of these were still in Documents, in XP, but it's been a while since I saved XP settings, and now that it no longer has support, people have moved on to Windows 7.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I haven't quite got that far. The PC is now running as slow as the one its replaced, despite being a 3GHz processor and 3GB Ram. I am just about to carry out a full defragment as many of the original folders from the other drives will have multiple inconsistencies during transfer .

I might get to start the email later tonight, but I need to ensure the main structure is sound before committing.

One plus point is I have audio, and at a later stage, DVI video.

 

[PaulR]

Might be an idea to run Ccleaner as well in case the registry has inconsistencies and broken links slowing things down.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Might be an idea to run Ccleaner as well in case the registry has inconsistencies and broken links slowing things down.

Done that, as well as the duplicate file search in another removal programme I have here (and the full defragging suite).

I'll have to attempt checks later, I got the email back on line a couple of hours ago, something to do with BT restricting my account in the belief I hadn't paid ?????

And now I find myself reinstalling basic stuff just to do general tasks (MS Office, Adobe, the all-in-one printer system etc. etc.)
Unless the earlier C drive really was on its last legs, me trying to improve the box of tricks really couldn't have happened at a worse time.

 

[Tururu]

IDE solo 2 dispositivos al estar parte de la controladora en el dispositivo, lo ideal es que la placa base tenga 2 controladores IDE, de esta manera poder conectar 4 dispositivos.
No podras arrancar de otro dispositivo si la placa no lo soporta.
Tienes controladores IDE de 2 bus, pero nunca las use, en estas puedes seleccionar el disco de arranque.
Un truco casero es intercambiar el master por el esclavo usando un doble conmutador de 2 posiciones, tenemos cableado el conexionado (puentes) de los discos master/esclavo.
Para mas discos de 4, ya como esclavos es usar los adaptadores USB-IDE (Ebay----> 350649697253), para mas de 7 dispositivos o hasta 21, mejor SCSI, desde bios de la controladora seleccionas de cual quieres arrancar, el pero como siempre, no es barato.
Los discos tienen un precio disparatado.

Del tema de la memoria, tienes que mirar en la documentacion de la placa, que soporta y como se tiene que conectar y en que orden.
Una memoria puede que la soporte, pero si no esta en el banco correcto, no arranca.

PD: Suerte.
-------------
Just 2 IDE devices to be part of the controller in the device , ideally motherboard has two IDE controllers , so you can connect 4 devices.
No you can boot from another device if the board does not support it .
Have 2 IDE bus drivers , but never used, in these you can select the boot disk .
A homemade trick is to swap the master by the slave using a double switch 2 position have the wiring connections (bridges ) of master/slave drives.
For more disks 4 and slavery is to use USB -IDE adapter (Ebay ---- > 350 649 697 253) for more than 7 or up to 21 devices , SCSI better from the bios controller choose which you want to start the but as always, it's not cheap .
The discs have a crazy price.

The theme of memory , you have to look at the documentation of the plate, and as it supports plug and in which order .
A memory can support that , but if it is the right bank, will not start.

PS: Good luck.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Thanks, but I'm somewhat beyond that, this PC has only one IDE socket, used for the DVD drive, plus I'm now down to one SATA drive containing all data in the 'new' PC. I might transfer all the original data onto another SATA drive when I have a few minutes/hours, but for now its working, of sorts.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Ran the machine in safe mode yesterday and used Ccleaner to clear out the garbage. I then ran ASC7 in full and lo and behold the PC started loading multiple XP updates that I thought had already been installed.

This morning, I downloaded EasyCleaner (yes, it's old hat) but it found a number of registry errors that the other two glanced over without flagging.

So which programme is correct ?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Hmm.

 

[Mickha]

Have you got the disk partitioned?
Where are you up to now, Channel Hopper, I seem to have lost track.
Have you copied all the data, you wanted, off the old drives?
Are you now trying to run Windows XP?
You could try booting using the Windows CD and try the repair commands chkdsk /r and/or fixmbr
I ahve run across a similar problem, to this, when Windows XP failed to load, the first time, and when loading it again it left two Operating Systems, one that worked and one partial one, so you got two boot up options, at the beginning, all I had to do was boot into the working one, go to Start, Run, and use the msconfig system to delete the faulty option in the Boot tab.
This could also be a hardware problem, showing the hard drive is failing, have you run software to check for bad sectors?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Everything was transferred over, and I had been using the updated PC for a couple of weeks. Last week the original psu appeared to fail, after the machine reset numerous times during start up. A new beefier psu seemed to fix it for two days, then this.

Currently the machine will not recognise the CD drive, or at least not boot up from it, and since it's a Dell machine, there is no original cd to speak of, so if I can get it to read a disk I will have to use something other than the original VLA XP home edition one.

 

[Mickha]

The disk doesn't matter, so long as it is XP, as you're using the repair commands. The faukt, you described, can be down to a failing PSU, which are usually the first to go, but it could also be other things, overheating, especially the CPU, memory, graphics, or even the motherboard.
Was it always at the same point the PC reset itself?
This sounds like you'll need time, and patience, to sort it out.
If you can remove the cover, to allow you full access, then try a different DVD writer, you dont have to fit it inside the PC, I usually have the PC lying down and connect various components, so that I can try different DVD drives, or hard drives, to test where the problem might be.
As the cover is missing you can also visually inspect the fans, to see if they're working, and might need cleaning.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Thanks, the machine was dirt free when I transferred data over last month, and I suppose the PSU failure may have taken out the CD drive. I have a spare though. The crashing occurred at different stages of start up and during normal operation.

It's a Dimension 5000, and on the internet there are various reports on 'bad PBR' out there, and this does look like something that is commonplace with Dell.

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?195674-Loading-PBR-for-descriptor-2

 

[smoggy07]

I've had that before, its something to do with the master boot records, you can go in and run commands to fix it but I can't think where I found the tutorials

It's a similar problem to the bootloop errors and constant BSOD and is the same fix if I remember rightly

[EDIT]
This is not the site I used but it may well help you _goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.shtml

 

[Channel Hopper]

Thank you, very interesting. The bottle should be unopened whilst reading/applying what's within the content.

 

[Channel Hopper]

The disk doesn't matter, so long as it is XP, as you're using the repair commands. The faukt, you described, can be down to a failing PSU, which are usually the first to go, but it could also be other things, overheating, especially the CPU, memory, graphics, or even the motherboard.

Replacement DVD writer in place and it now boots up from the Windows CD, done the 'press 'R' ' and 'fixboot' and she's now lighting up in the normal XP home environment. Still crashing every now and then though.

There are only two fans on the Dimension 5000 and both are fine, the heatsink is nicely bonded to the 3.8 GHz CPU, though interestingly none of the other Dell cpus I have here - 2.4 and 2.8GHz work in the machine when I replace them (yes they are the same pin cofiguration).

More alarmingly the PC appears to run fine , ie no crashing as yet - when in safe mode.

 

[Mickha]

If it doesn't crash in safe mode then it's probably a driver issue, the favourite being the graphics card, or with XP any driver update done via the Windows hardware update.
Try going to the manufacturers website and getting the latest XP graphics card driver, and check the motherboard manufacturers website for any driver updates.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I've been using Driver Booster (Iobit) which throws up no issues, and all the Windows updates are in. I did have the Dell update software set when I first decided to use this carcass as the host for old information, and will try again after the weekend.

 

[Channel Hopper]

If it doesn't crash in safe mode then it's probably a driver issue, the favourite being the graphics card, or with XP any driver update done via the Windows hardware update.
Try going to the manufacturers website and getting the latest XP graphics card driver, and check the motherboard manufacturers website for any driver updates.

Hmm, still issues with a different graphics card and AMD software. Updating the motherboard Bios hasn't helped.