   IDE cable swapping
  I am having a strange problem. I installed my new hard drive and copied all my media, videos and such to the new hard drive. I was able to play the videos, no problem, worked perfectly every time.I went away for dinner, during which it rained and rain could have gotten on the computer (case is off, and window was open), but unlikely because there was no water anywhere around the computer, and it was raining pretty heavily so if rain fell on the computer, it would have fallen everywhere else.So, I get back from dinner (15 mins), no video plays properly straight off. I get slow motion video and really distorted sound for a couple of seconds and then it catches up and the video plays fine, but I still get the occasional slightly distored sound, although not as bad as the start. It gets as bad as the start if I try and change places in the video. Eg. If I'm playing the time at 1:32 and I click (Window media player) to 4:56, I get the same slow motion and distored sound as at the start.These videos are all playing off the second hard drive. I have my main hard drive (with winXP) and a seldom used zip-disk on one IDE cable, and the second hard drive and DVD drive on the second IDE cable. When this slow motion and distortion happens, the DVD drive is not being used at all.I thought that it could be something with the IDE cables, although once when I checked the CPU temp at the same time it was at 85 celcius, but I haven't seen it that high again. While playing these videos off the second hard drive, the CPU is at about 54c and jumps about 7 degrees c during the distortion and drops back down immediately.Also, when I was intalling the hard drive, I thought that I should clean the CPU heat sink because it had a lot of dusk. I unclipped the CPU fan, changed my mind and clipped it back on. I didn't even move the fan. I released the clips and then put them back on again without moving or trying to clean anything. I don't think this is part of the cause, but I felt I should mention it anyway.Just checked something, I seem to get it only with mpg files, my avi's work, or maybe the distortion and slow motion pass so quickly I don't notice. Scratch that, I just played an avi file and it was major distorted. I happens mostly with mpgs. Maybe because they have a higher bitrate? (I think they do)Any ideas? Because I don't see how something could change in 15 minutes of nothing.Edit:: I'm also getting distortion for the normal windows sounds. Like, if you double click on a folder, I get distortion in the little sound winXP plays.[Edited by - Endar on December 6, 2005 7:01:24 AM]
  Run some utility to check the new drive. If it's new, it's probably still on warranty. Check for bad sectors, and also for it's temperature.I once connected a faulty HD to my comp, CPU jumped to 96 degrees (normally 35 degrees).;  I'm using scandisk to scan it and I also chose the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" option.In the first 3 phases, the CPU temp averaged 65c, right now, it's in phase 4, which I assume is physically checking the disk due to how long it's taking and the CPU is averaging 75c and using 50%.Here's a list of temps for the CPU for phase 4 of disk checking: 75, 79, 77, 79, 82, 80, 79, 82, 85, 80, 79, 82... and it seems to be generally going between 79-85. It's been about 10 mins and there's no progess on the progress bar for phase 4.Edit:: For the video problem, is this something that generally happens when the OS is trying to play a video file on another hard drive? Does it need that time during the distortion to cache, or catch up?   ;Quote:Original post by EndarI'm using scandisk to scan it and I also chose the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" option.In the first 3 phases, the CPU temp averaged 65c, right now, it's in phase 4, which I assume is physically checking the disk due to how long it's taking and the CPU is averaging 75c and using 50%.Here's a list of temps for the CPU for phase 4 of disk checking: 75, 79, 77, 79, 82, 80, 79, 82, 85, 80, 79, 82... and it seems to be generally going between 79-85. It's been about 10 mins and there's no progess on the progress bar for phase 4.Edit:: For the video problem, is this something that generally happens when the OS is trying to play a video file on another hard drive? Does it need that time during the distortion to cache, or catch up?Quite likely the HD is bad. Thus videos and sounds are distorted (takes too long to read next chunk from disk). And it's likely that the CPU is heating because of that.Check the temperature of the drive (not CPU). It shouldn't be above 40 degrees in average load. Try to replace the drive by warranty. If the drive's temperature is too high it shouldn't be a problem.   ;  How do I check the temp of the drive? Is there a thing in windows? Or do I just grab a thermometer? Because right above the hard drive is a the zip drive and right above that is the floppy disk drive.Or is that the problem? Not enough ventillation?   ;  Sorry to bump this so early in it's life, but this is fairly urgent.   ;Quote:How do I check the temp of the drive?HDD Health.;  Are you sure the harddisk is running in DMA mode? Here's how to check:- On the desktop right-click 'My Computer' and choose 'Manage'- In the left-pane of the opened window click 'Device Manager'- On the right-pane expand the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers'- Double-click on 'Secondary IDE channel'- Click the tab 'Advanced Settings' on the opened windowWhat does 'Current Transfer Mode' say?   ;  Looks good, but it only shows my normal hard drive and not the second one.   ;Quote:Original post by kanzlerAre you sure the harddisk is running in DMA mode? Here's how to check:- On the desktop right-click 'My Computer' and choose 'Manage'- In the left-pane of the opened window click 'Device Manager'- On the right-pane expand the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers'- Double-click on 'Secondary IDE channel'- Click the tab 'Advanced Settings' on the opened windowWhat does 'Current Transfer Mode' say?For device 0 it says "Ultra DMA Mode 4", and for device 1, which, I assume is my second hard disk, it says "PIO Mode"   