Same problem, different hard drives.

Windows 7 ultimate 64 SP1

HD6950

i2500

P67A-UD4 (before the sandy bridge modifications were made)

Chieftec 750W

On both occasions I have had a couple of long gaming sessions over the weekend, then the next day I turn the computer on ... it boots up very slowly, runs very slowly and generally behaves weirdly. On both occasions the problems seemed to be caused by bad sectors that in turn affect critical windows files.

This has happened twice now, the first time led to complete mechanical failure of the hard drive. This time around I caught it and ran checkdisk which, so far, has fixed the problem.

My hard drive is partitioned so windows files are on the main part, with the games on another. The games in question were Anno 1404 the first time and Call of Pripyat the 2nd time.

Both harddrives were attached to the SATA 3 controller.

Any ideas as to what is going on?

Please let me know if there is anymore information you need!

 

Hi and welcome

2 drives gone bad; I'd suspect a bad SATA cable, dirty power to the drives, faulty motherboard, bad RAM; difficult to know where to begin though.

 

Hello and thank you for a quick reply

Is there anything I can do to narrow it down?

 

Test the RAM with a MemTest86+ boot CD; use a power connector from a different set of PSU outlet cables for the drive; check, clean and reseat all connections and RAM sticks; use a different SATA port outlet on the 'board ... also check for error messages in the Windows Management System logs.

 

Right ... this will keep me busy!

Thanks again

 

Take your time, make notes and Good Luck

 

Just some additional information that might change an opinion.

I have a HD6950 and have made the 6970 shader upgrade as well as overclocking it within the parameters of Catalyst Control Centre's AMD Overdrive.

Also within AMD Overdrive I was increasing the power control settings by 15% ... it might be nothing, but all my conversations and exploration seem to be pointing towards power!

 

Well, I mentioned power in both my earlier posts - it can't be ruled out without some effort and some swapping out of components with known good ones.