I have gone to true geek status (fixed computer)

[Bakeman]

So today when I sat down to try and figure out what is wrong with my computer yet ANOTHER problem came up.... My video card is all "beep beep beep" and on the screen it said something about my video card not installed properly.

So I check it out and the connection for the power was extremely loose. So I soldered it .. and now is all good with my video card yay

You are not truely a geek until you have fixed a computer with solder :)

Now to figure out why trying to access files on one of my HD's it freezes up my computer.

[MidniteArrow]

Gratz Bakeman. You can probably get a diagnostic program from the manufacturer of the hard disk. Who makes it? Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate,... ?

[Bakeman]

Gratz Bakeman. You can probably get a diagnostic program from the manufacturer of the hard disk. Who makes it? Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate,... ?

oh yeah, I didn't think about that. It's a WD I believe, it's possible it's a Seagate. I do have one WD and one Seagate of the same size.

Here is the thing with it. I believe the problem is my Promise IDE100 Controller. Because I tried putting all my HD's on the mobo controllers and they worked. So I decided to put my DVD-rom on the Promise Controller, and the same problem would happen. So I've just been running minus my dvd-rom.

[OBEYgiant]

Have you tried upgrading the drivers for the Promise IDE100 controller?

[MidniteArrow]

Is this just a certain file, or any file on a certain drive?

[MidniteArrow]

Here are some links:

Wester Digital Diagnostics (http://support.wdc.com/download/windlg/WinDLG.zip)
Seagate On-Line Diagnostic (javascript:openWindow('http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/asp/tools/en/'))
Seagate Off-Line Diagnostic (http://download.seagate.com/seatools/registration.nsf/eula/desktop)

[Bakeman]

Have you tried upgrading the drivers for the Promise IDE100 controller?

Yes I didn't.. I went to their site and they haven't had updated drivers for it since 2003.

Is this just a certain file, or any file on a certain drive?

Any file on the 1 drive.

But like I said, the weird thing is that it only happens when I hook up any drive (seems to be any drive, I've only tried two) to the PCI IDE100 Controller.

The other kicker is that EVERYTHING worked fine until I decided to reformat.
When I put in the WinXP disk, it would hang before I could get to format the drive. It would hang at examining the HD on the PCI IDE Controller.... So I just took it out. Reformatted my computer and then hooked it back up. Upon hooking everything back up is when the problem started. So the quick fix was to not hook anything to the PCI card and it works fine.

My config before was HD1 and HD2 on the 1st controller on the mobo, then DVD burner and DVD-rom on 2nd controller on mobo, then I had the expansion card with my 3rd HD on it.

Now I just disconnected my DVD-rom and put my 3rd HD in it's place.

[MidniteArrow]

I used to have a problem with the XP kernel when I didn't with 2000. There's a jumper issue with ATA drives. Some manufacturers install a default jumper configuration that isn't XP friendly. I'll see if I can't find details and post a link.

[MidniteArrow]

Ok, this is the closest I could get. This looks like a lot more info than you need, but go through it and make sure all the jumpers are correct. I found this on a message board (http://forums.tweaktown.com/archive/index.php/t-18755.html) where people were having lock-up XP installation issues. This (http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1223&p_created=1088531904&p_sid=ARzkdMqh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MTUmcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnB fcHJvZF9sdmwxPTkxJnBfcHJvZF9sdmwyPSZwX2NhdF9sdmwxP TEyMyZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWp1bXBlciBzZXR 0aW5ncw**&p_li=)) is what they linked, but what you want is probably here (http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=84&p_sid=EZ7OG2Jh&p_lva=1223&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MTUmcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnB fcHJvZF9sdmwxPTkxJnBfcHJvZF9sdmwyPSZwX2NhdF9sdmwxP TEyMyZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWp1bXBlciBzZXR 0aW5ncw%2A%2A&p_li=%29#).