Machine_Check_Exception-Is it The BIOS?

I'm posting here as my problem is related to two of my IDE drives, please move if necessary. Sorry it's a bit long but thought it best to explain in detail

A couple of weeks or so ago I noticed that one of my IDE drives (WDC) was not showing in Windows. At the time I had forgotten that I had two IDE drives connected to the primary IDE, a Maxtor and a WDC (my Pioneer DVD_RW was connected to the secondary IDE) and because of this I thought one of the IDE ports had gone faulty.

On rare occasions both the Maxtor and WDC would show but normally just the Maxtor. Also Windows would sometimes be very slow to boot seeming to hang with the Windows opening screen and progress bar almost stationary before finally booting. Once up and running everything would be OK.

About ten days ago I had a power loss as Windows was shutting down (I had the blue Windows is Shutting Down Screen) and the next time I booted I got a write delay error on the Maxtor and when I eventually manged to look at it only one file was showing on the drive.

It was whilst checking this that I got the Machine_Check_Exception error for the first time with the code

STOP:0X0000009C,0X00000004,0x8054D5F01,0XB2000000,0X00070F0F. I believe these can be interpreted by the supplier.

This happened as I attempted to use Windows Explorer. I got this several times and concluded that it must be related to the write delay error on the Maxtor. As a check I replaced the IDE cable,no effect, I then swapped the drives over so that the DVD_RW was on the primary IDE, still no difference.

I then shutdown and disconnected both the IDE drives, it was at this point I realised that I had forgotten I had two IDE drives (Maxtor, WDC) on the same IDE cable and that if one was working then the other should also work. My three SATA drives are incidentally working fine.

At first I still got the Machine_Check_Exception error but after a couple of reboots this disappeared and for the last week or so the system has been fine. Monday morning I decided to reconnect the WDC to the primary IDE with the DVD_RW as it seemed logical to assume the problem was related to the Maxtor drive.

Powered up and the WDC showed correctly but within a few minutes, whilst trying to check my emails, the Machine_Check_Exception came back.

I disconnected the WDC, rebotted and the system came up fine. It's been running now for over two hours and I have been surfing the Net and using Windows Explorer etc. without an problem.

This is yet another problem with the machine since it was bought just over 12 months ago. Within weeks of delivery the graphics card failed, then I had a PCI slot failure which required the motherboard to be replaced.

Then after that I had constant power shutdowns (see my post Random Power Shutdowns Revisited. Eventually sent it back to supplier with full history of checks carried out. They said no fault and charged me. After my last post the shutdown happened again so eventually I replaced the original PSU, a cheap Q-tec 650W, with a Sparkle AX500- Blue Storm and the shutdowns disappeared.

During the course of investigating the power shutdowns I carried out extensive -*test*-('")ing of the system including the cables, video card, RAM...in fact all the things mentioned on the MS site that could likely case the error.

At the time the motherboard was replaced I fortunately took the precaution of registering the new board with ASUS.The system itself is now out of warranty from the supplier but the motherboard should still be under ASUS warranty, I think it was three years, so if faulty I should be able to get a replacement but they say to go back to the supplier. Not keen on this for obvious reasons, would prefer to deal with ASUS direct. Fitting it isn't a problem as I can do that myself.

I have a USB/IDE adaptor so yesterday I connected the WDC and Maxtor to the PC and my laptop via that and both drives came up fine, saw all the files on the Maxtor, so it would not appear to be a hard drive issue itself. I also ran a DVD on the DVD_RW and that worked OK but not tried a write yet.

Whilst searching for info I did find one site where someone had a similar fault and cured it by resetting the BIOS. As I understand it the BIOS flags up and unrecoverable hardware failure to Windows for Windows to generate the report. I'm unclear as to why the BIOS should be flagging a hardware error, perhaps someone could explain?

Also, would resetting the BIOS cure the problem? I understand that's a fairly simple and safe option.

Thanks

Chris-
The early chipset drivers contained faulty IDE drivers that cause your problem. Do you know what chipset driver you are running? If not no biggie, I would download chipset driver 6.86 from Nvidia and remove your chipset driver via the windows add/remove program utility in the control panel. Run DrivercleanerPro if you have it (google it). Then install 6.86, including the IDE drivers and see if that helps. 6.86 IDE drivers are fine as far as I know.

If you have 6.86 installed already then do all of the above except for installing the IDE driver (the installer will ask if you want to load IDE driver or not). This will allow the windows driver to run your IDE drives.

Resetting CMOS/BIOS is fairly easy and quick to do and there are instructions on how to do it in the middle of this guide. Just make sure you know your way around BIOS as all settings will be set back to default http://asustech.15.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=14

Thanks merc

How can I find out which IDE drivers I have.

If I look in Device Manager and NVIDIA nforce4 Parallel ATA Controller it says driver version 5.10.2600.534 dated 17/05/2005, is this the same thing?

I've had the system running on the same drivers since it was bought in November 2005, why should it start to play up now?

Chris

Chris I am not sure why it would suddenly go bad or if the drivers are even the problem. Possibly a windows patch loaded and isn't compatable with the current drivers but if you haven't loaded a new chipset drver since November 2005 then you should definitely update. This could also be one of the IDE drives dying but they run fine when connected via USB. Have you heard any strange noises coming from the drive?

The exception errors are very hard to trace so I am taking shots in the dark here and focusing on the IDE drives since when you remove them things settle down. You changed cables out and the drives work fine when connected through USB so I am left with the drivers.

Thanks merc, point taken.

Can't say I've heard any strange noises from either of the drives.

As you rightly say the problem does seem to be focused on the IDE drives, at least the actual hard drives because the DVD-RW which is also IDE of course seems fine.

Any chance you could post a link to the driver you mention. I've browsed the NVIDIA site and haven't been able to find it.

Thanks

Chris

Chris the drivers can be found here: http://www.nvidia.com/content/license/loca...tional_whql.exe
As for the question of a CMOS reset, the item you mention is most likely the S.M.A.R.T. programming in the firmware of the hard drives. SMART is a small program in the drive firmware that reports a imminent drive failure to BIOS which in turn relay's to the OS. A CMOS reset might clear the flag, but I doubt it. A more probable fix along those lines would be removing all power from the HDD for a extended period of time. You might want to try downloading the drive manufacturer's diagnostic tools and running them on both the drives to be sure that they both are o.k.

Thanks for the replies.

I have downloaded the driver set.

Roderick

Both drives have been disconnected from power for a few days now. When I treid the WDC it hadn't had power for at least two days.

Neither drive is making any strange noise and whilst I accept that a drive can go faulty at anytime what are the odds against both drives going faulty at exactly the same time and following the write delay error.

Following your comment I've read the manual again and there is an option to disable HDD SMART Monitoring. Don't know what the option is set to until I do my next reboot. If it's set to Enable is there any danger of damage if I set to Disable and see what happens.

Disabling Smart Monitoring will have no adverse effects, it simply turns that function off. ARP recommends disabling it if your drives are in good shape and not old as it is just another program running in the background. With older drives it is a pretty good idea as it will detect an impending hardware failure.

Have checked and SMART Monitoring is already disabled in BIOS.