T42 - Problem with internet & delayed write failed messa

[Greg33]

Hello all,

I have a T42, running Windows XP, upgraded to a 80gb Hitachi Travelstar drive about 2 months ago which is about 55% full at this time. Everything about the computer was perfect until just a few days ago. Now, after having the computer powered-on more than about 90 minutes, I will start getting messages that state "Delayed Write Failed". Also part of those messages will be something such as "Windows was unable to save all the data for the file" and then $Mft, or $Directory, or $BitMap. When that happens I am unable to even use the Windows "Restart" or "Shutdown" options. I must use the on/off button to power it off instantly.

In addition, the internet will stop working after approximately 60 minutes of use. There is no problem with the modem, but the computer will just stop communicating. If I open the browser, I'll just end up with a completely blank page, and a message on the on the bottom of the browser window that says "Done". Nothing that shows any error, such as "Page not found", etc.

I tried to defrag the drive using "PerfectDisk", but it failed to run after installing it. No error messages appeared, but it will not even starrt after selecting it. I then used "Diskeeper" with no problem. That didn't help with my situation however. I also have gone through 3 different evaluation cycles using SpinRite which showed I had zero errors on the drive. Next I disabled the write caching on the hard drive. That has not helped though either. I'm still getting the same errors. In addition, PC Doctor did not find any problems either.

At this point, I have no idea what might be wrong. Sending it for service/repair is not really an option until I can purchase a 'spare' notebook to use in the meantime.

If anyone might have some other ideas that I could try, I'd very much appreciate hearing about any of them. Thanks very much.

[tomh009]

Can you check the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\
Control\
Session Manager\
Memory Management\

If there is a value there called LargeSystemCache, change it from 1 to 0.

[Greg33]

I checked and the value for LargeSystemCache is already set to "0".

[tomh009]

Sorry ... it was worth a try. Unfortunately I don't have any other bright ideas.

[SHoTTa35]

i guess the next thing would be is to get one of those S.M.A.R.T. programs to monitor your HD's health. it maybe that it's dying because of whatever reason.

[Harryc]

Run the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test on it. Also run memtest86 to check out your RAM. Loop it for a couple of hours.

[jdhurst]

I only get that message from a problem with a server connection, never on a local machine. So I would assert two things (amongst possibly many):
1. As alread said, check your hard drive as it may be dying.
2. If the hard drive is OK, then consider rebuilding your OS installation as the message is NOT normal on a local machine with a good hard drive.
... JDH

[Domain]

I had a machine that threw me bad HD type errors like that years ago that ran XP. The ram just became unseated.

[Greg33]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. It seems the memory is ok. Ran the memtest86 tests for a few hours and also checked that it was seated properly. Just for kicks though, I reinstalled the original 40GB Hitachi drive, but still received the same "Delayed Write Failed" messages.

I'm guessing now that it's some problem with the mainboard - especially considering the internet communication failures that have been occurring as well.

[richk]

Read this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174