1782 - Disk Controller Failure?

jimi_t

Compaq Armada e500 bought from boards last saturday. Got around to installing XP on it tonight and put about 5 data CDs worth of MP3s and various apps onto it. Was playing Command and Conquer from the CD when it started stalling for seconds at a time, accessing the HD - making a click*whirr* sound. These stalls got progressively longer until I had to restart the system.

On the Compaq BIOS screen I got a "1782 - Disk controller failure", it went into Intel boot agent and then asked me to insert a system disk.

Using the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test which I booted from a CD ISO (http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFTAlso,) it recognised the drive, scanned it and found some corrupt sectors. I selected the option to repair them and, after a few minutes of scanning, it clogged up again - this time with an error window saying it was a device/component failure.

"Serial Number : 97L95332
Failure Code : 0x75
TRC : 7510ACDF"

I'm going to make an educated guess here and say something is borked beyond repair - but is it the Mobo, is it the HD controller or is it the HD itself?

jimi_t

And if it is the HD, will this be a suitable alternative?
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314983

Ruu_Old

Try going into BIOS setup and restoring the default values, see if there is any difference.
Messages with 17xx refer to a problem with the hard drive, however I don't know how you can tell if its actually the controller on the motherboard or something on the hard drive, unless you can try a new drive in there. I think a a borked hard drive is more common.

jimi_t

Yeah, good point. My question should properly be

How can you tell if a 1782 error is referring to the HD or the Mobo/Components (if possible)?

Ruu_Old

Well from my knowledge, there is no way of finding out what the issue is unless you can test it with some new hardware. I could be wrong though. However, the whirring and clicking would point towards a new hard drive.

jimi_t

Blargh. Don't want to go out and buy a new HD to find that the mobo itself is shot, and I've no way of testing a new HD in it. Maybe some enterprising person will have encountered the problem before.

Ruu_Old

In the meantime, check out the HP/Compaq support forums and see if there is any issues with that particular model if you haven't already.

SouperComputer

The disk controller is failing to initalise becase of a mechanical failure from the sounds of it. IE, the drive needs to be binned.

The drive you linked to is not suitable, its simply to big. I would say anything above 20GB for that vintage would be taking a chance, you might get away with 40GB, but unless compaq have released some major kickass BIOS updates (Unlikely) you wont be able to run even a 60GB.

Long story short, above 20GB is going to be hit and miss.

jimi_t

SouperComputer wrote:

The disk controller is failing to initalise becase of a mechanical failure from the sounds of it. IE, the drive needs to be binned.

The drive you linked to is not suitable, its simply to big. I would say anything above 20GB for that vintage would be taking a chance, you might get away with 40GB, but unless compaq have released some major kickass BIOS updates (Unlikely) you wont be able to run even a 60GB.

Long story short, above 20GB is going to be hit and miss.

Marvellous...
Is there any way to find out the maximum capacity of a HD the latest BIOS will address? I've searched around on google et al but all I've been able to find is the RAM cap (512mb).
(also is it a 2.5" S-ATA or IDE I'm looking for? Different spec sheets say different things. I think it's S-ATA though)

Cheers for all the help so far people

watty

Not SATA. just IDE. or IDE/ATA or PATA
Sounds like disk.
There are various BIOS limits. Since XP only uses a disk to boot, one trick is to create a primary partition that the BIOS is happy with and the rest as logical partition in Disk Administator later.

Many 200G IDE/ATA disks have a jumper to limit capacity to 32G. Since a 200G disk is typically cheaper than an 80G disk, this is not as silly as it sounds.

If it's a notebook then 2.5", if a desktop a 3.5".

Other mysterious limits are 80Gbyte and 137Gbyte for different reasons.

XP (NT5.1) and NT generally since 1993 has had 16 exabyte limit all along for NTFS. Don't use FAT32. It is a broken cludge for Win9x. The real limit is indeed usually the bios, so I have found that putting a LARGE disk as secondary and not telling BIOS about it and booting the Primary, NT4, Win2k and XP all able to do > 80G on a PC that would only reconise up to 4.3G in Bios!

Cuddlesworth

Its dead, Compaq armarda laptops are not limited to 8gigs. I should know, just checked on one.

jimi_t

Started it again, nothing on Compaq boot screen but starts making the clicking (and a few scratchy) noises when XP starts loading up - stalls once during loading and then goes to the CHKDSK screen (hasn't been shut down properly recently).

Verifying files, Index Verification, Security Descriptor verification all goes full speed - it hits stage 4 of 5 (Verifying File Data) and does it slowly up till 71% when it starts getting a bit cranky again but completes fine. Stage 5 of 5 (Verifying free space) starts but get a lot of clicking on the 0%-8%, hangs on 10%, gets scratchy on the 21%... etc...

Takes a good 45mins to get this far (from power-on till 60% @ stage 5 of 5 in CHKDSK) and I'm simply not that bothered waiting beside it until it attempts to get to the desktop.

I'm just wondering does this indicate if it's a HD or a MOBO problem? Booting off CDs/Floppies works perfectly. Haven't tried booting off a USB stick as I doubt the BIOS in any reiteration would support it.

jimi_t

CHKDSK cleared after 40mins. Restarted itself, again no error on the compaq boot screen, and booted into XP fine with a minor bit of clunking (disk activity light is always on during this noise). Got to the desktop and did about 2 mins of continuous clunkerage (a few things loading in like MSN Messenger) before levelling off.

Humph... Something is on it's last legs but can I get a definitive answer whether it's a mobo complaint or a HD one?

jimi_t

watty wrote:

Not SATA. just IDE. or IDE/ATA or PATA
Sounds like disk.
There are various BIOS limits. Since XP only uses a disk to boot, one trick is to create a primary partition that the BIOS is happy with and the rest as logical partition in Disk Administator later.

What would you recommend in terms of a HD for me then (maybe on komplett for example) - I really want to be sure regarding compatibility before I put money down. Anywhere from about 20gb up would be fine.

Cuddlesworth

The clunking noise is the hard-drive spindle hitting off the side of the case its in. It will die, mabye not today or tommorow but it will.

SouperComputer

The noise the the head making re-read attempts due to bad sectors or possibly a damaged head itself. Say bye bye to the drive, it's had enough.

A lot of "BX" chipset based lappies are funny about what HD's they like.

Like I say, 20GB will be fine, may need a BIOS update, but unlikely. Above 20GB and you get into dodgy territory. Im not quite sure what the issue is, its not down to LBA anyway. If you get an older 40GB it may work. Somtimes it will address it correctly but performance and relibility will suffer. Strange but true.

Basically you are looking for a used 20GB 2.5" laptop HD.

Seriously though unless you have the option of trying a 40GB or bigger with the lappie without being stuck with it, go for a 20GB.

Actually, I have a couple of laptop drives here some 20GB and some 40GB you are welcome to bring over the laptop and try em.

jimi_t

Thanks for all the advice folks - I was always going to replace the HD so no harm done - I was just afraid of dropping more than the computer is worth on a new mobo