A read disk error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

[210]

Something is wrong and I have no clue what can it be...

I've first enabled AHCI without XP reinstall.
Worked just fine for a while but about 1 week ago, one morning, my computer was displaying a black screen with the "A read disk error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.".

After getting this error 3-4 times i've thought that it may be caused by the AHCI install without reinstalling XP so I did reinstall XP and enabled AHCI with the F6 method. I also installed JMicron controller (JMB36x - latest WHQL) with the F6 method.

So, fresh XP, AHCI enabled using F6, clean system and the error keeps showing.
I've googled a lot for this problem but seems that no one has a "solving" for this one.

Interesting thing, as i've observed till now, is that i don't get this error when i boot but just if my system is idle for some time.
If i work on the machine it doesn't crash even if i use HDDs a lot.

EX: I've left Norton 360 scanning all my drives but in the morning the error was on the screen again.
I've checked in the System Tools > Event Viewer > System and according to my "calculations" the error showed after Norton 360 finished scanning and my system was most probably idle.

Does anyone have any clue about this problem?


My system:

CPU:
Intel Pentium 4 540 - 3.20GHz (Hyper Threading) - L2 Cache: 1MB
MB:
Asus P5QL-E (P43/ICH10R)
HDD:
WD 320GB (WDC WD3200AAKS-22B3A0) - SATA II
Seagate 200GB (ST3200822AS) - SATA
Seagte 80GB (ST380817AS) - SATA
Optical:
NEC (_NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW)
Asus (ASUS DRW-2014S1T)
Virtual Drive:
Daemon Tools Lite (HWL 527C5IRO1U SCSI CdRom Device)
RAM:
4x1GB Kingston HyperX (2 almost same dual kitts - KHX8500D2K2/2GN + KHX8500D2K2/2G)
Graphic Card:
Asus EN6600TD - 256Mb
Sound Card:
Creative Audigy 4 Pro (no drivers yet installed after this XP reinstall)
PWR:
Antec NeoPower 650 Blue
Enclosure:
Antec - metallic miditower (forgot the model name)
OS:
Windows XP Pro - SP2 (updated to SP3 + all other necessary updates)


Another strange thing:
On this new XP/AHCI install, using a Western Digital HDD Tool it says that my HDDs are okay - no error (same as Check Disk showed) but it shows my Seagate (SATA I) HDDs as being IDE and only the WD HDD (SATA II) as being SATA...

"210" <210.3prnrc@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:210.3prnrc@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> SOMETHING IS WRONG AND I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT CAN IT BE...
> I've first enabled AHCI without XP reinstall.
> Worked just fine for a while but about 1 week ago, one morning, my
> computer was displaying a black screen with the "*A read disk error
> occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.*".
>
> After getting this error 3-4 times i've thought that it may be caused
> by the AHCI install without reinstalling XP so I did reinstall XP and
> enabled AHCI with the F6 method. I also installed JMicron controller
> (JMB36x - latest WHQL) with the F6 method.
>
> So, fresh XP, AHCI enabled using F6, clean system and the error keeps
> showing.
> I've googled a lot for this problem but seems that no one has a
> "solving" for this one.
>
> Interesting thing, as i've observed till now, is that *i don't get this
> error when i boot but just if my system is idle for some time*.
> If i work on the machine it doesn't crash even if i use HDDs a lot.
>
> EX: I've left Norton 360 scanning all my drives but in the morning the
> error was on the screen again.
> I've checked in the System Tools > Event Viewer > System and according
> to my "calculations" the error showed *after* Norton 360 finished
> scanning and my system was most probably idle.
>
> DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY CLUE ABOUT THIS PROBLEM?
>
> MY SYSTEM:
> *CPU:*
> Intel Pentium 4 540 - 3.20GHz (Hyper Threading) - L2 Cache: 1MB
> *MB:*
> Asus P5QL-E (P43/ICH10R)
> *HDD:*
> WD 320GB (WDC WD3200AAKS-22B3A0) - SATA II
> Seagate 200GB (ST3200822AS) - SATA
> Seagte 80GB (ST380817AS) - SATA
> *Optical:*
> NEC (_NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW)
> Asus (ASUS DRW-2014S1T)
> *Virtual Drive:*
> Daemon Tools Lite (HWL 527C5IRO1U SCSI CdRom Device)
> *RAM:*
> 4x1GB Kingston HyperX (2 almost same dual kitts - KHX8500D2K2/2GN +
> KHX8500D2K2/2G)
> *Graphic Card:*
> Asus EN6600TD - 256Mb
> *Sound Card:*
> Creative Audigy 4 Pro (no drivers yet installed after this XP
> reinstall)
> *PWR:*
> Antec NeoPower 650 Blue
> *Enclosure:*
> Antec - metallic miditower (forgot the model name)
> *OS:*
> Windows XP Pro - SP2 (updated to SP3 + all other necessary updates)
>
>
> Another strange thing:
> On this new XP/AHCI install, using a Western Digital HDD Tool it says
> that my HDDs are okay - no error (same as Check Disk showed) but it
> shows my Seagate (SATA I) HDDs as being IDE and only the WD HDD (SATA
> II) as being SATA...
>
>
> --
> 210
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 210's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/85843.htm
> View this thread: A read disk error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.
>
> http://forums.techarena.in


210:
Just by way of clarifying your opening paragraph...

You say that you "first enabled AHCI without XP reinstall", and that "worked
just fine for a while." If you didn't install ("reinstall"?) the OS how
could it be "work(ing) fine..."? Or are you just indicating the XP OS was
already installed in your system and you were (for some reason)
contemplating a "reinstall" of the OS?

Are we to assume that at least at some point you changed the BIOS SATA
configuration setting from the default IDE to AHCI? And are you indicating
the system booted & functioned properly after doing this? At least for some
period of time, but at some later date it didn't?

I'm assuming that you're dealing with a non-RAID configuration, right?

Anyway, assuming you set your BIOS SATA config. setting to the IDE default,
do you encounter any problems?

You make the comment that "Interesting thing, as i've observed till now, is
that *i don't get this error when i boot but just if my system is idle for
some time*. If i work on the machine it doesn't crash even if i use HDDs a
lot."

Could you be more precise about this? If your basic problem (if I correctly
understand you) is that the system will not boot (apparently) due to the
AHCI BIOS setting, how is it that you can then state that "i don't get this
error when I boot" and then go on to say the problem arises "just if my
system is idle for some time."? How can you "work on the machine (and) it
doesn't crash (when you) use (your) HDDs a lot"?

How can all those "things" happen if the system doesn't even boot to begin
with?

Or are you indicating that at times the system will boot and at other times
it doesn't? And you're unable to determine why this is so?
Anna

[210]

Sorry if, because hurrying, my first post was not very clear and specific.

1.
a. No RAID
b. XP Pro (32bit) WAS installed on my computer. I've installed AHCI drivers in it without REINSTALLing the OS, following a simple method found on other forum.

My system worked fine with my old XP install for a while after enabling AHCI this way.

2.
I've reinstalled the OS and installed AHCI drivers using the F6 method but the "A read disk error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." error was not solved.
Also, I've noticed that this error only appeared when my computer was idle. Not at boot. Not when working on the machine.


I found out that in Power Management my HDDs were set to be turned off after 20 minutes of inactivity. Setting "Never" for HDDs turn off in PM seems that solved my problem with the above error.

Now I'm monitoring my system because after this new OS install, before i got to install all necessary MS Win XP Updades (including SP3 / my XP disk only has SP2 included), i got bluescreen error that said "KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR".

I hope that this error is gone too as i've installed the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager and installed some missing (idk why they were missing) drivers. I also set BIOS to allow XP to manage Play&Plug devices not required for boot.

*I also removed one of the four RAM bars and disabled "Memory Remap from 4GB to 3,28GB of RAM" feature in BIOS.

This is what I have done and now my system seems to work okay, but I'm afraid to set "turn off HDDs" option to any value than "never" in Power Management as it seems XP/AHCI drivers doesn't take it very well.
I will test this as soon as I'll be sure that my computer is working fine with current configuration and settings and I will post a reply here with the results.


Hope this information can be valuable for anyone that experienced this "disk read error" though having no defective hardware.

[210]

Last night I've tested setting my HDDs to turn off. Computer still working good . Went to sleep and turned it off.

This morning, at first boot, after Windows logon, computer crashed big time - bluescreen.
First restart it said "missing system32/hal.dll".
Second restart - crashed after i've clicked my username to logon.
Third to sixth restart - "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart."

Disabled JMB Controller in BIOS (this way my IDE DVDRW and HDDs are unavailable).

Computer restart - working good again.


WTF IS THIS?!