Member Avatar for David Tru`stone

I have recently assembled a computer out of old components, a Gigabyte 8SMMLP Motherboard with 1GB worth's SD-Ram, a 256MB Geforce FX5200 graphics card and Intel 2.6GHz CPU. Has got Windows XP Professional installed so I know everything were working well before I shut down and left the computer.

When I turned it on it throws me a "Drive Read Error", it's unable to read either my DVD Drive or the HDD, I checked both and they are working in my other systems. It was never networked with other systems because it's a newly built system.

It boots up, so it can't be the processor or RAM; I suspect I may have damaged a bridge since I had to overclock it a bit to get it up to speed, or could this be the BIOS?
If anyone can provide me with some insight I'd gladly appreciate it.

(I know I've posted the same thread before but under the wrong category, and since I'm new I've no idea about how to remove that post.)

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Dani AI

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A practical, ordered approach for the intermittent "Drive Read Error" reported by , and echoed by : the symptoms (temporary recovery after reformat, then failure after a few sessions, occasional blank-screen boots) point to three likely culprits — a failing drive, power/cabling instability, or an unreliable IDE controller/motherboard — with overclocking making the whole system less stable.

Start here (cheap, fast checks first):

  1. Reset BIOS to defaults and disable any overclock. Verify the HDD is consistently detected in BIOS; if BIOS settings keep changing, replace the CMOS battery.
  2. Swap the IDE ribbon and Molex power lead for known-good ones. Run the HDD alone as the only device on the primary channel (single-master jumper) so no master/slave conflict.
  3. Test with a known-good PSU. Intermittent write failures and disappearing partitions are classic signs of power rail problems.
  4. While the disk is accessible, back up everything immediately. Then run a full surface/SMART scan with the drive maker’s diagnostic tool; if SMART shows reallocated sectors or pending sectors, replace the drive.
  5. To repair possible boot-record corruption from repeated crashes, boot the XP CD into Recovery Console and run:
    chkdsk C: /r
fixboot
fixmbr

    Use these only after a backup; fixmbr can be destructive if used improperly.

Hardware notes and priorities: visually inspect the Gigabyte board for swollen or leaking electrolytic capacitors — common on older boards and a frequent cause of intermittent I/O. Avoid flashing the BIOS while the system is unstable. A PCI SATA controller can be a workaround if the onboard IDE is dead, but test driver/boot support first; often a fresh PSU + new HDD is the faster, more reliable fix for a daily-use design machine.

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Member Avatar for David Tru`stone

I think I may have traced the problem, I'm not 100% sure on it though, I'll try to figure this one out here, CD boots with HDD disconnected. HDD alone gives the error. Corrupted HD?

Would appreciate any responses.

Member Avatar for David Tru`stone

Reformated the Harddrive, and it reads both now.

Member Avatar for Member #758415

I was gonna suggest an IDE controller conflict or worse a motherboard issue but...

Member Avatar for David Tru`stone

I was gonna suggest an IDE controller conflict or worse a motherboard issue but...

I thank you for your response, but I'm still having issues with it and getting bald with all the headscratching. *bows*

Since it's an old motherboard it is giving me a lot of problems, more than previous systems I have built out of ancient components.
I can't keep reformating the drive every third day since I'm planning to use it for designing, and each computer I built never gave me as much difficulty as this one now...

Currently it works for about four sessions and then it either gives me a blank screen or Drive Read Error, it reads the CD-Rom with the blank screen scenerio where as I need to reformat the drive (which had XP Installed on it and had it removed somehow?) in another system with the "Drive Read Error". Purchasing a SATA PCI interface seemed like a good idea at the stage and perhaps a better power supply...

But, if it is a motherboard issue as you suggested then I'd rather not waste my time and invest that much in it at the time, everything works well aside from the fact that I need to overclock the processor to get close to its stock speed of 2.6Ghz (Currently at 2.05Ghz best).

I thank you, you've given me the best possible causes to date.

Edited by David Tru`stone because: n/a
Member Avatar for Member #758415

I thank you for your response, but I'm still having issues with it and getting bald with all the headscratching. *bows*

Since it's an old motherboard it is giving me a lot of problems, more than previous systems I have built out of ancient components.
I can't keep reformating the drive every third day since I'm planning to use it for designing, and each computer I built never gave me as much difficulty as this one now...

Currently it works for about four sessions and then it either gives me a blank screen or Drive Read Error, it reads the CD-Rom with the blank screen scenerio where as I need to reformat the drive (which had XP Installed on it and had it removed somehow?) in another system with the "Drive Read Error". Purchasing a SATA PCI interface seemed like a good idea at the stage and perhaps a better power supply...

But, if it is a motherboard issue as you suggested then I'd rather not waste my time and invest that much in it at the time, everything works well aside from the fact that I need to overclock the processor to get close to its stock speed of 2.6Ghz (Currently at 2.05Ghz best).

I thank you, you've given me the best possible causes to date.

No problemo, I'm happy to help :P

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