Windows - Delayed Write Failed

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, gurus: advise me.

My PC has been a little slower lately, and just this week, been getting a lot of Windows - Delayed Write Failed messages and blue screen lockups. Does that sound like a failing hard drive? Can I reinstalled Windows on the drive and not lose any files? I'm guessing no, because a new install would wipe out all the program settings at the least. What's the best approach? Should I transfer all the important stuff to an external HD, then replace the ailing HD (if it is indeed ailing...) with a new HD and reinstall Windows, then all my files?

I did this at least once before, where I added a new HD, made it the master, then slaved the old HD--I could still access the files and programs on the old one.

[Feuer Frei!]

Hi Neal
do you have any external hard drives hooked up when you get the messages?
Thing is, external hard drives that use caching will spit out those messages.
Delayed write failed messages are commonly associated with the following:
issues with a device driver (moreso on Win XP SP2), cabling problems(faulty or broken), media errors(drive failures), you might want to look into checking your hdd with this link: http://www.grc.com/intro.htm, some bios settings, usb controller issues, memory issues(ram) and a few other things.

You can see how write-caching is handled for a particular volume by right-clicking on the icon for the drive in the "Disk drives" subtree of the Device Manager and selecting the Policies tabs. The options typically are "Optimize for quick removal" (everything is written to the drive immediately) and "Optimize for performance" (writes are cached).

The first option lets you quickly disconnect drives -- for instance, hot-pluggable USB "pen" drives -- without first disconnecting them via the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the system tray.

Trouble is, with that sort of error message, it could be a number of things, not just 1 or 2. Makes it hard and tedious to locate the trouble-maker.

Have a play-around with that Neal, let us know how you go.

[CaptainHaplo]

Feuer is dead on about the write caching problems with USB. Eject any usb drives, reboot and run a while - see what happens with them out.

Also - if your still having issues after that - the easiest way to do things would be using imaging. Either create - or mirror the existing drive. That way if the one dies, you unplug it, swap it with the mirror and away you go.

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, thanks. Yes, I have 2 USB external drives, I will shut those down and wait to see how it goes.

[GT182]

Neal, what make are your HDDs?

Seagate has a free program that will clone a drive to another Saves doing an OS reinstall and everything is copied over to the new HDD. . You can then just plug it in and continue on from there. That's one reason I only use Seagate, the other is their pretty dependable.

[Onkel Neal]

My HD is SCSI WDC_WD50
Whatever that is :)

Well, it went fine for a week, but now it's so bad I am running in Safe Mode. :dead:

I think it may have something to do with my g cards or connection cables. For about 4 months there has been a horizontal line on the monitor. And now the blue screen of death says nv4_disp is stuck in an infinite loop!

I guess I will have to check the drivers, cables, and clean the innerds, wish me luck.

[Herr-Berbunch]

And now the blue screen of death says nv4_disp is stuck in an infinite loop!

Uninstall and reinstall your graphics drivers. :up:

[McBeck]

Failing PSU?
Drivers shouldnt make things worse and worse...

[Onkel Neal]

Uninstall and reinstall your graphics drivers. :up:


Tried updating the driver, no buenos.

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, hardware gurus: Let's say I want to replace both of my aging GeForce 9800GT cards to fix this problem. What cards should I get? I want something that will plug right in and work, and I stopped keeping track of video card types with PCI (or SLIMM?). I want something a step above the stock cards, not 5 grades above. Suggestions?:shucks:

[Onkel Neal]

How do I find the best/latest nvidia drivers for the GeForce 9800GT cards? I found some, not sure if they are what I should be using.

Why the hell can't hardware update themselves?:doh:

[Herr-Berbunch]

The lastest driver for your card(s), with Win XP 32-bit is http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-314.22-whql-driver.html

[Herr-Berbunch]

As for the replacement cards, I'd have a budget in mind and see what you can get for it - check out hwcompare.com to roughly compare to your 7800GT. Also with a newer card you may need a new PSU. If it's not one thing it's another with PCs :cry:

[Onkel Neal]

As for the replacement cards, I'd have a budget in mind and see what you can get for it - check out hwcompare.com to roughly compare to your 7800GT. Also with a newer card you may need a new PSU. If it's not one thing it's another with PCs :cry:


?? I have GeForce 9800GT cards.

[Herr-Berbunch]

I knew that, I was just seeing if you were paying attention. Same driver though.

[Onkel Neal]

No go. I guess I need to get another 9800GT and swap out until I see which one is bad.

[HunterICX]

Why not use the ones you have now and run the system with just one 9800 and see which one causes the BSOD.

HunterICX

[Onkel Neal]

I can run with just one card? Ok.

HB, you were going to suggest a replacement card? Will this work? (http://www.rakuten.com/prod/evga-geforce-9800-gt-superclocked-512mb-gddr3-128-bit-directx-10-sli/208668131.html?listingId=264842833)

Got a new internal HD, will begin the resurrection this morning.....

[HunterICX]

Yes your system will work fine with just one card, just because the cards supports SLI doesn't mean you have to run 2 cards at the same time.

Actually it's better to run just one card, the trouble and the performance which it may, may not or is very little isn't worth it. (unless you know a great deal about how to set it up, know and play the games that take benefit from it)
Read : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface#Caveats

So I would suggest to hold of on that replacement card and see how your system runs running just one 9800GT.

HunterICX

[Onkel Neal]

I love you, man!:Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

I pulled the card that had the video plug, moved the other down to that slot, and turned it on. PC booted up, no crazy distortion (that horizontal line is still there.... cable or monitor?). Driver seems to be recent, 3/14/13. 6.14.13.1422 (why can't they name these things sanely?

I am going to see how this works for a while, and may get a new SSD HD
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Exclusive-Synchronous-2-5-Inch-CSSD-N256GB3-BK/dp/B00B2X312S

then add it as the primary and move the old one to slave.

[HunterICX]

Horizontal line?
You could try hooking up that monitor to something else (iirc you have a LCD monitor right?) to check if it's a flaw in the monitor or try different cables (VGA, DVI or HDMI if you have the output and input for it on Graphics card and Monitor)

Analog cable:
VGA
http://www.bafo.com/products/200x200/VGA_1_m.gif

Digital Cable:
DVI:
http://pc-level.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dvi-cable.jpg
HDMI:
http://www.electronica-basica.com/images/hdmi.jpg

When I got thise new system I noticed faint horizontal lines whenever I played a game this was because my PSU on the bottom of the case close to my Graphic card's output and when the PSU was working at higher capacity it caused to screw around with my analog signal causing black faint lines across the screen. I solved it from going from Analog (VGA cable) to Digital (HDMI).

So if you have DVI or HDMI cables lying around and you have the output for it on the graphics card and the input on the monitor give it a go.

HunterICX

[Onkel Neal]

Well, I have VGA cables, and a vga-dvi adapter on the g-card. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8febdRUF0MY).

I switched to my old monitor--no line.

[HunterICX]

I switched to my old monitor--no line.
Well that answers the question then :)
The line was a flaw in the monitor itself.

So how is the PC running?

HunterICX

[Onkel Neal]

Seems to be working fine, no NV4_displ infinite loops or BSD so far. :woot:

I'm going to switch monitor cables and see if that changes anything. If not, then you are right, the 22 WS monitor has a glitch.

[Onkel Neal]

Switched cables, same line, so its the monitor.

Tonight: unplugged the hard drive, plugged in a new Corsair Force 3 GS 240 GB SSD, installing XP now.

If all goes well, I'll update the drivers for the printer, scanner, and remaining graphics card.

Then I'll see about plugging in the original HD and see if I can access it. Last time I did this, I had to set the old HD to slave.

When I get it going, I'll add a 3rd HD, a new WD Black 1 TB and copy the files from the original.

Setup is proudly telling me that "Windows XP is the easiest Windows yet". :rock:

[Onkel Neal]

Oh BAM! This thing is fast. Installed XP, loaded chipset driver, connected to the Internet, downloaded latest video driver (thanks Herr-Berbunch), restarting each time. All together, took about 20 minutes :D

[Onkel Neal]

...and 122 Windows XP security upgrades :O:

[DragonRider]

Oh BAM! This thing is fast. Installed XP, loaded chipset driver, connected to the Internet, downloaded latest video driver (thanks Herr-Berbunch), restarting each time. All together, took about 20 minutes :D

Welcome to the world of SSD drives Using the SSD drive as the C: drive only and saving all other file to a slave drive saves filling up the SSD.
although saying that if you also install SH3 or 4,5 to it well stand back :up:

[DragonRider]

Welcome to the world of SSD drives Using the SSD drive as the C: drive only and saving all other file to a slave drive saves filling up the SSD.
although saying that if you also install SH3 or 4,5 to it well stand back :up:

The slave drive is a name only no need to set the Sata drive to slave jump settings,

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, cool. yeah, I discovered that I could simply mount the original HD and it showed up. Added the new 1TB and formatted it, and it showed up. :up:

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, from pushing the power ON button to desktop, 14 seconds.

Now the loading of old programs, setting up email, getting everything copied.

[Onkel Neal]

I plugged in the original HD without changing any jumper settings, just to see what would happen. Hey, what do you know? It shows up in My Computer, perfectly accessible, just like Dragon said it would. Well, almost--I cannot get to the c /documents and settings/user/local settings/application data/ files on the original HD, It tells me access denied. But I can reboot and choose the original HD as the boot device and get to that stuff, then reboot with the new SSD.

And so, the day is saved, and I went about setting up all the drivers, installing Outlook and moving over my PSTs, MS Office, WS_ftp and the site files, etc.

Last, I added the new 1TB backup HD, formatted it, and bam, I have a ton of space to back up files. Western Digital thoughtfully provided Acronis True Image WD edition for that, but it seems to choke, telling me it will take 4 days to do the backup (after 7 hours, the whole PC stops responding). Can anyone suggest a good backup program? I also have Norton Ghost 10 from a couple years ago, I might install that and give it a try.

[DragonRider]

I suspect its something to do with using XP and that program.
However Norton should work just fine.
Also the two Weston Digital Green 1tb drives I have installed also seem to struggle
Keeping up with the Corsair M4 SSD drive I have installed as the main C: drive

[Onkel Neal]

ok, I installed Norton Ghost 14. Tried to make a backup. Got an error, just like it used to do back when I bought the program. These backup programs suck.

[Herr-Berbunch]

If you go to Western Digital's website they should have (used to have, like most of the big disk manufacturers) a free program to copy your drive. Should be better than anything Norton can do.

[Onkel Neal]

Western Digital thoughtfully provided Acronis True Image WD edition for that, but it seems to choke, telling me it will take 4 days to do the backup (after 7 hours, the whole PC stops responding). Can anyone suggest a good backup program?

Anything else?

[Herr-Berbunch]

Sorry, I now remember reading that but forgot yesterday.

I'm just going to stay quiet now.

[DragonRider]

I’m not sure what you are trying to do.
But if you are attempting to create a “image” of your system drive and not copy
personal files the error you are encountering might be due to the fact you have already
added Windows Update files to your system.
To create an image of you system files for some reason this has to be done before you update window. As an image file can be used to re-boot your computer and restore it also so I think it then falls into copyright or something like that.

If you are wanting to copy or back-up your own files then there is always the good old right click and copy to option in my documents :D and also pick and drop

[longam]

Anything else?

Acronis True Image is the best you can get to make a recoverable image of your system and usualy doesnt take long to do. Make a bootable CD to boot you PC to recover it with the image backup. I find just making a clean copy once after all setup and installation and updates is good enough.

If your trying to mirror your HD to another HD Acronis will do this but you need a blank HD. This will allow you to swap drives keeping your current setup.

Backing up your data to me is just having it at another location other than your main HD, if your main drive fails your data is safe. Of course backing up this drive to an external would be one step more. Copy and paste to move the files.

[DragonRider]

Acronis True Image is the best you can get to make a recoverable image of your system and usualy doesnt take long to do. Make a bootable CD to boot you PC to recover it with the image backup. I find just making a clean copy once after all setup and installation and updates is good enough.

If your trying to mirror your HD to another HD Acronis will do this but you need a blank HD. This will allow you to swap drives keeping your current setup.

Backing up your data to me is just having it at another location other than your main HD, if your main drive fails your data is safe. Of course backing up this drive to an external would be one step more. Copy and paste to move the files.

Please read the second post on this page again :up:

[Gerald]

The hard drive is the weak point in the computer, try getting ssd disk.

[The Enigma]

I plugged in the original HD without changing any jumper settings, just to see what would happen. Hey, what do you know? It shows up in My Computer, perfectly accessible, just like Dragon said it would. Well, almost--I cannot get to the c /documents and settings/user/local settings/application data/ files on the original HD, It tells me access denied. But I can reboot and choose the original HD as the boot device and get to that stuff, then reboot with the new SSD.


Neal,

That access denied error is probably caused by the fact that the access rights aren't setup properly.

The old disc was managed by your previous OS.
So the users who had access to this disc and certain folders are now unknow to the fresh installed XP.
Hence your current OS denies acces to them.

Check if you have access rights to that disc/folder before doing anything else.
There is no need for a backup procedure at this moment.

[EDIT] Added Neals remark.

[DragonRider]

The hard drive is the weak point in the computer, try getting ssd disk.

what do you think this thread is about :timeout:

Neal,

That access denied error is probably caused by the fact that the access rights aren't setup properly.

The old disc was managed by your previous OS.
So the users who had access to this disc and certain folders are now unknow to the fresh installed XP.
Hence your current OS denies acces to them.

Check if you have access rights to that disc/folder before doing anything else.
There is no need for a backup procedure at this moment.

:o that's so yesterday

[longam]

Please read the second post on this page again :up:

Why, and Norton is out.... Yup Enigma, his permissions are based on another SID. You should be able to take ownership.

[DragonRider]

I plugged in the original HD without changing any jumper settings, just to see what would happen. Hey, what do you know? It shows up in My Computer, perfectly accessible, just like Dragon said it would. Well, almost--I cannot get to the c /documents and settings/user/local settings/application data/ files on the original HD, It tells me access denied. But I can reboot and choose the original HD as the boot device and get to that stuff, then reboot with the new SSD.

And so, the day is saved, and I went about setting up all the drivers, installing Outlook and moving over my PSTs, MS Office, WS_ftp and the site files, etc.

Last, I added the new 1TB backup HD, formatted it, and bam, I have a ton of space to back up files. Western Digital thoughtfully provided Acronis True Image WD edition for that, but it seems to choke, telling me it will take 4 days to do the backup (after 7 hours, the whole PC stops responding). Can anyone suggest a good backup program? I also have Norton Ghost 10 from a couple years ago, I might install that and give it a try.

Acronis True Image is the best you can get to make a recoverable image of your system and usualy doesnt take long to do. Make a bootable CD to boot you PC to recover it with the image backup. I find just making a clean copy once after all setup and installation and updates is good enough.

If your trying to mirror your HD to another HD Acronis will do this but you need a blank HD. This will allow you to swap drives keeping your current setup.

Backing up your data to me is just having it at another location other than your main HD, if your main drive fails your data is safe. Of course backing up this drive to an external would be one step more. Copy and paste to move the files.

Why, and Norton is out.... Yup Enigma, his permissions are based on another SID. You should be able to take ownership.

Clear now :hmmm: