HELP!! Hardware isse have to hand over project by tomorrow..

PDB wrote on 6/4/2004, 2:44 AM
I'm beginning to hate computers...This is the SECOND time I have had a very serious hardware issue within 48 hours of handing over a proejct (last time a hard drive died on me 1 day before handing over project...Is Murphy using me as an example???

OK, before I really panic, can someone kindly let me know if firewire cards die a slow death? (if not I may have something more deadly on my hands...) It all began a few days ago when my pc was having trouble picking up an external firewire drive..yesterday I started getting windows XP "instant" messages saying I needed to chdsk the same drive...ok, did that and Xp seemed to hang during the chdsk at 83%...So re-booted, copied everything onto another drive, re-formated (quick mode) the drive in question...still got the error messages..BUT, suddenly started getting similar errors in the other external firewire drive. Windows now tells me there is a problem with my hardware, and the firewire card comes up in device manager as problematic...Tried de-installing and re-installing on XP and no luck...

So I take it my firewire card has slowly died on me...Is that possible (I mean a slow death rather than a sudden kaput).

I'm off to buy a new one, but really need some reassurance that there is nothing else going on in there, because otherwise I need a contingency plan to deliver this project by tomorrow - find another computer to copy all folders and work on internal drives...

Somehow I get the feeling this is going to be a very long night...

And someone please tell me why all these problems happen 48 hours prior to a deadline!!

Thanks in advance,
Paul.

Comments

Grazie wrote on 6/4/2004, 3:15 AM
Okay after Death and Taxes .. you've discovered the THIRD! "And someone please tell me why all these problems happen 48 hours prior to a deadline!! "

Sorry can't offer anything other than emotional support and say thihnk of the day after tomorrow . .. it will be there ..

Sorry matey . .I had mine over the last 24Hrs . . my eding pc C: drive was all over the place . .Thanks to Norton Ghost, back in business . .

Paul, I can really feel for you . .IT WILL PASS ! ! - Keep us/me informed - yeah?

Grazie
farss wrote on 6/4/2004, 4:43 AM
It is unusual for either software or digital hardware to die a slow death but it does happen. But maybe it hasn't died, maybe there is something else afoot to cause your run of bad luck. I'm thinking power supply problems or something like that, they do have a habit of slowly drifting out of spec and causing all manner of havoc. Given how cheap most PC power supplies are the wonder is they don't cause more problems. One of the real traps is that there are multiple voltages supplied to the mobo, the 5V supply is the most used and the most critical, next comes the +12V supply, used mostly now to power the disk motors and they're a bit twitchy about having it within spec. Last one from memory is the -12V supply, think it's only used by the RS232 ports but don't know about 1394 and USB ports, I'm inclined to doubt it as they're high speed, high drive current kind of devices.

Mind you we have had serial drive failures, they all came from the same batch, every manufacturer seems to get these kind of issues from time to time.
Jameson_Prod wrote on 6/4/2004, 9:23 AM
I don't mean to insult your intelligence but I have to ask......

Did you do a virus scan? Lately, I've seen more and more problems directly related to some type of virus. Copying the info to another hard drive and then back will almost certainly copy the virus back ( should there be one).

Good luck....please post back if/when you solve this problem.
Orcatek wrote on 6/4/2004, 9:25 AM
Were the drives chained.

If so it could be a bad cable (vibration will slowly cause it die - rare). THat will cause others down the line to show a fail.

Also - if the first drive is send crap out to the interface, it could make other drives look bad too.

Good luck.
PDB wrote on 6/4/2004, 4:45 PM
I think (funny verb that...) I have deciphered what the issue is...

ok, second chapter to this particular soap-opera...Rushed out and bought:
- new firewire card
- backup usb 80 gig drive (usb 2 but will work off usb 1 which is whatI need for backup...)

Got back, launched pc...(well at least the system is operational!) run the anti-virus (yes, I do have one MacAfee oniline service thingy which supposedly updates whenever I connect to the internet...) and no porbs detected...So I go into "my pc" (and I jolly well hope it will be for at least 1 more year), check one firewire drive and hey presto! (I guess that's quite an old expression...:-) ) there it was in all it's glory..."let's try the other" fiend...and he/she too was up and running...*scratching my head at this stage*...WHAT IS GOING ON???*...Anyway, tentatively open last veggie and lo' and behold it's there!...

Sooooo, my conclusion is....Mysteries of computing...Actually I'm secretely hoping my firewire card just gave up because of a heat issue...(nice and warm over here in Spain...)

Anyway, I'm just glad I didn't open up the firewire card box (if it doesn't fail again I'll be returning the new one) but I'm hanging onto the usb hard-drive!

And guess what?? (more sopa-opera coming...) 2 hours into renewed editing...complete block power failure...yep, no just me, but the whole neighbourhood...and just after I thought my troubles for this particular project were (almost) over...blackout for a whole hour...try again....half an hour more and zaaap...another one....ok, ok, I MUST be a descendant of Mr. Murphy...

So lessons learnt:
1) don't trust your hardware, especially if within 48 hours of deadline
2) don't trust your tax man (thank you Grazie!)
3) it's nice to have contingency plans, especially when they cost you money...
4) I hate pcs
5) Buy another computer...or two..
6) Don't trust your virus scan (that's rhetorical btw)
7) I love you guys...
8) anyone need a firewire card????

Seriously, thanks for your support, especially of the moral type (of course the techie stuff is very useful but I think what has really got me going has been some uuuummmpf support so to speak..-

thank you guys!

Paul.

PS. Anyone want to sell a fan??
farss wrote on 6/4/2004, 4:50 PM
Hm,
if you're getting power outages you MAY also be getting low voltage mains. Probably still within spec, most supply authorites have learnt not to let it get too low or they endup with big compensation payouts from burnt out motors but maybe enough for you to be getting crap into the PC from loads switching on and off. Might be time to think about UPS along with a new fan.
PDB wrote on 6/4/2004, 4:57 PM
Farss, I think you may be dead on about this one...Time to get a proper set-up I think....

thanks again!
Paul.

PS. I think this is proably the 3rd/4th.max blackout we've had in 5 years...(2 in one b*** day and it HAD to be this pm...)

PPS. ooops forgot to mention...I have an "oh so nice circular blurred edge red halo on my screen since the second power failure...Makes for quite some interesting colour correction... There goes my digital photography out the window... or...I now have an excuse to buy a brand new screen..."always look on the bright side of liiiiiiife...(what a way to spend Easter...or is it spring now?)"
riredale wrote on 6/4/2004, 5:12 PM
You might want to get a second PC in the form of a laptop...

I bought an entry-level one last year (a Dell 2650) for only about $600 here in Oregon, and Vegas runs beautifully on it. PLUS, then you'll be able to edit out in the field!

For that matter, a 2-year-old laptop will probably work just fine (and you can probably find them for ~$500, if not cheaper). I'd set the minimum processor at around 750MHz.