occasional Postcode A2 with 2nd HDD

[GMT 389]

so I hope someone in here is tech-savvy enough to help me out a little with this:

 

for a couple weeks now (in fact it's the third time now) I run into a weird problem with my pc, because seemingly out of the blue, it get's stuck when booting, according to the onboard diagnosis display in postcode A2 which is IDE detect.

What then solves the booting problem is taking out the 2nd HDD. Problem is, 70% of the stuff I need/use is on this drive.

When it happens I go bonkers and fiddle around with everything I can, losing track of the steps I take and seemingly as sudden as the problem popped up, it goes again.

Then everything runs fine for a few days or weeks and then, again, the circle starts again.

 

95% of the internets tell me that the HDD might have died and then these topics don't really continue, a cause which I think I can rule out as once the problem pops up and get rid of it, the system runs fine with both HDD and read/write on the concerned HDD has no problems. Also, at any point of time, I can hook this drive up to any pc in the house via a (powered) USB adapter (unfortunately not as a regular HDD because only my pc is "young" enough to have sata plugs) and it works like a charm aswell.

 

what logical steps I've done so far is to now success:

CMOS reset both via button and battery

used different BIOS - my board comes with 2 BIOS chips I can select via an onboard switch, BIOS 1 I normally use is the latest provided by the manufacturer, BIOS 2 untouched as it came from the factory

updated all concerned drivers

changed boot priorities and also tried one or another option in the BIOS

checked all SATA cables, changed their placement

removed all components and tried one by one, everything fine unless this HDD is used

undo oc

changed both HDDs through their available slots (the pc case has a quickswap system similar to servers, fit the HDD into it's frame and push it in)

 

when the system gets stuck in A2, I can't even access BIOS, but from swapping the HDDs through the slots I can see that the system recognises the HDD fine and since it runs fine outside this problem, even on the same pc, I'd say it might be a software problem?

I somehow feel - but this might be a bit of an unlucky correlation - is that this problem pops up whenever windows updates are installed. But a rollback doesn't help either.

 

one step I've read about that solved such an issue on another system is updating the firmware of the HDD, but I somehow can't find instructions nor related downloads from the manufacturer

 

to complete the list, here's my system specs:

MSI x79a GD65 8D with latest AMI BIOS 4.7 flashed on chip 1 and I think it's 1.2 or 1.4 flashed on the untouched chip 2

Intel Core i7 3820 3,6Ghz autoclocked at 4Ghz via onboard switch

Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 CL9 8GB 2 Dimms

MSI GTX560Ti 2GB TwinFrozr2

WD Caviar Blue 640GB 3 Partitions incl OS

WD Caviar Black 2TB 4 Partitions

Asmedia 106x SATA Host Controller

Win 7 Ultimate 64bit

Delta 750w PSU

Enermax ELC120 CPU liquid cooling with 1st fan used for radiator and 2nd fan used as case blower

 

EDIT: and for the fun-record: yes I tried switching it on and off

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Hmmm.  Most intriguing. 

 

You are running at the edge of BIOS capability with a 2 TB drive.  From your writing, this second drive is internal and I guess that WB is a typo for WD in your hardware list.  This sounds like you have hit a "firmware" problem in BIOS, the one that caused newer machines to use UEFI.  Perhaps your best bet is to describe this problem to AMI, and see if they have a fix.  BIOS fixes are rare, but can be installed by the user.  Most of the BIOS chips are EEPROMs.

 

This suggestion is a lot of work, but have you considered making the 2TB drive your primary drive?  Its first partition would become C:

 

For the record my main drive (sda) is 0.5 TB and the other two HDDs are external connected over USB, a 1 TB drive that is always on line (sdb) and a 300 GB drive that is usually powered down (sdc).  BIOS, of course, recognizes only sda.  The Linux kernel picks up the others during configuration building.

[GMT 389]

yep that WB was a typo, corrected. and yes both listed HDD are internal drives and handled as such, it's just that I can swap them easily because of the server-like HDD frame and I am able to hook actually any HDD up via USB as I have a set of powered adapters to do so.

Another thing that I should have mentioned, prior to running with Win7 I was on Vista for about a year with the very setup above and never ran into this problem. There was only a Vista problem with drives bigger than 1TB that could easily be solved with respective drivers. It was also no problem on Win7 for a while, maybe the first 3 4 weeks and then for no apparent reason started.

 

Anyhow, I was curious and had a few hours stuff to do so I just let the pc be stuck in A2 on startup. When I came home, it was on my Win desktop just fine. More curious now I rebooted it and came to the find that it obviously doesn't freeze in A2, but it rather took about 40minutes to go beyond A2 and then it runs just perfectly fine, just the way you want a pc to run.

I give Win's hdd diagnosis tool a run over this drive now and thereafter WD's tool, so far it seems to turn up ok but I'm not done yet, takes it's time. Just wanna make sure that my initial asumption of a healthy drive is right.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Western Digital drives are pretty tough, or at least used to be.  I had one that sometimes got its heads stuck.  The recovery strategy was to drop it on the floor.  Worked every time.  My general off-line backup drive is a WD drive.  Old, but reliable.

 

The drives I have now are:

 

sda - ST3500418AS (CC3E) 500 MB; and

sdb - SAMSUNG HD103SI (0000) 1 TB.

sdc - Off line, but a WD drive of some description.

 

I actually dropped the Samsung drive about an inch and it cracked the board.  I replaced it without loss since it contains only backups.

[GMT 389]

it seems WD still has this reputation, that's why I got them, can't harm to have quality built material, especially if you use it all day long. Not that I'm in to practice my pitch with it, I'm very responsible treating my stuff,  my 5yrs old smartphone has no scratches or dents all around... but that's off topic.

 

Win7 Diagnosis came up empty, same for the quick search of the WD tool. I've also run the extended test over night (took 5hrs 3mins) and it came up clean, as expected.

So I can definitely rule out a bad HDD which accounts for approximately 75% of the solutions I find on the internet for my problem.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

What did your BIOS maker have to say?

[GMT 389]

I wanna contact the real support only once I have something in hand - or nothing but have tried most steps - because only recently on an unrelated problem, I was confronted with the obnoxious "have you tried turning it on and off again" after a problem description that literally ruled this out as a help and maybe this might be policy, but still I felt a bit offended.

 

Therefore, So far, I'm only in contact with the MSI support forum, as my board manufacturer.

I should check the HDD in a different pc, which I can't for I don't have access to any, not at home, not at work and even more so not among my friends.

I was handed another diagnosis tool and are about to get a 4th one.

I don't see how this could help any but yeah, let them run, I don't have much use of the PC anyway atm.

 

I also just posted my problem in the WD community, let's see what they say.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Because it is intermittent doesn't mean there is nothing there.  You do need to have the problem reproducible.  Is there a possibility of a hair-line crack on your mobo?  This kind of thing can drive computer diagnosis absolutely nuts.  Or maybe just a little bit of conducting dust?

[Shadow Assassin 336]

It is possible that it could be an issue with the IDE controller.

 

Quick look-around shows the possibility that it could be your 2TB drive taking time to spin up.

 

Debug code A2 should show normally for a second or two, but it could be something else.

 

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=166987.0

[GMT 389]

I grant my drive time to spin up, but not like half a day. I mean, sunday I ended up with about 40 minutes, yesterday it wasn't even booted after 3 1/2 hours, always at A2. Not exactly what I consider "spin up time". Especially since the system boots immediately w/o this drive plugged and only a few seconds longer with the drive in times w/o this problem.

 

As for reproducing it.... let's say it reoccurs. I can't put my finger down on that exact cause but since it "comes and goes" and messing around like crazy, mainly on the software side in Winki (which is MSI's linux based light-OS) I can rid myself for a while at least, but seemingly not permanent.

I'm at work right now so I can't really look into things, but I guess once I'm home, the extended test run of HDtune should be done... maybe I swipe the drive clean then and see what happens from there on. If the problem still persists, I guess I gotta RMA the drive despite all these fancy test tools telling me it has no faults.

 

Not sure about the dust thing, but also a possibility. I recently cleaned the system from any dust and also have these cool filters at the inlets (luckily because the neighboring lot has been sold and construction started in january, you can guess the dirt), this doesn't block out everything but really helps w/o too much impact on the case airflow. There was only little dust and hairs from my cat in there but of course that can't be ruled out.

 

EDIT: as expected, the full HDtune test came up empty. I let chkdsk run and it found one wrong index on one of the partitions, everything else fine. Could this be the root of all evil? I have a small feeling it can't...

 

EDIT2: what I did now was messing around with Winki again. Fine thing that this OS simply ignores any read/write restriction flags Windows sets on files and folders.

This way, I was able to access the otherwise locked system volume information folder. in here, I found on 3 the partitions on the HDD discussed, an equal file I didn't find on any other partitions. A seemingly empty text-file called something along the lines of "mount point remote manager database"

I deleted all 3 instances throughout the 3 partitions I found this file on and guess what? perfect boot with both HDDs in place. I googled for the purpose of this file and frankly, I didn't understand a thing what it said about this file.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Let me get this straight: 

 

You found some locked files planted by windows (8? 8.1?) and when you tried to find out about them you got a lot of gobble-de-gook?  MS has always been a bit high handed with things that don't belong to them, especially hardware running their software.  If this is the solution to your problem, then perhaps it is time to bite the bullet and bid a fond farewell to MS altogether.

 

Do you really, truly require MS software as a base for what you are doing?  Is it worth a couple of weeks of dislocation while you find out how to do what you need to do on a different software system?  It is probably time to ask the same hard questions I asked myself over 10 years ago.  You do not have to be an operating system geek like me to use modern distributions of Linux.  Take a tour on this site.  If you liked XP, you'll feel at home here.

[GMT 389]

because the problematic rig is my gaming machine and there isn't a real compatibility. I know I can emulate a Win surface via wine, but it's results vary and are, for most hardware-demanding games, not satisfactory, at least not consistent.

 

anyways, I was a bit quick with my judgement. again, this only solved the problem for a short period of time.

I'm fed up and now writing zeroes to the drive and see what happens then... long process tho, 14hrs in, still some 6 hrs to go.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Good luck with that.  Considering the time spent, you could have replaced the drive if you suspect the device and not the controller or the mobo.  I really think you have an intermittent hardware problem that may not be the actual drive but the underpinnings.  A 2 TB drive is, after all, the limit for BIOS.

[GMT 389]

While it's true with the BIOS limit, these 2TiB are a thing of the past.

GUID partition tables, as compared to MBR, allow for bigger HDDs and also more than 4 partitions. Win7 and 8 natively support this and even Vista could be enabled to work with GPT, so the OS side is prepared, and modern BIOS all have EFI support, so even on this side, there's a native or at least additional support of internal drives bigger than 2 TiB.

WD made use of this a few years ago already with the release of 2.5 and 3 TB drives, clearly crossing the 2TiB limit.

even so, my 2TB drive lies well below the 2TiB limit... decimal vs binary advertising gimmicks ftw.

 

Of course I could have replaced that drive by now, but before I do it, I wanna make sure that it's really broken and not just some weird hickup going on, that's why I run thru all these testing and experimenting.

By tonight or at leat tomorrow morning (CET), when swiping the drive clean and partitioning it again is done, I'm another step closer to what hopefully is the solution of the problem. And if it really comes down to getting the drive replaced, so be it then... but like I said, only if this turns out to be the only solution

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

You would know better than I.  I haven't used a Microsoft format disk in years. 

 

I don't seem to have a problem having as many bootable partitions as I want, even on disks that are normally off-line.  The GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) takes this all in stride.  I accidentally loaded a copy of Ubuntu out on my backup to my backup one day when I forgot to take if off line during a system test.  The hot DVD grabbed my sdc drive because it was the only one that didn't have a boot partition, and made one along side one of my data stores

 

When I realized what had happened I went from astonished to amazed to amused in about five minutes.  Object lesson: when fooling around with operating system loaders, be sure you know what's on line.

 

Apparently with enough mal-eyes aforethought you can even boot this O/S from a thumb drive if it is big enough.

[GMT 389]

So after formatting the drive and watching what happens for a while I dare to say this finally solved the problem. no boot-lag since I did this. I hope it stays this way.