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Ultra DMA S.M.A.R.T. Capable but Command Failed
I have this computer I'm working on that seems to be receiving various error messages upon boot up. These messages show up during POST, and only seem to happen when the computer has been shut down for awhile before being turned on. The error messages that have been encountered are:
This error appeared first:
Quote:
Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key
...and then upon pressing a key:
Quote:
Ultra DMA Mode-5. S.M.A.R.T. Capable but Command Failed
SATA1 Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Command Failed
Press F1 to Continue
Normally this would need to be rebooted 3-4 times before it would go to Windows log on screen.
Now, in doing google searches, it seemed to be mentioned that the hard drive was bad, so...
I replaced the hard drive and reinstalled everything. No problems... until I let it sit while off for awhile. Upon turning it back on after several hours of being powered down, same error as above (SMART capable error message)
Originally, this error was at one location (one of my clients), but now it's at my house, so outlets are different, etc...
Any ideas on what may be the issue?
Win XP running
ASUS desktop (BIOS is listed as 2009, so probably 3 or 4 year old computer)
Let me know any other info you may need... Thanks...
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Is the boot failure down to just how long it's been powered off for? So warm reboots are always reliable.
The first thing I would do would go to the motherboard manufacturer site to check to see if there were any BIOS updates. If you have a FLASH BIOS, and there is a patch which specifically mentions SATA issues, then it might be worth looking into.
> I replaced the hard drive and reinstalled everything
Same make and model of drive, or something different?
> Ultra DMA Mode-5. S.M.A.R.T. Capable but Command Failed
My only other suggestion would be to downgrade to a slower UDMA mode, to see if that improves things.
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When you changed the hard drive, did you change the SATA cable ?
You could try removing the CMOS battery for about 30 seconds and then replacing (or, find the CMOS jumper depending on the mobo).
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I hadn't when I changed the hard drive, but did eventually change the cables which didn't seem to help. I did, as salem mentioned, switch the UDMA mode to mode 4, and now it says UDMA-4 OK... I told the person to shut down the computer when he leaves and then turn it on in the morning to see if he still has the problem.
On a related note (related to the 1st error message I posted), it seemed that when a external HD is plugged in, BIOS only recognizes the external and not the internal. So this seems to have taken care of that 1 error message.
On a not-so-related note, the operator of the computer was installing software from a CD. There were 2 pieces of software he needed off the CD. He installed one, however, during the installation of the 2nd, the CD shattered inside the drive. My original response was whether the CD was in upside down, but he mentioned that he did just install a program off of the CD, so it was in correctly...
(Leaning towards just getting them a new machine...)
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Hey Hiker,
Hopefully switching UDMA modes resolved the issue for you. If not, and you swapped the drive/cable, the only other thing I could think of (aside from updating the BIOS as mentioned earlier) is the SATA port itself may be bad....hopefully not all of them.
Do you see any blown/distended (spelling?) capacitors on the board by chance? Those can cause all kinds of funky issues; as can bad power supply units.
However, most likely if it still doesn't work, the SATA controller could be bugging out on you.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seack79
Hey Hiker,
Hopefully switching UDMA modes resolved the issue for you. If not, and you swapped the drive/cable, the only other thing I could think of (aside from updating the BIOS as mentioned earlier) is the SATA port itself may be bad....hopefully not all of them.
Do you see any blown/distended (spelling?) capacitors on the board by chance? Those can cause all kinds of funky issues; as can bad power supply units.
However, most likely if it still doesn't work, the SATA controller could be bugging out on you.
Thanks... The computer in question still ended up having problems. They had to turn the computer on 6 or so times today before it would boot to Windows.
Didn't see any bad capacitors on the board, but I brought it up to them that we should just go ahead and get a new computer.
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For me, everything you've posted so far says bad hard drive.
The comment about the cd disk shattering is curious. CD media doesn't self-destruct in my experience, even if inserted upside-down or on top of another disk.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug G
For me, everything you've posted so far says bad hard drive.
Yeah.. That was my initial reaction which is why I did go ahead and replace the HD.
Quote:
The comment about the cd disk shattering is curious. CD media doesn't self-destruct in my experience, even if inserted upside-down or on top of another disk.
I have had a CD shatter once before, but only when it was placed upside down.
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