Unable to boot PC and BSOD

[FC360]

I have a custom built PC which I built over a year ago and I've had slight small problems with it over the years but nothing really bad. Today I turned the PC on and it started up fine and then after a few minutes it froze and wouldn't respond then after a minute or two it started responding then froze again. The screen went all wonky, like static then a BSOD appeared and said something about fault on non page unfortunately the screen vanished and the PC rebooted before I had the time to take to take a picture and my memory isn't that good. So it restarted and got all the way to login screen but after I entered my password and hit enter the screen was just black, then the mouse appeared but that's it. I restarted PC and now I get A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart error everytime I start up my PC.

I have had this disk read error happen a couple of times but usually when I press ctrl +alt+del it works but not this time. Could both these errors be caused by my hard drive being faulty? I have had the feeling it has been on the for awhile now but wasn't sure. Could the hard drive being faulty cause the non page error I got? I did have the problem where the system was freezing and disconnected the IDE DVD drive which fixed the problem but it seems the problem has come back.

Also I do have a Asus 6850 graphics card which is a couple of months old but I think I had the problem before I installed the card. Any help would be appreciated, I need my PC for gaming

 

[FC360]

Today I was listening to music and surfing the internet and my PC froze up so I had to press restart button on the actually case to get it to restart. During restart it came up with the message A disk read error occurred press ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. I did this and it started up fine, I have no other disk drives connected to the computer and nothing in the DVD drive. I am becoming more convinced that it is the HDD that is on it's way out can anyone confirm this or have any suggestions that would help me confirm if it is the HDD.

Also in event viewer I'm getting over 200, 289 at the moment of typing this, of ATAPI all saying The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort3. I used to use IDE but stopped due to this problem, any idea how to fix this because I'm at a loss.

 

[wathman]

without more specific info, it would be hard to limit the problem possibilities, so I'll give everything I can think of. What type of PSU are you using? A year can be a long time if the PSU is of poor build quality and can cause all kinds of weird computer problems when it's on the way out. Hard drive is also another valid possibility, if you had a utility that can read the s.m.a.r.t. diagnostics on the hard drive that would help you determine if it is that. a controller error could be caused by driver corruption on the hard drive, but also may be a symptom of the controller itself failing, meaning the motherboard itself is having a problem.

Also, heat buildup is another concern but I don't know enough about your system to rule it in or out. If all fans are working, heatsink was installed properly with good paste, and overall system temps are not concerning you can rule out overheating.

 

[FC360]

I'm using a Highpower 650 watt ATX PSU which I purchased in May 2011. I wouldn't have thought it would be a PSU issues because if it was then wouldn't other components be affected especially the graphics card? It's definitely not heat build up as the heat never goes over 70C if gaming or 60C if not gaming.

Do you have any recommendations for s.m.a.r.t diagnostic utilities? How would I be able to see if it is the controller on the motherboard that's the problem?

 

[wathman]

PSU problems can cause all kinds of strange things, graphics anomalies are among them but doesn't necessarily always show up as a symptom. If you are confident about your PSU then look elsewhere. For a free tool that has s.m.a.r.t. diagnostics capability, speedfan is a pretty good comprehensive one that has it: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

as for checking the board's controller, there is not really good cheap or easy way to conclude that it is the the hardware on the board, it's probably best to look at it as a diagnosis of elimination of all other possible problems. If you don't mind spending a little cash for the sake of diagnosing, you could buy a PCI based controller card and move the hard drive to that. That has some potential to make problems of its own, but if you run the computer without issues from an add-on controller, you can then say that the on board controller is indeed bad.