Perpetual video card issues.

[MarX]

Alright, having a huge issue with my desktop system. Attempting to do anything ends up giving me the standard "Delayed Write failed" error followed by not being able to run anything(gives the error not enough system resources...)

Here's the specs on my system:
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P
CPU: P4 3.0ghz Prescott
HSF:Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
RAM: 2x2048mb DDR2 PC-6400 OCZ SLI Kit
Video Card: Asus EAH3870X2 1GB PCI-E
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Quad Crossfire 750W
Case: Lian-Li PC60USB
Keyboard:Logitech G15 1st Gen
Mouse: Logitech MX1000
Speakers:Logitech X-540
Monitor:22" LG W2242T LCD
Hard drive:Seagate Barracuda 80gb 7200rpm SATA
WD 500gb 7200rpm SATA2
Optical Drives: LG DVD-RW(20x)
Additional PCI cards:Linksys WMP54G Wifi card,Creative SBLive 5.1
Number of fans present:2x80mm(Zalman),1x80mm Arctic cooling ACF8

It's a fresh install of XP Pro SP2 with all the drivers installed and up to date. The hard drive is brand new and I was having the same problem with the 80gb that XP was on before.
I've tried changing memory slots,memory timings(Running at 5-4-4-15@2.1v exactly as spec'd on the memory) and have run memtest for 4 hours with no errors.
Can't for the life of me figure out why I'm having so many issues with this pc.
Temps are great(CPU-29 idle 45 load,vga-55-60 idle no load yet)
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Some updates to the info though- Disabled the RAID driver, Checked the registry for the Largesystemcache(was already set to 0),removed all pci cards and video card and ran a rage128(system worked fine this way) uninstalled all ATI drivers and ran drivercleaner and the sytem is stable with no video card drivers but as soon as I install them everything goes to hell.
Tried 8.9 catalysts and 8.4(the included driver) and both do the same thing, with or without CCC.
Not sure why I always have issues with video cards, about ready to give up on ATI as much as I like them and maybe go for a GTX260 or something.
Any help?
Thanks in advance

[AkG]

Its a long shot but on one of my older systems my SB Live card's drivers HATED my ATI drivers. It really was a case of "its either me or her!"...I yanked the sound card, reinstalled windows and everything was perfect from then on. Probably one of the last CL cards I ever bought....though it was also one of the last ATI cards I ever bought as well. Both companies make crappy drivers and life is just too short (though ATI is getting better than they were).

Have you tried a fresh install with a NVidia card? Sometimes it really is a case of a bad card w/ crappy driver support.

Just my $.02. YMMV and all that ;)

[norfolk]

Windows uses a special subsystem for certain disk functions, which caches write operations and performs them when the system is idle. This can improve [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]system[/color][/color] performance, but it’s typically turned off by default. The term for this kind of operation is “delayed writing”. 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. If all the options are grayed out, this means write-caching is probably handled at the discretion of the device driver. (You can see more information about the way the defaults for write caching work in the Microsoft article, “Windows XP and Surprise Removal of Hardware”:
(microsoft whdc).
In Windows XP, the system may pop up a “Delayed Write Failed” notification balloon, which means that something has gone wrong with the delayed-write system. This does not always mean there has been a fatal problem, but you should take it seriously.
Some common reasons for a delayed-write failure are:

• 1. Problems with a device driver, especially a SCSI or RAID device driver. Some RAID device drivers are known to issue spurious “Delayed Write Failed” errors in XP Service Pack 2. Most manufacturers have been alerted to this, so check to make sure the disk drivers are up-to-date.
• 2. Cabling problems. A faulty or broken cable — especially for an external USB or Firewire enclosure—can generate this error. It can also happen if the cable is too long, or if it is hooked up through a hub that isn’t up to spec. Another possible culprit is if you have a UDMA drive that requires an 80-pin cable, and you are using a 40-pin cable.
• 3. SCSI termination errors. This has become less likely with the advent of self-terminating SCSI hardware, but it shouldn’t be counted out.
• 4. Media errors. This is the worst possible scenario — essentially, drive failure. If you can garner statistics on the drive via SMART (such as SMART & Simple (SMART and Simple for NT/2000/XP), you may be able to determine if there’s a mechanical failure in the offing. Gibson Research’s SpinRite tool (Home of Gibson Research Corporation) is also useful for assessing media errors, but be warned: It may take a long time to do a thorough test.
• 5. BIOS settings on the computer are forcing faster UDMA modes than the drive controller can handle. This is unlikely, especially with newer hardware (which can support UDMA far more flexibly), but it can usually be fixed with a BIOS upgrade, or by resetting the BIOS entries for the hard drives to auto-detect settings. Devices set to UDMA Mode 6 that produce this error, for instance, might need to be set to Mode 5.
• 6. Controller issues. I’ve observed that USB controllers that contend strongly with other hardware can produce this error. In systems that have both “long” and “short” PCI slots (i.e., 64-bit and 32-bit), try moving the USB controller to the long slot. Older PCI cards will not fit in such a slot.
• 7. Memory parity issues. If the problem appears after installing new memory, the memory in question may be faulty or not of the correct type for the motherboard in question. (This may go hand-in-hand with other problems such as random lockups, too.)
• 8. The LargeSystemCache Registry tweak and ATI video adapters. One peculiar set of circumstances that has been observed on multiple machines with ATI video adapters and more than 512MB of memory involves the LargeSystemCache Registry setting, a DWORD entry found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSe ssion ManagerMemory Management. This setting governs the amount of memory set aside by the system for certain kernel processes. If it’s set to 1 (which allegedly improves performance on systems with more than 512MB of memory), it can cause data corruption on some systems, and produce the “Delayed Write Failed” error. Try resetting it to 0 if it’s been set.

====================================

** UPDATE: New post with new solution for the Windows Delayed Write Failed error message. ** Click Here
Well, recently I found another solution to this problem that really worked for me!
The problem itself seems to be from a memory cache on the USB adapter which drives my disk. It seems that when accessing big files, the cache gets corrupted and the drive becomes inaccessible. To rectify that, a filter driver should be installed, which will limit the packets size sent to the USB adapter bus.
There’s a filter named “MAX128K Filter”, just go ahead and install that. The author’s website explains it very clearly and easy to understand. But one thing to be careful is that he explains it how to apply the filter to your Firewire device, but me, I applied it to my USB external drive.
Note that for USB external hard drives, you should look in
“My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlS et\Enum\USBSTOR”
instead of SBP2, to find your actual external drive.
Go ahead and read what says the author, and read carefuly the Instructions and then download and proceed.
here’s the link : Home of Max128k Filter Driver
Once everything’s done properly, just restart your system and see if you get that error again. Well, you can try copying some files to the drive, and keep using the drive for some time to see if everything’s OK or not.

[MarX]

Originally Posted by AkG

Its a long shot but on one of my older systems my SB Live card's drivers HATED my ATI drivers. It really was a case of "its either me or her!"...I yanked the sound card, reinstalled windows and everything was perfect from then on. Probably one of the last CL cards I ever bought....though it was also one of the last ATI cards I ever bought as well. Both companies make crappy drivers and life is just too short (though ATI is getting better than they were).

Have you tried a fresh install with a NVidia card? Sometimes it really is a case of a bad card w/ crappy driver support.

Just my $.02. YMMV and all that ;)

I'll try getting rid of the live drivers and such, I'd like to upgrade but I just can't justify dropping $150 on a new soundcard(Would prefer pci-e as I only have 2 pci slots)
No I don't have any other video cards that would work in this system aside from very old PCI cards(such as the rage128)

Originally Posted by norfolk

Windows uses a special subsystem for certain disk functions, which caches write operations and performs them when the system is idle. This can improve....

Was one of the first sites I tried. None of those apply in this situation however.

[BrainEater]

Specifically , what p4 prescott are you running ?

Your motherboard only supports certain p4 steppings , and some of the ones around 3 Ghz are not.


http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2742

[MarX]

I see what you mean but I'm using a P4 530 which was supported since bios F2(I've got F6a)

[BrainEater]

Ok.....just checking

[BrainEater]

Did some more reading.From what you describe , it's probably the ATI card/drivers , as suggested in #8 of norfolk's list.(LargeSystemCache) however there are two registry keys that need to be changed , not just one....

quote :

">> Re: "delayed Write failure" in WIN XP
Ok, I got some info. I did a little test and it appears that the fix described at this link http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/atiproblem.htm is what works for me. Before reformatting, I decided to test this theory out. The fix instructs you to change the value of the registry entry "HKey_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\SystemPages. The value as set (by ATI?) is "183000". The fix suggests changing it's value to "ffffffff". With the value set to "ffffffff" I enabled LargeSystemCache and restarted. No DWF errors upon startup. I then disabled LargeSystemCache and returned the SystemPages reg. entry value back to "183000" and restarted. No DWF errors upon startup there either. I then enabled LargeSystemCache, and left SystemPages value at "183000" and restarted, and BAM! DWF again......"



gl

[MarX]

Well I tried those registry edits as well as getting rid of the creative drivers and the problem is still happening :(
Not sure why every single card I get seems to give me issues.

[BrainEater]

hmmm

Ok......

Let's look at this from another angle.What USB devices are being used ?

Do you have a ps2 keyboard and mouse ? if so , try using them , then disabling your USB....