Brand new HDD hanging up, causing BSOD and Windows crashes

MJunioR · 23 Mar 2018

Hey guys!
So, I have been dealing with a lot of problems related to hard drives this last week.
My main HDD died on me after 2 years or so, and I got a brand new Seagate 1TB today and for my surprise the same problems appeared.
The hard drive do an usual noise like an engine when it's running, but suddenly it stops for a brief moment and come back but this freeze the computer (Chrome stuck in Waiting for the Cache, Search UI crashing constantly), and then Critical Process Died BSOD message.

After looking a bit more, I saw in the in the Event Logs: ESENT 533

DllHost (5652,D,0) Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy_NOEDP_LEGACY_IDB: A request to write to the file "C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppData\Indexed DB\IndexedDB.edb"" at offset 1048576 (0x0000000000100000) for 32768 (0x00008000) bytes has not completed for 36 second(s). This problem is likely due to faulty hardware. Please contact your hardware vendor for further assistance diagnosing the problem.

Of course, soon as I managed to install Windows I also installed CrystalDiskInfo and HDDSentinel - for both, everything is perfect and I don't see anything wrong, logs are clear. It also passed on SeaTools generic tests successfully.
I really don't know now - did I just got unlucky and received a bad piece of HDD or there's more to it? Maybe my MOBO, maybe my PSU, don't know.
I'm using a new SATA cable so this is minus an possibility, I guess.
Any idea on what it might be?

EdTittel · 23 Mar 2018

If it's not the disk, and it's not the cable that means it might be the SATA port on the mobo (next in the chain). Try moving your SATA cable to a different SATA port instead (lowest numbered open port, preferably port 0, is always best if possible). Sorry for your trouble.
--Ed--

MJunioR · 23 Mar 2018

EdTittel said:

If it's not the disk, and it's not the cable that means it might be the SATA port on the mobo (next in the chain). Try moving your SATA cable to a different SATA port instead (lowest numbered open port, preferably port 0, is always best if possible). Sorry for your trouble.
--Ed--

Hello Ed!

I just received a new PSU, so I ended exchanging it plus every cable (and port I was using) but the problem persists. I'm really out of ideas here, is it possible that somehow the motherboard / CPU is related to it?

pepanee · 23 Mar 2018

First Impression Suggestions:

1) Try updating your motherboard's firmware (search for your motherboard's exact model and the word "firmware", or from your motherboard's website. You'll most likely need a USB stick to store that file onto, to connect to the computer when updating)

2) Does it still happen after the update? Verify that your motherboard got updated. When you can verify that, then go into your motherboard's settings, and try adjusting things in there. See if you can reset it to default factory settings. (Make a backup of the current settings first, if you have it already customized in a way [yet if so, there's a possibility that there's a custom setting that could be causing the issue]. But backup just in case.)

3) That's all I have for now.

MJunioR · 23 Mar 2018

Hello pepanee!

So, I did what you said and so far, so good. There was a BIOS update related to DRAM from ASUS, I updated it and was able to play, what, 5 minutes of a quite heavy game which before would make Windows crash during it's loading screen. I will download CAD and a few other softwares I use that requires a bit more of the machine to fully test it but again, so far, so good. I will start to sync my documents with the Cloud so I don't lose those if anything happens from now on, and since my mobo is pretty old I will see if I can get a replacement for it as soon as possible.

I won't mark solved yet as I wasn't able to fully verify if the problem is gone and in fact I saw quite a lot of stutter in the game I mentioned. Will give one day, if I don't have any problem by then I think the issue is gone for the time being.

pepanee · 23 Mar 2018

Oh definitely! You're welcome.

I'm glad that my suggestion sounds like it could have fixed the problem, yet you're right. Give it at least a few days, say 5 days, see how everything is, hopefully no more problems. Assuming it all works well for the next few weeks, then you can maybe consider buying a new motherboard. Since you said this one is kinda old, you don't wanna stress/overheat it too much maybe. You know, something to think about. But if it's all working well so far, that's good news! Yes, make backups of your files.

=)

EdTittel · 23 Mar 2018

The motherboard was pretty much the only item left in the chain, so it had to have a role if not complete responsibility. I'm guessing there might have been an issue with the onboard disk controller that the firmware/BIOS upgrade could have addressed. Hopefully, you're past this problem now, so it would be best if it remained fixed!
--Ed--

MJunioR · 24 Mar 2018

Hey guys, so I'm back again.

Problem persists, now it's pretty variable though - it can happen after 30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours. Depends a lot.

I did some searching to see suggestions and I will try to mess around with my mobo later. A friend of mine said that it may be a CPU fault of mismanagement of power, I really don't know at this point.

What I know though is that the HD is really getting disconnected and then reconnected, the logs are now showing the NFTS 140 event, described as:

The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur in VolumeId: C:, DeviceName: \Device\HarddiskVolume2.
(STATUS_DEVICE_NOT_CONNECTED)

EdTittel · 26 Mar 2018

Ouch! Depending on your financial situation, if I were you I'd be thinking "new motherboard time is coming SOON!" Those kinds of failures can cause you to loose valuable data, not to mention downtime. Then, the real question becomes "replace motherboard only" or "replace mobo/cpu/ram and graphics processor?"
Best of luck in getting this worked out.
--Ed--

MJunioR · 26 Mar 2018

EdTittel said:

Ouch! Depending on your financial situation, if I were you I'd be thinking "new motherboard time is coming SOON!" Those kinds of failures can cause you to loose valuable data, not to mention downtime. Then, the real question becomes "replace motherboard only" or "replace mobo/cpu/ram and graphics processor?"
Best of luck in getting this worked out.
--Ed--

Hey Ed! Thanks for everything, I agree, time for a new motherboard, not this week however, there's three-day holiday coming in my country and I think I will have to use this one until my next one comes hopefully next week.

Again, thanks a lot! Just a quick question, do you think it would be possible to be related to the CPU in anyway? I pretty much confirmed that there's some fault connector in my motherboard but the comment from a friend that also can't be caused by the CPU still is bugging me.