Weird Dimension 9200 problem

I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all of
them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my new
Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the performance
drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives in both machines
(actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work flawlessly in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive, but it
happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if it
still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the background, but
what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

A little more information. I thought the problem could be in something that
is installed by Dell.

It's not.

Formatted and installed XP Pro. Nothing installed except the drivers
(including chipset) and HDTune.

Same problem. Graph dips to almost zero every few seconds.

Cloned the drive to a fresh 300Gb drive.

Same problem. So it is not the drive.

I am beginning to believe there is a design flaw in this machine. The
problem does not occur on drives other than the boot drive, either IDE or
SATA.

It does happen on BOTH 9200 machines that I purchased.

It is a showstopper.

The drive passed the basic diagnostics. I am running the diagnostics from
the diagnostic partition right now.

I've never seen anything like this.

I'll call Dell soon. I can't imagine how they're going to react,
particularly when I want to return both machines.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all of
them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my new
Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the performance
drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives in both
machines (actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work flawlessly in
HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive, but
it happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if it
still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the background,
but what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

I would have though it was more likely something in the configuration. to
have 2 machines doing the same thing. Have you saved the tuned channels to
favourites within the options?
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
A little more information. I thought the problem could be in something
that is installed by Dell.

It's not.

Formatted and installed XP Pro. Nothing installed except the drivers
(including chipset) and HDTune.

Same problem. Graph dips to almost zero every few seconds.

Cloned the drive to a fresh 300Gb drive.

Same problem. So it is not the drive.

I am beginning to believe there is a design flaw in this machine. The
problem does not occur on drives other than the boot drive, either IDE or
SATA.

It does happen on BOTH 9200 machines that I purchased.

It is a showstopper.

The drive passed the basic diagnostics. I am running the diagnostics from
the diagnostic partition right now.

I've never seen anything like this.

I'll call Dell soon. I can't imagine how they're going to react,
particularly when I want to return both machines.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all
of them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my new
Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the
performance drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives
in both machines (actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work flawlessly
in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive, but
it happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if it
still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the background,
but what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

Not sure what you mean by saved the tuned channels to favorites.


"Fixer" wrote in message
...
I would have though it was more likely something in the configuration. to
have 2 machines doing the same thing. Have you saved the tuned channels to
favourites within the options?
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
A little more information. I thought the problem could be in something
that is installed by Dell.

It's not.

Formatted and installed XP Pro. Nothing installed except the drivers
(including chipset) and HDTune.

Same problem. Graph dips to almost zero every few seconds.

Cloned the drive to a fresh 300Gb drive.

Same problem. So it is not the drive.

I am beginning to believe there is a design flaw in this machine. The
problem does not occur on drives other than the boot drive, either IDE or
SATA.

It does happen on BOTH 9200 machines that I purchased.

It is a showstopper.

The drive passed the basic diagnostics. I am running the diagnostics
from the diagnostic partition right now.

I've never seen anything like this.

I'll call Dell soon. I can't imagine how they're going to react,
particularly when I want to return both machines.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all
of them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my new
Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the
performance drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives
in both machines (actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work flawlessly
in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive, but
it happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if
it still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the
background, but what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

Well, just chatted with Dell. Their position was to replace the
motherboard! (on a 3 day old system).

I can't see how that would help since the problem is on BOTH machines. It's
not the hard drive, as I cloned it to another drive and still have the
problem. It's not Sata port 0, as I tried Port 2. It's not the DVD drive,
as I tried it with it unplugged (and turned off in the BIOS).

Weird part is that if just use the second drive I install, it works fine. I
just hate to blow off 250GB.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Not sure what you mean by saved the tuned channels to favorites.


"Fixer" wrote in message
...
I would have though it was more likely something in the configuration. to
have 2 machines doing the same thing. Have you saved the tuned channels to
favourites within the options?
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
A little more information. I thought the problem could be in something
that is installed by Dell.

It's not.

Formatted and installed XP Pro. Nothing installed except the drivers
(including chipset) and HDTune.

Same problem. Graph dips to almost zero every few seconds.

Cloned the drive to a fresh 300Gb drive.

Same problem. So it is not the drive.

I am beginning to believe there is a design flaw in this machine. The
problem does not occur on drives other than the boot drive, either IDE
or SATA.

It does happen on BOTH 9200 machines that I purchased.

It is a showstopper.

The drive passed the basic diagnostics. I am running the diagnostics
from the diagnostic partition right now.

I've never seen anything like this.

I'll call Dell soon. I can't imagine how they're going to react,
particularly when I want to return both machines.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all
of them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my
new Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the
performance drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives
in both machines (actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work
flawlessly in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive,
but it happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if
it still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the
background, but what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

That's not the problem. It's PVR software. If I record to a second drive I
install, I think it will be just fine, but that's not a solution.

It seems to be a bug in the motherboard, amazingly.


"Fixer" wrote in message
...
What I meant was there must be some way to tune the TV channels to enable
you to record, then save them once tuned in
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Not sure what you mean by saved the tuned channels to favorites.


"Fixer" wrote in message
...
I would have though it was more likely something in the configuration. to
have 2 machines doing the same thing. Have you saved the tuned channels
to favourites within the options?
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
A little more information. I thought the problem could be in something
that is installed by Dell.

It's not.

Formatted and installed XP Pro. Nothing installed except the drivers
(including chipset) and HDTune.

Same problem. Graph dips to almost zero every few seconds.

Cloned the drive to a fresh 300Gb drive.

Same problem. So it is not the drive.

I am beginning to believe there is a design flaw in this machine. The
problem does not occur on drives other than the boot drive, either IDE
or SATA.

It does happen on BOTH 9200 machines that I purchased.

It is a showstopper.

The drive passed the basic diagnostics. I am running the diagnostics
from the diagnostic partition right now.

I've never seen anything like this.

I'll call Dell soon. I can't imagine how they're going to react,
particularly when I want to return both machines.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost
all of them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my
new Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the
performance drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb
drives in both machines (actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work
flawlessly in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive,
but it happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if
it still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the
background, but what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

What I meant was there must be some way to tune the TV channels to enable
you to record, then save them once tuned in
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Not sure what you mean by saved the tuned channels to favorites.


"Fixer" wrote in message
...
I would have though it was more likely something in the configuration. to
have 2 machines doing the same thing. Have you saved the tuned channels to
favourites within the options?
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
A little more information. I thought the problem could be in something
that is installed by Dell.

It's not.

Formatted and installed XP Pro. Nothing installed except the drivers
(including chipset) and HDTune.

Same problem. Graph dips to almost zero every few seconds.

Cloned the drive to a fresh 300Gb drive.

Same problem. So it is not the drive.

I am beginning to believe there is a design flaw in this machine. The
problem does not occur on drives other than the boot drive, either IDE
or SATA.

It does happen on BOTH 9200 machines that I purchased.

It is a showstopper.

The drive passed the basic diagnostics. I am running the diagnostics
from the diagnostic partition right now.

I've never seen anything like this.

I'll call Dell soon. I can't imagine how they're going to react,
particularly when I want to return both machines.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all
of them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my
new Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the
performance drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives
in both machines (actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work
flawlessly in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive,
but it happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if
it still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the
background, but what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

Tom Scales wrote:
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all of
them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my new
Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the performance
drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives in both machines
(actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work flawlessly in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive, but it
happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if it
still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the background, but
what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

To separate out Windows entirely, try MHDD.

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

wrote in message
ups.com...

Tom Scales wrote:
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost all
of
them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my new
Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the
performance
drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb drives in both
machines
(actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work flawlessly in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive, but
it
happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see if it
still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the background,
but
what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script monkeys?

Tom

To separate out Windows entirely, try MHDD.

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/


Won't boot to the floppy. Weird.

Is it set up as RAID or JBOD?
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
That's not the problem. It's PVR software. If I record to a second drive
I install, I think it will be just fine, but that's not a solution.

It seems to be a bug in the motherboard, amazingly.


"Fixer" wrote in message
...
What I meant was there must be some way to tune the TV channels to enable
you to record, then save them once tuned in
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Not sure what you mean by saved the tuned channels to favorites.


"Fixer" wrote in message
...
I would have though it was more likely something in the configuration.
to have 2 machines doing the same thing. Have you saved the tuned
channels to favourites within the options?
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
A little more information. I thought the problem could be in something
that is installed by Dell.

It's not.

Formatted and installed XP Pro. Nothing installed except the drivers
(including chipset) and HDTune.

Same problem. Graph dips to almost zero every few seconds.

Cloned the drive to a fresh 300Gb drive.

Same problem. So it is not the drive.

I am beginning to believe there is a design flaw in this machine.
The problem does not occur on drives other than the boot drive, either
IDE or SATA.

It does happen on BOTH 9200 machines that I purchased.

It is a showstopper.

The drive passed the basic diagnostics. I am running the diagnostics
from the diagnostic partition right now.

I've never seen anything like this.

I'll call Dell soon. I can't imagine how they're going to react,
particularly when I want to return both machines.

Tom
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
I went to watch a bunch of recorded HD shows this morning and almost
all of them are a mess.

Started doing the typical debugging and discovered a problem with my
new Dimension 9200s (both have the exact same problem).

If you run HDTune, it should show a consistent 65-75Mbs.

It doesn't.

The graph looks like a mountain range. Every few seconds, the
performance drops to near zero and then pops back up. The 750Gb
drives in both machines (actually one has a 1.5Tb Raid 0 array) work
flawlessly in HDTune.

I've neve seen anything like it. I would have assumed a bad drive,
but it happens on both machines.

I'm going to image one over to a 300Gb I have laying around and see
if it still happens. If so, I'd suspect something running in the
background, but what?

I'll call Dell, but can you see explaining this to the script
monkeys?

Tom