IDE/ASPI deadlock problems under Windows XP?

[Joe Forster/STA]

Hi guys,

I've been having a very weird problem with Windows XP for months and I just can't get rid of it.

About once every five times I insert a CD/DVD into the CD/DVD-ROM drive and read it in (initializing the CD/DVD), the software - Windows Explorer, FAR Manager, a game, a CD/DVD burner software, a plain file selector window, whatever - that reads into the CD/DVD locks up. In such cases, if I want to access the same CD/DVD with another software, that locks up, too. They lock up so badly that none of Task Manager, FAR Manager's Process List plugin or the TASKKILL command can kill them: the window disappears but the process is still running, even shutdown sits still and can't kill them. It's definitely as if they were waiting for some resource that never becomes available.

In the past, it was even worse: it occurred pretty much every time I accessed a newly inserted CD/DVD. Also, Nero: Burning ROM simply locked up while burning a CD/DVD. (It still does.)

The operating system is Windows XP Professional, English, with SP2 installed, well maintained. The hardware is an Athlon XP Barton 3200+, with 1 Gigs of RAM, on an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard (nForce 2 chipset). I tried the following:

- Re-installing the latest nForce 5.10 drivers for the nForce 1/2 chipset. Nothing.

- Re-installing SP2. Nothing.

- Upgrading to Adaptec ASPI drivers 3.71.2 (latest but alpha) and downgrading to 3.60 (latest stable). Nothing.

- Removing Starforce drivers, with Starforce's own software and then manually checking the result. Nothing.

- Rebooting to Windows 98 and burning a few CD's/DVD's with Nero from there. No problems => it's not a hardware problem!

- Creating only an ISO (Image Recorder selected as destination recorder) with Nero and burning that onto the actual CD/DVD with Alcohol 120%. No problems => Alcohol 120%'s own ATAPI drivers circumvent this problem!

- Accessing the CD/DVD first with Alcohol 120% (start Image Making Wizard, then select the CD/DVD drive at CD/DVD Device). Mostly no problems with accessing the CD/DVD afterwards => Alcohol 120% helps again. However, reading in the CD/DVD (takes a long time, several minutes) can cause the deadlock again!

- Ejecting the CD/DVD. None of the softwares react to it right away, they are still waiting for something. What is really interesting, if I wait for as much as 1-2 hours (!), they actually come back to their senses, display some error message about the missing CD/DVD and everything comes back to normal.

If anyone has any idea, I'd appreciate it. (Oh, and I'm NOT a newbie! ) Thanks for your help in advance!

[Joe Forster/STA]

A probably related thread: http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/my-t...s-vt34728.html . I guess the solution is downgrading the nVidia IDE driver or removing it completely and falling back to the Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller driver from M$... (Searched for "+windows +xp +nvidia +nforce +nero +burning +lockup" on Google...)

[kosmiq]

As Joe said, don't use nVidia IDE Drivers. They are bad anyways. If they work (never does anyway) they are good. If you have problems, remove them and all problems goes away magically...

[DABhand]

It was Joe who started the thread, im confused lol

[Joe Forster/STA]

I removed the nVidia IDE controller driver. (It does make hard disk access slower by about 10-15%, though... ) After almost two weeks of perfect operation and no lockups, it seems reasonable to say that, yes, this driver was the damn culprit. I'm quite disappointed at nVidia's quality control now...!