Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by JaMeShi

How to obtain my Invite code?

JaMeShi — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 13:51:02 +0800

Old user here trying to figure out where to get the invite code. Some said only mod has it, some said only very active user gets it.

Myself last posted was less than 10 years ago LOL. But just couldn't find it under my control panel.

Can anyone help? Thank you!

Data Recovery Help?

JaMeShi — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:22:33 +0800

I purchased this Western Digital Green Caviar (WD10EADS) last April 2009 and installed it as a external HDD. The HDD was working perfectly until one fine day last 2 weeks ago, the HDD just fail without warning.

The HDD and laptop was working perfectly and then was left idle for around 45 minutes. When I returned, the HDD can no longer be detected by the laptop. I am firm that there was absolutely no static or shock when the incident happen. I tried restarting laptop and the HDD, connecting the HDD to desktop directly, yet nothing works. When I take up the HDD, there is no lose part sound, rock solid. When power is supplied, I can hear the HDD's motor trying to spin but it was stuck or not continuing somehow. I have tried to turn on the HDD a few time after the incident but every time the same sound and the HDD still wont work.

It is extremely saddening as I can see the HDD was manufactured on 22 March 2009 on its body. Furthermore WD gave the drive a 3 years warranty yet it broke down within 1 year of normal usage. What's more upset is that I have P&C work, study and private material without backup in it. As the drive is supposed to be the backup before I clean up my desktop HDD and reformat it.

At this point of time, I guess I have no other choice but to send the HDD for professional data recovery. I read on WD website that they have data recovery affiliate, which if I send my HDD to do recovery, the warranty will not be voided. However, there is no such affiliate in Malaysia.

I am pretty sure there are some brothers who faced such luck as me so far. Did you guys do a data recovery? If you have done it, which data recovery center have you choose? Is your privacy secured 100%? How do you ensures it? Were you able to get back all the data? Do you need to provide a same size HDD when you send it for data recovery?

Any kind of experience sharing is pretty much appreciated. Thank you very much!

CPU Fan Problem

JaMeShi — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:04:17 +0800

Hello everyone.. Needed some help here.

I have an old P4 that is facing some problem, the CPU fan is too noisy. This is a P4 530 Prescott running on socket LGA 775. This problem actually exist since the first day when the system is bought but since that was my first P4, i tot that was normal as i was just using the normal OEM fan.

So now I am thinking of changing the CPU fan. So a few related questions here:

1. What brand and model of CPU fan should i get?
Since it is an old system, my budget is really low. Any good shop for recommendation? I read from some forum, Artic Cooling Freezer 7 seems to be a good choice. But I am not a OC fans, I am really not sure if this is really a good choice and I am also not sure how much to spend.

2. What should I do if I discovered that the cheapo thermal paste has went harden and stick the heat sink and CPU too tightly? Is there anyway I could still separate them? Will running the system until I am pretty sure the CPU is hot and probably the thermal paste is melted then I shut down the system and tries to separate them be a good idea? Or, there is other better way?

3. Does CPU fan like Artic Cooling or Cooler Master comes with thermal paste? If not, what kind of paste should I get? How much are they normally? Any good shop to recommend?

4. After changing it, what kind of temperature is within the normal range with system is idle, and during full load?

Thanks people..

Near crazy scenario..

JaMeShi — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:47:03 +0800

First of all, thank you for your time. I really appreciate help.. Cos I really need it.

Situation goes like this:
I previously have a system with the following spec:
Pentium 4 530 3.00Ghz 800FSB 1MB Cache
Abit AS8V 865PE/DualDDR/8x/SATA/+6Ch+L
Sappire ATI Radeon 9550 Platinum Edition
2x256MB Kingston Value Ram DDR400
160GB Western Digital IDE HDD 8MB cache
1.44 Sony Floopy drive
52x24x52x Liteon CDRW-rom

It was running perfect all these while. About two weeks ago, I needed to use Skype. So as usual, I downloaded the latest installation (v3.2) and installed it. Then I plug in my headset together with the mic. Usually i can hear my own voice thru the ear piece when i speak over the mic, but since there is none, i decided to replug the jack. However, when I was reaching for the jack located at the back of chasis, I accidentally kicked the chasis and the system went restarting. This is where all the problems started.

The OS failed to load. There is a black screen that tells me that I didnt shut off the windows properly. And I was given 5 options:
Safe mode
Safe mode with network support
Safe mode with command prompt
Last working configuration
Start Normally

But no matter which one i selected, whenever the system loads, until after the winxp loading screen, the system will restart. No matter how many times I tried, it is just the same.

Later, situation just gets more complicated. After many restart, "Invalid system disk replace the disk and then press any key". I tot maybe the harddisk connector was loose, so I power off and check the connectors. Everything's fine. Restart, same error. So I tot I have a harddisk failure since i noticed that the BIOS actually cannot detect it. Then I try using another old 4GB harddrive as master and detect the 160GB harddrive as slave, but cant detect as well. Then also try disconnect all unnecessary component and start the system with just mobo, ram, and harddrive, cannot be detected as well.

Then I suspect maybe the 4GB harddrive cannot detect the 160gb. I went to lowyat and purchased a new 320GB Western Digital SATA II HDD 16MB harddrive. Then went thru the normal Winxp SP2 installation, everything's normal with the new harddrive. But when trying to set the old 160gb harddrive as slave, I cant.

After which I read some forums and decided to try the windows recovery console. Weird enough, the windows console detected the 160GB harddrive! So i ran chkdsk /r. It is said that more than one error were found and fixed. Then when restarted, the system actually can load but with a condition that the Windows Installation Disc is in the optical drive.

So i quickly grab the chance to copy out all my important data to the new 320GB drive. Once that is done, i decided to format the 160gb harddrive. So using the windows recovery console, i formatted the 160gb harddrive and installed the WindowsXP SP2 again. When all that is done, i try to boot up the system. However, same invalid system disk error again! Then using the windows recovery console, I tried fixboot and fixmbr. Same error. tried load fail safe or optimum setting at bios, same.

Then I decided to go more extreme. Using the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools, I did both quick and extended test, both test return code 0000, which is no error. But I was pretty upset with the harddrive already, I decided to run the FULL Writes Zero format. It took me 3 days to complete the process, which just ended a while ago.

Using the Data Lifeguard tools, I try to format the 160Gb just written zero harddrive. However, the application prompts me "Invalid Disk Drive" when i select the drive. Then I figure I could use the normal windows floppy way of start up and performs the normal FDISK and partition. But for that, I will need to use the 320GB new harddrive to create the disk.

So I unplug the 160gb drive and plug in the 320gb. Boot, and guess what? The windows didnt shut off properly message shown! Same 5 options. However, the situation is slightly different. When select any of the safe mode, i can see a list of all the drivers but loading will always freeze at the last agp440 driver. If selected the last 2, upon reaching the winxp loading screen, the system will auto restart.

It is really so weird.. The 320GB really isnt suppose to give any problem. So i had to resolve back to the windows recovery console. But this time, even window recovery console failed! BSOD! The message was about ACPI. So i try pressing F7 when I was told to press F6 during the loading of Windows Recovery Console, OK then the console got loaded. I run CHKDSK /r. Found more than one error and fixed. But when restart, same again.

I felt so lost. Then I think perhaps I can using the Winxp CD to install winxp to the 160GB and instead, use that OS to create the Floppy Start Up disk. However, the console just freeze at "Setup is starting windows". It has been 20 to 25 minutes since that message is shown at the beginning of composing this post, and now it is still freeze there.

Can anyone tell me what is wrong with my system? I really really need some guidance here.. Oh yeah, and another thing, even after the write zero format, the BIOS still cannot detect the 160GB harddrive..