Wireless and HD Corruption

Has anybody experienced any hard drive issues after installing a WiFi
card in a tower machine?

I installed a Belkin 11G card in an Antec Tower case. I'm also
running a Maxtor IDE controller expansion card to control four extra
hard drives in this machine. The drives are all connected using the
round IDE cables.

After installing the WiFi card, I started experiencing disk lockups
with the drive heads banging themselves to the calibrate position.
Eventually, I lost data on two drives. The machine would lockup after
a few minutes of operation and the drive indicators on the case would
come on and stay on.

I thought at first I had a drive problem, so I started disconnecting
drives to isolate which one was going bad, but all four drives
indicated the same problem.

The solution was to place the WiFi card in the bottom slot on the MB,
with the IDE controller card in the top slot and then tie the drive
cables as far as possible from the WiFi card.

Greg

Greg Surratt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> The solution was to place the WiFi card in the bottom slot on the MB,
> with the IDE controller card in the top slot and then tie the drive
> cables as far as possible from the WiFi card.


IRQ conflict?

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"Lucas Tam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns950A9467F8944nntprogerscom@140.99.99.130.. .
> Greg Surratt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> news:(E-Mail Removed):
>
> > The solution was to place the WiFi card in the bottom slot on the MB,
> > with the IDE controller card in the top slot and then tie the drive
> > cables as far as possible from the WiFi card.
>
>
> IRQ conflict?

I was thinking that. Seems much more likely than interference.

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 18:34:35 GMT, Lucas Tam <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Greg Surratt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>news:(E-Mail Removed) :
>
>> The solution was to place the WiFi card in the bottom slot on the MB,
>> with the IDE controller card in the top slot and then tie the drive
>> cables as far as possible from the WiFi card.
>
>
>IRQ conflict?

Checked it first - no conflicts with IRQ or memory space.

???
Greg

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 19:46:17 GMT, "DiskKoppy"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>"Lucas Tam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:Xns950A9467F8944nntprogerscom@140.99.99.130. ..
>> Greg Surratt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>> news:(E-Mail Removed):
>>
>> > The solution was to place the WiFi card in the bottom slot on the MB,
>> > with the IDE controller card in the top slot and then tie the drive
>> > cables as far as possible from the WiFi card.
>>
>>
>> IRQ conflict?
>
>I was thinking that. Seems much more likely than interference.
>
Nope! From the WinXP Device Manager:

WinXP Promise Ultra133 TX2 (tm) IDE Controller
Memory Range: FF9FC000 - FF9FFFFF
IRQ 21

and

Belkin Wireless 54 Mbps Desktop Adapter Properties
Memory Range FF9FA000 - FF9FBFFF
IRQ 18

Greg Surratt wrote:
> Has anybody experienced any hard drive issues after installing a WiFi
> card in a tower machine?

Hi Greg,

I had it happen with an IBM Thinkpad laptop. I too thought
the drive was going bad. It had a compressed drive, which I
thought may have been part of the problem. I put the IBM's
Xterasys wireless card in my Dell notebook and reformatted
the IBM's HD and both seem to be OK. The only difference is
that the Dell is at the opposite end of the house, about 60'
from the Belkin router and Motorola cable modem. The IBM
was sitting next to the router and 1' from the cable modem
when it went toes up. It may have something to do with
proximity. For now, I'm keeping my distance.

Cheers, Terry (Lake Of The Ozarks, MO)

I can imagine bit-destructive interference if the card is radiating at a
frequency also used to pulse some internal bus. Diagnosis would be a
bear, unless the mobo manufacturer's tech support had a ready answer.

Moving the card a few inches (to a slot as far from anything else) might
work, as another poster in the thread suggested. RF gear can radiate
unexpectedly, in unexpected ways at unexpected freqs, if the slightest
flaw in production. A sonic boom during wave soldering, f'rinstance.

Why am I reminded of the Detroit car some years ago that came off the
assembly line with everything under the hood placed within tolerances -
but because everything was at the left edge of tolerances, the engine
had to be pulled to change the spark plugs? That one made the papers.

Greg Surratt wrote:

> Has anybody experienced any hard drive issues after installing a WiFi
> card in a tower machine?
>
> I installed a Belkin 11G card in an Antec Tower case. I'm also
> running a Maxtor IDE controller expansion card to control four extra
> hard drives in this machine. The drives are all connected using the
> round IDE cables.
>
> After installing the WiFi card, I started experiencing disk lockups
> with the drive heads banging themselves to the calibrate position.
> Eventually, I lost data on two drives. The machine would lockup after
> a few minutes of operation and the drive indicators on the case would
> come on and stay on.
>
> I thought at first I had a drive problem, so I started disconnecting
> drives to isolate which one was going bad, but all four drives
> indicated the same problem.
>
> The solution was to place the WiFi card in the bottom slot on the MB,
> with the IDE controller card in the top slot and then tie the drive
> cables as far as possible from the WiFi card.
>
> Greg



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On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 17:05:39 -0400, Dan Seur <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I can imagine bit-destructive interference if the card is radiating at a
>frequency also used to pulse some internal bus. Diagnosis would be a
>bear, unless the mobo manufacturer's tech support had a ready answer.
>
>Moving the card a few inches (to a slot as far from anything else) might
>work, as another poster in the thread suggested. RF gear can radiate
>unexpectedly, in unexpected ways at unexpected freqs, if the slightest
>flaw in production. A sonic boom during wave soldering, f'rinstance.

The card was already separated as far as possible. I tied the cables
as far from the card as I could and the machine has run flawlessly
(knock on wood) for 4 days now.

>Why am I reminded of the Detroit car some years ago that came off the
>assembly line with everything under the hood placed within tolerances -
>but because everything was at the left edge of tolerances, the engine
>had to be pulled to change the spark plugs? That one made the papers.

I remember that one. And didn't Chevy do something similar but not
quite as drastic with the Corvette several years back - you had to
pull a front tire and go in through the wheel well to get to a spark
plug?