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PS2 w/ DMS4 and Toxic v0.3 - Suddenly stopped recognizing HDD - PLEASE HELP!
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JohnP1234
Newbie
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4. November 2005 @ 15:32 |
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Hi all,
I'm hoping someone can help me with this problem, as I'm absolutely desperate right now.
I have a PS2 (version 7) on which I've installed DMS4 Pro (E.Z.I.), and on which I've been running Toxic v0.3. I have a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200gb ATA/133 HDD which is connected to my PS2 via the Sony Network Adapter (ethernet & modem connection). It was originally formatted to the Toxic APAEXT format.
I have been uploading games onto my PS2 for the past several months without any problems. Loading and playing games has worked perfectly since I installed the mod chip back in June 2005. To date, I have/had about 22 PS2 games on my hard drive, all of which worked perfectly.
Today, I've encountered a major problem, and my HDD seems to no longer be working, or else my PS2 can no longer "see" my HDD.
I had just purchased several used PS2 games off eBay. I uploaded (i.e. saved to HDD) "Metal Gear Solid 2" and "Enter the Matrix" without any trouble. I tested and played both of those games very briefly to be sure they worked. They did.
I then attempted to save to HDD "Half-Life." I instantly received the message from the Toxic install screen: "A fatal error occured when reading the game disc." And then the installation stopped and I was sent back to the hard drive menu. I thought, "hmm.. that's never happened before." I took out Half-Life from the tray and I noticed that it had a blue surface underneath, which I don't think any of my games before have had. I cleaned the disc, put it back in the PS2, and tried to saved it again - it didn't work and I received the same message.
At this point, I was wondering if maybe this version of "Half-Life" was defective. I exited to the Toxic main menu and selected 'Load Disk.' Half-life played without any problems.
NOW, this may have all been incidental, as HERE is where I encountered problems: I restarted the PS2 and the Toxic main menu screen took a long time to come up. I then heard FROM MY PS2 (and NOT from the television or any speakers) a chime, or series of beeps. This chime, or series of tones, repeated itself three times, with roughly 10-15 seconds between chimes. The Toxic main menu would load, but "HDD Games" is no longer a selectable option! It's as if the system/chip/Toxic/whatever is no longer recognizing the hard drive. Can someone PLEASE help me with this?
One last thing: I've never heard a beep before from my PS2. Does anyone know where it's coming from? I ONLY hear it when I boot the PS2 AND my HDD is physically installed.
What happened? How do I fix it? Is it a fuse? A bad drive? Something else entirely? I am extremely grateful for any help I receive with this.
- John P.
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JohnP1234
Newbie
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6. November 2005 @ 10:08 |
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Any experts with some insight? I'm really S.O.L. right now.
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appleb
Newbie
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7. November 2005 @ 07:45 |
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I don't know why the system isn't working, but I have a similar setup (PS2 v7, DMS4 solderless, ToxicOs 0.3, 300gb maxtor HDD, Sony network adapter). I get the "Fatal Error reading disc" whenever I try to install some games from CD-R, but they run fine straight from the disc. Put the half life disc in your computer and check if it's a CD or DVD. If it's a CD then I think that's why you can't install it.
As for your other problems, I dunno. Hasn't happened to me yet.
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JohnP1234
Newbie
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7. November 2005 @ 10:12 |
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Well, a guy on another forum told me that it might be a bad sector, and the chime I'm hearing is the system trying to read a bad sector of the drive. Supposedly, winhiip can repair this unless the whole partition is corrupt. So, I've downloaded winhiip, and as soon as I get a cable to hook my maxtor HDD up to my laptop, I'll let you know what happens.
I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm screwed.
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toneyjay
Newbie
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10. November 2005 @ 00:25 |
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Did you try removing the hdd and reseating it in the network adaptor. I have the same setup (v7, EZI pro, 200 gig maxtor.) And I have to reseat my hdd about once a month. Of course my PS2 gets moved about frequently. Something to check.
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JohnP1234
Newbie
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11. November 2005 @ 12:19 |
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I tried reseating the HDD immediately after these problems first arose. No luck. (Also, I never move my PS2 around, either).
The cable I'm waiting on should be here any day now. I'll use Winhip and let you all know what happens.
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JohnP1234
Newbie
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1. December 2005 @ 18:28 |
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Hi all,
Sorry no update from me in a month. First, I waited forever for the USB to IDE cable to arrive (I bought it on eBay). THEN, when it finally did arrive, the included AC adapter (for the internal IDE HDD) was DOA. So THEN I had to have the eBay seller send me a new AC adapter that worked. That arrived while I was out of town for Thanksgiving, along with another USB to IDE cable. (So, I have an extra one of those now, if anyone wants one)... Anyway, FINALLY, I've had a chance to hook up my PS2 (Maxtor) HDD to my laptop and run WinHIP. Here's the problem: I plug in the HDD and it chimes three times (as mentioned previously in this post), and then nothing. My laptop (running Windows XP) recognizes that a USB device is connected, but it gives me an error message ("an error occured while installing this device"). So, the PS2 IDE HDD isn't recognized by Windows as a hard disk. Thus, WinHIIP won't recognize this drive (the PS2 drive isn't listed under the 'select drive' pull-down) - so I can't work on it.
Any suggestions or workarounds?
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natem8301
Newbie
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9. December 2005 @ 09:20 |
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Is this sound like sound kinda like a PC speaker beep?? Because if it does then I'm sorry to say by you have a mechanical problem with your HD. Since the HD is spinning so fast if an arm hits or rubs against a platform it sounds kinda like a beep. I had this problem with a HD from my parents home PC and they are garbage. Sorry :( I also wanted to ask you what settings you used to format your HD??? I have a V7 with DMS4 EZI Pro and a 200 gig maxtor as well and can't get Toxic 0.3 to recognize the HD yet. Could you maybe assist me in getting mine to work?? Thanks, Nate
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Senior Member
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10. December 2005 @ 11:09 |
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if your setup correctly with your connections to the HDD from the laptop then you can run FDISK on the PS2 HDD, then format it too. WinHIIP should then recognize it and give you "The selected drive does not have a valid PS2 master boot record" and then format should be selectable in WinHIIP for you to format it and you can use the Toxic OS if you'd like at that time.
hth
kc
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. December 2005 @ 11:11
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JohnP1234
Newbie
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10. December 2005 @ 15:51 |
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NATEM, I'd like to help but I'm not sure what settings you're referring to? Back when it was working, I had no problem using this 200 gig Maxtor drive with DMS4 EZI and Toxic 0.3. As long as Toxic is properly installed to your DMS chip, all you need to do is plug the hard drive into the network adapter, load it into the expansion bay, and you're ready to go. Toxic will "find" the drive automatically, and you'll just need to format it using the APAEXT format (the "extended" format option). Then you're good to go. Make sure that your drive jumper settings are set to "Master" (they usually are by default, anyway). Also, once your drive is working, make sure that you DON'T load any other programs like HD Loader onto your drive. HD Loader is a great program, but if you're using Toxic and you're able to do everything you want to do, HD Loader is sort of extraneous and can cause possible hard disk corruption when used on a Toxic-formatted drive.
ALSO, the chime I'm referring to is always identical, always occurs at even intervals, and always occurs when I try "start" the drive (either on my PS2, or when it's connected to my laptop via USB). It sounds like it's coming from a tiny speaker within the casing of the drive itself, and I'm 99% certain it's not due to rubbing of a mechanical part against some other moving part. That being said, I can't rule out a mechanical problem with the drive. In fact, I'm trying to rule out or rule in a mechanical problem before I go forward with this - Anyone have any suggestions?
KC363330, what you've said sounds like good advice, but the problem is that my laptop (running Windows XP pro) won't even recognize the drive once it's plugged in. Here's what happens:
1.) I plug in the drive with an IDE to USB cable.
2.) Windows XP recognizes that new USB hardware has been connected and attempts to install the device.
3.) The drive, it seems, receives some sort of start-up signal from the laptop, because if I listen closely is sounds like something is going on in the drive, but then (almost immediately) I hear the three chimes from the drive itself, 10 seconds (or so) apart.
4.) I get an error message from Windows. Usually something like "an error occured while installing this device." If I go to the XP device manager, the status of the device says something like "error: the device will not start." Windows has failed to install/recognize the drive, so I can't do ANYTHING with it (**As far as I know - Maybe someone out there knows differently?**), much less run WinHIIP on it.
So, I'm hoping some clever person knows what to do about this? If it is a mechanical failure, anyone know of a way to somehow get the data off the drive? If it isn't a mechanical failure, what's going on? How do I fix it? Really frustrated with this one...
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Senior Member
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10. December 2005 @ 17:24 |
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sounds like the drive is dead or has some major damage to the platters (head crash) but without being there first hand it's hard to just guess. you can also use a start-up disk and boot from DOS and try the FDISK there but not sure if it can since the USB drive without DOS drivers installed ???
kc
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. December 2005 @ 17:25
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JohnP1234
Newbie
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22. December 2005 @ 14:55 |
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Fixed it! Looks like this has finally come to a close. I found a thread on another site that describes this common problem with Maxtor DiamondMax drives: Apparently, they're prone to failures in which the heads stick to the platters. The way to fix it is to power up the drive and let it try to start, then hold the drive like you're holding the lid of a jar of pasta sauce and twist it back and forth while it's trying to start up. By doing this, you will generate an externally-applied rotational force that is sufficient to free the heads. It works perfectly now! I plan on backing up the data and finding a new HDD (probably Western Digital, but definitely NOT Maxtor) soon though.
FYI, the "chimes" I heard are diagnostic tones unique to the Maxtor DiamondMax series of drives.
Hope this thread helps someone who had a similar problem.
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natem8301
Newbie
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22. December 2005 @ 20:14 |
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Glad to hear you fixed it. I was refering to a different sound. More like a PC speaker beep rather than a chime :) You also helped me fix my problem. I didn't have the jumper set to master on my hdd, so thanks for your input!! :) Good Day, Nate
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