I/O error when playing DV-avi files
 

I recently got a new 250GB Seagate harddrive.
I have copied my DV-avi files from my old harddrive to the new one.

The problem is:

When I try to play those avi files from the new harddrive, with win media player 10, or any other program, I get a I/O error message.

When I check the system information... all I/O are OK, and there seems not to be any conflicts at all.

To play mpeg or wma files is no problem.

The original avi files on my old drive are all fine.

My system:
Windows XP Pro (SP1)
120GB Western Digital (partitioned in C+D drive, D is for video and documents so far)
250GB Seagate for video only
Abit BG7 motherboard
1GB ram
Intel P4 2.4GHz CPU

NLE: Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5


Anyone experienced this before?

Can you copy these files to another harddisk? If so, can you play them from that location?

The original files are okay. (on my old hard drive)
The copied files on my new drive can not be played at all.

But when I copy the avi files from the new hard drive back to the old hard drive, they play fine.

So, I'm thinking this must be a problem with the new Seagate hard drive, and not the avi files.

Have you run ScanDisk on the new drive? You can also try Seagate's diagnostic tool: http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools.

Thanks for the tip Christopher.. will try that.

-----
UPDATE:
Tried both scandisk and the Seagate tools. Still doesn't work.

This doesn't sound good, I'm thinking the following:

- bad cable

- another device on the same cable that is messing some things up (I've had this happen!)

- the drive is running in the wrong mode (formatted in UDMA running in PIO or the other way around)

- the drive is bad

Rob:

I have both the harddrives on the same IDE cable. On the other cable, I have my 2 optical drives. I'll try to switch cables and see what happens.

Do you know how I can check the UDMA/PIO? I'm looking in the Device manager, but I can't see anything about the UDMA or PIO?

The Device Manager reports that the drive is "working properly".

I would disconnect the optical drives and move the non boot harddisk to the
second cable, see what that does (as a test).

In regards to (U)DMA & PIO, first check the BIOS information screen (it usually
is the second screen that lists the basic info in a table with IRQ assignements
below that) to see what this says.

In Windows you can check the mode your disks are running under by going to:

1. Open your Control Panel

2. Go to system

3. Go to the hardware tab and click on device manager

4. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section

5. Double-click Primary IDE channel and go to the advanced settings tab

6. The currently used mode (for both devices if you have two attached to this cable/port) is under current transfer mode.

7. Repeat 5 & 6 for the Secondary IDE channel

Moved the problem harddrive to the secondary IDE cable, and disconnected the optical drives.
Didn't work. No change at all.

BIOS settings for the UDMA and PIO:
Onboard IDE-1 and IDE-2:
Master and Slave PIO and Ultra DMA are all set to AUTO.

Device Manager:
I do not see any "advanced settings" tab for the IDE/ATAPI.
I see "General", "Driver" and "Resources".
Under the "Resources" it says No Conflicts.
This is for both the primary and secondary IDE channel.

I'm wondering can this be a windows XP or a software problem?
Some kind of conflict? Because as I said in my original post, the only trouble is with the DV-AVI files.

Should I try to reinstall XP?
(Have lots of software, so I would avoid this if possible)

If you don't have that tab it sounds like something is wrong with your Windows
installation or you did not install your motherboard/chipset driver!

Make sure the latter is installed. You should definitely see that advanced
settings tab. If you look through the properties tabs under Disk Drives ->
[your harddisk] do you see anything for (U)DMA there?

The chipset driver is installed.

Under the "Drives" in Device manager... I have the following tabs:
General, Policies, Volumes, Driver.
Nothing at all about UDMA.

So I guess this means that it is the windows itself creating this problem.

Thank you for your help.


EDIT:
I just reinstalled the chipset driver. No change.

What model is the drive?Are both the original and new one formatted as NTFS?Did you have any problem when originally installing the drive?

Are you sure you're checking "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section" and not the drives section in hardware manager? It sounds like you are checking the drives section.

Glenn:
Yes, I checked the IDE ATA/ATAPI section. (and also the drive section to be sure)

Both drives are NTFS

Jack:
The drive is Seagate ST3250823A (250GB 7200rpm)

I have totally forgot to tell you, (sorry) but I had problems formatting the drive originally... got to 100% and then I got an error message saying "could not complete the formatting". I had to take the drive back to the shop to have them format it for me.
I'm gonna contact them tomorrow.

But if it was the formatting that caused this, wouldn't I have problems with all kind of file types then?
Now, I have only problem with DV-avi files.
The file size does not mather! I have tried with both 1MB files and 6GB files...

The reason I asked about problems on installation is I have seen this create weird things.I suggest you get everything of the drive and start fresh.Put it on the secondary IDE as master using an 80pin not a 40 pin cable, with the opticals out of the system.Then follow the manufactures install guide and try again ,clear the partion and start a new one and reformat again as manufacture install.

Thank you.

I will try that, and report back.

Update:
 

After doing a lot of testing of the harddrive and the rest of my system in cooperation with Seagate factory, the problem is either one of two things:

1. Windows XP
2. The harddrive.

As of now, we think the most likely problem is the windows XP on my computer.
The harddrive is now back in the computer shop where I bought it for further testing, and will be sent back to the factory if it turns out to be bad.

I will update this info when the problem is solved, in case others get the same problem later.

Trond,

I just came across this thread. Whatever the problem source is, it likely has to do with data throughput rate. Why, because DV-AVI files are uncompressed whereas MPG and WMV files are compressed. Maybe the cache buffer on the Seagate is bad. I have the same issue but only when trying to playback AVI over my wireless in home network. MPG and WMV files are ok because the¥ don't require as much bandwidth.

That also explains why copying the AVI files back to your original drive allowed them to pla¥ ok. That drive and its interface are maintaining the higher throughput rate required. Just as if I first copy an AVI to the computer I am using on my network it will playback. But not if I leave the file on the other computer and try tp play it.

When you get the drive back, do a data transfer rate test on it as well as your original drive. This should reveal a problem somewhere. I think Jack Smith has a good idea about using an 80 pin vs 40 pin cable. I recall that when I put a WD 250gb drive in my pc, it required and 80 pin cable.

Good luck,

-gb-

Greg:

Thank you for your comments.

Will do the data test.

Yes I know about the 80/40 pin cables... I have only 80 pin.

Final update - problem solved
 

The problem was the chipset driver of the motherboard. (Abit BG7)
(the Intel application accelerator)

After updating this, everything is now fine.

Greg: that is incorrect. DV is **NOT** uncompressed! DV uses a lossy 5:1
compression algorithm based on DCT (like JPEG).

Even if it where uncompressed this would not matter. You should never get
I/O errors unless something is seriously wrong. In the case of uncompressed
the drive can either cope or not. In case of the latter it will drop frames or
everything will just slow down, no I/O errors.

Of course you are correct that WMV/MPEG files (usually) are more compressed
and thus require less bandwidth. I can't play DV AVI over my wireless
network either, but I can play (and capture) on my 100 mbit UTP wired
network just fine.


Trond: glad you got it solved. It indeed sounded much like the drivers where
to blame. I assume you do see the DMA settings now?

Rob:

Everything works fine now. And that's good.

About the DMA thing:
No, I still do not see anything about DMA in the Device Manager.
I also asked the technician in the computer shop about this... and he could not give me an answer why I don't see anything.

Thanks for all your help. Appreciate!

@Trond

How did you find out it was the chipset and how did you update the drivers?

I encounter the same problem on my new WD 200GB drive with random frames turned gray and/or showing multicolored big blocks (while playback of captured avis on my old drive is working well).

I'm using:
- Sony dcr-hc19e
- Win2k
- SGT 100gig drive with 2 partitions, 1 bootable
- WD 200gig drive (new) with 2 partitions, 100gig each (formated and defragmented)
- Firewire capture
- WinDV or Vegas5 to capture
- Any media player to playback

drives are IDE (bootable master, new 200gb slave) on cable 1 (80pin)
additional 2 opticals on IDE cable 2 (80pin)

- checked DMA: both ok
- removed opticals: no results
- switched drives on IDE cable: no results

I really hope it is some kind of chipset thing as I run out of ideas to test. Unfortunately i'm a newb to this kinda updates, so help would be really appreciated!

Jan:

I had a local computer store (where I bought the harddrive) fix it for me. They found out that it was the chipset driver that needed an update. And they also updated it for me.

Wow Trond you're quick! amazing! ;)

Hm, I bought the drive and my whole system at a large retail store ('MediaMarkt') without that high level of support. Anyone know how to do a chipset update? I only found the driver update option for the CPU in the device manager.

just thought of one thing:

I don't know the Sony computers, but have you tried to search the web site for your motherboard manufacturer? Maybe you find something there.
(I did not find anything for mine, but it's worth a try)

Rob,

I think you mis-understood what I meant by uncompressed. Of course I am aware of the 5:1 compression of dv files, but that compression occurs while being written to tape. What I was saying is that AVI doesn't add much in the way of its own compression, as opposed to the WMV or MPG formats. That's why you and I aren't able to play dv-avi over the wireless connection. It just requires too much bandwidth. Also, I am pretty certain that I got I/O error messages in one of the apps I was using on my mac to pull avi files over the wireless network. I agree that it should result in poor playback and not give error messages, but that's what I got.

Anyway, Trond has solved his problem so we all learned something here about motherboard chipsets causing issues.

regards,

=gb=

Sorry Greg, sometimes reading / writing on a forum is hard :)

Anyways, let's call it more or less compressed then. Does that sound good?

Sounds good Rob. As I use to do uncompressed captures which are close to 30Mb/sec versus DV codec under 4Mb/sec We should still refer to DV as compressed.eg.cameras capturing to dvd are still compressed but certainly different than DV.Minor point in this thread as Trond's problem appears corrected.