Neowin.net - Delayed write error is ghost in the machine

Delayed write error is ghost in the machine

Posted by malebolgia on 26 May 2003 - 11:22 · 7 comments & 310 views

A reader Says he's still being plagued by the "delayed write error" that Windows XP displays and which he describes as a "gremlin in the works" and a "ghost in the machine".

The error sporadically occurs when re-formatting drives and is not confined to any particular combination of hardware.

Whether it's chipset, an Intel or AMD motherboard, or an ATI/Nvidia card, the gremlin just keeps popping up, sometimes appearing after some time running a machine successfully.

Well, Microsoft does have something on this, as you can see from clicking on this page here.

News source: The Inquirer

HP may have picked a good time to announce the robot. Fear of flying after Sept. 11, 2001, has led to a rash of interest in videoconferencing. And the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak has put a further crimp on already sluggish business travel.

The promise of such technology is that a remote co-worker can hear the formal part of a meeting as well as participate in the chitchat within the room. Using a joystick, the distant participant can pick up on a sound in one part of a room and join in that conversation. However, those present at a meeting should be forewarned that the microphone on the robot is sensitive; hushed conversation in a corner might not be so private.

But for all its potential, the current model is still very much a work in progress. HP still has no commercial plans for the robot, which was built using a number of Windows-based PCs. Although the robot allows people to see the face of a co-worker in near-real time,there is about a one-second delay before the remotely connected colleague can be heard. And although an earlier version of the robot was designed to travel around the office via a joystick controlled by the person, HP has made the latest version static while it tries to work out some of the kinks.

HP is not unique in pursuing robots as a replacement for travel. For example, Los Angeles-based InTouch Health sees robots as a way to allow expert doctors and health care providers to be virtually at the bedside of patients that are hundreds or thousands of miles away.

But HP's lead researcher says that the company is far ahead of other such projects.

"So far the best things that have been done--they still kind of look spooky," said HP Labs researcher Norm Jouppi.

To be fair, HP's first attempt was rather off-putting in its own right--resembling a slightly bulkier version of No. 5 from the '80s movie "Short Circuit."

Mechanical engineer Stan Thomas said that when he joined the team, he noticed that people spent more time looking at the robot's shiny metal parts than at the video screen that's displaying their co-worker. Thomas helped redesign the device to have a more human-looking (and less jarring) form--the current blue, plastic model resembles a giant Lego.

People seem to like the fact that the new model doesn't have arms, Jouppi said. Although the arms on the first version allowed the robot to perform simple tasks such as pushing an elevator button, researchers say people were put off by the fact that the robot could touch things.

"They'd seen too many movies" with robots crushing things, Jouppi said.

HP wouldn't say how much such a robot could cost--though it is certain to be more than the price of a few plane tickets. The current setup for the distant co-worker uses five PCs, five cameras and a surround-sound system, creating a virtual environment. The in-office robot is made up of two PCs, a number of cameras, four directional microphones and several speakers. A high-speed 802.11a wireless network is needed at the meeting site to transmit the information back to the remote colleague.

Jouppi wishes that his pet project was already a reality.

"I'd like to have something like this," he says. "I have to go on a business trip next week for a two-hour meeting."

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#1 Posted by jardragon901 on 26 May 2003 - 12:02: Turning off write caching is thier fix? damn thats lame .

#2 Posted by Jingo on 26 May 2003 - 12:17: I fixed mine after having it for months on end

Got the usual 2 IDE channels with slave and master plus 2 raid with slave and master. On my master IDE 1 I had a ATA100 20gig Maxtor and an ATA100 80gig Maxtor with an Epox 133 lead which came with my system, on the secondary IDE I had another 20gig Maxtor and a 17gig Maxtor (I like Maxtor) running off a 80 pin lead. And I was getting delayed write errors every 5 or so minutes and it was making the drives inaccessible.

Changed the system so on my IDE channels I have my 3 cd/dvdroms and one unused channel and now have all my hard drives running of raid, On the first raid channel I have 2x same model same brand 20gig Maxtor’s with the ATA133 lead and on the second channel I have the 80gig Maxtor and the 17gig Maxtor with the 80 pin lead. Don’t know why but it has stopped totally now, been trying to get it to happen for the last week by doing what I was doing before but no sign.

I would invest in good quality leads and just keep trying different combinations.

It is Something Microsoft know about and can fix but they simply cannot be arsed I reckon

#3 Posted by pHuzi0n on 26 May 2003 - 13:20: You might not agree with this Jingo, but I've found that Maxtor drives really blow. My brother keeps buying them and they keep failing. I'm a die hard Western Digital user and I've never had a single problem with my drives. We both use 80 wire cables too. The page makes no mention of it being a drive brand independent problem (they just talk about it not being chipset or video card dependent). They should check all the major brands of hdd's to be sure. Either that or The Inquirer should learn how to report better (in the case that they did test several hdd brands).

(1 reply) #4 Posted by Lurchybaby on 26 May 2003 - 19:01: Heh, my 2 Maxtor drives have worked flawlessly for a couple of years now. Ironically, I've had WD drives go south. This has been debated before several times on the message boards. I think the end result is that both drive manufacturers are equal; drives from both manufacturers fail (sometimes early, sometimes not). Basically, there are lemons floating around from both.

#5 Posted by ogre2112 on 27 May 2003 - 02:16: I'm a reseller, and I can tell you that ALL brands fail. Yea, some people have better luck with certain brands, but believe me--the reliability is half in your head, and half coinsedence (you got lucky). All hard disks suck =)

#6 Posted by popalazarou on 28 May 2003 - 07:00: Ive had this problem for ages and it really got me. In the end i found that changing over to fat32 solved my problem. I was getting "delayed write failed! every few seconds and my machine was unusable. Ihave a ibm 120g gxp and a maxtor 60g

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