Hard drive/Computer compatibility

[comp-illiterate]

Greetings everyone. I'm looking to buy a new primary hard drive for my comp, a Gateway DX4200-09. I wanted to know if this hard drive:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=1492933

is compatible with a computer with these specs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113088

Also, while I'm here, I'd like to let you know that after a year of owning this comp, the embedded sound card went out. I had to buy a pci sound card. Then after 2 years, the hard drive goes out. My comp was BSODing after being on for 4-5 hours. After I would power it down and restart it, the first thing I'd see was an American Megatrends logo along with some prompts at the bottom, F2 or F10. After pressing F2, it'd bring me to the BIOS menu where I'd have to select discard changes and continue to load windows. Immediately after windows would load I'd see warning about a faulty or damaged hard drive and that I should back up everything, then repair or replace the hard drive. Since this happened way after the measly one year warranty, I tried reformatting. As you know by me being here, that didn't work.

I'd like to not have to go through this again. If anyone could please let me know if this hard drive is good, or recommend a more reliable one (especially a more reliable one than the faulty hard drive currently in my comp) I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Why oh why do I have such terrible luck with computers? 

[Geek-9pm]

It is not Luck. It is happenstance.
Statistically, it is unlikely that the sound card and the Hard drive would both fail after two years of use. So we* would suspect that the motherboard has a defective component.

In a normal environment, any component failure on a motherboard indicates a defect in manufacturing. However, the manufacture will assume there was user abuse, so they limit the warranty period. Unless both failures are related to something you did, the motherboard is a lemon.

The hardware error messages of Windows are as accurate as they ought to be. Some additional testing is needed to confirm the hardware error. General practice is to try the suspect item, the hard drive in this case, in a computer that is know to be reliable.

FYI, hard drives should have a warranty of fie years for normal usage. Did you try  to contact either Gateway or the OEM of the drive? Have you verified that the hard drive really is defective?

What I am trying to say is that you may have a bad motherboard. A new drive will not fix the problem. But the drive you selected is a good choice. Nice to have a spare drive. You will pay more than that just to have a Technician look at it.

If the new drive solves the problem, please come back and tell me I was wrong. I will be glad to know.


* 'We' here means others have already made this observation before me. In your case 'we' suspect component is the south-bridge, or one of its dependent components. As for me, I am a retired silicon-Valley Super Senior Technician and  most of what I learned was from other people.

[comp-illiterate]

Now that I have internet service again. How do I go about testing whether or not it is the motherboard causing these problems?

[Geek-9pm]

Now that I have internet service again. How do I go about testing whether or not it is the motherboard causing these problems?

Good question. Here is the best answer we have.
Testing my computer motherboard and CPU for failures?
You need to check the hard drive. Use another PC to run diagnostics on it. If the drive checks out, suspect the motherboard is going down. It is important to know before you invest your money. (Unless your work for Microsoft. )
Personal option. A good hard drive is a good investment. But if the motherboard is going out, you need to replace it first. If the old hard drive is OK as a slave in another PC, the old motherboard is getting sick.

[comp-illiterate]

Here are the results of the test. It looks like things are okay, but what the *censored* do I know, I'm not even sure on how to uninstall/install a hard drive.

Hot CPU Tester Pro(Lite Edition) 4.4.1
Copyright © 1999-2003 7Byte Computers
Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 11:36:18
Diagnostic Report
---------------------------------------------
Test Started at:  05:35:18
Test Duration:  06:00:00
Physical Processors Available:  4
Logical Processors Available:  4
Multi-Processors System(SMP):  Available
Hyper-Threading Technology:  Not Available
CPU Name String:  AMD Phenom(tm) 9150e Quad-Core Processor
Speed:  1800MHz
Logical Processors Tested:  CPU 0, CPU 1, CPU 2, CPU 3
Average CPU(s) Performance:  100.0%

 Modules Results:
Complex Matrix:   Finished without error
Calculating Pi:   Finished without error
Sorting Algorithms:   Finished without error
Prime Test:   Finished without error
Fast Fourier Transforms: 
Chipset: 
L1 Cache: 
L2 Cache: 
Memory:   Finished without error
HD:   Finished without error
MMX:   Finished without error
SSE: 
SSE2/SSE3: 
3DNow!: 

[Computer_Commando]

The hard drive you have specified is compatible with your computer.  Test the current hard drive with the appropriate manufacturer's diagnostic tools:  http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

[Geek-9pm]

EDIT: ignore this post. Use the recommended utility above.
Looks like the motherboard is doing fine.
So let's prove it ,is the hard drive.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
This is a free utility that can run from a CD drive.
You will need to burn it to a CD. Or copy to a floppy.

[comp-illiterate]

Okay, I did the long test and got SEATOOLS test code 69E4A062. The hard drive didn't successfully complete the test. It would seem like the hard drive really is faulty. But, after the test, after I had removed the boot cd, when my comp was trying to restart, some kind of error screen appeared for Marvell Yukon ethernet gigabit controller. And this happened this morning when I left the computer on all night. It prompted me to insert boot disk into media drive and hit any key. The only way I could restart was to turn the power off. I checked the drivers and updated them from 2008 to 2010. I'm hoping this is because of either the hard drive or the out of date drivers, and not the motherboard after all.

I'm very much appreciating the help I'm getting here. That's why I come here first. Great feedback here.

[comp-illiterate]

So now I guess I need to test the Marvell Yukon 88E8071 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller to see if it's defective as well, right?

[Computer_Commando]

So now I guess I need to test the Marvell Yukon 88E8071 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller to see if it's defective as well, right?

Could be corrupted data (driver) on the bad hard drive.

[comp-illiterate]

Since updating those drivers I haven't had this problem. So I guess I can wrap this up with the conclusion that I need a new hard drive.

Thanks for your help everyone. I truly appreciate all of your help.