Delayed write error is ghost in the machine

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 this page here.

It says it happens when "enable write caching" is switched on, or when UDMA controllers use 40 wirer connectors rather than 80 wire, 40 pins cables, or BIOSes are configured to shove along faster UDMA boards.

But, of course, if you turn off "enable write caching", performance of a drive can lessen, and Vole suggests monitoring the overall performance Delayed write error after you've turned it off. µ