Re: odd problem with new build


"Paul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Pen wrote:
On 7/7/2010 4:44 PM, Matthew wrote:
"ToolPackinMama" <philnblanc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On 7/7/2010 4:02 PM, Matthew wrote:

Is it possible that initializing RAID or possibly this Intel drive
management software is effecting performance of my drives? I'm
assuming that
the initial start up hang at "detecting AHCI" is also somehow related
to the
RAID configuration, but I see no option for disabling AHCI in the bios
(if
that's even possible). Or could there be something else I am missing?


Have you tried booting with BIOS setup defaults?
well... what would that do if I've installed Win7 with RAID? Or will it
matter since I'm not running RAID at the moment? That is pretty much the
only change I made in the BIOS.
Turning on the RAID turns on the AHCI which is required by
SATA drives. All the rest of your problems scream Memory
troubles with the system swapping out to the hard drive.


In addition, Matthew might try another SATA cable, as if the
SATA cable was bad, and causing a lot of CRC errors, that
might result in the drive being accessed over and over
again. Perhaps the Southbridge SATA interface is in a
reset loop, trying over and over again to establish
communications ?

The hard drive manufacturers sometimes have downloadable
diagnostics, and it would be interesting to see whether
the diagnostic can make sense of it or not. The Western Digital
product page for each drive, should point to the diagnostic
to use. For example, I can see "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic" here.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&lang=en

A memory test, should always be done on a new system, before
trusting it to do anything properly. Scroll half way down the
page here, for some downloads. Some Linux LiveCDs, include
a boot command prompt option, of doing memtest as well. So
it's even being distributed on some Linux CDs.

http://www.memtest.org

LGA1366 systems sometimes have problems with socket contact
to the processor. It can affect how many sticks of RAM are
detected (some people "find a channel missing"). Check the
BIOS to see if all the memory is indicated as being present.
The memory must be detected, before a memtest program can
test it.

Paul


It's odd that you mention memory because originally I had two kits of
Kingston Triple channel (2GBx3) PC3-10600 (MB approved) memory. The BIOS
would detect all 6 sticks but only report 8GB available memory, so I tried
each 2GBx3 kit individually and one kit showed up in the BIOS as 3
sticks/6GB available and the other one showed up as 3 sticks/2GM available
so I RMA'd it back to the store. I assumed that since the BIOS detected 3
sticks at 6GB that this memory was good to go, but I'll test it out tonight
with memtest. The odd thing is that I pulled this memory strait from MSI's
list of compatible memory for my board.


.

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