Re: Help - New A8N-SLI Deluxe freezes/lockups
- From: nospam@xxxxxxxxxx (Paul)
- Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 07:13:42 GMT
In article <mhihg11marr0injamu3d6g6vvvco4v2puj@xxxxxxx>, Charlie
<charlie@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I WAS building a new system - an AMD 64 939 3500+, an ASUS A8N-SLI
> Deluxe MB, and a Sapphire 300SE PCI-e video card. Obviously, I was not
> planning to do SLI until I can afford it ;) I love the features, but
> this Asus board has me pulling my hair out.
>
> I already had two 74GB raptors from another system, plus four 250GB
> SATA drives, Lian Li 2000 Case, two sticks of Corsair XMS 2-2-2-5 512
> MB each. My power supply, also from another system, is an Enermax
> EG-465P-VE. It is a 20-pin power supply, I plugged it in without using
> an adaptor. Also added a floppy, a Toshiba dvd-rom, and a NEC dvd
> burner.
>
> The ram went into the blue slots on the board. The optical drives were
> set as master/slave on the secondary PATA connector. The raptors were
> set as RAID 0 on the nvidia bus, the four 250's were eventually hooked
> up to the SiL 3114, and I created a raid0 array there too.
>
> XP32 SP2 went on the Raptors, then nvidia 6.66 drivers, then all
> windows updates. I did not overclock anything. Ran memtest 3.2 for 12
> hours, no errors. I have the stock retail boxed CPU cooler for the
> 3500+, the CPU ran at 37C, with no side panels on the case.
>
> All was fine until the system started freezing when doing tasks like
> getting articles with Newsleecher, or running Quick Par on dvd images.
> Finally, the system froze when just downloading binaries, running
> windows explorer and IE.
>
> I always disable system restore and a few other unneeded services on
> all XP installations. I did not install any AV. I checked the system
> with Spybot, then installed Symantec AV 10 to check it - no virii or
> trojans.
>
> I unplugged the 250's, thinking maybe the Enermax might not be strong
> enough - although it ran ten hard drives before for me in an NF3 DFI
> Lanparty board. But that was not it. Even with only the two Raptors, I
> was still getting freezes/lockups
>
> I cleared the raptors, installed XP again, this time skipping all the
> Asus utilities that come on the driver cd, thinking that may be a
> problem. I also updated the bios from 1011 to 1013. This motherboard
> came with the new chipset fan that runs at 5000-5200 rpm.
>
> Anyway, same problem, it still locks up. I need this computer to run
> reliably 24/7, downloading and posting binaries, burning dvd images,
> creating parity archives, etc - but it can't run normally for more
> than a couple hours without locking up. I am beginning to think I
> should have stayed with DFI. I put my DFI Lanparty NF3 3200+, Radeon
> 9200, back together, using the same setup - except the four 250 GB
> drives are hooked to a SiL 3114 PCI card in Raid 0. I have never had a
> problem with that board, but felt it was a good time to upgrade to a
> socket 939, so I could get an X2 processor and play with an SLI setup
> when they come down in price more.
>
> Questions: Are the power specs on the Enermax sufficient for my Asus
> non-SLI setup? It is supposed to be a 431-watt supply.
>
> On the sticker, they read:
>
> +3.3V = 38a
> +5 V= 44a
> +12V = 20a
> -5V = 2a
> -12V = 1a
> +5VSb = 2.2a
>
> Does the NF4/S939/3500+ use any more power than my old NF3/S754/3200+
> board??
>
> I read that getting a 24-pin adaptor was a waste of money, is that
> accurate? Does that Asus board have a problem with Corsair XMS memory?
> I tried several power settings on the memory - 2.6, 2.7, but it made
> no difference in the stability of the system.
>
> If not RAM or Power supply, then what? Any ideas? Should I shell out
> $150+ for a new 24-pin Enermax SLI-rated power supply? Or should I
> just order a DFI board? I can't get my money back on the ASUS, all I
> could do is RMA it for another one that is supposedly remanufactured.
> Thanks.
>
> Charlie
The debugging process:
1) Collect as much data about the system as possible. Asus Probe for
voltage measurements. CPUZ from www.cpuid.com , to verify that
the BIOS has set up the hardware properly. Everest Home Edition
(lavalys.com) to list hardware or bus devices.
2) Find as many free programs as you can, to test the system. You've
already used memtest86+ from memtest.org . You can also use
Prime95 "torture test" option (from mersenne.org). Using some
version of 3DMark (I use 3DMark2001SE free download), can push
some info through the video card. Observe the symptoms when those
tests run. If the system won't freeze or crash with just those
tests running, it increases the odds that this is a software
or driver problem of some sort.
3) Having tried those steps (looking for a simple fix), the next
step is to simplify the system to minimum hardware. A CDrom
drive, a single hard drive, a floppy (as it doesn't draw power
wnen not used), one stick of RAM in B1, CPU, motheboard, PSU,
and so on. Preferably an IDE hard drive, so you are not dealing
with any SATA I/SATA II issues. Install the OS and try again.
Add stuff back to the system, one piece at a time, and see when
the problems come back.
Another kind of test, is to build up the system while the
motherboard rests on some cardboard. On my last two systems,
I build them up outside the case first, verified all the
hardware worked, then installed all the components in the
case. That can make testing a bit easier, but you have to
be careful not to jiggle any plugin cards (like the video
card) while testing that way.
4) Final step is the act of desperation. Substitution of pieces
of hardware, one at a time. The idea in the three previous
steps, is to have a reason to suspect a particular piece of
hardware. You don't really want to use step (4), because
randomly swapping pieces of hardware is an expensive way to
do it. And, it means you've failed as a debugger :-(
For software/OS/driver issues, you'll need to visit the private
forums. Or, use a search engine, and try and find the appropriate
forums that way. Here is an example, found using "a8n-sli freeze"
on Altavista.
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=380940
"I wanted to follow up on this. It seems for the first time
in weeks I've gotten my system stable enough to survive a night
without freezing. The 2 main things I have changed is not using
the Nvidia Ethernet, and disableing TCQ on my NvRaid'ed Maxtor
300 gig drives."
Do you have anyway to verify the chipset temperature ? With that
nasty fan on there, I bet the Nvidia chip would get pretty hot
if the cooling wasn't working right.
Paul
.
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