Re: ASUS A8N SLI Premium and Marvell Yukon problem

In article <11knlrmldcuo03d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Lynn McGuire"
<nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > I think I see Kevin's point now. I didn't catch on to the
> > fact that your problem is reboots, whereas I think the
> > Marvell driver problem tends to be a system freeze.
>
> My system rebooted itself over the weekend. I assumed it was a
> network issue since my network backup was not completed. The
> crash yesterday was a lockup. However, I did not reboot when
> I replaced the network driver. Maybe I should have rebooted
> instead of just restarted the service.
>
> > With the random reboots, do you get any entries in the
> > Event Viewer ? If the entries were all for the same
> > device driver, that might suggest a source of the
> > problem. If any failure addresses are random in nature,
> > it could be a processor or a memory problem. A lack of
> > messages implies a hardware source for the problem, but
> > will make it harder to find the source.
>
> Lack of messages is it !
>
> > The fact that your Intel card won't work is another clue.
> >
> > Could you give us a hardware inventory ? Do you have a
> > lot of PCI cards already in the system ?
>
> ATI PCI Express 3001 FireGL video board is the only card.
>
> > You could use Asus Probe, as a quick check of temps
> > and voltages. A little extra memory voltage wouldn't
> > hurt, like 2.7V instead of the normal 2.5V.
> >
> > Get a copy of CPUZ or Everest and see if any operating
> > frequencies or memory timings are out of sorts. If you are
> > using four sticks of memory, you'll need more relaxed memory
> > settings, and the BIOS may not use the most ideal settings
> > for that.
>
> Only two sticks of Ram.
>
> > In addition to Kevin's suggestion of memtest86+, there
> > is also Prime95 from mersenne.org . That will place a
> > 100% CPU load on the system while in Windows. You use
> > the "torture test" option and run mixed FFTs - the calculation
> > has a known result, and Prime can detect when the computer
> > "does not compute".
> >
> > If Prime95 runs clean for hours on end, the answer might
> > be quite simple. RMA the motherboard.
>
> I had this problem on an Asus A8V motherboard also. I replaced
> that motherboard with the A8N SLI due to this issue.
>
> > In your failure scenario, which is backup of network drives
> > to a USB drive on your computer, not only the network could
> > be a source of the problem, but the USB drive could also
> > be a contributor. You could try copying files from one
> > network drive to another network drive, to eliminate the
> > USB drive as the source of the problem. If the USB drive
> > is bus powered, it would be drawing power from the +5V
> > signal on the USB port. I think your motherboard runs
> > all the USB ports from +5VSB, and does not offer an option
> > to run USB from the regular (more powerful) +5V output. It
> > could be when the USB drive does a seek, that the extra
> > current is enough to overload +5VSB.
>
> The 250 GB USB drive is externally powered.
>
> The network problem only occurs after hours of copying files across
> the network. Very hard to duplicate.
>
> Thanks,
> Lynn

Smartpower II 450W (+12V2 for processor, +12V1 for motherboard)
+5V@30A +3.3@32A +12V1@15A +12V2@17A -12V@xxxx +5VSB@2A

Minimum current draw on both +12V outputs is 1 amp. According to
a picture of the supply on Newegg. The Antec web page says this
minimum current is 0.4A. I don't really see the power supply being
a limiting issue. X2 4800+ is 110 watts, 110/12*(1/0.90) = 10.2A

FireGL 3100 is an x300, so I don't think it draws excess power.
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040816/opengl-pcie-02.html

I did a Google search to review your history. I think this is
roughly the hell you've been though.

1) Bought A8V Deluxe plus X2 4800+ dual core.
2) Had to buy a 3200+ to flash BIOS to 1013 to make X2 work.
3) Had network problems with the Marvell LAN. Tried an
Intel Gigabit card (82540EM based?). Computer would not POST ?
4) Switched to A8N-SLI Premium.
5) Tried many Marvell drivers. Still random reboots.
6) Tried Intel card again ?

Actually, I have some additional suggestions for the Prime95 test.
Since you are running dual core, you should run two copies of Prime95.
Apparently, there is a setting you can apply to each instance of
Prime95, called the "affinity". I'm not sure where you'll find
this, but it could be Task Manager. You want to assign one copy
of Prime95 to "processor 0" and the other copy to "processor 1".

Affinity references:
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78025
Bottom post here:
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?p=3574336&postcount=17

I was reading some interesting stuff about overclocking dual core
processors the other day. A number of people had commented, that
the two cores on the X2 do not overclock equally. In one case,
the second core was barely able to meets its spec speed. A couple
of bright lads, used a razor blade to remove the heat spreader
on their expensive processors. That allowed their heatsink to be
applied right to the silicon die. To their surprise, both cores
had equal overclocks, after that modification.

The hypothesis there, is that there is some defect in the thermal
material between the silicon die and the metal heat spreader on
the processor package. These overclockers suspect there could be
a hot spot on one of the cores, caused by bad contact, or a
void in the thermal material.

I am not suggesting to anyone to get out a razor blade and try this
mod. It is much better to RMA a bad processor, then burn your
warranty with a mod like this. This is just to illustrate how a
badly cooled core can result in cranky processor operation, and
the need for a processor RMA.

So, that is why I am suggesting running two copies of Prime95
and using the affinity feature to make sure one copy of Prime95
runs per core. You may find, by doing this test, that the processor
immediately reboots, in which case you can suspect a dud
processor. You could also blame it on the motherboard, but this
is, after all, your second motherboard.

As a crosscheck, remove the X2 and put the 3200+ back in the
computer for a while. See if a network backup will run without
problems that way, and one copy of Prime95 running on the 3200+
is OK. While it won't really prove anything, other than that
the motherboard I/O devices are in fact OK, it will help point
the finger at that X2 of yours.

I still cannot figure out why the PCI Ethernet card doesn't work.
What were the symptoms when it was used on the A8V and the A8N ?

Paul
.

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