K8V SE Deluxe: HD-Controller Problem?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Hello everyone!

I bought a new Athlon64 system in May, and I am experiencing a whole
lot of problems with it, ranging from
windows-not-easy-to-install-on-160gB-drive to frequent spontaneous
reboots.

The System:

ASUS K8V SE Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Zalman Cooler
2x512mB DDR RAM 400MHz, good german brand
PNY Geforce 5700 LE 128mB
Drives:
160gB Maxtor 7.2k 8mB
160gB Samsung 5.4k 2mB
80gB WD 7.2k 2mB
Ricoh 4x DVD+ Burner
(all connected to the PATA controllers of the southbridge rather than
any of the fancy SATA/Raid controllers)
350W AC adapter

----

I don't want to bother you with a detailed description of
how-I-finally-got-windowsXP-running. Somhow I made it. The numerous
groups covering this range of problems were of great help for me.


The persistent problems are spontaneous reboots (once in 3 days on
average) and bad data security. I guess that both problems are related
to the same source: At least once in 100mB of data written to any (!)
of the three discs at least one bit appears to be falsificated. This
is perceivable as local color-failures in JPG images or corruption of
almost all CD-Images created with the system. The spontaneous reboots
may be linked to this problem via the swapfile.

Has anyone out there the same problem? Do you have a tip how to proove
that the controller is the bad guy, not the discs themselves?
Does anyone remember the VIA-Southbridge bug from a cvouple of years
before and how that story ended?

Thanks for your help!

Tillerman

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

"Tillerman" <tilman_franke@yahoo.de> wrote in message
news:dcd57ea0.0406260407.4d4ee377@posting.google.com...
<snip>
> The persistent problems are spontaneous reboots (once in 3 days on
> average) and bad data security. I guess that both problems are related
> to the same source: At least once in 100mB of data written to any (!)
> of the three discs at least one bit appears to be falsificated. This
> is perceivable as local color-failures in JPG images or corruption of
> almost all CD-Images created with the system. The spontaneous reboots
> may be linked to this problem via the swapfile.

Yes I remember the VIA southbridge problems only too well!
I made my K8V system to replace one based in the KT133A because I had JUST
HAD ENOUGH of the problems with it, mostly related to USB in my case, but
generally speaking that South Bridge was fairly evil.

I am using both ATA and SATA on this K8V system, with no data integrity
problems. Like you, it took a while to work out just how to install
everything correctly, but once it was done, it was OK.
I presume that you are using good quality 80-conductor cables for the disk
drives?
One thought - Are you absolutely CERTAIN that your memory is working
perfectly? This system tends to be fussy about memory, and if there is a
problem it can manifest itself in all sorts of ways. Do you know what
stepping of processor you are using ? The "CG" stepping (later) processors
are not nearly so fussy as earlier (C0?) ones.
I would suggest running memtest86 for a long time (if you have not already
done so) to be sure. Also, update to the latest BIOS as some of the BIOS
updates have corrected know memory timing issues.

- Steve

 

[Paul]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

In article <cbjt6c$kd1$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk>, "Steve Birch"
<steve@backstreet.***no spam thanks***demon.co.uk> wrote:

> "Tillerman" <tilman_franke@yahoo.de> wrote in message
> news:dcd57ea0.0406260407.4d4ee377@posting.google.com...
> <snip>
> > The persistent problems are spontaneous reboots (once in 3 days on
> > average) and bad data security. I guess that both problems are related
> > to the same source: At least once in 100mB of data written to any (!)
> > of the three discs at least one bit appears to be falsificated. This
> > is perceivable as local color-failures in JPG images or corruption of
> > almost all CD-Images created with the system. The spontaneous reboots
> > may be linked to this problem via the swapfile.
>
> Yes I remember the VIA southbridge problems only too well!
> I made my K8V system to replace one based in the KT133A because I had JUST
> HAD ENOUGH of the problems with it, mostly related to USB in my case, but
> generally speaking that South Bridge was fairly evil.
>
> I am using both ATA and SATA on this K8V system, with no data integrity
> problems. Like you, it took a while to work out just how to install
> everything correctly, but once it was done, it was OK.
> I presume that you are using good quality 80-conductor cables for the disk
> drives?
> One thought - Are you absolutely CERTAIN that your memory is working
> perfectly? This system tends to be fussy about memory, and if there is a
> problem it can manifest itself in all sorts of ways. Do you know what
> stepping of processor you are using ? The "CG" stepping (later) processors
> are not nearly so fussy as earlier (C0?) ones.
> I would suggest running memtest86 for a long time (if you have not already
> done so) to be sure. Also, update to the latest BIOS as some of the BIOS
> updates have corrected know memory timing issues.
>
> - Steve

I agree with Steve. Start by testing memory first, with memtest86
from memtest.org . Memtest86 will format a standalone boot floppy
(or you can make an ISO CD with the other version) and that can
be used to boot your system.

If memtest86 passes, double check by running Prime95 mersenne.org
in Torture Test mode, as memory or processor problems should be
eliminated as possibilities first.

If you can make it through those two tests, then maybe you
can blame a bad Southbridge, but my betting money is on
something more fundamental.

Paul

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

"Tillerman" <tilman_franke@yahoo.de> wrote in message
news:dcd57ea0.0406280106.218ed621@posting.google.com...
> nospam@needed.com (Paul) wrote in message
news:<nospam-2606041526010001@192.168.1.177>...
(snip)
>
> OK, that was the first thing I thought about, too. I had Memtest86
> running oer night without problems. I will try Prime95 now, because
> certainly you are right: It sounds like a fundamentl problem!
> I don't believe in a problem concerning the 80-conductor-cables,
> because (1) thy are new (from the mainboard package) and (2) the
> thirdt disc also showed data integrity problems, but runs on the
> second cable.
> But something else came to my mind: Could the 350W AC-adapter be
> related to the problem? I know from tests in the literature that
> irrespective of the claimed xxxW the 5V and/or 12V output stability
> may still be a problem under certain conditions. To my knowledge this
> is a problem that does NOT diminish if you by especially expensive
> adapters but it is a general design problem that my occur or not. You
> can't control for it.
(snip)

Interesting that you mention the Power Supply.
I first built up my K8V system with a lovely juicy 550W Enermax supply
rescued from a working old system.
I had no end of weird problems at first. The video display was very "wavy"
and the system operation unreliable.
It turned out to be that the power supply voltages very fluctuating,
possibly because there was not enough load on it, or certainly the load was
not balanced in the way the PSU preferred. (Note that newer boards like the
K8V tend to take more power from the +12V supply rail thank older types
because they use it to step-down and make CPU core voltage onboard. I think
that many newer power supplies are better adapted to this).
When I changed my enermax 550W for a newer (quality) 400W supply, my
problems vanished.
Difficult to say if you have got a "lemon". If you read newsgroups you will
always find people cursing any particular brand "X" and saying that "brand
Y" is better. Having got my K8V working properly, I'm very pleased with it
and reading the various reviews it does seem to rate amongst the better
Athlon 64 boards.

- Steve

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

> Interesting that you mention the Power Supply.
> I first built up my K8V system with a lovely juicy 550W Enermax supply
> rescued from a working old system.
> I had no end of weird problems at first. The video display was very "wavy"
> and the system operation unreliable.
> It turned out to be that the power supply voltages very fluctuating,
> possibly because there was not enough load on it, or certainly the load was
> not balanced in the way the PSU preferred. (Note that newer boards like the
> K8V tend to take more power from the +12V supply rail thank older types
> because they use it to step-down and make CPU core voltage onboard. I think
> that many newer power supplies are better adapted to this).
> When I changed my enermax 550W for a newer (quality) 400W supply, my
> problems vanished.
> Difficult to say if you have got a "lemon". If you read newsgroups you will
> always find people cursing any particular brand "X" and saying that "brand
> Y" is better. Having got my K8V working properly, I'm very pleased with it
> and reading the various reviews it does seem to rate amongst the better
> Athlon 64 boards.
>
> - Steve

Hum hum. I tried Prime95 and it found "hardware problems".
Interistingly not in the tests with low memory usage, but in the tests
where much harddrive activity and swapping occur - meaning that it
could be rather a HD-controller than a CPU/memory problem after all.
I wll return the complete system to the vendor on Monday. I am out of
ideas how to track down the bad guy in my system, and even if I would,
that would most likely not automatically solce the problem! I am
really sure that the problem is not caused by anything I did to the
computer, so the guys at shop will solve the problem for me free of
charge. I hope. Anyway, I need a functioning computer, so what can I
do!

Thanks for everybodies advices. I will post a note as soon as I am
online again, telling you what it was!