Trouble Shooting A8N32SLI Deluxe System

[Cromag]

I'm looking for suggestions on trouble shooting stability issues. I currently run the Win XP PRo 64, A8N32SLI, x2 4600 proc, EVGA 7800GTX KO, Creative X-Fi, Seasonic 600W SLI, 2 120gb Seagate 7200.9, and Corsair 3500LL 2gb kit. Here's the problems. I get lots of disk read errors during boot, but Seagate's SeaTools says the drives are working correctly. When this $3000 high-tech boat anchor does finally boot, chances are it will crash completely at random.
Overclocking is impossible, as anything over stock setting will result in Blue Screen and immediate shut down. I've tested the Ram, and drives. The voltages from the Seasonic fluctuate some, but not outside of acceptable. Heat dissipation is good. Connections are all good. Drivers and bios are all latest and greatest. I dunno. I suspect either the Power Supply or some sort of hardware compatability issue, maybe the EVGA card. Suggestions??

 

[Flakes]

try a new harddrive in there, sounds like its the HDD giving you trouble, im sure i read somewhere bout ASUS boards being fussy not just over memory but HDD too(dunno how that works but i definatly read it somewhere). so try a new HDD try a friends spare or something.

 

[warthogg]

i think you need a higher memory requiremnt around 4GB for the x64 on this motherboard. Look up the board on kingston site or your memory manuf. and look at their specs and recommendations. Kingston mentions something about a four rank limitation (whatever that means) and goes on to specific configurations allowable regarding speed and density. Look into the configuration to see if that is also what is causing your problems. I'd like to see how your system works out as i am looking into the pentium version of this board. Update us. Thanks.

 

[pat]

That's BS.. XP 64 run with 512 megs too..

 

[pat]

What if, in BIOS, you set memory voltage to 2.7 volts?

 

[Cromag]

I did. Still had the random crashing and boot issues. Thanks though.

 

[Cromag]

I have an RMA ready to ship out on Tuesday. I'll post again to share results once I get everything back.

 

[modder1]

This is what I've got: CM Stacker 810 Super Tower, XP Pro, A8N32-SLI Deluxe Gaming Edition, TT Silent Purepower 680 Watt PSU, 4GB Corsair TwinX 3500LLPRO, AMD64 4800 X2, Aquagate ALC-U01 Liquid Cooling, SB X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS, BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC x 2, Vantec VORTEX HD Cooling System, Seagate 250 GB Barracuda 7200.8 NCQ Serial-ATA, Plextor PX-716AL

When I fired her up there was a boot problem with the CPU fan and the chassis intrusion connection. So I disconnected the intrusion connection and put the spare ASUS fan on the CPU connector. I also cleared the RTC RAM, and now she works like a dream come true.

 

[Cromag]

Well, there were 2 issues. One was as I suspected, the power supply. SEASONIC may have done well in reviews and tests, but its fluctuating voltages caused all sorts of unexplainable issues in my system. I am now running the OCZ 600SLI model. Not only does it work correctly, but it has some serious WOW factor too.

The other issue involved jumpers (or lack thereof) on the hard drives. I bought OEM drives and they didn't come with jumpers and made no mention of jumper settings on the hard drive label. Seagate suggested that I add them as they are used to switch the drive from 150MB/s to 300MB/s.

My machine is now rock solid and blazing fast.

Thanks for the suggestions.