Constant reboot with >1 HDD

[norsoulnet]

I just built my new rig and moved in two of my old HDDs into the new computer case. Here are the specs:

----------------------------
Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego)
Asus A8N5X NForce4 Mobo
Asus Radeon X1900XT
Creative Labs X-Fi
1G Corsair XMS
150G Raptor 10,000RPM HDD
250G WD 7,200RPM HDD --->my old boot drive for the old computer
40G WD 7,200RPM HDD
Windows XP

For the initial WinXP install I disconnected my IDE HDDs and I got the computer up and running perfectly fine. I installed all the drivers for the Mobo from the CD, and turn the computer off.

I reconnect the IDE HDDs (200g is Master and 40g is Slave - set to Cable Select - on IDE Channel 1) and start the rig up. It gets to Windows Loading and flashes a Blue Screen of Death for about .2 seconds and reboots. The rebooting doesn't end, its an endless cycle.

Could this be an out-of-date driver issue (wouldn't think so since none of the tech I'm using is ground breakingly new) or a BIOS setting issue or something?

When I re-disconnect the ATA HDDs it boots up just fine on the Raptor.

Any ideas, cause I'm all out of 'em. Thanks much in advance.

Russ

PS- reposted this in the ASUS specific forum from General forum cause I'm not sure if its ASUS specific or my being a dumb-arse.

 

[fa_ranger]

With 4 HD set up in Raid O and Raid one mine Also Started the constant reboot. After Running for a week I bit the bullet did allot of cussing and feformatted and lost everything because it had been running so well I moved everything and I was too lazy to back up on cd. Live and learn.
I was very tired after working and trying for Days to get the Windows Pro Media Center to load up in the first place. If anyone knows why this happens please inform the rest of us.

 

[Newf]

Let me try a couple of ideas...

First, in cable select mode both drives are jumpered to the "cable select" setting (often no jumper at all) and the cable uses the black connection as master, grey as slave. Blue connector goes to the mobo.

OR, set one drive's jumper to Master AND the other to Slave. Setting one drive to cable select and the other to either master or slave will confuse the system.

Next lets look at the BIOS settings. Your system POSTS OK with all 3 HDD hooked up but WinXP won't run. Go into BIOS settings (press <del> during the POST process) and go to the Boot section. You should see all the drives listed. Choose this boot sequence:
1. CD
2. Raptor
3. None

Since one of your old drives is bootable, this may also be a problem for Windows.

If the jumper settings are OK, and the boot sequence is OK, then my last thought is to boot Windows from the original CD and see what drives (partitions) are recognized.

 

[Grimmy]

Your basically on the same track..

He prolly has the right jumpers for his IDE drives for master/slave.

Though, if memory serves..

What should be selected as his 1st or 2nd device:

SCSI/ATA Onboard Boot

CD can be 1st if he wants to see that annoying message every boot..

But I see what your saying, for having CD as 1st.

EDIT: LOL, Why do people post TWICE on the same problem?

Constant reboot with >1 HDD

 

[norsoulnet]

"EDIT: LOL, Why do people post TWICE on the same problem? "

See my PS at the end of this OP. Anyways,

I set the access mode to LBA, jumpered the drives for MASTER and SLAVE, and switched the channels around so that the HDDs are on IDE2 and the DVD-ROM is on IDE1.

Jumpering and setting the Access mode made me able to boot up and access the drives. However when I put the ATA HDDs under heavy load I'd get a Blue Screen of Death that is nondescript (generic error message about a memory dump). Last thing I did last night was switch the IDE channels and haven't had a chance to test that. I hope that will work. If not I will try reformatting the drives.

Any other advice anybody may have?



As for the RAID0, sorry, I cannot answer your question - I have absolutely 0 experience with RAID.

 

[Grimmy]

Ahh... I didn't read the whole post since it started out as the same on the other post. Sorry about that. Just it was the 2nd time I saw a double post. Started feeling like a broken record player.. :lol:

I guess my real question on your setup is;

1. Your Raptor - What cable does it use? Serial ATA cable?

2. Your old drives - both - they are IDE 40 or 80 pin cable?

If the above questions are both answered yes, then I was under the impression that you were booting off the wrong drive, that is if your bios was booting off the Primary or Secondary MASTER, rather then your Raptor drive, which is on a different/separate interface (on mine bios shows a boot selection of SCSI/ATA Onboard).

I can see that when you built your new rig, you may have not set anything for the boot sequence. So, you system will look according to what it is set to. If it doesn't see a Master on the primary or secondary IDE, it moves to the next device, till it exhausts any possible boot drive. When you stuck your old drives in, then it would choose to boot from your old drives, rather then new. That was the senerio I was looking at.

So I was guessing your BSOD was a result of your old install of XP since it was setup for your old board, not the new rig.

It's been awhile since I've re-done my system with any new Serial ATA drives, but those drives need to be configured as a RAID (0 or 1). Please correct me if I'm wrong. Its been so long since I haven't had problems with my system to redo it.

So.. with that said, if I'm correct, your Raptore is on a different interface, chipset of the system board. I do remember on my board I can hook up a IDE drive to the RAID, but never saw a reason to.

Just wanted a clear look at what your looking at, to help advise any help.

 

[norsoulnet]

Ahh... I didn't read the whole post since it started out as the same on the other post. Sorry about that. Just it was the 2nd time I saw a double post. Started feeling like a broken record player.. :lol:

I guess my real question on your setup is;

1. Your Raptor - What cable does it use? Serial ATA cable?

2. Your old drives - both - they are IDE 40 or 80 pin cable?

If the above questions are both answered yes, then I was under the impression that you were booting off the wrong drive, that is if your bios was booting off the Primary or Secondary MASTER, rather then your Raptor drive, which is on a different/separate interface (on mine bios shows a selection of SCSI/ATA Onboard).

So I was guessing your BSOD was a result of your old install of XP since it was setup for your old board, not the new rig.

It's been awhile since I've re-done my system with any new Serial ATA drives, but those drives need to be configured as a RAID (0 or 1). Please correct me if I'm wrong. Its been so long since I haven't had problems with my system to redo it.

So.. with that said, if I'm correct, your Raptore is on a different interface, chipset of the system board. I do remember on my board I can hook up a IDE drive to the RAID, but never saw a reason to.

Just wanted a clear look at what your looking at, to help advise any help.

1. Yes. SATA Cable
2. Yes. 80 pin IDE Cables for the two ATA-100 drives

The BIOS does not let you speficy SATA vs IDE for bootup, it simply designates "Hard Disk" in the boot-up order.

However, I know for a fact that WinXP is booting up on my new install on the Raptor drive (none of the old clutter or settings or software...completely clean install of WinXP is running on that drive, whereas the old drive's install was passed down over the past 5 years so you can imagine how it was).

After re-arranging the IDE Channels (putting the HDD on Channel 2) I will do a stress test tonight to see if that fixes the problem. If not, I plan on moving what I can over to the Raptor and re-formatting the two drives from scratch using the new Mobo and it's IDE Controller. I'll post the results later tonight when I get this done.

Russ

 

[Grimmy]

Gosh... I did download the manual PDF for that board, since I use an Asus board, though an older one.

LOL, it only does have Removable - Hard disk - CD Rom -LAN - Disable.

That's different. Though it does have a Hard Disk selection Page. I suppose that is how you tell the bios, okay boot.. THIS ONE!!

Well, GL on that.. Just had a different impression on what was going on. I guess the only thing I can tell now, is that it doesn't look like that SATA drive don't wanna play nice with reg IDE drives.

Edit: only other thing I can suggest... is try one IDE HD at a time with the Raptor, rather then both IDE HD's with your stress test.

 

[ms2005]

One thing I did not see in the replies is power supply - you don't mention what you have, but your components have large PS requirements. While SATA 2 HDDs have staggered start to help - IDE does not and SATA does not wait for IDE to spin up. You may be seeing the reboots due to voltage drop on one 12 v rail. Try to spread the load in different ps strings if possible. You may have to spring for a larger PS. Tom's had an article which indicated one test PC needed a PS greater than 1K to run.

Good luck.

 

[Grimmy]

He did, on the other post:

I'm using the Fortran Source Blue Storm 500W PSU, so it should be able to chew this computer up and spit it out without fluttering an eyelid. Don't think that is the issue.

Refer to my post in the ASUS specific forum for an update on this problem.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=970230#970230

Think the 500 W PS may not be able to muster it? I think he should be okay for data transfers, stress testing.

Edit... ah.. the rail I saw on Newegg for that.. is 15 amps. That is cutting it abit short.. Though the pic shows 17.5 amps, I could barely make it out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104934

Unless I found the wrong one that he has..

 

[FlyGuy]

Throw the XP disc back in (with the drives connected) and then delete the partitions on those drives. Just make sure you don't delete the partition on the raptor!

Have you tried this yet? And did I mention to make sure you're data is backed up!? Always!

 

[norsoulnet]

Grimmy, its 2 times 15 amp, it has two 12V rails. What is the lowest feasible 12V Rail voltage I should expect to see before the system can't sustain operation? I'm running the ASUS Probe software which monitors all the voltages (I turned them all off except the 12V line). Its hanging out 12+ right now, usually around 12.10 to 12.02 but I haven't checked during stress testing.

As far as the last post goes, I will try reformatting completely if the cable switch does not work. I will post results tonight, and if it still crashes tonight I will copy all pertinent info over to the raptor and *cry* as I reformat.

It seems reformatting is the most widely recommended option and I will most likely do that tonight.

Should I use the Windows utility or the Western Digital utility. I heard the Data Lifeguard is really good.

 

[norsoulnet]

Edit: only other thing I can suggest... is try one IDE HD at a time with the Raptor, rather then both IDE HD's with your stress test.

I did, with just the 200g, with the same results (during the initial troubleshooting when I couldn't even get the dang thing to boot up. Changing the jumper settings to Master/Slave and setting access to LBA fixed that though)

 

[FlyGuy]

It seems reformatting is the most widely recommended option and I will most likely do that tonight.

Should I use the Windows utility or the Western Digital utility. I heard the Data Lifeguard is really good.

I have never used the WD utility but it shouldn't matter. Good luck!

 

[norsoulnet]

OK. I reformatted the 200g HDD and that seemed to solve the IDE stability issue. But this exposed another stability issue I'm running into.

This only seems to happen when playing 3D Games. I will get 15-20 minutes into the game and the computer will completely shut-down, without warning. It reminds me of the over-heat protection feature of my old Soyo mobo. Also, this started happening last night while I was trying to troubleshoot this problem, while sitting at the WinXP desktop or just browsing the internet, the computer will start beeping.

This beeping is like no error code I've ever heard of (its the old-school internal speaker beeping). It sounds like some kind of alarm, a decending tone - almost like a chirp - that lasts half a second and repeats at intervals of 5 seconds or so. I am not sure if this (alarm?) is related to the 3D apps crashing on me.

The last thing I did last night before hitting the sack was underclock my Videocard to see if it was the card overheating - I have not had a chance to test it, and I am a bit more concerned with this new beep at the moment.

Any ideas on either of these issues?

Thanks in advance,
Russ

------------------------
Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego)
ASUS A8N5X NForce4
2x512 Corsair XMS DDR400 RAM
150G 10k RPM Western Digital Raptor HDD (SATA)
200G 7.2K RPM Western Digital HDD (ATA100)
ASUS x1900XT Video Card
Soundblaster X-Fi X-treme Music
Fortran Source 500W (2x15Amps on +12V Rail) Blue Storm PSU
Lian-Li PC-1000 VCool Aluminum Case
Windows XP

 

[Grimmy]

I will get 15-20 minutes into the game and the computer will completely shut-down, without warning.

I guess the next step for this problem would be to monitor your temps to figure out if your getting adequate ventilation for the CPU.

As well as determining whether its the bios health status shutting down - beeping at certain thresholds or if it is a windows app by Asus doing the monitoring and warning you.

That beep could also mean its getting low RPM from a certain fan. I know my old Asus starting making a weird system sounds when RPM from my power supply fan dropped, then came back up. That was a windows app by Asus though.

So I'd advise that you could try running the game windowed so you can see CPU temps / Fan RPMs while the game is running.