System locking up, bad RAID?

[OMGPWNTIME]

First my current setup...

AMD Phenom II 940 @ 3.6 1.40v, 2.2 HTT/NB @ stock voltage
DFI LANPARTY DK 790GX-M2RS w/ latest BIOS (of course)
G.Skill F2-8500CL5-2GBPK (2x2GB @ 5-5-5-15-48 2.1v)
Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 @ 675/1125
2x74gb Raptors in RAID 0 128k Stripe (only used for games)
1x640gb WD640AAKS as main

So the issue...

On my old system which was an AMD 6000+ and a DFI Lanparty nf590 ultra board, I was also running the 2 raptors in a RAID 0 in vista x64 and I didn't have any issues that I can remember. However as soon as I built my new system with vista x64, I noticed that when installing certain games to my RAID my entire system would just lock up and I would have to kill the power and just keep trying and eventually it would install. It only occurs when installing something to it, and certain games seem to cause it more so than others, such as I physically could never install the Company of Heroes multiplayer balance test to it, but other games would be ok. Once a game is installed there is never any issues and I ran the WD HD test utility with no errors coming up so my question to everyone is if they think it's the controller on the motherboard having an issue or it's possibly one of the raptors. I wouldn't doubt that one of them are damaged since one came out of a friend's PC that I know for sure had some PSU issues but just seems strange the issue only has been occurring since my system upgrade. Also, I didn't have any of components of my system OC'd just until recently so I know that's not causing it. Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[blackened144]

I would try formatting the array next. Dont choose the quick format option. If your still having trouble its likely hardware related. The only way to truly determine if its the drive or the controller after that would be to test the drives in another machine and see if they have the same problem again. Even your old machine would work for that.

 

[OMGPWNTIME]

I would try formatting the array next. Dont choose the quick format option. If your still having trouble its likely hardware related. The only way to truly determine if its the drive or the controller after that would be to test the drives in another machine and see if they have the same problem again. Even your old machine would work for that.

Thanks for the response, my old system is no longer here, I sold it to my brother's g/f so I don't really have another system to test the drives in sadly, which was part of my problem. I'll try to do a low level format in the raid setup and rebuild the array and post if it solved my issue or not.

Edit: On a side note, on AMD's website under the RAID drivers portion, it has this little notation stating that you should only use the RAID drivers posted there if your board is a "retail AMD" board (what the hell is a retail AMD board...) and you should use the supplied drivers. But the supplied drivers I have from DFI seem to be just standard catalyst 8.7 drivers so I wasn't sure if this could be causing any of my issues.

 

[GhislainG]

But the supplied drivers I have from DFI seem to be just standard catalyst 8.7 drivers so I wasn't sure if this could be causing any of my issues.

Catalyst drivers are for the ATI video card, not for the RAID controller. You should download and install the RAID drivers for your chipset from AMD's website.

 

[OMGPWNTIME]

But the supplied drivers I have from DFI seem to be just standard catalyst 8.7 drivers so I wasn't sure if this could be causing any of my issues.

Catalyst drivers are for the ATI video card, not for the RAID controller. You should download and install the RAID drivers for your chipset from AMD's website.

What? The catalyst drivers are for the raid, go to downloads, then on the left side, you'll see Catalyst Drivers, click that, then Motherboard/Integrated Drivers, and you click that, it has the Cat 9.4 SouthBridge drivers and RAID drivers, as well as the RAIDXpert utility.

and that's where you can see this note, "Warning: This driver does not provide custom configurations used in OEM systems and is recommended for use with retail AMD motherboards only. Installing an incorrect RAID driver may cause problems with your RAID device, including possible damage to your RAID array."

 

[GhislainG]

I finally found the link you are referring to and just below the warning section, they provide version 2.2.1540.29 RAID drivers. Newer version 2.4.1540.11 RAID drivers for the 790GX chipset are available at http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_chipset.aspx. DFI also provide RAID drivers, but they may be an older version. ATI RAID drivers are named RAIDXpert.

 

[OMGPWNTIME]

I finally found the link you are referring to and just below the warning section, they provide version 2.2.1540.29 RAID drivers. Newer version 2.4.1540.11 RAID drivers for the 790GX chipset are available at http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_chipset.aspx. DFI also provide RAID drivers, but they may be an older version. ATI RAID drivers are named RAIDXpert.

Nah, the RAIDXpert is just a utility used to monitor your hardware RAID and allows you to remotely connect to your computer if you wish and monitor the logs/setup of your current RAID. Which I do have installed as well, and DFI's RAID driver it offers is the same as the AMD one, just part of catalyst 8.7, which is why I went with AMD's 9.4 set, and I tested DFI's anyways just in case they modified theirs in anyway but it didn't fix anything. I haven't rebuilt my array yet, going to do that later tonight and report back with anything good. I hope...