Lost chain

[thecountrygoth]

MSI NF980 G65

Phenom II 965 (new and only installed on this particular board)

4gb corsair 1600mhz XMS3 @1333 (it runs this natively on every board I've used)

3, 500gb WD vista installs (I'm trouble shooting)

GTX460 768mb (in a few hours it'll be sli'd)

corsair TX650

I have a a problem no matter how many hard drives are actually plugged in or which one is being loaded where windows starts loading then goes to check for drive consistency saying I have a lost chain or some such which tells me it's either the ram or the hard drive, which is why I tried all of my hard drives, one of which is not only a fresh install like the others, it's also a brand new higher performance drive than the other two. Does this pretty much every other boot if not every boot. The installations are all fresh, the board is new, though it was someones returned item at Frys. I'm wondering if it's an incompatibility with the ram and the board, though the first model of this board didn't have this problem it was just a bit sluggish and ran worse at 1600mhz, it just died and wouldn't boot. And It didn't have this problem on the I5 build I tried out before I found out the I5 has serious limitations for Sli without help.

So could this be a compatibility problem, or did someone flip some switches or put some posts on the board that I may not be aware of.

Sorry guys I'm not an overclocker so any tweaks the previous guy did I wouldn't know how to tell. ANd I can't trade it in for another as it's been discontinued and is the only Sli AMD board I could find with full dual x16 and an x8 for my physx card. I'm going to see if I can swing the money to get some 1333 to drop in and see if that fixes it. Any input before hand would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jaquith]

That a reaaaaaaly big HDD {3.5TB}. A 'Lost Chain' is a damaged HDD, I asume that you ran CKDSK with BOTH options selected; [x] Automatically fix... & [x] Scan for bad sectors...?

Please explain the HDD {size} is this some crazy RAID 0...or what?

 

[thecountrygoth]

I figured it would work best on the I5 setup as the ram says on the box it was designed to work best with the p55 chipset for the I5 and I7. But it's not tri channel so I didn't think nor did the sales guy thing it would make a difference

 

[thecountrygoth]

No raid that I'm aware of, unless there is a jumper somewhere on the board making the system think it's supposed to be running raid. Just a set of three 500gb hard drives, it still has this problem when the others are not present. Is it possible that the board is trying to run a raid. I was told by my buddy that it sounds like the ram is malfunctioning and improperly decompressing or some such

 

[jaquith]

Ahh I read it as 3,500GB {3.5TB} vs 3 x 500GB {JBOD} - got it

ref -NF980-G65 - http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1885

No, you would 'know' it if you set up the RAID; it's done in the BIOS. This may seem 'odd' but play musical ports with your HDDs; in other words change the ALL the port locations for your HDDs:
1->3
2->1
3->2

My 'assumption' is that you were playing around in the BIOS {IDE->AHCI} and that 'may' have caused a corruption. Change them and if that corrected the problem you 'can' change them back after another restart/shutdown. Booting after the change forces new registry and driver changes; it's the easiest fix -- if it solves the problem.

 

[thecountrygoth]

Tried it, nothing different. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the memory or memory controller incompatibility. Going to see about picking up some OCZ 1333 since it seems that's the only speed this board wants to do.

 

[jaquith]

Assuming your RAM isn't listed here I would agree -> http://www.corsair.com/products/phenomii/default.aspx

 

[thecountrygoth]

Yeah, I've got CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 apparentl;y it's dual channel intel ram.

According to what I've read online there is little to no difference between 1333mhz and 1600mhz ram, would you say that's true or should I just pay the extra for the 1600.

Also is there any benefit to running one 4 gig stick vs two 2 gig sticks

 

[jaquith]

Speed is ALL about the IC's used on the RAM and 'tightness' of the CAS; the difference could be everything from a 'loss' of FPS with the 1600 MHz to a gain of 2~5+FPS. Dual Channel is more efficient and therefore faster, but it is only measurable on a benchmark. Example: 'if' my goal was to have 4GB then I would recommend 2X2GB --- in the future I could add another 2X2GB and have 8GB; everything is in multiples of 2 and I like leaving my options open.

In addition, I assume that you are going to exchange your RAM for one that is listed. I tend to recommend the Dominator 'if' you plan to OC {e.g. CMP4GX3M2B1600C8 }.

Good Luck!

 

[thecountrygoth]

Best answer selected by thecountrygoth.

 

[thecountrygoth]

Can't get anything that expensive right now. I found some patriot pretty cheap, no heat sinks put the latency is 9-9-9-20. I really want some of that Dominator, had some on my old DDR2 build, it was wicked fast. I'll get some after xmas and go for the full 8gb then. Thanks for the help, about to run to the store to pick up some and see if this fixes the problem.

 

[jaquith]

Corsair, G.SKILL, Mushkin, Kingston or {Crucial for budget RAM}. Don't get Patriot. Kingston work well with AMD.

Kingston - http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=59346&mfr=MSI&model=NF980&search_type=&root=us&LinkBack=http://www.kingston.com&Sys=59346-MSI-NF980-G65+Motherboard&distributor=0&submit1=Search

 

[thecountrygoth]

Got the Crucial, reset the bios, and it fails just the same. So it's either motherboard or processor

 

[jaquith]

ref Crucial - http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=NF980-G65

I assume that your RAM is one of those listed in the Crucial link above, and the RAM is installed in DIMM 1 & DIMM 2 ; CPU | DIMM 1 | DIMM 2 | DIMM 3 | DIMM 4 |.

Assuming, the above next I would breadboard and test again. A small short or improper grounding can also have 'oddball' behavior.

 

[thecountrygoth]

Yeah the crucial is on the compatible list, it does run a bit better or at least install faster. I put my phenom II 720 back in and didn't get the Lost Chain In Cluster scan error scan, put the old one back in and it's doing it again. Need to try it again and see if I get the same results

 

[thecountrygoth]

So far my problem is solved with the addition of the new ram and going back to the original processor. I'll run back to Microcenter and trade in the 965 for another one Monday. Now I just need to find a client bridge so I can have my blue ray player and my pc using the same external wireless.

 

[jaquith]

If you are referring to a Wireless Ethernet Bridge, then I would recommend that you first look into Powerline - http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=294&name=Powerline-Networking

All of the 'wireless' solutions have 'issues' of one sort or another; been there and used them - the throughput is like a roller coaster.

Great video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c1SjEpUVcM

My last house, holly cow it was a pain, it had a little bit of everything {Wired, Wireless Ethernet Bridges, Wi-Fi, Powerline, Switches galore}; a real mess. The Powerline worked great for media like Netflix. Our current house 100% CAT 5e with gigabit ethernet - yippee!! Now CAT 6 is the new best thing. On all our TVs we either run Media Center rigs or 'media' Blu-Ray. Looking at Google TV...

I'm really happy your up and running - it is not fun.

Good Luck!

 

[thecountrygoth]

I was looking at powerline last night, just trying to stay in budget. Picked up a black friday deal and got this Tenda thing that has a most awful interface and navigation. And turns out the tech that said, "pretty much any wireless router can do it." was wrong. Hopefully I can get my $20 back.

Watched the video, had no idea you could plug PCI wireless adapter into a PCI-E.

I know how irritating wireless can be when you have partially wired network and partially wireless, I ran CAT 5 through my buddies attic for him last year into every room, gave me an awesome wired connection right next to the couch for my laptop.

Thanks again for all the help. Trading in the CPU today for a functioning one.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey