System Instability with HDD dma enabled! HELP!!!!

[trebor271075]

Okay I need so seriouse help here. Or any pointer anybody can give!
I bought 2x brand new IBM Deskstar 120GXP hard drives (124.5GB capacity each)
I have these setup in a RAID0 configuration (AMI RAID 100 onboard Iwill KK266 Mobo).
But I have tried the drives outside of the RAID, with the RAID disabled, and I get IDENTICAL results!

Now this has so far taken me in excess of 2 weeks, and out 18 WIndows XP reinstalls!

If I enable DMA mode on my IBM hard drives (i.e. enable dma ont eh controller channels the IBM drives are connected to) My system is super unstable! Anything from: won't install SB Live! drivers! 100% repeatable! Autoroute 2001 will not run (100% repeatable). GTA3 will not install, says CRC error on gta3.exe 100% repeateable! Occasional corruption of Windows/System32/system file resulting in a full re-install (intermittent normally after applyuing a windows update!)

If I disable DMA mode (whether the drives are in RAID or on normal IDE with RAID DISABLED) then windows XP installs great with ZERO problems! SB Live! drivers install perfectly, and ALL other problems disappear!

Now this is my first UDMA100 drive! I have the 80 conductor ribbon cables and the drives run as UDMA100 if I enable DMA mode, just the system is hugely unstable! Now 1 thing I have thought about.. I have both drives running on their own ATA100 cables, plugged into teh master plugs on the cables and with CABLE SELECT configured on the drives. Could the CABLE select be causing the problems???? I will give this a try tongitht. I will set both rives to MASTER on thier own respective cables! Oh and I do have the blue plug plugged into the mogo( the plugs are also labled as system, master and slave).



So whats going on? Anybody have any ideas? I will attache a load of details below. I am NOT overclcoking any component of my machine either!
Mobo:
IWILL KK266R motehrboard with onboard AMI MegaRAID 100 controller(latest BIOS version 1022, AMI RAID bios 2.5)
Onboard sound disabled
Duron 750MHz processor
512MB Crucial PC133 CAS2 memory (tried relaxing the timings right off and running at 100MHz isntead of 133MHz no difference as long as DMA mode is enabled in the bios for the HDD's)
SB Live! sound card.
Netgear ethernet card

I have even gone back to bare bones system, with all COM/LPT ports disabled, including USB.... (using keyboard only in XP) and it still has problems!

Please please please... any pointers????

Cheers
Rob

 

[PCcashCow]

i hate reading long post, but good info.


Wait till tonight and try changing the juper settings on the HDD to master. But first try just one HDD at a time. IBM should have a bootable diagnostic floppy that tests the UDMA modes on the HDD to make sure the R/W is working properly. I think you have found the problem on your own though.

Side note (IBM HDD = death)

It seems that every time I reboot my wallet gets smaller.

 

[trebor271075]

I've tried 1 drive at a time! Same problems! (I'm gonna go sulk now!!!) Been goign on for 2 weeks! *Sigh*
I'm goign to try the IBM diagnostics tonight and try and check signal integraty over the IDE ribbon cables (apparently it checks this automatically!)
If I set both drive to UDMA 66(which I'm happy to live with) usign the diagnostics, will it remember these settings after configurign the drives as a raid again?
I live in hope! As I think this is my only chance obi wan konobi!

:-D (See I can still see the brighter side of life!)

As a side note to IBM=death... I cna almost begin to agree with you there! What a pain int eh arse! I have e-mailed them but received ah heck all support! But I ain't gonna give up yet! I have int he past had a quantum and maxtor drive go down on me so i don't like them much anymore!

 

[trebor271075]

Oh I almost forgot!

Thankyou very much for your reply! It's appreciated!

Rob

 

[trebor271075]

Oh I almost forgot!

Thankyou very much for your reply! It's appreciated!

Rob

 

[PCcashCow]

your welcome !

It seems that every time I reboot my wallet gets smaller.

 

[PCcashCow]

uhh your welcome again !

It seems that every time I reboot my wallet gets smaller.

 

[trebor271075]

Changing the drives from cable select to master seems to have cured all my problems! (Now I feel really stoopid for configuring them as cable select int he first place!!!!)

:-|

Thanks to all the helpers!

Cheers
Rob