WinXP completely unstable - help..! - Drivers

Phelios

January 24, 2004 8:41:58 PM

I've fitted two Raptor drives and an Optorite DD0401 DVD-Writer drive and ever since then it has been totally unstable. I'm getting BSODs and complete sudden crashes with no warning whatsoever. It was fine before I installed the new drives. I've now formatted it 7 times with the same problems! I've used the latest drivers for everything too. I cant make anything of the Event Viewer information. There's not actually many Errors there. System spec is:
AMD Athlon 2600 Barton,
A7N8X Deluxe MB Ver 2.0, w/ SATA RAID 0 Enabled Nforce 3.13 drivers,
1 Gb DDR400 RAM
2x WD Raptor 36Gb HDD
1x 30Gb ATA100 on IDE2
Optorite DD0401 DVD+-RW drive Latest Firmware
LG 24x CD-RW
GeForceFX5700 with Nforce 53.03 drivers.

Thanks in advance,

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BunnyStroker

January 24, 2004 9:14:12 PM

Is your power supply up to the task of driving 2 new HD and a new DVD-R?

1.4 Ghz AMD T-Bird underclocked to 1 Ghz...just to be safe!

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Phelios

January 24, 2004 9:43:52 PM

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, my PSU should be up to the task - its a Q-Tec 450W Dual Fan Gold PSU. 450W should be plenty enough for 3 HDDs and 3 cd drives shouldn't it?? I bought it specially with this in mind.

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dhlucke

January 25, 2004 12:11:45 AM

Never heard of q tec. Let me put up a hypothetical though so you know what you're up against.

That 450W might be their peak wattage. Their actual wattage might only be 380W. Of that you only want to use 70% or 266W.

Now ask yourself if it's up to the task.

pcpowerandcooling.com has a chart that you can use to add up your average power. I'm too lazy to do it for you.

_________________________________________
GOD BLESS AMERICA

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Phelios

January 25, 2004 3:10:14 PM

All my components are only using a theoretical maxmimum of 440W so its still under the rated power. Q-Tec are considered almost as good as Antec for PSUs so its a good brand. I'm not convinced its the PSU but rather an IRQ or RAID configuration problem.

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allanon1965

January 25, 2004 11:08:13 PM

start by unplugging one of the cd roms and try it again, backtrack your installation of the drives so to speak, if one doesnt help then try unplugging 2 of the 3 cd-roms, then continue with the lone ide drive if no help....i think your psu is not able to handle the additional load and is failing....

Fat, Drunk, and Stupid is no way to go through life Son.

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