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#1
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P4C800-E Deluxe/SATA RAID 0/Major System Crash/Recovering Drives
Over 24 hours ago my system came out of Hibernation sluggishly (it was the
1st time I had tried it) and after much pagefile use the system eventually froze completely, necessitating a manual reset. First I got this BSOD just as Windows XP launches: - REGISTRY_ERROR A problem has been detected.................................. The usual splurge then...................... Stop: 0x00000051 (0x00000003, 0x00000003, 0x00000000, 0xE15E2000) I realised at once this was a serious error but eventually I gave up diagnosing this and I tried to "restore" my OS and Programs volume using a Powerquest Drive Image, created last Sunday using version 7 of this software. The restore went smoothly until right at the end it complained that there were problems with several sectors on the "Drive". As you can see from my system details, given below, I have installed two RAID volumes. Using the PQ boot CD to launch the Drive Image program and executing an F6 Install along the way for the two RAID Controllers, DI had no problem seeing all my partitions. Upon reboot the system attempted to boot and it got into windows after what seemed a lengthy duration but a window constantly popped up saying "Hard Error" and the desktop kept flickering. The only way out of this was to manually reset. The system failed to reboot leaving me with a blank screen after the POST. However after the above aborted attempt I next rebooted using my Windows XP Boot CD to see what chkdsk revealed in the Recovery Console. At first it stated no problems found but activating chkdsk again but using the /p switch, revealed "Unrecoverable Erros" found but no explanation or help as to how to repair. Trying to Format the volume, resulted in the system freezing at 22% despite there being disk activity - I therefore switched off. Next after much soul searching I decided my plan would be to "break" the RAID 0 configuration, try again to format the drives and try again to restore the image - if that failed, to try and do a low-level format (writing zeros) to the drives to wipe them clean so to speak. I have reconfiguredthe settings in the BIOS so the system now sees the S-ATA channels to function as "standard IDE", in accordance with the manual - this results in the non-appearance of the Intel POST screen (ctrl-i) but has retained the RAID pairing on the Promise controller thankfully. First up when I now switch on I get the following screen: - "You have not connected the Power Extension Cable to your Radeon 9800 Video Card - refer to the Getting Started Guide for proper hardware installation". This message appears in the centre of the Monitor screen in white writing within a small "red fill" , the remainder of the screen being black/blank. The message is accompanied by constant "beeping" from the PC's speaker. Switching off and back on - sometimes removing the power cable to the PC for a few seconds - can bypass this screen - but it reappears upon the next reboot. Windows setup sees the drives but says the "partitions are corrupt" - I then deleted them but then I got "unusable space" and a lockup. Trying again to Format results in a further lockup and chkdsk fails to work now. Finally I downloaded WD's Diagnostic utility - DLGDIAG v 11, created the bootable floppy from it, but when I ran it, I got an "Error/Status Code 0120", accompanied by the message that no drives can be found. During the above I get messages stating that I have "unrecoverable errors" on the drives but how can I get these repaired? I can't believe that my Raptors are ruined, they are brand new and were purchased for reliability. Can someone with experience of repairing RAID drives please help me out - my aim is to repair the drives and try again to restore my Drive image, which is still intact on my second RAID 0 pair, on the Promise controller. I am desparate for some help here - appologies if I've gone on a bit, but I feel it's important to explain things from start to now in order that someone can get a feel for the problem and recommend a solution. System Details: - Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (version 10 Bios) : Intel P4 3.0 Ghz CPU (800fsb) : Cooling - Thermaltake Aquarius II Water Cooling System : Case - Thermaltake Xaser III Series : Kingston Value Ram - 2 x 512Gb PC 3200 working in Dual DDR 400 Mode - KVR400X64C3A/51 : Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro (128Mb) : PSU - Q-Tec Dual Fan 550Watt : RAID Arrays - OS - 2 x WD Raptors 36Gb 10000rpm SATA (150) in RAID 0 config (on Intel ICH5R) - Storage - 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7's 160Gb 7200rpm SATA (150) in RAID 0 config (on Promise) : Iomega Dual DVD +/- Writer (PM) : Aopen DVD Rom (SM) : SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS : OS - Windows XP Pro (SP1a) TIA PAUL -------------------------------------------------------------- This footnote confirms that this email message has been swept by Norton AntiVirus for the presence of computer viruses. This computer is protected by GIANT Company's Spam Inspector Reply by email by removing the obvious ------------------------------- |
#2
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"Paul" wrote in message System Details: - Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (version 10 Bios) : Intel P4 3.0 Ghz CPU (800fsb) : Cooling - Thermaltake Aquarius II Water Cooling System : Case - Thermaltake Xaser III Series : Kingston Value Ram - 2 x 512Gb PC 3200 working in Dual DDR 400 Mode - KVR400X64C3A/51 : Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro (128Mb) : PSU - Q-Tec Dual Fan 550Watt : RAID Arrays - OS - 2 x WD Raptors 36Gb 10000rpm SATA (150) in RAID 0 config (on Intel ICH5R) - Storage - 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7's 160Gb 7200rpm SATA (150) in RAID 0 config (on Promise) : Iomega Dual DVD +/- Writer (PM) : Aopen DVD Rom (SM) : SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS : OS - Windows XP Pro (SP1a) Nice rig, but what are you OC'ing it to? Nobody needs watercooling running at spec, and why would you apparently buy the latest and greatest, and yet get PC3200 RAM sticks, regardless of what you run them at, I would have gone PC3500. |
#3
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Thanks for taking an interest Philip - you're right of course - but I'm not
overclocking at the moment and the RAM sticks were an endeavour to keep the costs down - once I have this thing running properly I do intend of course to OC, but not sure whether the Aquarius II will take the load - it is a relatively cheap W/C system. Yes I will be replacing the RAM in due course. However back to the main issue and request for help. I have just had an extremely helpful chat with a technician from Western Digital, who thinks it might all be down to the Graphics Card and it's possible that the drives are dead and might need replacing. There is apparently no software capable of doing a low-level format on these SATA drives right now! This may help others - the software I downloaded can only be used for EIDE drives. He did suggest using SFC in XP's Recovery Console first to see what gives. Last night I noticed that colour clocks started to appear on the screen, confirming these suspicions re the G/C - following the technicians advice however, I first checked the power cable going to the card this morning - this is of course what's referred to in the white and red message but when I next rebooted the screen was a mass of colour blotches indicating the card has failed !!! and this it seems is the root cause of my problem. WD will ship me replacement drives within 3 days but first I will go back to my supplier re both the Graphics card and the 2 drives. Thoughts/comments anyone? Paul -------------------------------------------------------------------- This footnote confirms that this email message has been swept by Norton AntiVirus for the presence of computer viruses. This computer is protected by GIANT Company's Spam Inspector --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Philip Callan" wrote in message news:xgrob.232682$pl3.19463@pd7tw3no... "Paul" wrote in message System Details: - Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (version 10 Bios) : Intel P4 3.0 Ghz CPU (800fsb) : Cooling - Thermaltake Aquarius II Water Cooling System : Case - Thermaltake Xaser III Series : Kingston Value Ram - 2 x 512Gb PC 3200 working in Dual DDR 400 Mode - KVR400X64C3A/51 : Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro (128Mb) : PSU - Q-Tec Dual Fan 550Watt : RAID Arrays - OS - 2 x WD Raptors 36Gb 10000rpm SATA (150) in RAID 0 config (on Intel ICH5R) - Storage - 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7's 160Gb 7200rpm SATA (150) in RAID 0 config (on Promise) : Iomega Dual DVD +/- Writer (PM) : Aopen DVD Rom (SM) : SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS : OS - Windows XP Pro (SP1a) Nice rig, but what are you OC'ing it to? Nobody needs watercooling running at spec, and why would you apparently buy the latest and greatest, and yet get PC3200 RAM sticks, regardless of what you run them at, I would have gone PC3500. |
#4
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In article , "Paul"
wrote: Thanks for taking an interest Philip - you're right of course - but I'm not overclocking at the moment and the RAM sticks were an endeavour to keep the costs down - once I have this thing running properly I do intend of course to OC, but not sure whether the Aquarius II will take the load - it is a relatively cheap W/C system. Yes I will be replacing the RAM in due course. However back to the main issue and request for help. I have just had an extremely helpful chat with a technician from Western Digital, who thinks it might all be down to the Graphics Card and it's possible that the drives are dead and might need replacing. There is apparently no software capable of doing a low-level format on these SATA drives right now! This may help others - the software I downloaded can only be used for EIDE drives. He did suggest using SFC in XP's Recovery Console first to see what gives. Last night I noticed that colour clocks started to appear on the screen, confirming these suspicions re the G/C - following the technicians advice however, I first checked the power cable going to the card this morning - this is of course what's referred to in the white and red message but when I next rebooted the screen was a mass of colour blotches indicating the card has failed !!! and this it seems is the root cause of my problem. WD will ship me replacement drives within 3 days but first I will go back to my supplier re both the Graphics card and the 2 drives. Thoughts/comments anyone? Paul Have you checked the power monitor in the BIOS ? Maybe your power supply is having problems with +12V, which is upsetting the disk drives and the video card. Even though it is a 550W, it is a common element to the two problems you are having. The following thread suggests your power supply doesn't have enough current on +12V for the load you have on it. 12V@14A is a joke, and is presumably why http://www.qtec.info has no specs posted for the supply. Check the label on the supply, to see if the following thread has this right (or better yet, post the specs, so other people can see what they are). http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread/t-4621.html HTH, Paul |
#6
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Thanks Paul. The links seemed very interesting albeit a little over my head
right now. Could you please help me some more and kindly elaborate a little in respect of the following, as far as you are able, given my basic understanding: - 1. Are you familiar with my Q-Tec PSU? 2. Do you think that the PSU has blown the Video Card? 3. Do you think that the PSU was the direct cause or indirect cause of the drive errors? 4. In lay-mans language, what do you think has happened in my case? 5. Is the PSU now in need of replacing? - ie; do you think it has been damaged and/or needs upgrading? 6. Given that I am building a "power" system, with many devices running from it including (eventually) both unpowered and powered USB devices and probably 5/6 HDD's, can you recommend a top of the range PSU available in the UK? 7. What ampage should I be looking for on the 12v? 8. What ampage should I be looking for on the 5v? 9. What exactly should I be looking for in the BIOS. I tend not to overclock because of my limited abilities and at the commencement of the problems it was a totally unclocked system. I am reluctant to recommence my build until I have these questions answered as I think you are right in what you are suggesting. I am unfamiliar with PSU's, so I bought the highest ampage PSU I could find, but now maybe as you say, watts aint everything! However I have heard several people suggest these PSU's are reliable - mine is the "PFC" model, whatever that means - I am unable to read the label right now as it's getting dark. I will tomorrow though. I'm sorry to ask you all these questions Paul, but if you could spare a little more time and answer these questions, I would be extremely grateful. TAIA Paul (Rozel) -------------------------------------------------------------------- This footnote confirms that this email message has been swept by Norton AntiVirus for the presence of computer viruses. This computer is protected by GIANT Company's Spam Inspector --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Paul" wrote in message ... In article , (Paul) wrote: In article , "Paul" wrote: Thanks for taking an interest Philip - you're right of course - but I'm not overclocking at the moment and the RAM sticks were an endeavour to keep the costs down - once I have this thing running properly I do intend of course to OC, but not sure whether the Aquarius II will take the load - it is a relatively cheap W/C system. Yes I will be replacing the RAM in due course. However back to the main issue and request for help. I have just had an extremely helpful chat with a technician from Western Digital, who thinks it might all be down to the Graphics Card and it's possible that the drives are dead and might need replacing. There is apparently no software capable of doing a low-level format on these SATA drives right now! This may help others - the software I downloaded can only be used for EIDE drives. He did suggest using SFC in XP's Recovery Console first to see what gives. Last night I noticed that colour clocks started to appear on the screen, confirming these suspicions re the G/C - following the technicians advice however, I first checked the power cable going to the card this morning - this is of course what's referred to in the white and red message but when I next rebooted the screen was a mass of colour blotches indicating the card has failed !!! and this it seems is the root cause of my problem. WD will ship me replacement drives within 3 days but first I will go back to my supplier re both the Graphics card and the 2 drives. Thoughts/comments anyone? Paul Have you checked the power monitor in the BIOS ? Maybe your power supply is having problems with +12V, which is upsetting the disk drives and the video card. Even though it is a 550W, it is a common element to the two problems you are having. The following thread suggests your power supply doesn't have enough current on +12V for the load you have on it. 12V@14A is a joke, and is presumably why http://www.qtec.info has no specs posted for the supply. Check the label on the supply, to see if the following thread has this right (or better yet, post the specs, so other people can see what they are). http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread/t-4621.html HTH, Paul If you want to see some good power supply numbers, here is a table from the Antec Truepower specifications - VOLTAGE +5V +12V +3.3V -5V -12V +5VSB MAX. LOAD TRUE330 30A 17A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE380 35A 18A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE430 36A 20A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE480 38A 22A 30A 1.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE550 40A 24A 32A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A Their 550W supply can give a max of 24 amps. Notice how even the Antec 330W does a better job than the Q-Tec. Paul |
#7
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In article , "Paul"
wrote: Thanks Paul. The links seemed very interesting albeit a little over my head right now. Could you please help me some more and kindly elaborate a little in respect of the following, as far as you are able, given my basic understanding: - 1. Are you familiar with my Q-Tec PSU? I only know what I read :-) The qtec.info site doesn't have any info, so what is printed on the label of your supply is all we have to go on. I was lucky to find that thread, where someone mentioned the 14A, as otherwise I wouldn't have posted my answer. 2. Do you think that the PSU has blown the Video Card? No. Not time to panic yet. 3. Do you think that the PSU was the direct cause or indirect cause of the drive errors? That is my suspicion. You see, it is highly unlikely that two pieces of hardware will fail in a system at the same time. You are having video problems and disk problems at the same time, and the video and disks share the power supply as a common element. 4. In lay-mans language, what do you think has happened in my case? As I stated previously, the +12V from the power supply is dropping out. The voltage is now too low to operate the video card and the disk drive properly. If you check the monitoring page in the BIOS, it will list the voltage values. The +12V shouldn't be off by more than 5% or so. If it only reads 10 or 11 volts, some of your hardware isn't going to like it. 5. Is the PSU now in need of replacing? - ie; do you think it has been damaged and/or needs upgrading? It needs upgrading. It might not be damaged - you didn't mention smoke, flames, or a bad smell, so see if you can return it to your vendor for a more "balanced" power supply. When you get a big supply like that, there should be a minimum of 15 amps on the +12V. That is enough for a basic system. For the disk drives, most drive vendor sites list the power requirements, so you can add 0.5 amps per drive, for example, to account for a drive when it is idle (on a desktop system, most drives will be idle, and only one or two will be working hard). 6. Given that I am building a "power" system, with many devices running from it including (eventually) both unpowered and powered USB devices and probably 5/6 HDD's, can you recommend a top of the range PSU available in the UK? I'm in Canada, where everything is hard to get :-) The Antec Truepower has good paper specs, and the outputs are supposed to be more independent of one another. Check some of the power supply review articles on Tomshardware, to get some idea of what other brands are good. I think Fortron make an efficient supply, so it will be easier on the electric bill and itself - Fortron supplies are rebadged by other vendors as well. Even Antec doesn't make its own supplies - they are made by Heroichi (supplies from a year ago) and Channelwell (the Truepower series). Avoid any of the supplies that Tomshardware managed to smoke or burn :-) 7. What ampage should I be looking for on the 12v? You are in luck that you have an Intel chipset on your board. The trick is, to download the user manual for a motherboard made by Intel, because they actually list some power numbers. ftp://download.intel.com/design/moth...z/C3176501.pdf (D875PBZ) DC Power +3.3V +5V +12V -12V +5VSB Minimum loading 199.00W 5.00A 10.00A 10.00A 0.03A 0.60A Maximum loading 284.00W 10.00A 14.00A 13.30A 0.10A 1.40A Note that the Intel numbers, unfortunately, include some of the hardware that is plugged into the board. The +12V numbers for example are large enough to include a P4 processor. But the +3.3V and +5 numbers should be good enough for estimate purposes. If you go to processorfinder.intel.com and enter the SSPEC "SL6WG", you get 82W as the power. This is a 3.2GHz/800 P4. You take that number and divide by 12V to get amps. To the 6.8 amp number, you multiply by 1.25, to compensate for the 80% efficiency of the Vcore power circuit on the motherboard. So, the processor is basically drawing 8.5 amps. You can do a similar analysis for the video card, but here the power number is a secret. I use 3 amps as a guesstimate, just picking that number out of the air. The original FX5900 was somewhere around 70W I think (I cannot find the reference any more), but I don't think I'm going to go around suggesting to people that they budget for 6 amps, because that would be crazy. Include 1 amp to run the case and CPU fans. Disk drives need 2 amps to start them spinning, and when they settle down, they need around 0.5 amps. I think there is an option to stagger the startup of IDE disks, but I don't know if desktop BIOS know how to do that or not. Based on those numbers, a basic desktop needs processor_power plus video_card plus idle_disk plus fans = 8.5 + 3.0 + 0.5 + 1.0 = 13 amps. That would be the current drawn while running 3DMark. So, you can see that your 14 amp supply is on the edge, even if used for a basic desktop. Based on your other drives, budget for another 2.5 amps. So, you need 15.5 amps on +12V to do 3DMark plus idle the disks. When a system starts up, you also need to do an analysis. On a basic desktop, the analysis isn't critical, as the video card goes from 3 amps to zero amps, and the disk drive needs 2 amps. So, the basic desktop doesn't change between the POST requirements and the running requirements. When you add a lot of disks, their startup currents are more substantial. So, the question you have to ask yourself, is whether the CPU runs at 100% while in the BIOS, or is idling. I personally think it isn't drawing a lot of current, but other people differ on this. 8. What ampage should I be looking for on the 5v? As you can see from the Intel estimate, just about any supply can handle the +3.3 or +5. If you have a video editing system, or have a bunch of custom audio boards, then you may need to budget more power - most ordinary PCI boards only draw a few watts each, which amounts to nothing. 9. What exactly should I be looking for in the BIOS. I tend not to overclock because of my limited abilities and at the commencement of the problems it was a totally unclocked system. I am reluctant to recommence my build until I have these questions answered as I think you are right in what you are suggesting. I am unfamiliar with PSU's, so I bought the highest ampage PSU I could find, but now maybe as you say, watts aint everything! However I have heard several people suggest these PSU's are reliable - mine is the "PFC" model, whatever that means - I am unable to read the label right now as it's getting dark. I will tomorrow though. PFC is Power Factor Correction. Home electric power consumers don't have to worry about power factor, because you are not billed based on power factor. Your power supply is doing the power company a favor, but you get no financial benefit. A business or industrial user would favor a product with PFC. The PSU watts numbers are purely for marketing. It is the amps that you budget for, and that is the way to buy a power supply. Note that if you do go shopping for another 550W supply, that some of them have different connectors than a desktop supply (because they are meant for dual processor boards or servers), so check that they have a 20 pin connector for the main power. I'm sorry to ask you all these questions Paul, but if you could spare a little more time and answer these questions, I would be extremely grateful. TAIA Paul (Rozel) HTH, Paul --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Paul" wrote in message ... In article , (Paul) wrote: In article , "Paul" wrote: Thanks for taking an interest Philip - you're right of course - but I'm not overclocking at the moment and the RAM sticks were an endeavour to keep the costs down - once I have this thing running properly I do intend of course to OC, but not sure whether the Aquarius II will take the load - it is a relatively cheap W/C system. Yes I will be replacing the RAM in due course. However back to the main issue and request for help. I have just had an extremely helpful chat with a technician from Western Digital, who thinks it might all be down to the Graphics Card and it's possible that the drives are dead and might need replacing. There is apparently no software capable of doing a low-level format on these SATA drives right now! This may help others - the software I downloaded can only be used for EIDE drives. He did suggest using SFC in XP's Recovery Console first to see what gives. Last night I noticed that colour clocks started to appear on the screen, confirming these suspicions re the G/C - following the technicians advice however, I first checked the power cable going to the card this morning - this is of course what's referred to in the white and red message but when I next rebooted the screen was a mass of colour blotches indicating the card has failed !!! and this it seems is the root cause of my problem. WD will ship me replacement drives within 3 days but first I will go back to my supplier re both the Graphics card and the 2 drives. Thoughts/comments anyone? Paul Have you checked the power monitor in the BIOS ? Maybe your power supply is having problems with +12V, which is upsetting the disk drives and the video card. Even though it is a 550W, it is a common element to the two problems you are having. The following thread suggests your power supply doesn't have enough current on +12V for the load you have on it. 12V@14A is a joke, and is presumably why http://www.qtec.info has no specs posted for the supply. Check the label on the supply, to see if the following thread has this right (or better yet, post the specs, so other people can see what they are). http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread/t-4621.html HTH, Paul If you want to see some good power supply numbers, here is a table from the Antec Truepower specifications - VOLTAGE +5V +12V +3.3V -5V -12V +5VSB MAX. LOAD TRUE330 30A 17A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE380 35A 18A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE430 36A 20A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE480 38A 22A 30A 1.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE550 40A 24A 32A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A Their 550W supply can give a max of 24 amps. Notice how even the Antec 330W does a better job than the Q-Tec. Paul |
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Thank you so much Paul - this is exactly what I need and I'm sure it will be
of use to many others attempting to seriously upgrade their kit. When I made my purchases, I went for what I thought was the best, obviously not the RAM (as mentioned earlier) and probably not the Aquarius II water cooling system. Here, I'm going to look for a Zallman cooler and sod the noise! This will bring the temp down a wee bit and improve the air circulation within my case, which is now very cluttered given the pump/radiator etal! Temps currently are MB 25/30C : CPU - Idle 33/36C Load 36/40C Stress (3DMark 2003) 40/50C. My case has 7 fans fitted as standard, the PSU is a dual fan model, the G/C has a fan too! Now as well it seems my PSU is not good enough too - oh well! - all the above together with accessories has probably pushed it too far. I am intrigued about whether the Graphics Card is dead or not. All I get are coloured Mosiacs and these were preceded several times with the "Power Cable Not Connected" Error message, again previously described. I have tried several monitors, so it is not the monitor. Would a better PSU bring it back to life? You surmised correctly in that there has been no smoke or bad smells eminating from within my system but clearly there is something wrong with my card - any more thoughts? I will be spending the best part of this week end sourcing suitable replacements, taking your advice - thanks again. Paul (Rozel) -------------------------------------------------------------------- This footnote confirms that this email message has been swept by Norton AntiVirus for the presence of computer viruses. This computer is protected by GIANT Company's Spam Inspector --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Paul" wrote in message ... In article , "Paul" wrote: Thanks Paul. The links seemed very interesting albeit a little over my head right now. Could you please help me some more and kindly elaborate a little in respect of the following, as far as you are able, given my basic understanding: - 1. Are you familiar with my Q-Tec PSU? I only know what I read :-) The qtec.info site doesn't have any info, so what is printed on the label of your supply is all we have to go on. I was lucky to find that thread, where someone mentioned the 14A, as otherwise I wouldn't have posted my answer. 2. Do you think that the PSU has blown the Video Card? No. Not time to panic yet. 3. Do you think that the PSU was the direct cause or indirect cause of the drive errors? That is my suspicion. You see, it is highly unlikely that two pieces of hardware will fail in a system at the same time. You are having video problems and disk problems at the same time, and the video and disks share the power supply as a common element. 4. In lay-mans language, what do you think has happened in my case? As I stated previously, the +12V from the power supply is dropping out. The voltage is now too low to operate the video card and the disk drive properly. If you check the monitoring page in the BIOS, it will list the voltage values. The +12V shouldn't be off by more than 5% or so. If it only reads 10 or 11 volts, some of your hardware isn't going to like it. 5. Is the PSU now in need of replacing? - ie; do you think it has been damaged and/or needs upgrading? It needs upgrading. It might not be damaged - you didn't mention smoke, flames, or a bad smell, so see if you can return it to your vendor for a more "balanced" power supply. When you get a big supply like that, there should be a minimum of 15 amps on the +12V. That is enough for a basic system. For the disk drives, most drive vendor sites list the power requirements, so you can add 0.5 amps per drive, for example, to account for a drive when it is idle (on a desktop system, most drives will be idle, and only one or two will be working hard). 6. Given that I am building a "power" system, with many devices running from it including (eventually) both unpowered and powered USB devices and probably 5/6 HDD's, can you recommend a top of the range PSU available in the UK? I'm in Canada, where everything is hard to get :-) The Antec Truepower has good paper specs, and the outputs are supposed to be more independent of one another. Check some of the power supply review articles on Tomshardware, to get some idea of what other brands are good. I think Fortron make an efficient supply, so it will be easier on the electric bill and itself - Fortron supplies are rebadged by other vendors as well. Even Antec doesn't make its own supplies - they are made by Heroichi (supplies from a year ago) and Channelwell (the Truepower series). Avoid any of the supplies that Tomshardware managed to smoke or burn :-) 7. What ampage should I be looking for on the 12v? You are in luck that you have an Intel chipset on your board. The trick is, to download the user manual for a motherboard made by Intel, because they actually list some power numbers. ftp://download.intel.com/design/moth...z/C3176501.pdf (D875PBZ) DC Power +3.3V +5V +12V -12V +5VSB Minimum loading 199.00W 5.00A 10.00A 10.00A 0.03A 0.60A Maximum loading 284.00W 10.00A 14.00A 13.30A 0.10A 1.40A Note that the Intel numbers, unfortunately, include some of the hardware that is plugged into the board. The +12V numbers for example are large enough to include a P4 processor. But the +3.3V and +5 numbers should be good enough for estimate purposes. If you go to processorfinder.intel.com and enter the SSPEC "SL6WG", you get 82W as the power. This is a 3.2GHz/800 P4. You take that number and divide by 12V to get amps. To the 6.8 amp number, you multiply by 1.25, to compensate for the 80% efficiency of the Vcore power circuit on the motherboard. So, the processor is basically drawing 8.5 amps. You can do a similar analysis for the video card, but here the power number is a secret. I use 3 amps as a guesstimate, just picking that number out of the air. The original FX5900 was somewhere around 70W I think (I cannot find the reference any more), but I don't think I'm going to go around suggesting to people that they budget for 6 amps, because that would be crazy. Include 1 amp to run the case and CPU fans. Disk drives need 2 amps to start them spinning, and when they settle down, they need around 0.5 amps. I think there is an option to stagger the startup of IDE disks, but I don't know if desktop BIOS know how to do that or not. Based on those numbers, a basic desktop needs processor_power plus video_card plus idle_disk plus fans = 8.5 + 3.0 + 0.5 + 1.0 = 13 amps. That would be the current drawn while running 3DMark. So, you can see that your 14 amp supply is on the edge, even if used for a basic desktop. Based on your other drives, budget for another 2.5 amps. So, you need 15.5 amps on +12V to do 3DMark plus idle the disks. When a system starts up, you also need to do an analysis. On a basic desktop, the analysis isn't critical, as the video card goes from 3 amps to zero amps, and the disk drive needs 2 amps. So, the basic desktop doesn't change between the POST requirements and the running requirements. When you add a lot of disks, their startup currents are more substantial. So, the question you have to ask yourself, is whether the CPU runs at 100% while in the BIOS, or is idling. I personally think it isn't drawing a lot of current, but other people differ on this. 8. What ampage should I be looking for on the 5v? As you can see from the Intel estimate, just about any supply can handle the +3.3 or +5. If you have a video editing system, or have a bunch of custom audio boards, then you may need to budget more power - most ordinary PCI boards only draw a few watts each, which amounts to nothing. 9. What exactly should I be looking for in the BIOS. I tend not to overclock because of my limited abilities and at the commencement of the problems it was a totally unclocked system. I am reluctant to recommence my build until I have these questions answered as I think you are right in what you are suggesting. I am unfamiliar with PSU's, so I bought the highest ampage PSU I could find, but now maybe as you say, watts aint everything! However I have heard several people suggest these PSU's are reliable - mine is the "PFC" model, whatever that means - I am unable to read the label right now as it's getting dark. I will tomorrow though. PFC is Power Factor Correction. Home electric power consumers don't have to worry about power factor, because you are not billed based on power factor. Your power supply is doing the power company a favor, but you get no financial benefit. A business or industrial user would favor a product with PFC. The PSU watts numbers are purely for marketing. It is the amps that you budget for, and that is the way to buy a power supply. Note that if you do go shopping for another 550W supply, that some of them have different connectors than a desktop supply (because they are meant for dual processor boards or servers), so check that they have a 20 pin connector for the main power. I'm sorry to ask you all these questions Paul, but if you could spare a little more time and answer these questions, I would be extremely grateful. TAIA Paul (Rozel) HTH, Paul --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Paul" wrote in message ... In article , (Paul) wrote: In article , "Paul" wrote: Thanks for taking an interest Philip - you're right of course - but I'm not overclocking at the moment and the RAM sticks were an endeavour to keep the costs down - once I have this thing running properly I do intend of course to OC, but not sure whether the Aquarius II will take the load - it is a relatively cheap W/C system. Yes I will be replacing the RAM in due course. However back to the main issue and request for help. I have just had an extremely helpful chat with a technician from Western Digital, who thinks it might all be down to the Graphics Card and it's possible that the drives are dead and might need replacing. There is apparently no software capable of doing a low-level format on these SATA drives right now! This may help others - the software I downloaded can only be used for EIDE drives. He did suggest using SFC in XP's Recovery Console first to see what gives. Last night I noticed that colour clocks started to appear on the screen, confirming these suspicions re the G/C - following the technicians advice however, I first checked the power cable going to the card this morning - this is of course what's referred to in the white and red message but when I next rebooted the screen was a mass of colour blotches indicating the card has failed !!! and this it seems is the root cause of my problem. WD will ship me replacement drives within 3 days but first I will go back to my supplier re both the Graphics card and the 2 drives. Thoughts/comments anyone? Paul Have you checked the power monitor in the BIOS ? Maybe your power supply is having problems with +12V, which is upsetting the disk drives and the video card. Even though it is a 550W, it is a common element to the two problems you are having. The following thread suggests your power supply doesn't have enough current on +12V for the load you have on it. 12V@14A is a joke, and is presumably why http://www.qtec.info has no specs posted for the supply. Check the label on the supply, to see if the following thread has this right (or better yet, post the specs, so other people can see what they are). http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread/t-4621.html HTH, Paul If you want to see some good power supply numbers, here is a table from the Antec Truepower specifications - VOLTAGE +5V +12V +3.3V -5V -12V +5VSB MAX. LOAD TRUE330 30A 17A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE380 35A 18A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE430 36A 20A 28A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE480 38A 22A 30A 1.5A 1.0A 2.0A TRUE550 40A 24A 32A 0.5A 1.0A 2.0A Their 550W supply can give a max of 24 amps. Notice how even the Antec 330W does a better job than the Q-Tec. Paul |
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In article , "Paul"
wrote: Thank you so much Paul - this is exactly what I need and I'm sure it will be of use to many others attempting to seriously upgrade their kit. When I made my purchases, I went for what I thought was the best, obviously not the RAM (as mentioned earlier) and probably not the Aquarius II water cooling system. Here, I'm going to look for a Zallman cooler and sod the noise! This will bring the temp down a wee bit and improve the air circulation within my case, which is now very cluttered given the pump/radiator etal! Temps currently are MB 25/30C : CPU - Idle 33/36C Load 36/40C Stress (3DMark 2003) 40/50C. My case has 7 fans fitted as standard, the PSU is a dual fan model, the G/C has a fan too! Now as well it seems my PSU is not good enough too - oh well! - all the above together with accessories has probably pushed it too far. I am intrigued about whether the Graphics Card is dead or not. All I get are coloured Mosiacs and these were preceded several times with the "Power Cable Not Connected" Error message, again previously described. I have tried several monitors, so it is not the monitor. Would a better PSU bring it back to life? You surmised correctly in that there has been no smoke or bad smells eminating from within my system but clearly there is something wrong with my card - any more thoughts? I will be spending the best part of this week end sourcing suitable replacements, taking your advice - thanks again. Paul (Rozel) If you want to play around a bit more before replacing some hardware, you could strip out as much excess hardware as possible, and then test the video card again. Just have one hard disk to boot from, with a copy of 3DMark or some other test on it. Maybe by unloading the power supply, you will get enough power to verify whether the video card is damaged or not. You could also test the video card in another computer, if you have a spare. That is sort of a general recipe for building a computer anyway. You should start with a simplified system and add hardware and drivers one at a time. That way, you get immediate feedback as to which new component is causing problems. 1) Motherboard + PS = Beeping or Voice POST messages tell you it isn't completely dead. 2) Add processor = Voice POST no longer complains about processor, but tells you there is no memory. 3) Add one stick of memory = Beeping should be complaining about no video card rather than no memory. 4) Add video card = POST starts and screen is rendered. PS is lightly loaded. BIOS finds no disks. 5) Add floppy = This would allow you to run MEMTEST86 or boot a floppy based OS. 6) Add CDROM = You could boot Knoppix or play a CD to verify the CDROM isn't dead. 7) Add one hard drive = Let the games begin... If you are in a hurry, you could start at step 4. HTH, Paul |
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Thanks again Paul.
After much research I have decided to buy an Antec TruePower 550W PS - as you say this seems to be the dogs b******s in PS's and hopefully it's quoted 24A on the +12v rail, will be sufficient for my stuff. Yes I wish I could "stagger" the startup of the current 4 HDD's (configured in 2 x RAID 0 pairs) - all I can find in the BIOS is something similar for USB mass storage devices (I don't have any), something called ICH delayed transaction, whatever that means and a timeout delay for ATA/IDE devices. I am running with the Asus P4C800-E deluxe using the 1010 bios revision as people tell me there can be problems with the 1011 updated one. My Graphics Card was bought on 01.10.2003, so with a bit of luck (my email was sent 31.10.2003) I should expect full replacement, although I'll go for either a Sapphire or Hecules model this time. Western Digital have already agreed to replace my drives if my supplier can't - they were bought on 29.09.2003 so they are just out of the one month automatic returns limit - we'll see. To control my CPU and case temps better I've also purchased a Zalman 7000 al/cu Cooler - the Aquarius II lacks control and isn't very effective - running both a pump and a radiator too, also drains the current slightly as well! So this coming week will tell me whether my rather expensive kit can be replaced or not and how much deaper I must dig into my wallet! Paul your information has been both informative and excellent - yesterday I learnt so much regarding power supply units - it seems a travesty that more is not written on this subject given that Athlons and P4's now use the +12v rail exclusively for their power requirements whereas in the PIII era CPU's used the +5v rail. All well and good on the face of it until you then learn that PSU's have not "caught up" and still are manufactred with +5v in mind rather than more emphasis being placed on the +12v rail! How many others have upgraded like me to "RAID" systems and have come across all sorts of problems with BSOD's and system freezes etal like myself, because scant regard was placed on the PSU or like me went for a high Wattage PSU, without looking deeper? After all with more drives you need more air circulating through your case - mine has 7 fans, not counting the 2 PSU fans and the GPU fan! All this takes power. Please continue giving this great advice Paul, my only next worry is whether 24A on the +12v rail will be enough for me - when I increase my setup to 5 HDD's for example, does this mean that there will be a load of 5 x 2A - say 10A - placed on the PSU's +12v rail? If this is correct then it doesn't leave much left for everything else and shows, as you pointed out, how pitiful my existing 14A max load was! I do understand that some of the load for other devices is spread so to speak between pre-POST and afterwards but I would like a bit of headroom - comments? TA Paul (Rozel) -------------------------------------------------------------------- This footnote confirms that this email message has been swept by Norton AntiVirus for the presence of computer viruses. This computer is protected by GIANT Company's Spam Inspector --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Paul" wrote in message ... In article , "Paul" wrote: Thank you so much Paul - this is exactly what I need and I'm sure it will be of use to many others attempting to seriously upgrade their kit. When I made my purchases, I went for what I thought was the best, obviously not the RAM (as mentioned earlier) and probably not the Aquarius II water cooling system. Here, I'm going to look for a Zallman cooler and sod the noise! This will bring the temp down a wee bit and improve the air circulation within my case, which is now very cluttered given the pump/radiator etal! Temps currently are MB 25/30C : CPU - Idle 33/36C Load 36/40C Stress (3DMark 2003) 40/50C. My case has 7 fans fitted as standard, the PSU is a dual fan model, the G/C has a fan too! Now as well it seems my PSU is not good enough too - oh well! - all the above together with accessories has probably pushed it too far. I am intrigued about whether the Graphics Card is dead or not. All I get are coloured Mosiacs and these were preceded several times with the "Power Cable Not Connected" Error message, again previously described. I have tried several monitors, so it is not the monitor. Would a better PSU bring it back to life? You surmised correctly in that there has been no smoke or bad smells eminating from within my system but clearly there is something wrong with my card - any more thoughts? I will be spending the best part of this week end sourcing suitable replacements, taking your advice - thanks again. Paul (Rozel) If you want to play around a bit more before replacing some hardware, you could strip out as much excess hardware as possible, and then test the video card again. Just have one hard disk to boot from, with a copy of 3DMark or some other test on it. Maybe by unloading the power supply, you will get enough power to verify whether the video card is damaged or not. You could also test the video card in another computer, if you have a spare. That is sort of a general recipe for building a computer anyway. You should start with a simplified system and add hardware and drivers one at a time. That way, you get immediate feedback as to which new component is causing problems. 1) Motherboard + PS = Beeping or Voice POST messages tell you it isn't completely dead. 2) Add processor = Voice POST no longer complains about processor, but tells you there is no memory. 3) Add one stick of memory = Beeping should be complaining about no video card rather than no memory. 4) Add video card = POST starts and screen is rendered. PS is lightly loaded. BIOS finds no disks. 5) Add floppy = This would allow you to run MEMTEST86 or boot a floppy based OS. 6) Add CDROM = You could boot Knoppix or play a CD to verify the CDROM isn't dead. 7) Add one hard drive = Let the games begin... If you are in a hurry, you could start at step 4. HTH, Paul |
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