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View Full Version : Could it be the PSU, the SATA Drives or what?


Minacious
02-15-2005, 03:39 PM
PSU ANTEC TRUE550
K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD 64 3500+ (no O/C)
2GB Corsair XMS
80GB MAXTOR IDE (O/S XP SP2)
200GB MAXTOR IDE
300GB MAXTOR SATA X 2
GeForce 6800 Ultra
SB Audigy 2 Zs Plat.
PIONEER DVD+/-RW
Lite-On 52X CDR
Among other things

The problems that I am experiencing have to do with the SATA drives on one level or another, I just don’t know where. My problem didn’t start on the MSI MB listed above, but with an ASUS A8V. I built another computer with all the components you see listed. All would be well for a day or two, and then the computer would just hard lock requiring a reboot. Upon reboot I would get an error that the SATA drives can not be located. With several attempts to reboot, the same message would be displayed and once fully into Windows I would simple not have those drives available, but the comp would work fine otherwise. I immediately figured something was wrong with the drives so I had them RMA’d for new ones. Now the new ones are installed, I get about a day of smooth operation, and then the hard lock with the same results as listed above. Now I assumed it had something to do with the MB (the ASUS one at this point). I RMA’d the MB, blabba, blabba, blabba, same results as above. I was stumped. I then decided to change the MB to a completely different brand and here I am with the MSI board. Same thing, about a day of smooth operation and then the hard lock with the “can’t find the SATA drives” message during reboot. Oh yeah one more thing, if I let it sit overnight and cold boot it, the SATA drives will be recognized, but then process just starts over like before.


After all of this I am thinking that maybe it is a PSU issue. Maybe that 550 Antec can’t handle what’s all in the box, although I assumed it would be more than enough. This is my first time building a comp with 4 HDs in it and also the first time I have ever ran into these types of problems. Some assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Minacious
02-15-2005, 05:38 PM
Yep, running on the latest BIOS (1.4).

The listed output level for the PSU are

+5V 40.0A - 4.92V
+12V 24.0A - 11.91V
-5V 0.5A - 5.20V
-12V 1.0A - 12.14V


Or where you asking me to measure them myself?

Minacious
02-15-2005, 07:38 PM
The 12V is at 11.67 and the 5V is at 4.96.

Mme Pompardour
02-16-2005, 03:40 AM
the problem is the motherboard, there is no pci lock on the sata chanels and it just generally sucks.. on that MSI board make sure you use sata channels 3 & 4 (the connectors above the gfx card by the usb ports on the back of the board) as they supposedly have some lock whereas channel 1& 2 have non... also make sure yuo have agp/pci speed locked to 66/33 mhz

I had that same mobo and for me anything much above 210fsb channels 3 & 4 would crap out too even with the lock supposedly on, in the end I bought a pci sata card to run my drives off, after that all was fine

if you do a litltle search of google you will find its a common problem, sata often does not like the pci speed above 33.33mhz, especially if its a raid setup ;)

Minacious
02-16-2005, 04:04 AM
Thanks for the reply Dan. All that info that you just posted I pretty much knew. Nothing has been overclocked on this rig yet so I figured the fact that channels 1 & 2 have no lock wouldn't be an issue at this point.

I might have to install a SATA card and see if that solves the problem.

By the way, I'm still laughing at your thread about your sig.