SATA drive problem, etc.
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Posted by Mark N on April 21, 2007, 1:06 pm
Please log in for more thread options upgrade my PC instead of pissing around piecemeal, and replaced the mobo, processor, video card and memory, now having a Core 2 Duo E6600 in an MSI P6N Platinum, which uses the nForce 650i SLI chipset, and also 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 and an XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320mb Extreme. Rebooting problem gone, and things mostly are back to normal (but faster). Installation went fine, and I was able to do the replacements without reinstalling Windows. The BIOS is version 1.0 and I know it's still a bit buggy - for instance, I can't change the memory voltage, the only option is "auto", so I can't change the latency timings to the spec 4-4-4-12 from what I understand is the default 5-5-5-18 without stuff eventually crashing. I don't plan on flashing the BIOS until MSI releases their next update. What I discovered this week is that my only SATA hard drive isn't up to snuff. Windows is on an older PATA drive, and I had all my programs on that and another PATA drive, but I finally installed something other than data on the SATA drive this week, the copy of Ghost Recon that came with the video card. It took forever to install, something like a half hour, and the game was very slow in starting up and performance seemed a bit lacking. So after tweaking the game some I finally uninstalled it and reinstalled on a PATA drive, and that took much less time and it works much better now. So what can be wrong with my SATA drive? I installed the latest motherboard drivers from nVidia at installation, and my understanding is that with SATA drives there are no jumpers to set or DMA settings to tweak or anything along those lines. The drive is a Western Digital WD2500KS, which is a SATA 300 drive. Having only used it for data storage, I don't know if the speed issue was present in the old setup, but I never noticed anything unusual. I don't see anything unusual indicated in Windows, SiSoft Sandra, etc. It's connected to the 1st SATA port, and I'm using a 4-pin molex power connector, 500W Antec PS. Thanks in advance for any help... | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by kony on April 21, 2007, 4:46 pm
Please log in for more thread options Check Windows Event Viewer to see if anything seemingly related is listed. Use Sandra's benchmark for the drive and compare to the scores it has for other drives. Recheck the connector to the drive to confirm it is seated good, and at the motherboard end. If there is any doubt about it, try another cable. Were you implying there is no bios update available that is newer than the presently installed version? If there is one, go ahead and update the bios if the notes suggest anything useful is patched. I am wondering if you had tried to change the memory voltage, from "auto" to manual. Often more choices then appear, but were hidden until you make that change. Also others have observed the ability to change memory voltage, for example they list the range here, "1.80V to 2.80 in .05V increments" http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2946&p=2 When you wrote that changing timings w/o voltage means things eventually crash, did you test the stability with Memtest86+ before booting windows? Don't make memory changes then run windows without first attempting to confirm some level of stability, otherwise there is significant risk of file or registry corruption, especially when copying files back and forth. It's even possible the memory isn't entirely stable at it's present settings, I mean if you haven't yet checked it, how will you know for sure? | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Mark N on April 22, 2007, 12:16 am
Please log in for more thread options kony wrote:
>
> Check Windows Event Viewer to see if anything seemingly > related is listed. > > Use Sandra's benchmark for the drive and compare to the > scores it has for other drives. > > Recheck the connector to the drive to confirm it is seated > good, and at the motherboard end. If there is any doubt > about it, try another cable. > > Were you implying there is no bios update available that is > newer than the presently installed version? If there is > one, go ahead and update the bios if the notes suggest > anything useful is patched. > > I am wondering if you had tried to change the memory > voltage, from "auto" to manual. Often more choices then > appear, but were hidden until you make that change. Also > others have observed the ability to change memory voltage, > for example they list the range here, "1.80V to 2.80 in .05V > increments" > > http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2946&p=2 > > When you wrote that changing timings w/o voltage means > things eventually crash, did you test the stability with > Memtest86+ before booting windows? Don't make memory > changes then run windows without first attempting to confirm > some level of stability, otherwise there is significant risk > of file or registry corruption, especially when copying > files back and forth. It's even possible the memory isn't > entirely stable at it's present settings, I mean if you > haven't yet checked it, how will you know for sure? I have run Memtest86 and no problems indicated. There is a newer BIOS available, 1.1, but as Anand's article indicates, there's an even newer version that should be available any time that seems to work fine, and I'm not in such a hurry to do something like flashing the BIOS, if Im going to do it again soon. When I click on the memory voltage indicator, there is no choice other than auto, which I assume is a problem with that version of the BIOS, but I haven't seen that indicated anywhere on the web. I also have noticed a couple other problems related to analyzing/solving the problem - I can't get MSI Dual Core Center to display at all (I do have .Net Framework 2.0 installed), and nTune's mobo adjustment screen displays, but there's absolutely nothing there that I can adjust (well, the AGP clock slider works). I've even had problems getting Sandra to display and run, so I'm not so confident of it's readings. I did just rerun the HD bandwidth benchmark, and the SATA drive's readings were abysmal first run, but after checking an PATA drive I reran it and it was much better, so I don't really trust what I'm getting. I'm also curious about nVidia firewall. I know that was part of my previous chipset, nForce3-250, and I was playing around with BitTorrent/Azureus this week for the first time, and download speed seems very slow, with an indication that the firewall might be the problem. But I can't find anything in my system related to that, no place where I can adjust settings, no reference to it at all. So I don't know if it's even part of the new chipset, or if there's something left over that didn't get uninstalled in the old drivers. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by kony on April 22, 2007, 5:10 am
Please log in for more thread options On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 21:16:35 -0700, Mark N
>I'm also curious about nVidia firewall. I know that was part of my
>previous chipset, nForce3-250, and I was playing around with >BitTorrent/Azureus this week for the first time, and download speed >seems very slow, with an indication that the firewall might be the >problem. But I can't find anything in my system related to that, no >place where I can adjust settings, no reference to it at all. So I don't >know if it's even part of the new chipset, or if there's something left >over that didn't get uninstalled in the old drivers. I vaguely recall that when installing chipset drivers, you then have the option to install the firewall driver or not (effectively disabling it). You might try uninstalling then reinstalling the (nVidia reference, not older(?) MSI chipset drivers). | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by don't look on April 22, 2007, 11:18 pm
Please log in for more thread options
> kony wrote:
> > >
> > Check Windows Event Viewer to see if anything seemingly > > related is listed. > > > > Use Sandra's benchmark for the drive and compare to the > > scores it has for other drives. > > > > Recheck the connector to the drive to confirm it is seated > > good, and at the motherboard end. If there is any doubt > > about it, try another cable. > > > > Were you implying there is no bios update available that is > > newer than the presently installed version? If there is > > one, go ahead and update the bios if the notes suggest > > anything useful is patched. > > > > I am wondering if you had tried to change the memory > > voltage, from "auto" to manual. Often more choices then > > appear, but were hidden until you make that change. Also > > others have observed the ability to change memory voltage, > > for example they list the range here, "1.80V to 2.80 in .05V > > increments" > > > > http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2946&p=2 > > > > When you wrote that changing timings w/o voltage means > > things eventually crash, did you test the stability with > > Memtest86+ before booting windows? Don't make memory > > changes then run windows without first attempting to confirm > > some level of stability, otherwise there is significant risk > > of file or registry corruption, especially when copying > > files back and forth. It's even possible the memory isn't > > entirely stable at it's present settings, I mean if you > > haven't yet checked it, how will you know for sure? >
> I have run Memtest86 and no problems indicated. There is a newer BIOS > available, 1.1, but as Anand's article indicates, there's an even newer > version that should be available any time that seems to work fine, and > I'm not in such a hurry to do something like flashing the BIOS, if Im > going to do it again soon. When I click on the memory voltage indicator, > there is no choice other than auto, which I assume is a problem with > that version of the BIOS, but I haven't seen that indicated anywhere on > the web. I also have noticed a couple other problems related to > analyzing/solving the problem - I can't get MSI Dual Core Center to > display at all (I do have .Net Framework 2.0 installed), and nTune's > mobo adjustment screen displays, but there's absolutely nothing there > that I can adjust (well, the AGP clock slider works). I've even had > problems getting Sandra to display and run, so I'm not so confident of > it's readings. I did just rerun the HD bandwidth benchmark, and the SATA > drive's readings were abysmal first run, but after checking an PATA > drive I reran it and it was much better, so I don't really trust what > I'm getting. > > I'm also curious about nVidia firewall. I know that was part of my > previous chipset, nForce3-250, and I was playing around with > BitTorrent/Azureus this week for the first time, and download speed > seems very slow, with an indication that the firewall might be the > problem. But I can't find anything in my system related to that, no > place where I can adjust settings, no reference to it at all. So I don't > know if it's even part of the new chipset, or if there's something left > over that didn't get uninstalled in the old drivers. I was having some bad SATA drive problems too. And,I downloaded Sandra from a couple places ,installed and it won't run at all.Nothing happens even though the install seems to go right. As for mt SATA problems,I had to return the mobo Foxconn N4UK8AA(Nforce4 Ultra). I have two SATA drives runnung now but one is shownig UDMA 4,the other shows UDMA 5 .I have the latest forceware drivers. I've been seeing a bunch of posts about problems with sata drives. | |||||||||||||||||||
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>upgrade my PC instead of pissing around piecemeal, and replaced the
>mobo, processor, video card and memory, now having a Core 2 Duo E6600 in
>an MSI P6N Platinum, which uses the nForce 650i SLI chipset, and also
>2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 and an XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320mb Extreme.
>Rebooting problem gone, and things mostly are back to normal (but faster).
>
>Installation went fine, and I was able to do the replacements without
>reinstalling Windows. The BIOS is version 1.0 and I know it's still a
>bit buggy - for instance, I can't change the memory voltage, the only
>option is "auto", so I can't change the latency timings to the spec
>4-4-4-12 from what I understand is the default 5-5-5-18 without stuff
>eventually crashing. I don't plan on flashing the BIOS until MSI
>releases their next update.
>
>What I discovered this week is that my only SATA hard drive isn't up to
>snuff. Windows is on an older PATA drive, and I had all my programs on
>that and another PATA drive, but I finally installed something other
>than data on the SATA drive this week, the copy of Ghost Recon that came
>with the video card. It took forever to install, something like a half
>hour, and the game was very slow in starting up and performance seemed a
>bit lacking. So after tweaking the game some I finally uninstalled it
>and reinstalled on a PATA drive, and that took much less time and it
>works much better now.
>
>So what can be wrong with my SATA drive? I installed the latest
>motherboard drivers from nVidia at installation, and my understanding is
>that with SATA drives there are no jumpers to set or DMA settings to
>tweak or anything along those lines. The drive is a Western Digital
>WD2500KS, which is a SATA 300 drive. Having only used it for data
>storage, I don't know if the speed issue was present in the old setup,
>but I never noticed anything unusual. I don't see anything unusual
>indicated in Windows, SiSoft Sandra, etc. It's connected to the 1st SATA
>port, and I'm using a 4-pin molex power connector, 500W Antec PS.
>
>Thanks in advance for any help...