Maximum PC

Its fine nasty, it better to know everything anyhow, now at least when i say i replaced something it wont be too confusing...

any who, i ran this calculator before performing the build, i got 449w.

heres some additional information:

4 120 mm led fans

fan controller

4 usb devices

.... seems i cant load the screen shots ether. I'll leave em on dropbox here are the links.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2225367/mystuff2.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2225367/mystuff3.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2225367/mystuff.png

Nasty,

i made some adjustments to the calculator, found my actual cpu and changed the mobo to a highend.

final calculation is: 494 watts

i also added an additional 7200 drive so total 11 7200 1 green....

I am confused, you list the cpu as AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz and it doesn't work with the motherboard you list.

Edit your list to reflect exactly you have in that pc, include overclocking too....if you have it.

Nasty

no just made the mobo high end so that it draws more power... just trying to max out everything so i can see how much power i would need.

I am still confused, you list the cpu as AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz and it doesn't work with the motherboard you list.

Remove any overclocking you have and run it like that, does the issue still crop up?

Nasty

now your confusing me...

nothing is overclocked, everything is stocked. My mobo works with almost any am3/am3+ cpu. If it didnt, i wouldn't have been able to install whs.

Referring to the calculator, the MOST wattage it calculated for me was 494 watts, thats it.

Ok, My mistake, under the overclocking information there is a very small box that needs a check if you overclock and it isn't there....old eyes ya know

Anyway you have a Zambezi listed there and in your previous posts you listed the cpu as Regor which will not run in that motherboard.

Nasty

Yes, I made the adjustment for the regor and selected a high end mother road, I still received a 494 watt score

Power supplies do not put out the full wattage do to inefficiencies in the circuits...heat...resistance...ware on capacitors ectra, so the most you get these days is about 80% efficiency and this drops with age, which brings you actual available wattage to 480 watts from a 600 watt psu. You are very close to that number and when you load the system down and it calls for more voltage under high loads the weakest link dies, which in your case seems to be a raid card. This is all I can reason out of your issue causing the problem. See if you can borrow a psu from a friend to see if this theory is correct, just to eliminate it as your cause.

I don't think it is heat but you could try removing the case side and place a house fan on high speed and run a high load test....if it doesn't die you know you have a heat problem to deal with.

Nasty

Ok, i have a 750 watt psi i could test with. The psu on the system is fairly new, only about 3 weeks old.

So here's my plan of attack:
First lower the latency and test
Break the raid test hdds
I bought another, non-silicon raid controller, i will swap with the current one
Last, swap psu out with a larger one.
I'm leaving that last as i have all the cables tucked away, and it would be a pain pulling it apart...

I would run the ram at the "auto" option in the bios. Is the ram on the QVL in the manual? Run memtest86+ to check the ram, one stick at a time. Even one error RMA that stick.

I really think it is the psu and would change it out first.

Nasty

PCI clock latency, I have it set to 96, I think the standard is 64. Memory timings and CPU are all stocked. No need to of since its only a whs.

Set the bios to "Optimal Defaults" and see what happens.

Nasty

UPDATE:

-changed latency to a lower setting, same problem
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-going to break the raid and run diagnostics tonight

-if everything checks out, going to pull raid card and replace with new pci-x raid

-if raid still gets lost, i will pull psu and swap with mine.

UPDATE:
checked the drives, no errors to report.
Swapped raid controllers, installed the pci-x controller card. Everything Posts, untill the bootstrap loader kicks off... I just get a black, blank screen while loading windows.

OOKKK, so going through the system, i decided to break the newly configured raid 5 and disconnect (via sata cable) the hard drives... windows boots up

So maybe its a driver issue? install the drivers while in windows and create the raid 5 from the software provided. IT WORKS!!! dumped a 450 gigs worth of data on the drive and let it sit for a day. Windows doesnt lose the raid 5, WONDERFUL!

untill i installed some updates and rebooted...

hangs again while booting into windows. tried to boot into safe mode, looks like storport.sys is the driver hanging. oook, tried to reinstall windows, the reinstaller begins to load, then hangs, WHAT THE !@##$%!!!!

So going through the same steps as before, i disconnected the hard drives (via sata cable) and windows boots.
Ok so now i'm going crazy! Before i chuck this thing off a 10 story building, i need to figure out the problem!!
i'm kinda resisting the power supply issue for two reasons,

1: i tried three different psu calculators and they all say i'm at about 475 watts ( i know its an estimate and i put extra stuff in it just to make sure ). i have a recently purchased 600 watt psu running the system. So theres no way i'm short on power i have about a 100 watt work load of cushion.

The only thing i could think it could be with the power supply is an Amperage issue....

2: i really really dont want to sink more money into this blasted thing, on top of which, pulling my 750 watt from my other system is not something i can just do; without wasting a weekend away.
So whats left? i'm at a complete loss here, i cant find anything on google related to my issue.

i'm thinking of breaking the mirrored arrays, getting my data off the machine, then just running the whole thing on two controllers. Frustrating and defeats the purpose of starting this project ANY INPUT??

That 600 watt psu is only putting out 480 watts. 600 X .80 = 480. The psu only outputs 80% of the 600 watts under load. You can loose more if the psu is old....so quit beating around the bush and put the 750 psu in and I'll bet it will be fine.

Nasty

OK fine I give.

but.... i wouldnt be a maximum pc fan boy if i didnt try something crazy (or just plain silly)

i really really dont want to take out the 750 watt psu, tooooooo much of a pain in the ***...

but, i do have a 400 watt psu (same type as the corsair) laying around. I think i am going to rig it so it powers on with the pc and connect 4 out of the 12 drives to it. wish me luck.

i should be done in a few minutes, please stand by...

i'll send pics if it works.

well all drives are reported to be ok, still nothing. I have a 400 watt psu powering 4 hdd's and still no boot. I'm just going to sell the thing on ebay. i'm done...

determined to get this thing working, i broke the on board raid configurations

slapped the other pci raid card in the machine

i disabled the onboard raid controller recreated the mirrored arrays on the pci raid and what do you know? it booted........ i could have sworn i saw a beam of light from the ceiling.

so looks like this is a case closed finally. It was the onboard raid the whole time. I dont know what it was exactly doing, but whatever it is, its no good.

Thanks Nasty for the help, i really appreciate it!!!

I wonder if the on-board Raid is limited to a certain size array. If you can find the motherboard manual and check...just to see if that was the problem. But ya know ... real men don't read instructions.

Nasty