SATA and RAM?

[imashination]

Thats like asking if your tv is compatible with the dishwasher. I have never ever heard of ram not working with a harddrive. ever.

[Nem]

thats exactly what i thought, but i needed to ask because theres sumthing wrong with my comp, ive isolated it down to either the RAM or the HD
when i plug in the SATA hard drive it crashed, when i plug in an IDE drive it works fine

[GregHess]

Sounds like you have bad SATA drivers installed.

Ram crashes occur quite randomly...and can basically reproduce virtually all OS errors...depending on when the ram errored.

You just explained your own troubleshooting.

"I plugged in the SATA drive and it crashed."

Check for bios updates, controller card updates, or new windows drivers.

Remember you can't boot off SATA during the install process unless you press F6 and install the drivers off the floppy.

You also can't plug and play SATA (aka just expect windows to not have a problem with SATA) until you've installed the drivers in windows XP BEFORE connecting the drives. (Or win2k, or winnt, etc).

I assume you ran a memtest.

[Nem]

bios is the latest version
SATA drivers are the latest version

i dnt try to use the HD as a plug and play device, im tlkin bout installing a new OS with the SATA drivers, loading up windows, then after a few reboots it just corrupts and dies

surely bad drivers would cause the OS to corrupt and die straight away?

[GregHess]

You've already run a memtest right?

No it wouldn't. If it works at least once, then thats not the issue.

Try a different SATA port?

Is it a true SATA drive, or a normal IDE you converted to SATA?

[Nem]

ran memtest, didnt get enough errors to worry me really, 1 in 8hrs

both primary and secondary SATA ports give the same result

and it is a true SATA drive (maxtor diamondmax plus9 SATA with 8mb cache)

[MadMax]

Please read the thread where it gives instructions on posting these kinds of questions.

You have given virtually ZERO information to work with here.

What motherboard? PS? system details, OS?

You can't get much help just saying it doesn't work. There are other possible issues that may become evident if we knew something other than you have a harddrive that doesn't work.

[Nem]

ok, here goes:

description of problem, ive explained havent i?
i plug in the SATA drive, after a few reboots i get this blue fatal exception screen after the white Windows 2000 screen (first screen with colour after POST)
that happens everytime after that, which means i have to reinstall windows, then it just happens again...

things ive tried so far..
plugged in another IDE drive, then it all works fine, took out a memory module which i thought was faulty, sent that back, left with 2 modules now which i believe are working ok, but i get like 1 error in memtest every 10hours, doesnt seem too bad to me, does it?
changed the SATA drive cable cos i thought it was bad, that improved the situation, which is where we're at now (yes it was a lot worse before the cable change)
tried the different SATA ports like greg recommended, makes no difference
increased my memory timings, that made things slightly better, i think it could be the reason why the IDE drive works, still not sure tho

the only odd behaviour is the corruption of files, fatal errors before windows actually loads properly

problem first started when i hit the power button on my new computer after i had built it

and it is a brand new system

OS: Windows 2000 with no service packs, i dont think installing service packs wud fix this problem
im running directX 8.1 on it atm, ran 9.0 on it as well, both still get crashes

nothing has been overclocked, if anything, the RAM has been underclocked

i have 2 (did have 3) modules of Corsair DDR 512mb PC3200 low latency RAM with heatspreaders. they are in slots 1 and 3 to make use of dual channel memory. mem is running at 400mhz
CAS latency on them is 2.5, voltage is 2.6volts

motherboard:
asus a7n8x deluxe revision 2 with bios version 1005

CPU: AMD Athlon XP3200 running at 2200mhz (default speed) and 400FSB

CPU temp: 38 degrees (celcius), motherboard temp: 29 degrees
i am using an SLK800 as the heatsink with arctic silver 3 as the thermal compound. on the heatsink i have a coolermaster 80mm fan (32CFM, 2500RPM, 25dbA)
i have 4 more of these fans as case fans (2 intake, 2 outtake)

video card: quadroFX1000 running driver version 43.51. not running quadroView, maxtreme etc

BIOS:
version 1005

Mem timings:
SDRAM active precharge delay - 6
SDRAM RAS to CAS delay - 3
SDRAM RAS Precharge delay - 3
SDRAM CAS latency - 2.5T

graphics aperture size - 128mb

FSB spread spectrum - 0.5%

AGP8x enabled

DDR reference voltage - 2.6V
AGP VDDQ Voltage - 1.5V

IEEE1394 headers disabled

3COM LAN disabled

system components/peripherals:

AMD XP3200
Asus a7n8x deluxe revision 2
Antec trueblue 480Watt PSU
2 x Corsair 512mb PC3200 low latency RAM
Maxtor diamondmax plus9 120gb 8mb cache SATA
plextor CD rewriter
lite-on DVD player
PNY quadroFX1000
audigy 2 platinum eX
SONY floppy drive
extra PCI components (usb ports, serial ports, firewire ports)

all the informaton if being gathered as the comp is working, but im expecting it to corrupt again soon...and it did (just restarted it)

when i first started i just installed the OS, it crashed, then i installed the OS and split up my HD using partition magic 8, it crashed. i didnt no if that would make any difference, thought id throw it in there anyway

memtest has been run, very few errors, but if i do get them theyre usually on test 3, 4 or 5
ive run a test for the hard drive, powerMAX (provided by maxtor). this is interesting because i always thought the HD was causing the problem, well, it still might be, but the HD test shows that the HD passes all tests and there arent any errors (cabling is fine, partition ifo is fine etc)

is that enough info?
yes, i really do want to get the comp up and running, ive had all the parts for about 2months and its still pretty much dead
:annoyed: :cry: :sad: :banghead:

[MadMax]

Originally posted by Nem
is that enough info?


Yep.

A7N8X is what I thought you mght have, that helps a lot.

First off, what is the version of the SiliconImage Driver and where did you get it?
there are "alternate" setups for the Bios and drivers called "uber Bios" which you can get over at :

nForcersHQ (http://www.nforcershq.com)



This is pretty much the #1 site for anything relating to the nForce boards.

Uber bios is well tested and works great. The member who compiles them has modified SATA drivers that are reliable and stable.

Just follow the link, the correct forum will be obvious, read the sticky threads.

[ZrO-1]

I would definetly take MadMax's advice. His solution could do the trick.

One other thing you could try is booting into safe mode (hit F8 during boot just after POST). That way all drivers would be disabled. See if it crashes then. At least that way, you could tell if it's hardware or drivers causing this problem.

Good luck, I hope that helps.

[Nem]

flashed the bios with the uber 1005 and the enhanced SATA drivers but I still get the same corruption error :(

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