SATA/Nvidia Chipset freezing intermittently
Well, I read this:
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13287
And I am glad you were able to solve this problem but at the same time I am disappointed that you never figured out exactly what was causing it; The reason being that I have a somewhat similar configuration and a somewhat similar problem, and would dearly like to know what on earth to do after one week of lost productivity and more lost hair than I care to think about.
So the system I put together was:
Albatron KX18D Pro II (Nvidia NForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset)
Athlon XP 2600+
1Gb Dual-Channel Corsair Valueram (PC2700 but running at 333 with the 2600+)
PerfectColor ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (a very nice card for the price, let me mention)
Samsung 7200rpm 160Gb SATA hdd
Lite-on DVR drive
(all purchased from Newegg, who have been great so far - fingers crossed)
I installed WinXP Pro SP1 and all the updates, and a bunch of other stuff, and it was working fine except every now and then, the computer would freeze for about 20-30 seconds. Afterwards, it would resume as if nothing happened, but these freezes would happen at least once an hour or more, so they are annoying as hell and quite disturbing.
The error log contained these errors/warnings:
multiple warnings:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation
and the error:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D
Corrective attempts:
Replaced the memory, no change
Replaced the video card, no change
Replaced the power supply, no change
Changed the SATA from plug 0 to plug 1, no change
Did a slow format on the hard drive, and a complete reinstallation of windows. So far I have installed DirectX 9.0c and the Nvidia drivers for the mobo chipset/audio, and no freezes yet, but the errors/warnings above are still present in the new log.
One thing to note is that the during installation, windows prompted with the "unsigned software" warning as a result of the SATA driver. Of course, I tried to prevent it from continuing but that just froze the install so I had to let it use the unsigned software. The SATA controller is:
Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller
What should I do? RMA the HDD? The Mobo? Both? None? Could this be a cable issue?
Thanks in advance for any assistance,
ECRIA
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13287
And I am glad you were able to solve this problem but at the same time I am disappointed that you never figured out exactly what was causing it; The reason being that I have a somewhat similar configuration and a somewhat similar problem, and would dearly like to know what on earth to do after one week of lost productivity and more lost hair than I care to think about.
So the system I put together was:
Albatron KX18D Pro II (Nvidia NForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset)
Athlon XP 2600+
1Gb Dual-Channel Corsair Valueram (PC2700 but running at 333 with the 2600+)
PerfectColor ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (a very nice card for the price, let me mention)
Samsung 7200rpm 160Gb SATA hdd
Lite-on DVR drive
(all purchased from Newegg, who have been great so far - fingers crossed)
I installed WinXP Pro SP1 and all the updates, and a bunch of other stuff, and it was working fine except every now and then, the computer would freeze for about 20-30 seconds. Afterwards, it would resume as if nothing happened, but these freezes would happen at least once an hour or more, so they are annoying as hell and quite disturbing.
The error log contained these errors/warnings:
multiple warnings:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation
and the error:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D
Corrective attempts:
Replaced the memory, no change
Replaced the video card, no change
Replaced the power supply, no change
Changed the SATA from plug 0 to plug 1, no change
Did a slow format on the hard drive, and a complete reinstallation of windows. So far I have installed DirectX 9.0c and the Nvidia drivers for the mobo chipset/audio, and no freezes yet, but the errors/warnings above are still present in the new log.
One thing to note is that the during installation, windows prompted with the "unsigned software" warning as a result of the SATA driver. Of course, I tried to prevent it from continuing but that just froze the install so I had to let it use the unsigned software. The SATA controller is:
Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller
What should I do? RMA the HDD? The Mobo? Both? None? Could this be a cable issue?
Thanks in advance for any assistance,
ECRIA
0
Comments
Have you tried the Diagnostic tools from Samsung?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-152-015&depa=0
If you have any clue where I can get a diagnostic utility I would be in heaven.
Thanks!
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
hopefully you have a friends computer that you can do this on. boot using the cd and there should be a hard drive diagnostics item from the menu. you might have to browse through the menus to find it but it is there. there should be a bunch of different types of diag harddrive tools labeled by brand. don't remember if there is a samsung one. but i run the ibm drive fitness test on a lot of differnet types of harddrives and it always works. it will check all the sectors and let you know if the drive is faulty. if you want to check something else about the drive, one of the other options might work. this cd's got a ton of diagnostic tools on it. i use it a lot for my work place and it hasn't failed me yet. hope this helps.
Anyone pleeeese?
Thanks again...
but first system specs:
AMD Athlon 2800+
Albatron KX18D Pro II
512 MB RAM
Samsung SP80 1614C 160GB SATA HD
ATI 9600XT 128MB
I also tried to install windows xp from cd (from scratch with the samsung hd being the only hd installed)
CD starts to install i hit f6 so that i can install the SATA raid drivers from floppy...the setup finds the hd...i choose to ntfs partition...it starts to format my hd and poof the first error message stating
this hd could not be formatted...oops
well then i chose to quick partition the hd..and guess what: it worked.
windows xp installed ( i also got the "unsigned software" issue during install though) and i patched it to SP 1.
After a while of installing stuff and browsing the internet i noticed that the system would freeze every now and again (like ecria stated once every hour).
it was starting to piss me off! :banghead:
i haven't found a solution yet but i do have a question:
do you have one or two SATA HDs installed?
because i have a feeling (with this mobo) that a raid configuration has to be set up beforehand. and this can only be achieved with two SATA HDs
greets
dfme
EDIT: I can't even low level format the hd in the bios raid configuration utility (hit f4 when system boots up)
Well, the bottom line is that it's a motherboard issue - I tried the HDD on a VIA KT600/ VT8237 chipset board and it worked wonderfully. I basically tried different base configurations on the KX18D until I could safely rule out all the components. I now have the KX18D running on a Western Digital EIDE drive (ATA 133) and no problems at all, so I believe that the fault is in the SiI3112 RAID controller or drivers. And since the same drivers caused the windows warning "unsigned software" my bet would be on the drivers. So I tried a number of different drivers from SiI for both this motherboard (all the ones on the CD and albatron website), and for other Nforce2 Ultra 400 boards (How different could they be, right? - wrong). They all caused problems, and the only one that allowed windows to install completely was the one that came with the MOBO CD - the one that makes it freeze intermittently.
I think the only solution is if Albatron releases updated drivers, or recalls the boards if it is indeed a hardware defect.
Well, in regard to the formatting problem you were having - I don't know if it has anything to do with this issue, I had the same problem the second time I tried installing windows, and I messed around a bit until it worked. I think quickformat did the trick, and then I restarted and did a normal format... I can't remember for certain. There's no problem with the drive, though - it's a stellar storage device - you should have seen it jet along on the Abit KV7... I am really pissed off that I can't use SATA on the KX18D Pro II... Let's start a class action against Albatron - they need to fix this problem and compensate us for the lost time...
And why don't the reviews of this board say anything about this issue? You'd think that the first thing a reviewer would do is check the windows event log. Computer Scientists are just not the same breed anymore...
1st suggestion:
well i called tech support of where i ordered the hd and he suggests getting a pci SATA controller for the mobo. i guess this pci sata controller comes with software drivers of its own.
so if the controller (or the software drivers) that came with the mobo is causing the issue then this should solve the problem!?
2nd suggestion:
check out the official forum of albatron:
http://www.albatron.com.sg/bb/viewtopic.php?id=601
there seems to be someone with the same problem.
just this time with two maxtor sata hds.
There should be no difference in speed as a result of using a PCI add-in card as opposed to the on-board SiI3112 controller - they both use the same PCI bus as far as I know, and in fact will most likely use the exact same chip...
KX18D Pro II certainly has enough PCI expansion slots to make it a feasible option. The installation process should be no different from the onboard SATA, plus this gives you the opportunity to do a RAID0+1 if you want to at some point...
All things considered it is a workaround that does not sit well with me. Remember, this is not a fix - Albatron should fix this problem with a driver update, and fingers crossed they will do this some day. I recommend that you contact them, the more people do it the more inclined they will be to take action.
Well, before that day comes I am doing the exact same thing... after all it's cheaper than an RMA and I'm getting a bit sick of looking at the 160G SATA drive sitting quietly on my bookshelf...
I got this one
http://www.shentech.com/silimst2pors.html
And I'll post with comments when I get it and it works...
I'm still keen to see if there is ANYONE out there who managed to get their SATA drive working on the KX18D Pro II.
http://www.albatron.com.sg/bb/viewtopic.php?id=601
and post your problem... after all it is the official albatron forum.
+ there seems to be an update driver for the sata controller:
http://www.short-media.com/download.php?dc=46
i will test it tonight and post if it worked...
greets
dfme
first the good news:
the updated 1.0.0.50 drivers for sil3112a (sata controller) actually changed a few things:
1. I could finally format my hd in the windows setup when being prompted what kind of partition you would like
2. I don't get any "unsigned software" errors anymore during winXP install
after experiencing these two good points i was already thinking that the freezing problem would be resolved too
but...
i was wrong:
my system still randomly hangs for 20 - 30 secs and then continues as if nothing happened
ecria: could you explain to me where I can find the windows error log
To view the windows error log, you need to go to
Control Panel (category view) -> Performance And Maintenance-> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> System
or
Control Panel (classic view) -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> System
See if you get a warning with "Harddrive0/D during a paging operation" and when it freezes an error "write operation failed" or "scsi host controller SiI3112" - I can't remember the exact text.
Like I said, I have a regular IDE ATA133 drive in the machine now and it works fine. It's definitely a SATA controller issue.
Asus A7N8X-E
Athlon 2800+ (166 FSB)
one 512 single channel RAM piece (rated at 400)
20G Maxtor (udma 66 only)
8G Maxtor (udma33)
Pioneer DVD 107D
ATI9000
no sata drives and the SATA drivers aren't installed.
I seem to only have the problem when I'm logged on to the net (PPPOE DSL)
The problem is that I can't execute any new programs, no net access, and if I'm using a small program, as long as it doesn't do IO it still works during the 1 minute freeze. The mouse works though. not sure if it's the exact same problem but still pretty darn annoying.
Yes it's true that I've only used the drivers on the CD but I'll be getting around to trying the nvidia drivers this weekend as well as upgrading my BIOS... oh ya, I guess I should do XP too.
Also, a friend of mine said he had a similar problem and he disabled the onboard NIC and installed a PCI one, never had a problem since (not the same mobo though). I'm going to try this if the driver updates don't fix the problem.
I'll write back and post the details of how it all went.
Dan
ofcourse the system runs like a dream now... but it's not really a solution...
anyway after exchanging the hd, a guy over on the albatron forums posted a "could be fix" for this problem i quote:
too late for me...but this might help you ECRIA...
let me know if it did the trick
I guess my choice is to either get rid of the hard drive or the motherboard. This really sucks. Do all nForce2 Ultra 400 boards have that Si controller? A class action lawsuit is sounding really good to me right now.
sorry to hear that brad...
it seems to be Si3112 SATA controller that creates this mess...
the last thing i can recommend (if you've already tried all other solutions in this thread) is to download the latest nforce drivers over at the nvidia website...
here's a link:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_winxp_5.10
these are the latest drivers for winxp
they rectified a few problems i was having with my liteon cd burner...so they might also update the Si3112 SATA drivers...
good luck
dfme
It seems like the problems are with the Si3112 controller and the Samsung 160 GB SATA drive. Can anyone find anyone who has gotten those two to work together?