Horribly Unstable P4C800 Deluxe

[Nebor]

I'm running a P4C 3.0ghz on an Asus P4C800 Deluxe motherboard. I'm using Corsair XMS 3200 ram, 1GB of it in dual channel mode. I'm running 2 western digital caviar 80gb HDs in a raid 0 configuration. My videocard is an MSI GeForce4 ti4400 128mb, and my soundcard is an Audigy 2. I'm running Windows XP w/ all the updates.

This system, while fast, is the most unstable computer I've ever used. I can't use it without it crashing. It will either just lock up, or give me repeating errors. This thing is crazy. Does anyone have any idea how to fix all this instability? I have the 1007 BIOS version. Currently, when I start my PC, explorer has an error and must close. Then I send an error report, explorer closes and opens again, and then crashes again. HELP!

 

[mechBgon]

Try backing off your memory timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and 2.7 to 2.75 volts (Instructions) Hope that helps you out

Also, if you don't have a respectable power supply in the 350W+ area, that would probably be a good thing to pick up. And put your Audigy 2 in PCI slot #5 (bottom one) while leaving PCI slot #1 (top one) vacant, since they share an IRQ but only with eachother.

 

[Nebor]

I couldn't find the timings the first time around... so I just changed the voltage... That fixed my problems though (well, the problem where I was erroring endlessly w/ startup)... Should I still change the timings?

 

[mechBgon]

If it's stable with just the voltage bump, that's the goal. I *think* if you go step-by-step, my instructions will get you access to the other timings too.

 

[Nebor]

The thing is, Asus didn't include 2 PATA raid connectors. They included, one, and then 2 SATA raid connectors. So one of my HDs is on the PATA connector, and one is on the SATA, with an adapter. Would I be better off if they were both on Sata? There are different XP drivers for PATA & SATA.... I wonder which one it's using now? I tried to load the SATA one, but that resulted in massive errors, and had to restore to a backup point. Could this be the reason that my HDs read so slow in their RAID 0 config?

 

[borgmang]

I'm about to build a very similiar system and I'm curious how this works out. I'm getting a P4 2.8C w/Asus P4 800E dlx mobo, and I was wondering how to set-up the raid as well. Can you put 1 SATA and 1 ATA drive as a raid set-up? Or does it have to be 2 SATA or 2ATA drives together only?

Good luck Nebor

 

[Nebor]

You can put one PATA and one SATA and raid them together... My system is highly unstable though... I think I'm going to get another adapter and put both of them on SATA... I would definitely advise against this Motherboard though.