Maybe it's not Creative's fault after all?

[Sandman333]

Well, just upgraded my system from a P III 600E on SOYO 6BA+IV to an Athlon XP 1800 on Abit KR7A-133R. I have the infamous system hang when transferring large files between hard drives on IDE 1 and IDE 2 (neither is on the HPT controller). Yes, I do have a Creative SB Live! Platinum, but it is not the cause of the system hang.... read on:

First, my current system specs:

Athlon XP 1800 running at default FSB, Multiplier, Voltage
Abit KR7A-133R, BIOS 6N
768 Mb Crucial PC-2100 DDR SDRAM
Creative GeForce 32 Mb DDR (yeah, this is the next thing to get an upgrade when I can afford it)
Creative SB Live! Platinum
Adaptec SCSI PCI adapter for my Microtek Scanner (X6el)
Pioneer 12x Slot drive DVD
Creative 48X CD-ROM
IBM 30.0 Gb DTLA 7200 RPM hard drive partitioned into 2 15 Gb drives on IDE 1 (NTFS), extended partition has compression enabled
Samsung 3.2 Gb 5400 RPM hard drive on IDE 2 (FAT 32)
US Robotics 56k performance pro fax modem
RealMagic Hollywood Plus hardware DVD decoder card
Windows XP Pro- fresh install on NTFS partition.

Now, when I first installed the system, the SB was working fine. After installing the Via 4-in-1 drivers (first step after the OS install), it quit working all together. The system refused to recognize that any sound card was even plugged in. The sound card was reinstalled after I updated to the latest 4-in-1 package available at http:\\www.viahardware.com. In addition to this, when I tried to transfer large files (backups) from my 3.2 Gb Samsung on IDE 2 to the extended partition on my IBM on IDE 1, I get random system hangs. I have not yet determined the minimum file size for which the system will hang; but relatively small files do not cause this problem. To solve this, I tried shutting the system down, physically removing the SB Live! card, and rebooting. The system hangs on large file transferrs continued.

At this point, I formatted the disk again and started all over. This time I left all cards out save the GeForce. Large file transfers still cause system hangs, thus the problem that I am having can't be caused by any incompatibility with SB Live! cards and Via chipsets. It seems to be a problem with the Via chipset itself....

I did try all sorts of memory and BIOS settings to resolve the issue, setting everything I could think of away from the performance settings and configuring the most stable BIOS setup possible (according to the KR7A-133R manual, I went through it step by step), and still the system will hang on large file transferrs between hard disks on different IDE channels.

I should mention that the DVD drive was disconnected for all tests. The IBM was on IDE 1 by itself, and the Samsung 3.2 Gb was master with the Creative 48X CD-ROM slaved on IDE 2.

I am thinking of trying the various PCI latency patches. Any other thoughts?

 

[Sandman333]

Well, it could be my power supply. The PCI Latency patch did not help at all.

Hard Ware Doctor is reporting an overvolt on the +12V line any time I do something (access floppy drive, scroll through internet page....)

Any thoughts? Anyone?

 

[Sandman333]

INTERESTING___-

I can transfer large files ( > 500 Mb) from the compressed NTFS drive to the FAT 32 drive without problem. This is also from IDE 1 to IDE 2.

WTF? Is this a problem with Win XP and transferring large files from a FAT 32 to a compressed NTFS volume?

 

[astro]

I know you said that neither drive is connected to the HPT controllers but you may want to take it a step further and make sure it's disabled in the BIOS and unload the drivers for them. I had a problem on a couple of ABit BE-6 II boards with those controllers/drivers....going from one physical IDE channel to another would sometimes hang, sometimes bluescreen and sometimes lockup NT4 with NTFS partitions. Often didn't matter whether the drives were on the HPT or not. Once they were completely removed from the picture (got a Promise ATA-100 Ultra TX2 ) I had no problems transferring files between any IDE channels.

Just a thought.......

 

[Peter]

Sandman, the +12V running off when there's high load on the other rails clearly shows that
the PSU is stressed beyond its limit.

regards, Peter

 

[Mem]

So you think it`s the PSU,my question is what PSU are using at the moment?

 

[Peter]

Using something AMD recommends is a safe bet. If unavailable, then don't go by the big "XXX Watts"
label, go by the fine print. Many high wattage PSUs have a surprisingly ridiculous maximum combined
load allowance on 5V+3.3V rails - exactly where an Athlon system sucks the juice from.

Like my "300 Watt" big tower PSU here ... the fine print says 110 Watts max on 5V+3.3V combined ...
but then again I'm running a Duron 600 and a 5400 rpm HDD off it, so I don't care.

regards, Peter

 

[Mem]

Go here for the AMD recommended PSU list ,I would take into account future expansion of hardware if you do decide to try a new PSU,Antec,Enermax,Sparkle are the favourites around here.

 

[Sandman333]

Yeah, but I would have expected a voltage drop (on a + V rail) if the power supply were falling behind, not a voltage increase (which is what I am getting). Does that make sense? I'm far from being an electrical engineer, but a voltage increase doesn't make sense....

 

[Sandman333]

Well, I just ordered a 400 W Sparkle from www.newegg.com. Will see by the end of this week or early next week if that fixes it.... Will report back with what I find.

 

[Sandman333]

YEAH!!!!!! IT's ALIVE!!!!!

Seriously, the new power supply fixed it. I am now free to move files back and forth between hard drives, no matter the size, at will. Thanks guys for all the help! Mad props to you!