Setting up RAID on Chaintech NForce 250 VNF3-250???

[Schnieds]

Hey All,

I just got my VNF3-250 and am trying to get it setup... the problem is that the NVidia RAID drivers don't seem to work with the XP install. I have created a floppy using the NVidia IDE drivers provided with the VNF3-250 (as well as downloading the lastest from NVidia and trying those) and then specified additional drivers in WinXP setup. Whenever I select the NVidia storage driver to be installed I get a BSOD when the setup is "Starting Windows" (right before you get the license agreement.)

If I just install the "NVidia RAID drivers" I don't get a BSOD, but WinXP also doesn't recognize my RAID array. If I select the "NVidia Storage Drivers" along with the RAID drivers I get the BSOD.

Here is exactly what I am doing:

-Start XP Install
-Press F6 for RAID driver install
-Press "S" to specify additional device
-Select NVidia Storage Driver
-Press "S" to specify another additional device
-Select NVidia RAID Driver
-Press Enter to continue installation
-WinXP setup does some more file initialization
-WinXP setup says "Starting Windows"
-BSOD

Anyone else get RAID to work on the VNF3-250? Did you have any problems?

Here is my new system:
Athlon64 3400+
Chaintech VNF3-250
Geil PC4000 512MB DDR DIMM (I have 2 of those, but only one will work or setup freezes.)
2x74GB Western Digital RAPTORs
WinXP Pro

Thanks...

Schnieds

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

If you figure it out LMK as I will be trying this later tonight.

Sounds like I need to make a floppy ahead of time for the startup sequence...was wondering about that when I didn't see it included...did you trying calling Chaintech?

I would prolly start/will prolly start there unless you finger it out in the mean time...hopefully.

Thanks

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: BlindBartimaeus
If you figure it out LMK as I will be trying this later tonight.

Sounds like I need to make a floppy ahead of time for the startup sequence...was wondering about that when I didn't see it included...did you trying calling Chaintech?

I would prolly start/will prolly start there unless you finger it out in the mean time...hopefully.

Thanks

No luck as of yet. I grabbed the MSI K8N Neo Platinum manual and made sure I have everything setup correctly.... which I do.

I sent Chaintech an e-mail, unfortunately they don't have a tech support phone number to call.

Let me know if you have any luck tonight... it could be I have a bad board.

Schnieds

 

[Schnieds]

Ok, I figured out the problem.... this was a tough one....

It seems that you can't have a CD drive set as MASTER on the Primary IDE channel while installing Windows XP for the VNF3-250. I am assuming that you also could not have a MASTER hard drive on the Primary IDE channel.

I disabled my secondary IDE channel, set my IDE DVD-RW on the Primary IDE channel to SLAVE and then the RAID driver installation worked like a charm.

Hope that helps someone else not spend 8 hours on the same problem... hehe

Schnieds :beer:

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

disabled it in the bios?? Just enabled/disabled option in the advanced bios options?

So are you saying you hooked up both of your cd's up to the secondary eide port and disabled the primary in the bios and had both sata drives as the primary? Did you have to use the floppy you made or did it work on the regularly installed drivers? I am assembling now so I will be getting to that part right away.

LMK if you can or read this.

THANKS for all your hard work.

 

[Schnieds]

Ok, to recap here is what finally worked for me:

-Ran with only one of my 512MB sticks of PC4000 Geil memory. I don't know if I am going to have to return the memory for something more compatible yet or not, this needs more testing. However, I do know that when I had both sticks of 512 in the machine the WinXP setup would error.

-Had both Raptors on the two SATA channels

-Disabled the Secondary IDE channel in the BIOS

-Primary IDE Channel:
MASTER Drive: NONE <----- HUGELY IMPORTANT
SLAVE Drive: CD/DVDRW

-I used the files in NVidia\IDE\WinXP (or some such directory) on the NVidia CD to make a floppy disk.

-Do an F6 when starting WinXP and then specify both of the drivers on the floppy to install.

I think that about covers it. I am pretty much a master now at getting the install to work, so if you have any problems post back and I will try to help you out as soon as possible.

Schnieds

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

So basically I can only use my DVD writer and not just the standard DVD drive with it if I understand you correctly.

Secondly if you could get the exact file name I need to use for my floppy...I would be MOST APPRECIATIVE.

Additionally have you tried putting the second stick BACK IN now that you have the install done? I have heard of this working before with NF II boards. Don't know why it doesn't like it during the install but I have had good luck afterwards...LMK on that too please.

KUDOS on a job well done BTW.

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: BlindBartimaeus
So basically I can only use my DVD writer and not just the standard DVD drive with it if I understand you correctly.

I don't know for sure, I am guessing you can have any IDE device on the primary IDE channel as long as it ISN'T set to MASTER.

Secondly if you could get the exact file name I need to use for my floppy...I would be MOST APPRECIATIVE.

RAID BIOS Setup:
1. Boot system and press "Del" key on keyboard to enter CMOS

2. Select Integrated Peripherals -> IDE Function Setup -> RAID config -> IDE RAID enable -> Enable RAID according to drive.

3. Advanced BIOS Features -> select Boot from CDROM as Primary boot order. Press F10 to save and exit.

Installing RAID drivers:
1. In your driver CD, go into the nvidia folder -> NF3 -> Win2K_XP -> IDE -> WINXP.

2. Copy and paste all files from the WINXP folder in the driver CD to a floppy disk:
nvraid.sys
nvraidco.dll
nvraidenu.dll
nvraidman.exe
nvraidservice.exe
nvraidsvenu.dll
nvraidwizard.dll
nvraidwizardenu.dll
nvuide.exe
regraid.bat
txtsetup.oem
idecoi.dll
nvata.cat
nvatabus.inf
nvatabus.sys
nvcoi.dll
nvide.nvu
nvraid.cat
nvraid.inf

3. Boot system from WINDOWS CD to install

4. Press "F6" when windows installer starts running

5. Insert floppy disk with SATA/RAID files

6. Press "S" to choose "Nvidia RAID Class Driver" and press Enter

7. Press "S" again to add additional driver to specify "Nvidia nForce Storage Controller" driver

8. Press Enter to proceed with the RAID installation

9. Install rest of Windows OS

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: BlindBartimaeus
Additionally have you tried putting the second stick BACK IN now that you have the install done? I have heard of this working before with NF II boards. Don't know why it doesn't like it during the install but I have had good luck afterwards...LMK on that too please.

Turns out that one of the sticks of memory was bad. I did some memory testing on each of the sticks seperatly and one caused all kinds of errors.

KUDOS on a job well done BTW.

Thanks

Schnieds

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

excellent...only did one today since I wasn't sure and just wanted to see it up and runnin first. I am currently psuedo stable at 225 fsb with 1.65 on the core and everything else at default. I think it is either HT holdin me back or my pc3500 ram...not sure...but it locks up after a little bit...hate to think I am topped out.

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

I am currently prime95ing at home...hopefully...at 2.37 gig @ 34C. My raided Maxtor sata's are pulling in about 69Kish...close to 70K on the sandra benchmark utility and it freakin flys.

I think it is a very good board for 80 bucks. I will update tonight if I am still stable.

 

[Schnieds]

Yeah, let me know your results...

I have my 3400+ stress testing the following as we speak:

11x220 = 2.42 GHz
1.6V CPU
2.5-4-4-7 Geil
2.8V Memory

My temps are up to 53C under full load (right now) and idle at about 40C (up about 4 degrees each way with the OC.)

If this seems stable (which it seems to be) I think I will leave it for a bit and let it burn in... then I will go for more.

I am pretty happy with 220 to tell the truth, so I don't know how much further I will push it.

Man... this system is FAST!

 

[Gortok]

Originally posted by: BlindBartimaeus
excellent......hate to think I am topped out.

What timings on your RAM??

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

I have mine set at the factory default Cas 2.5 4-8-4

I have the ram at 166 which translates to just over 206 at 240 fsb, and I am using Kingmax 3500 so it doesn't seem like it is limiting me.

Additionally I run the prime95 on the low ram high FPU and it takes me out pretty quick.

The same ram Prime 95's in the other computer flawlessly at 215fsb for hours.

 

[Gortok]

At 206, your RAM should easily handle CL2.0-3-7-3, right? Give THAT a go...
:thumbsup:

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

Negative Ghostrider...it just won't give her the power. I am getting some PC4000 from hardcorecooling.com and that should about handle it.

 

[Gortok]

I just popped in 2 sticks of HyperX3500 (256 each). So far I'm up to 225 in-sync....looking for more...

 

[Gortok]

It appears the HyperX3500 (mine anyway) tops out at 226 in sync. That's 100% stable.
(I won't post a number unless it's completely stable...what's the point.)

I'll be running async tests next.

 

[Gortok]

The HyperX WILL NOT do what my Value stick would do...strange, maybe it's because I'm running two sticks...? hmmmmmm

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Gortok
The HyperX WILL NOT do what my Value stick would do...strange, maybe it's because I'm running two sticks...? hmmmmmm

Try relaxing the timings, I've read the CG steppping has some improvements to the memory controller that help with fast timings, but it's not a big deal since the biggest gain from timings in a game I've seen was 4% in Halo and that equated to 2 FPS By relaxing them you may find that HyperX will get up and go, but the 2 sticks could be a issue as well. Good luck and HTH

 

[Gortok]

What settings would you suggest?
I've given CL3 a shot and she won't even boot...weird.

I've tried dropping HT to 3...up to 2.9vdimm. Even 1.74vcore...that was scary, tho. Die temps went to 63-65 load (in a cool room, stock HSF)...Should I consider better cooling? How high would YOU push vcore???

I've pretty much got everthing back to stock, for now anyway. The onboard voltage regulation likes to run the volts a little high. MBM and CpuZ confirm this. When vcore is set at default in the BIOS, the board supplies over 1.55 to the cpu. It should be 1.5...and by setting the vcore in BIOS to 1.45, we get a 1.488-1.512 range that averages at 1.5 AND she runs 5C cooler at load. This is a good thing considering it's almost summertime here!:sun:

 

[Aikouka]

Hello,

I am building a computer for my friend, and I chose the VNF3-250 as well. I also opted for the Dual WD Raptors and two 160gb Maxtors. I set it up normally (just like you most likely did) with two seperate striping arrays.

Well, I had the same problem as you, except mine just restarted instead of showing the blue screen. Now, I followed your instructions. I disconnected the two Maxtors and moved the DVDRW to the primary IDE and set it to slave and hooked it up to the slave connector on the IDE cable. I removed the raid 0 array for the maxtors so now all that's left is the raptor array. I disabled the secondary ide channel. I loaded the drivers and it still reboots right before it's about to load the EULA.

Do you see anything that is wrong with the setup? I also tried partitioning the drives and seeing if that would help; but of course, it didn't.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Quino]

Gortok, when you did lower the latency to 3 did the mobo started to beep like if there was no memory on it? I have some mushking memory and it was doing great on my intel setup, but on the chaintec I can not go past 205 no matter what voltage I supply. However the timmings on the memory are 2.5. Also I used a Kingstom Vak\lue ram stick and it was able to go to 229 1:1 go figure. But this one was detected as cas 3. The mushking I can run it at 2226 and it runs great but I have to use the 166 frecuency to oc it. Anyways I am waiting for my A64 kit for the corsair hydrocool200EX abd then I will see how high I can go. I went all the way to 2.4 but the temperature was too high

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
Hello,

I am building a computer for my friend, and I chose the VNF3-250 as well. I also opted for the Dual WD Raptors and two 160gb Maxtors. I set it up normally (just like you most likely did) with two seperate striping arrays.

Well, I had the same problem as you, except mine just restarted instead of showing the blue screen. Now, I followed your instructions. I disconnected the two Maxtors and moved the DVDRW to the primary IDE and set it to slave and hooked it up to the slave connector on the IDE cable. I removed the raid 0 array for the maxtors so now all that's left is the raptor array. I disabled the secondary ide channel. I loaded the drivers and it still reboots right before it's about to load the EULA.

Do you see anything that is wrong with the setup? I also tried partitioning the drives and seeing if that would help; but of course, it didn't.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Are you getting a blue screen before the reboot, or does it just reboot on its own without warning? If it is just rebooting without warning that sounds like it could possibly be a power or heat issue. Could you please post back with the entire system configuration so we can try to help further?

Schnieds

 

[Aikouka]

Athlon 64 2800+ (Low on Funds )
Thermalright HSF (I forget the number, but there's only one for it) + Vantec Tornado 92mm
Arctic Silver 5
Chaintech VNF3-250
Mushkin PC3200 Black Perf L1 2x512MB 2-2-2-7
2x WD Raptor 75GB
2x Maxtor 160GB 7500rpm
Sapphire ATI Radeon x800 Pro
ATI Remote Wonder Pro Capture Card
Nu Tech DDW-0082
Thermaltake Xaser PSU 560W

I don't think it's a heat or power issue. If I do not load the drivers, it works fine. The system has no overheating problems, and it only restarts when I try to load the nvidia RAID drivers. The system does reboot when the drivers are loaded, but if we do not load the drivers, we are able to proceed through the installation fine.

Oh, and another weird thing totally unrelated ... the maxtor drives came preloaded with some version of linux on them ... even partitioned for linux. It was weird.