Anyone use Abit IP35 Pro & WD Raptors (poss. with Vista)?

foop

foop

foop

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I've just bought lots of lovely new kit. As usual, I can't get the stuff to work. I'm beginning to think I should get a job helping people buy new kit: watch what I buy, and then avoid it like the plague.

  • Q6600 GO SLACR etc.
  • ABit IP35 Pro
  • 2 * WD Raptor 150GB
  • BFG 8800 GTX
  • 4 * Crucial Ballistix 1GB DDR2 PC2-8500C5
  • Hiper 580W PSU
Even when I can get Vista 64 to install, the disks flake out every 15 minutes. I even borrowed a Raptor from work that I know is working, and that suffers the same problems. The problems are everything from total freezes, via brief lockups, to BSODs (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, often in iastor.sys).

I was beginning to think it might be a mobo, memory, or PSU problem. However, Memtest86+ runs fine for hours. And I've just booted from a Knoppix CD and have been thrashing all three disks simultaneously with Bonnie++ for half an hour without a single stutter.

Is it Vista? Is it just my bad karma? I must have done something terrible in a previous incarnation.
 
I'm running Vista 64-bit Ultimate from a Raptor system drive. No problems whatsoever despite many google articles showing some concern.

Tom's Hardware stopped using this config - due to snags - worth looking it up, but it won't ease your mind at all.

This combo works just fine for me, I haven't lost any control panel items, or experienced BSOD, or restarts. It's possible that some M$ hotfixes have catered for this - my install brought a couple of these down and's been stable ever since. Give Windows Update a bash.

It's a recent build, but passed 14 hours memtest, 12 hours Prime95 small-fft's, and 12 hours Prime Blend without hassle - so the Vista 64/Raptor build can work. hth. :)


[edit] btw, I'm not raiding my sys drive. I do have a raid Highpoint card for 3*320 in raid 5. I'm using an Antec 850 quattro. Hiper's have a pretty poor rep on these forums, hopefully that's not your issue. [/edit]
 
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Paulus said:
what cpu temps you getting ?
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I've got a great big Thermaltake thing with a 12" fan handing off it, and it seems to be staying between 30 and 40 (if you trust the sensor).

mk17 said:
I'm running Vista 64-bit Ultimate from a Raptor system drive. No problems whatsoever despite many google articles showing some concern.

Tom's Hardware stopped using this config - due to snags - worth looking it up, but it won't ease your mind at all.
Click to expand...

Ah, I've found the Tom's Hardware thing. Doesn't sound very promising. I might borrow a couple of cheapo SATA disks when I get back to work after the weekend to see if that's the problem.

Good to hear that you've got Vista 64 working with your setup. That gives me a little hope, at least.

mk17 said:
Give Windows Update a bash
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I did, eventually, manage to get the system to stay up long enough to run update. It didn't seem to help, although I'm not entirely convinced update worked properly - the system BSODed in between downloading and installing the updates.
 
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Installed yes but got weird freeze up that last anywhere from 10sec-1min.

Always seens to be if I am listening to music, unraring a file and torrent going at same time, like HDD cant cope, it recovers ok but PIA so I used their little APP, it still happened.

Something I have done (cant remember now) has stopped it in last week or so, dont think it was new mobo drivers from Nvidia, I will remember sometime.

Edit : (added readyboost) ????????
 
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if it ois the toms hardware issue wich i know had to be vista +raptors+ a certan nvidia card then they did right a sort of fix for it themselves a file you run each time you strat pc or something from what i remember
 
jbloggs said:
This error indicates a problem with the drivers for the ICH9R controller, also do you have the Intel chipset + Matrix Storage Manager software installed? :)
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Yes, I've tried with the latest Intel drivers - both during the install at the add drivers stage, and once Vista actually installed. I've also tried ignoring them completely. That helped less :)

With all the drivers installed, Vista was stable enough to last up to about 15 minutes before dying. It still had lots of disk problems, though.

mikeybhoy said:
there was/is a known issue with iastor.sys and disks in a RAID0 configuration
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Ah, now that looks interesting. I shall give that a go and report back.

The last thing I did before giving up and going to bed last night was flick through the BIOS to have a look at voltages and temperatures. I came across this. There is clearly something strange going on here. Changing the DRAM speed to something sensible didn't help, though. :(




I'm going to order a new PSU now, in the hope of at least eliminating that part of the problem. I know everyone here loves the Corsair 620 and wants to have its babies, but what do people think of the Enermax Infiniti 720W?

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks.
 
I still advise he reads the THG info.

1) He has Vista (32 in report, assume 64 be same).

2) He has a 8800 card.

3) He has a WD Raptor (control PCB is the issue).
 
A little update on progress so far. It's working, almost. I write this in case I never make it back, and some other intrepid soul facing the same problems finds my journal.

Step 1: One disk, driver and BIOS updates

I moved down to a single raptor, with the BIOS SATA mode still set to RAID (but no RAID volumes, obviously). Updated Intel IH9 drivers to 7.6.1011, which is a later version than on ABit's webstie. Flashed the BIOS on the IP35 Pro to v.11.

Seems stable. Can install Vista 64, drivers, etc. Can run 3DMark06 with no problems, and exercise the disk with no iaStor.sys timeouts in the Event Log. This was always the sign that things were going wrong before.

I looked at the Tom's Hardware fix. Two problems: 1) it seemed to be for a different issue to the one I'm having. 2) Their download link is broken. Also a minor snag, in as much as the GUI for their fix appears to be in German. My German is only slightly better than my Hungarian. And I only know one word in Hungarian.

No hope of running a RAID 0 array - still wildly unstable.

Step 2: New power supply, three disks

Throw out 580W Hiper, decaying pile of foetid dingo's kidneys that it is. Replace with a nice chunky 720W Enermax. Mmmm, three nice, stable 12V rails.

Create RAID 0 array from two more raptors. Looks stable. Ish. On one of my trial formats of the RAID volume, I got the dreaded EventID 9 in iaStor, which is a timeout. Bah.

Executive summary

It's better, but it's still not fixed. If I can find a floppy drive somewhere, I'm going to try installing XP.
 
foop said:
A little update on progress so far.
Step 2: New power supply, three disks

<snip>

Throw out 580W Hiper, decaying pile of foetid dingo's kidneys that it is. Replace with a nice chunky 720W Enermax. Mmmm, three nice, stable 12V rails.

Create RAID 0 array from two more raptors. Looks stable. Ish. On one of my trial formats of the RAID volume, I got the dreaded EventID 9 in iaStor, which is a timeout. Bah.

<snip>
Click to expand...


Good progress, I'll say. To be honest, I use a dedicated card for my raid 5 array, and boot off a single Raptor system disk. I know people will say onboard raid is getting better and better - and should be expected off a high-end board, but for c.£60+ you get a dedicated solution that won't entirely take the load off your cpu, but certainly helps.
I recently moved a Highpoint 2310 (from o/c but they don't seem to do them anymore) from XP Pro 32 to Vista 64-Ultimate with nothing more than the hassle of actually physically relocating them in a new chassis. [edit] sorry, and a driver update, obviously [/edit]

ok, not exactly a solution, more of a workaround, but I'd recommend it. goodness knows the abit forum has no shortage of raid-related snafus, and they're hardly alone in this.
 
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been running vista 64 with my raptor for good few months now with no drive related issues, although i do have x1900 and not a 8800 gfx card.
 
mikeybhoy said:
Did you remove the Registry keys, as advised by Intel, to cure the iastor.sys errors?
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The Intel website now basically says "Install the latest drivers to cure the problem" and doesn't mention the registry fix. I assume it's rolled up with the driver, but they don't really make this very clear. I may give it a go later, but at the moment I've using the drives without RAID because I'm fed up and want to play Bioshock.

Once that's done, I'll probably see if I can Google up the registry fix. When that doesn't work, I may get a decent RAID card.
 
Oh, marvellous.

While I was sitting at my laptop typing that last reply, the new PC - which was sitting there idling, running nothing - rebooted and came up with the marvellous "BOOTMGR is missing" message. Joy. :(

Time to see what Vista repair is like.

Edit: Event log says that one was due to an ATAPI error: "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort2." Is the Mobo's disk controller screwy?
 
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