Bit of a pickle - Compaq/SCSI experts preferred

basmic · 15 Feb 2006 at 00:28

Right, I'll start from the beginning.

Motherboard is a Gigabyte 7VTX. 768mb RAM, 10gb IBM IDE drive, Pioner A06 slot DVD drive, Nvidia (?) card, network (3Com?).

I have a Compaq Smart Array 3200, connected to 2x 9.1gb IBM SCSI drives. This is installed in the bottom-most PCI slot.

Had a bit of a chew on getting into the case - five minutes of dremelling sorted that out.

Got the card installed, setup a RAID 0 array - so far, so good. Did a quick format, and the thing just hangs on, forcing me to stab the reset button on the case.

Thought it might be a firmware issue with the card, so downloaded it, ran the software...bluescreens on me! :mad:

STOP: 0x000000D1 (OxF594063E, 0x00000000, 0xF5947D05)

So I thought, right could well be a driver issue. Downloaded HP ProLiant Drive Array Driver for Windows 2000/Server 2003, updated drivers and rebooted. Still the same, when performing a quick format!

I would be VERY grateful of any advice/help anybody has to offer. Even any suggestions you think I might have overlooked (and probably have).

basmic · 15 Feb 2006 at 00:32

I should add that I tried to run HD Tach on the array.

Seemed to be fine until the Sequential Read test, then the mouse quickly became very slow to move, and just hung. :mad:

basmic · 15 Feb 2006 at 10:47

Right, split the array back into normal drives, so it's not in a RAID array.

I did a Quickformat, and (again) it hung the machine.

Arggh!

basmic · 15 Feb 2006 at 11:46

Right the machine is running XP at the moment. It is from there I trying to do the format. When I try to format, the machine locks up and I can't move the mouse - I even left it for 20 minutes, but nothing.

From all I can gather, I make alterations to the card's configuration within the OS (in this case, XP Pro) and it writes the settings to the card's BIOS.

Hell, I've even reseated the card and it's daughterboards, and still the same problem.

basmic · 15 Feb 2006 at 15:56

I will try a full format - just wait for the machine to bootup.

Is there any reason why it crashes when I try to upgrade the firmware?

basmic · 15 Feb 2006 at 23:25

Machine hung doing the full format.

It flew through the full format - literally took 5 seconds to get to 100% - then it just hung! :mad:

Anybody have any ideas?

basmic · 16 Feb 2006 at 00:36

Right a little more progress.

I physcially connected each of the two drives up, one at a time. Performed a format on both drives, no problem.

Connect both up, won't format. Switching the drives positions on the cables now.

basmic · 16 Feb 2006 at 01:11

I'm thinking along the lines of cabling.

basmic · 16 Feb 2006 at 10:40

Great, just great!

Phoned HP support, and was told:
a) The product is old and outdated, therefore unsupported.

b) Installed in a non-Compaq m/c, and diagnostic won't run on "generic" machine like my own.

So, basically, I'm on my own.

basmic · 16 Feb 2006 at 10:49

I just KNEW it was cabling!!

|---|---|---|---| - each | is a header on the SCSI cable

I setup the SCSI like so:
PCI card ---|--- Drive ---|--- Drive --- Terminator

Leaving a header spacing between each drive.

Finally!

basmic · 16 Feb 2006 at 13:03

ARGH!

I thought I had it, but when I ran the long test in HD Tach, it locked-up! :mad:

Anybody know what it could be?

basmic · 16 Feb 2006 at 17:05

Thanks, 1ofaKind - I've been doing some reading, and pretty much upgraded every single driver.

I think I've got the problem sussed now - power-supply.

These are the voltages without the drives connected, and hooked up to another PSU - when the CPU is idle:
3.3v: 3.22v (2.4% out)
5v: 4.76v (4.8% out)
12v: 12.67v (5.6% out)

Reading when the drives are hooked up, to follow.