System problems

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,205
Hi guys,

Got big problems with my machine. Basically:

March: Had issues with my RAID0 (2x750GB WD Black Series) array. Kept coming up with 'Error Occured(0)' on one of the drives. Eventually managed to get into Windows, reset the array on the windows software and everything was fine.

Fast forward 6 weeks..

Same problem again only this time, nothing seemed to fixed it. Tried to boot windows a couple of times but each time failed with apparent errors accessing disk.

By this time, BOTH drives showing as 'Error Occured(0)' in the RAID Bios.

So I dismantled the Array and installed Windows onto a single 750gb - the one that didn't give the error until last.

This went ok for a bit - few hours perhaps - until suddenly my SATA DVDRW drive dissapeared from My Computer in the middle of installing a game. Rebooted, its back, but loads of problems accessing it. Huge pauses, and other unrelated applications began to randomly lock up for no apparent reason.

At one point everything locked up for almost 5 minutes, I was about to hit the reset button when suddenly it all sprang into life and the last 5 minutes activity happened immediatly in the space of 5 seconds.

I figured I probably had bad hard drives, and went into DOS to run the Western Digital diagnostics utility.

I have now run the extended test on BOTH drives - taking almost 5 hours - and they've BOTH came back as Error Free.

Completely stumped now. No idea whats wrong.

Tried swapping ports over on the SATA controller, tried using different SATA controllers, tried different cables...

Spec is:

Asus P8P67 Pro
i5 2500k
GTX570
2x750Gb WD Black Series
Windows 7 Pro 64bit

Any ideas?
 
When you say you've tried a different controller, I take it you mean you've tried the SATA2 and SATA3 controllers as opposed to trying an add-in PCI/PCIe controller?

I'd be doing that tbh.
 
It has the latest bios. I'm using a Corsair HX520 PSU. When I say I've tried different ports, I mean I've tried all the internal motherboard ports. I dont have an external PCIE controller to use.

Prior to March, and for the entire 6 week period between the first hiccup and this problem, the machine was absolutely rock solid stable.
 
It now wont boot at all.

'Windows failed to start'

'Blah blah blah'

'The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible'

I want to think hard drive really - but it passed the extended test?
 
Oh dear.

Seeing as the P8P67 range is more than plagued with problems, I'd be tempted to look at that :p Also the reason I'd never recommend one and don't think I ever did :D (Too late now I know).

CMOS reset?
 
Ok, so last night everything was great. No problems, played plenty of games. Excellent.

Just before I went to bed the entire system locked up - couldnt do anything. Left it 5 minutes, hit reset, it came back into Windows fine.

This morning the system had put itself into standby as per power settings. I hit the power button to resume - everything comes on but... it never actually resumed. So I hit the reset button to reboot properly.

The reset button had no effect.

Powered it off and back on again - I had to do this via switch on the PSU as a long press of the power button also did nothing - and same again. Everything whirs up as normal but it never gets as far as video output on the monitor and neither the reset or power buttons work.

I gave up and left it and will try again tonight.

What on earth is wrong with this thing? It's all brand new kit! I've not tried clearing the CMOS but to be honest even if that works something is still wrong, I've never normally need to clear the CMOS just to boot the machine normally after changing zero settings :(
 
Given the problems with the "intelligent" power functions (long press for forced off, resume from low power state, reset button not working, etc), I'd say it's most likely a board problem.

Early 1155 boards were terrible, and has already been said, the P8P67 series of boards seem to be incredibly problematic, certainly backed up by reading a few forums.
 
I had a simimlar issue with an I5 system I built. It worked fine for around a month then had similar issues to what you have described. It turned out to be a fault with the sata controller on the motherboard, I RMA'd the board and it has been working fine since with the replacement board. Not the same board as you but very similar symptoms..

Edit - Just checked my online invoices and it was indeed a P8P67 board that I had issues with, could have sworn it was a Gigabyte.. Might be worth an RMA on the board..:confused:
 
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Are you overclocked? Whether or not you are, have you tried a stability test like prime or IBT? How about a memtest also? Heat issue - CPU cooler taken a knock and upset the thermal contact?
 
I am not currently overclocked. I was overclocked until the first problem at the end of March - it was Prime95 stable. I reset everything to default in March and it's remained that way ever since.
 
rma motherboard, even though you dont use the ports, a lot of those motherboards are crap, i know, i have one and im just about to RMA myself, i havent switched my pc off in like 2 weeks, because if i do, it sometimes takes up to half an hour to switch back on. the only logical explanation is the motherboard, my psu worked fine in old system.

asus really messed up on these motherboards. i have done the bios upgrades and reset cmos, i really liked asus, until this whole fiasco.
 
I think I agree with you, I reset the CMOS and faffed about doing nothing at all of any value for 10 minutes and suddenly it booted.

I've now enjoyed 6 hours of stability and gaming.

Just completely ridiculous.
 
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