raju Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 did you guys do a complete reformat of your hard disks, before reinstalling xp? when I had this board, the issue went away, I used the latest beta bios, ran kill cmos, f-_tester. Then a complete reformat followed by a reinstall of XP, using the drivers via F6 during install. No raid utility software was installed onto XP. I still got the error messages for a while, after a couple of weeks they went away completley (to my suprise). I had the sil controller disabled in bios, and only used the uli controller. regards Raja Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis.ie Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 I never re-installed Win, I've used the same build on 3 boards now. However further to the above (and I think someone mentioned a similar thing a few posts back) when running SiSoft Sandra disk bench I got a hard lock ..... So the system seems fine with the swap file off but running the latest Sandra or having swap on causes problems. I concur with ChkDsk that it may be a driver issue and whatever mechanism Win uses for swap and Sandra for disk access is not compatible, I don't recall seeing any lockups when I was using a drive imaging utility (i.e. not in windows) but would have to run it again and watch it to be sure. Food for thought at least. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lane Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 Ok.. just for report for teh moment:- I have installed yesterday, so more of 24Hours, i have allways NO errors in the evenement viewer... no one ( the only i have is the service of windows of sync the date/hours have try connect when the marvell driver was not installed..) nemesis: - You say you have the HPet disabled in south bridge.. can you tell me waht is this options?.. it's disabled by default and i don't know for what is it.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
raju Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 I never re-installed Win, I've used the same build on 3 boards now. However further to the above (and I think someone mentioned a similar thing a few posts back) when running SiSoft Sandra disk bench I got a hard lock ..... So the system seems fine with the swap file off but running the latest Sandra or having swap on causes problems. I concur with ChkDsk that it may be a driver issue and whatever mechanism Win uses for swap and Sandra for disk access is not compatible, I don't recall seeing any lockups when I was using a drive imaging utility (i.e. not in windows) but would have to run it again and watch it to be sure. Food for thought at least. most of the people who have cured the issue have done it through a hard drive reformat, and brand new installation, myself included.. The instructions did state that xp should be reinstalled completley, a reformat would make sure there are no lingering demons. There is no way I can see DFI nailing the issue for those who are not prepaired to go by the book. Granted some people have done it right and still have issues. regards Raja Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis.ie Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 @ Lane: I have HPET ENABLED (High Performance Event Timer I presume), options are Enabled and Disabled. @RAJU: I can't afford to reformat, I've wasted enough time as it is, plus the fact that turning off the Win swap seems to fix 99% of my problem. Also, what is the "revised edition" of the Tagan you refer to in your sig? (Thanks) I think they just want you to reformat and install from scratch to make sure it's not something else in the system that might be causing problems. I may try going back to the previous driver at the weekend (when I have some time) and seeing if the swap file thing still helps. @All: after running Sandra again with the system at stock (to be sure) it locked up again, I rebooted and was seeing locks again, I powered off, then back on and all was well. Sot it looks to me like whenever this "mechanism" for disk access that causes the problem happens, the chip is then "stuck" with the problem until it is powered down ..... This is all just my observations based on my experience over 3 days, as always YMMV but it is reproducable ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thietavu Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 I allready figured disabeling swap file solved a lot, but running the swap on another disk/controller doesnt help. That's why it could be a driver problem. But I start to doubt it... ChkDsk Me too... As long as we only discuss about the ULI chip and its drivers, as was the original subject of this thread, things look somewhat "simple". But the fact that exactly the same happens with SIL3114 driver likewise, leaving exactly the same messages to XP event log, makes this whole issue pretty mysterious... So, in that case the real culprit would (I guess) have to be something of higher level. Either some part in the motherboard responsible for *both* ULI and SIL disk accesses, or some part of Windows also responsible for generic Serial-ATA disk operations. That might suggest a more generic problem, not limited to ULI/SIL chips or their individual drivers... What do you think - people who know these things more deeply? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
raju Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 @RAJU: I can't afford to reformat, I've wasted enough time as it is, plus the fact that turning off the Win swap seems to fix 99% of my problem. Also, what is the "revised edition" of the Tagan you refer to in your sig? (Thanks) I think they just want you to reformat and install from scratch to make sure it's not something else in the system that might be causing problems. the fact is that no-one has cured the issue without a reformat, it's a ball ache yes, but that may be the only way. We do not know what nasties are staying behind, without the reformat I don't think it can be cured. It's a method I used myself and after a couple of weeks the problems went. DFI have not stated that for fun, it has worked for some users, myself included. Like I said it remained for a couple of weeks then dissapeared never to return, no matter how I tried to recreate it. We all have/had a right to slag off DFI for this in the first instance, but to cure it you have to play ball, if you follow the instructions to the T and it still does not work, you reclaim the right, but without trying their method, well.. The Tagan was revised as the first batch to the UK had a start up issue, these units were returned and the revision had no problems. all the best Raja Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis.ie Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 @RAJU's post I'm not convinced it's the drivers/ULI (as others are saying) and believe it is some interaction between the board and windows. Reformatting etc. is IMO a red herring. I'm saying this as I used the EXACT same RAID array on the ULI controller on the ASUS A8R32-MVP without issue ..... the same 2.20 driver, the same ULI chip and the same R580 chipset ..... how can it be an issue with a driver (and needing a format to fix it) if the above are all the same? It seems a bit odd, I would like someone from DFI/ULI to post regarding exactly what they are changing/what appears to be the trouble as otherwise we are just guessing etc. ..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis.ie Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 More experimentation ...... Something else to try (if you are not fed up yet ) I just changed the Windows "EnablePrefetch" registry entry to 2, (still with page file disabled), this turns off application prefetch (but still leaves boot prefetch on). Now Sandra's disk test is working without hard-locking the machine ...... YMMV but I'd be interested in hearing if it makes a difference to anyone. It would also tie in with the idea that it is certain windows access mechanisms that cause the problem perhaps ..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis.ie Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 Ooops! Per last post, sorry Sandra disk test does not work after changing the enableprefetch to 2. However, it now ends after about 2 seconds of running with "disk read error", before the change (from 3 BTW) it caused the machine to lock up. I can also report that DiskKeeper 10 now runs fine without lockups. So worth a try at least. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopshotgun Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 I just changed the Windows "EnablePrefetch" registry entry to 2, (still with page file disabled), this turns off application prefetch (but still leaves boot prefetch on). Nemesis.ie, where is that key in the registry? Also, does anybody know what the following BIOS settings do and what their settings represent? I sent an email to tech support, so if I find out before you do, I'll be sure to post it. P2P Pre-fetch Queue Depth P2P Maximum Pre-fetch DW USB Performance Mode USB Power Saving Mode HTTSTOP Timing 32K0 Mask Disable Function ULi HPET Uli WDRT Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lane Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 What the benchmark in Sandra sys give you problem..?the test of phisycal Disk, or the system files.. this one? ( screens above) cause this one pass on my sys. and system files test too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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