Booting Problem
 

Sometimes after my PC has booted, my 'Projects' drive (2x1.5tb RAID0) fails to appear in windows explorer or anywhere else. I only have the one RAID and all my other drives appear OK everytime.

I have the following in my system

MSI X58 Platinum
Intel 7 970 (not overclocked)
24GB RAM (6x4gb DDR3)
Nvidia GTX 285
5x SATA II (2 of which are the RAID0)
1x boot SSD
1x BD-R drive
1x DVD+_RW drive

My PSU is a 600w job. I've tried one of the online PSU calculaters and it came up with 550w. Maybe its time to upgrade my PSU??? I've looked at my system board BIOS and there are no staggered drive spin-up options.

I have another booting issue which is another thread so i wont go into details apart from that usually only 16GB of my 24GB is detected by the BIOS at boot and I have confirmed all my DIMMS are good. Maybe related, not sure....

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks

Re: Booting Problem
 

anyone?????

Re: Booting Problem
 

Dan.


I am basically a computer illiterate so the last you should heed, however here are one or two possibilities.

I have an I7 and have had some problems similar to yours. I am not using a RAID system.

16Gb memory problem? What operating system are you using? If it is Windows 7 Home Premium, my understanding, - maybe wrong, is that 16Gb of memory is about as good as it gets and that you have to upgrade Windows 7 to be able to use more memory.

I observe in your description that your BIOS reports only 16GB memory, so there may be another issue at play unless Windows 7 itself can alter BIOS settings. That is high science somebody else will have to help you with.


I have a SATA drive my computer simply does not like. It works but there are all manner of boot up problems, stalled boot ups and freezes when it is on the system. I only discovered this as one-by-one I was taking my own items out of the computer preparatory to sending it back for a motherboard check. When this drive was taken out, the system was on its best behaviour.


SATA cables have to be without peer as the absolute worst piece of amateur industrial engineering ever visited upon humankind. Good idea - bad execution.

Whichever kid-eager passed the design work on those plugs needs a bait. - Fundimental design error any experienced engineer worth his or her salt would have spotted - Stress risers in the molded work, insufficient shoulder support for plug insert.

A significant problem is the stiff cable itself which mechanically overloads the plug/socket structure, - eventual fail built right in when plastic parts are involved. The stiff cable material itself needs to be carefully folded and arranged so that at final rest, it does not put pressure on the plugs, sockets and motherboard. Twisting pressure on the plugs seems to be the worst culprit. Under a twisting load, the plugs eventually split at a corner on the stress riser which has been designed right into the plug. This allows conducting surfaces to open away from each other.

To get the cables to go around bends, a series of angular folds seems to work better than trying to run the cable around a long unsupported curved path.

There are modified plugs which have a rather primitive bulldog clip arrangement added. These are preferred as they retain a little more positive contact pressure on the conducting surfaces.

I would permanently glue the standard plugs together against fan motor vibrations causing the connections to move, build up debris and become resistive, except that probably I would need to take them apart some time in the future. The old IDE ribbon cable plugs never moved in their sockets, never ever. Being wide, though shallow, the shoulder support was more than adequate.


Another silly little trick is that hard drives seem to work better if they are sitting flat, not on edge. I think this is related to the spindles being supported on plain bearings.

When on edge, the weight of the spindle is borne by the entire length of the spindle shaft and the bush it turns in. The drive may not run as fast. It is enough in a critical application to break the camel's back. An example is laptop used as 2K camera recorder which rams out when carried on edge in a backpack, but is fine when kept flat on a tabletop.


This wordstuff is more likely to send you off on a goose chase than help. Hopefully if somebody sees some traffic on this thread, then they will chime in to put things right.

Re: Booting Problem
 

Thanks for your input Bob, I will check out my connections

Re: Booting Problem
 

I tried your configuration on my favorite PSU calculator and it came up with 811W recommended, without additional safety margins. Normally I would add 10-15% for safety. This was without any USB or FW devices that you did not mention.

Look here: eXtreme Outer Vision - eXtreme tools for computer enthusiasts

Get the Pro version, set your desktop to high-end, CPU load to 100% and capacitor aging to 30%. Remember that without staggered spin-up all the load is during booting. 100%.

Your problem seems to be related to your PSU. As for recognizing only 16 of the 24 GB installed, do you have XMP profiles enabled in the BIOS? Try turning that off.

Re: Booting Problem
 

Thanks Harm, before I read your reply I went out and bought a Corsair 850w TXV2 PSU. It hasnt been in my machine long enough to gain any reliable results as far as my Projects RAID not appearing but the memory issue is still present.

One interesting thing. I have an APC UPS attached to my computer which has an app that states your current power draw. With my old Cooler Master 600w PSU it was registering 300w average. With the new PSU about 200w.

Re: Booting Problem
 

On my own machine I found XMP profiles troublesome to recognize more than 16 GB. When I turned that off in the BIOS, it easily recognized 24 GB. This is with a very dated system, using a simple i7-920 C0/C1 stepping so in your case it may not apply, but it is worth a try.

Hope the new PSU will prove more reliable. As to the power usage, I have a 1000W PSU but when idle my measured power consumption with 2 monitors, keyboard, mouse, switch, router etc. is only 160 W or less, Despite that, I would not go lower than 1000 W on my system and for the next one may go up to 1200W, but that is with 19 internal drives and 2 BR burners. Intended storage 36 TB raw capacity internally but only 24 TB plus 4 TB net capacity. (16 x Raid30 plus 2 hot-spares and 2 x Raid0).

Re: Booting Problem
 

Hi Harm, i tried turning off TMP in the BIOS but had no effect. Another member suggested MSI boards are a bit flaky on memory detection so changing it out is probably the next step.

That's one hell of a storage set-up you've got there!

Thanks again for the help.