Excessive raid rebuild

[EvilCabal]

Hi,

I have a P5W DH deluxe motherboard from ASUS. This is my third one on this warranty as the two previous ones died for no special reasons. This seem to be a pretty unstable board model. Since the first board I changed everything in my PC (PSU, ram, video card, hd and cpu). I am confident that all those other component are working perfectly. Now I have a new problem that makes me think the board is going down again but I want some advice to make sure.

I am using the onboard intel raid controller. Last week I changed my power supply. When I booted, one of the hd status was "rebuild" on the raid controller boot screen. After doing that rebuild, everything was fine. I thought this was because I had removed power from the board. But today I simply moved my computer a meter or so and when I booted one of the hd status was "failed". I got a bluescreen in windows and it rebooted. I unplugged and replugged the drive and again, after a rebuild everything is fine.

What could cause this beside a defective board?

Note that the bios detects the "failed" drive properly before the raid controller complains. Also note that the cables are all plugged properly.

Thanks.

 

[goombawaho]

This won't prove the board is healthy or dying, but get the disk manufacturer's utility and test both hard drives to see if they see any errors. If not, it's time to start suspecting the mobo.

I replaced my hard drives with brand new ones (Western Digital) and set up my RAID and reloaded Windows XP. About a month later, the RAID said one drive crapped out. Sure enough, the WD utility found a problem that needed fixing. Then, after a rebuild, all has bee quiet for 6 months.

 

[EvilCabal]

Good idea. The drive are 3 months old and I never checked them. I will do so.

 

[wahnula]

Have you tried going back to your old power supply to eliminate the possibility that the new one is the cause of the problem? I also have this board running 25% OC and have found it to be stable, although the northbridge does need extra cooling.

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[EvilCabal]

No, I sold it before I got the other one. However I doubt that it is defective. It is a brand new OCZ. I have rarely heard of defective PSU out of the box. Also I monitored the voltage and they all are within the normal operation range. But still, I guess you could be right, but I have no way of knowing.

I will run the extended diagnostic test from data lifeguard tonight. One my HD seems to make a little more noise then necessary now that I've listened to it more carefully.

 

[wahnula]

I have rarely heard of defective PSU out of the box.

Happened to a member here twice back-to-back with an Antec PSU...so brand-new-out-of-the-box does not always mean in perfect working order. Not saying that's the case here, but in troubleshooting you always look first at things that were changed immediately before the problem started.

It makes sense, too, if both drives are not powering up at exactly the same time, it could cause the problem. Make sure they're both on the same rail or set of wires.

To check that the hard drive noise is really coming from where you think it is, I made a stethoscope out of some water-cooling tubing (auto vacuum hose or fish tank pump hose works too) by sticking one end in my ear and the other near the device that I was "examining". Makes sure the sound is coming from the correct source, you ears can fool you, this rigged device is pretty useful in nailing things down.

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[LawnBoy]

Another way to make a 'stethoscope' is with a screwdriver. Put the plastic end on your cheekbone just in front of your ear and the pointy end on the device(s) in question. Works a charm (with a long enough screwdriver!).


"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes