Random Reboots - Need Help Diagnosing Hardware Problem

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LobsterSan

n00b
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
52
System:
ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon X2 4400+ @ 2.21GHz (stock)
Corsair ValueSelect PC3200 DDR 2GB (4x512)
HD 1. 200 GB HD on IDE
HD 2. 500 GB HD on SATA II
HD 3. SATA II Internal HD hot-swappable loading dock (installed in 5.25" bay in case)
Running WinXP SP2

Problems:
About a month ago, I did a fresh install of WinXP and at the same time did a bit of hard drive reorganization. I also installed the hot-swappable loading dock. At this time, I noticed some problems involving the data transfer rates of my HDs, so I did some poking around with the SATA cables. I changed the controller ports I was using, and things sped up and seemed fine.

However, I then started to have random reboots with my system, and overall stability has been a bit of an issue. The reboots never come with any BSOD, and usually happen very suddenly. Occasionally, the reboots occur just after the system starts to grind to a halt -- screen freezes, I hear the HD spinning up (or maybe down), and then after about 10-20 seconds reboot.

I'm leaning towards thinking this is an issue with my hard drive connections or hard drive controller. Has anyone heard of faulty SATA cables or connections causing system reboots? Or perhaps it's my SATA/HD controller? Is it possible it is the hot-swappable dock that I installed? Or the fact that HD's when used in the dock run very hot?
 
Heat could be a problem, as well as the hot-swappable dock. Remove your primary OS drive from the dock and try running it for a while in the PC case. Meanwhile, see if you could find a way to cool the drives that remain in the dock. If you feel like it's necessary, disconnect and reconnect all of the hard drives.

And please continue to give us updates to your progress.
 
Thanks for the recommendations. My primary OS drive is not in the swappable dock (that wouldn't make much sense to swap the primary OS drive out while in operation). The primary OS drive is the 200GB one connected via IDE.

I also don't think it is heat related anymore, because even when no drive is in the swappable dock the reboots occur.

Regardless, I went out and got a 5.25" bay fan to cool drives I put in the swappable dock. Those drives are running much cooler now, which is a plus.

I also changed the SATA ports I'm using, and I believe that is what was causing the reboots and instability. Two of my SATA ports seem to be fried, as when using them the system either doesn't recognize the drive or has severe stability issues. I'm now using my SATA 3 and 4 ports, and the computer has been running stable for 48 hours.

I'm not sure how the SATA ports got fried. Two possibilities -- one, I switched SATA ports once when the computer was on, as I had heard this was ok to do since SATA is hot-swappable. The other possibility is I somehow physically damaged the pins or ports when I installed the drives.

For anyone reading this, it appears faulty SATA ports can be one culprit to an unstable system.
 
Ah, I see, re-reading what you have written I think you misunderstood my setup.

I have a dock that is installed INSIDE my case, which allows me to hot-swap SATA drives directly into my case. It front-loads from the front of my case, so it is a very convenient and cheap solution to having a huge amount of easily accessible data.

I love having that dock -- it in essence allows me to use 500GB SATAII hard drives as high-speed, high-capacity floppy disks.
 
random reboots are usually either RAM or power supply related run MEMtest86 on the RAM and also see what the voltages on your power supply are either using a power supply tester or a program like speedfan
 
paulmr said:
random reboots are usually either RAM or power supply related run MEMtest86 on the RAM and also see what the voltages on your power supply are either using a power supply tester or a program like speedfan
Click to expand...

Wow, you really didn't even bother reading what I posted, did you? :rolleyes:
 
LobsterSan said:
I also changed the SATA ports I'm using, and I believe that is what was causing the reboots and instability. Two of my SATA ports seem to be fried, as when using them the system either doesn't recognize the drive or has severe stability issues. I'm now using my SATA 3 and 4 ports, and the computer has been running stable for 48 hours.

I'm not sure how the SATA ports got fried. Two possibilities -- one, I switched SATA ports once when the computer was on, as I had heard this was ok to do since SATA is hot-swappable. The other possibility is I somehow physically damaged the pins or ports when I installed the drives.

For anyone reading this, it appears faulty SATA ports can be one culprit to an unstable system.
Click to expand...

You may want to get a new board at some point in the future, especially if you intend on adding more hard drives later on. (Barring that, you could buy a IDE or SATA controller expansion card.) If you are still within your warranty period, you may want to consider returning the board via RMA and get a replacement.
 
oops didn't read that you got it going by using different SATA ports.....

it's a shame to possibly have to get a new board; thats a pretty highly rated board and my friend has one too loves it. How long are the warranties from ASUS?
 
I guess it's hard to read everything when there are so many forums to read these days. :p

I'm not sure on the warranty, but I'm not that bothered by it. I don't plan on putting more HDs in my case since the hot-swap dock basically takes care of all the expandability I need.

I'll probably just stick with this system for half a year, waiting for an opportune moment to make the switch to Intel and end up just selling the computer as assembled to someone who likely won't even know what a SATA port is.
 
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