SCSI RAID: PC crashes when caching is enabled. Any ideas?

[CJan_NH]

First off, thanks for looking

A few months ago I had a SCSI RAID problem that had been kicking my rear for days. Once I posted the question here it was solved within a day. I am hopeful that my present problem rings a bell with someone more experienced than I am.

Currently my DVD ripping PC crashes whenever I enable caching of any kind on the RAID adapter. The hardware config is as follows:

AthlonXP 1800+ (1.53g not overclocked)
Abit NF7-S2 mainboard (same problem with ECS K7S5A mainboard)
512MB Samsung PC2700 DDR running at 133x2
Adaptec AAA-131U2 RAID controller
-64MB onboard cache on card
(2x) 18.2G Seagate Cheetah ST118202LC 10K rpm hard drives
-80pin to 68pin LVD converters for drives
128MB GeForceFX 5200
16MB ATI Rage 128 for secondary video
Plextor PX-712A 12x DVD burner
Toshiba SD-M1712 16X DVD-ROM drive
3Com 3C905C-TX-M NIC
Creative Soundblaster Live 5.1
Antec SX840 server case
Antec 430 watt PSU
Windows 2000 SP4

The SCSI cable is properly terminated. The Adaptec card is SCSI ID#7, and the drives are at #8 and #9 for a 16bit data path.

I'm currently using Adaptec CIO Array Management Software v4.01. Whenever I do something that is HDD intensive (like ripping a DVD for example) the PC blue screens and locks up with the following error:

STOP: 0x00000077 (0xC00009D, 0x000009D, 0x00000000, 0x00207000)
KERNAL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR

Once I restart the PC when Windows is booting up it blue screens and locks up again with the following error:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0x81C54B70, 0x0000032, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

At that point I have to go into the Windows repair console and rebuild the master boot record, restart, and then the PC boots normally.

I have googled these error codes, read the FAQ here, reinstalled Windows a zillion times, written zeros to the array, and tried every conceivable driver and utility-all to no avail.

Aside from taking a blowtorch to the hardware (or swallowing a hollowpoint) could anyone please point me in the right direction? I realize that this hardware isn't exactly state of the art, but it is much better than what I had before. I'm not really a power user, but I would like to get as much performance as I can out of the array-caching seems to make a dramatic difference in read/write performance. The only hardware change I made to the adapter when I received it was to upgrade to a larger 64MB EDO EEC onboard cache memory module (it came with 2MB). On POST the Adaptec self diagnostic says the memory is okay and the card's BIOS appears to install properly.

Is there some sort of command line code that I should be using somewhere to enable caching on the drives directly? I have poured over the installation manuals for both the harddrives and the RAID adapter but haven't found any answers, aside from the assurance that demand/write behind caching etc is fully supported. I have tried every utility from both Seagate's and Adaptec's site to no avail.

If it matters the array is rock solid when caching is disabled, although it is extremely slow.

Thanks in advance for any guidance, and please accept my apology for such a painfully long post.

 

[defakto]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried caching with just the 2meg instead of the 64 to see if the ram might still be causing issues, even though it tests ok?

 

[CJan_NH]

Good morning Defakto, thank you very much for your reply.

I haven't yet but will try it. Maybe there is some high level error that isn't being picked up in POST.

Thank you for your suggestion, I'll reinstall the original chip as soon as I can.