Help needed: is P4B266 rebooting pb related to UDMA 5 ?
Olivier Balet
some people have recently posted some information here about unexpected
reboots with a P4B266 and IBM Vancouver (120GXP) hard disks. I can
unfortunately confirm you that because we have received 2 computers of this
kind (both P4 1.8A, 1GB RAM, one with a Radeon 8500 the other with a Geforce
4 MX) and have experienced a lot of unexpected reboots since.
Just for information, both our P4B266 uses an onboard C-Media audio
controller.
We have changed the IBM disks for Seagate Baracuda ones and were happy to
see things improving. At first sight we thought that everything was fine (no
reboot for 2 days) but we have discovered today that when heavily using the
hard disk (i.e. recompiling our project) then the computer still reboots
unexpectedly. For office tasks, everything seems fine so far.
It is very interesting to note that when setting UDMA to mode 2 with the
BIOS then everything is now fine. The compilations that made the computer
reboot are now completed successfuly.
This makes us think that there must be a problem with the P4B266 and the
UDMA mode 5 (may be mode 4 too, we are currently testing).
Did anybody else draw the same conclusion ?
Does anybody have any information that could help us make UDMA 5 work fine
with P4B266 ?
Many thanks in advance for your help
Best regards
Olivier
Juergen F.
"Olivier Balet" <Olivie...@c-s.fr> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:a9gvdh$l8d$1...@wanadoo.fr...
welcome to the club! IMHO the P4B266s are buggy to the bone considering the
IDE I/F.
FYI, in a follow-up posting to Balaji Sadagopa's thread "P4B266 MB running
XP, rebooting problems" from March, 27
news:c638d5c3.02032...@posting.google.com
I replied (corrected version):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Hi,
three P4B266 mobos and one P4B266 SE showed the same problem: reboots a few
seconds after the XP logo appears on the screen on boot-up (no BSOD). Then,
yesterday, an IBM IC35LC040AV ER drive went dead in another P4B266 equipped
machine after about 6 weeks of normal operation. I replaced the faulty drive
(which makes strange sounds, bios doesn't recognize it anymore) with a new
drive of same type and restored data with HDCOPY (a hard disk imaging
program similar to PowerQuest's Drive Image). And voilą: suddenly I get the
same reboots again, except when starting XP in safe mode!
Reducing UDMA speed from mode 5 to 3 or less for the primary master drive in
bios "fixes" the problem for the meantime. Swapping the P4B266s against
Gigabyte 8IRX and MSI-6398 mobos did the same job (of course, while running
at full UDMA 100 speed).
This seems to be an Asus incompatibility with the IBM Vancouver (AV VA)
drive
series.
HTH
JF
All buggy systems were build with a combination of the following component
types:
P4B266 & P4B266 SE rev. 2.01, BIOS 1005 final
P4-1,8A & P4-2,0A 512KB Northwoods
IBM IC35LC040AV VA & IBM IC35LC060AV VA
Windows XP Professional (German)
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--------
I've forwarded a bug report to Asus Netherlands, but didn't receive any
reply up to now. Alas, bios 1006 beta 002 which is available from the german
Asus ftp site since April, 2, doesn't fix it.
JF
Olivier Balet
This is your post I was refering to and this is what pointed us to the right
direction because we first suspected memory problems.
I am now definitely convinced that the problem is more than an
incompatibility with the IBM Vancouver hard disks. This disk series just
lead to more frequent unexpected reboots.
Thanks for your help
All the best
Olivier
"Juergen F." <j....@firemail.de> a écrit dans le message de news:
a9haop$ste$06$1...@news.t-online.com...
> program similar to PowerQuest's Drive Image). And voilà: suddenly I get
Chris
I have been struggling with a P4B266 with this 'reboot' problem since I've
had the board (about a month), trying various fiddles and tweaks to get it
sorted, but to no avail. As a matter of interrest I also get the boots
during normal Windows running, although they occur most often while windows
is starting up, a few seconds after the XP logo appears.
Incidently, I have a multiboot system, running Linux on another partition,
and had the reboot problem several times while installing linux products
from within the Linux operating system - so no Windows dependency by the
looks of it. I am also running a Vancouver 120GXP IBM Harddrive at UDMA5,
but will try dropping it to see if things improve. Any success on finding a
solution to this?
My full system description is listed below, running at standard specified
speeds i.e. no overclocking at all.
- P4B266 Ver 2.01A Bios Ver 1005 - Onboard C-Media Audio, fully enabled
(reboot still happens with onboard audio disabled)
- P4 1.7 GHz 256KB Cache
- Radeon 8500 64MB
- Kingston PC2100 CL2 Unbuffered Non-ECC
- 80GB IBM Deskstar 120GXP IC35L080AVVA07-0
- Asus 48/16x CD/DVD-R
- MS Windows XP Prof.
Any assistance would be appreciated. Will log a call to Asus and see what
happens. Hopefully I'll be able to swap out the Mobo if I don't come right,
cause this is a Pain in the A%*^.
Another question to ask anyone reading this is: Do you have a similar P4B266
configuration, and DON'T get these reboot problems? If so, please let me
know.
Thanks for the info
Chris
"Olivier Balet" <Olivie...@c-s.fr> wrote in message
news:a9hdsl$mak$1...@wanadoo.fr...
any...@anywhere.net
I found that all my reboot problems (and crashing problems) went
away when I disabled the onboard audio...over a month and no crashes.
I am using Maxtor 80 and 60 gb drives in UDMA5 mode, 1.6 GhZ processor.
Also the extended interupt controller is turned OFF in the bios.
Jim...
Matthias Scheler
"Chris" <hab...@btopenworld.com> writes:
> - P4B266 Ver 2.01A Bios Ver 1005 - Onboard C-Media Audio, fully enabled
C-Media disabled
> (reboot still happens with onboard audio disabled)
> - P4 1.7 GHz 256KB Cache
P4 2.0 GHz 512KB Cache
> - Radeon 8500 64MB
ATI Radeon 8500 LE 64MB
> - Kingston PC2100 CL2 Unbuffered Non-ECC
Same here, 512MB module.
> - 80GB IBM Deskstar 120GXP IC35L080AVVA07-0
2 60GB IBM IC35L060AVER07-0
> - Asus 48/16x CD/DVD-R
Pioneer U03S SCSI DVD-ROM, Plextor 2410A CD-ROM writer
> - MS Windows XP Prof.
MS Windows XP Home, NetSD 1.5ZC
> Another question to ask anyone reading this is: Do you have a similar P4B266
> configuration, and DON'T get these reboot problems? If so, please let me
> know.
My system with above configuration works rock solid, no unexpected reboots
at all.
Kind regards
--
Matthias Scheler http://scheler.de/~matthias/
Leo Becking
Hi,
I had a lookalike setup and experienced similar problems : unexpected
reboots when starting windows (2000prof) and when reinstalling w2k it
rebooted while looking for "previous installed versions" 9 out of 10
times.
While reading this post i suspected that cable quality maybe the
source of the problem. In UDMA 5 mode the max speed is quite high and
the standard asus udma cable has a significant length. Also the new
IBM 120GXP disks can transfer data faster than previous models.
swapping the hd cable for another type (also long, only udma mode
2)solved the problem. The number of reboots it seemed to vary if the
first or the second disk connector was used. The next thing i did,
was reducing the cable to the absolute minimum (+12 cm): No reboots
yet for 2 days, I also checked it with the "looking for previous
versions" method : no reboots yet.
Note that if anyone also wants to reduce the cable length, that the
mobo will only recognize the blue connector as udma 5 capable, so do
not cut off that part of the cable.
I presume that a better quality UDMA cable may also solve the problem.
Leo Becking
Juergen F.
"Leo Becking" <leobe...@yahoo.co.uk> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3020bbab.02042...@posting.google.com...
your findings are very interesting, and I'm glad you posted your findings
here, but I don't think that the quality of the bundled IDE cables is
responsible for that behavior. You see cable length (45cm) is well within
the ATA standard maximum of 48cm and AFAIK Asus doesn't change suppliers of
cables very often, it'd have appeared with other mobos, too. Furthermore I
tested the same cables with other brand i845d mobos and IBM 120GXP series
drives without any hassles. What you're proposing is another workaround for
"patching", but it won't solve the buggy IDE interface situation with the
P4B266 Rev. 2.01 mobos, alas. Thi is up to Asus.
JF
Leo Becking
You are right it is a patch or workaround, but i was formulating the
reply more or less to the post from Olivier asking:
> Does anybody have any information that could help us make UDMA 5 work fine
> with P4B266 ?
Using an ata 100 cable with reduced length seems to provide this
solution.
When looking for source of the problem: it maybe related to something
to close to the ATA 100 specification (like capacity, impedance or
whatever), either on the cable or on the interface. Such problem may
stay just "hidden" in the design until faster disks came out on the
market.
Leo Becking
Ron
Same problem here P4B266 with 40 gig IBM 120 GXP I have to use it as a slave
Or I cannot use it at all.
Keeps rebooting. Win 98
Could it be the cable that Asus supplies does not really support ATA100?
I am at a loss for an answer, I would love to use this drive
Frank Gruber
P4B266-SE with IBM Deskstar 120 GXP - 40 GB.
15 Machines all showing the same issue.
We changed to power supply of different vendor - without success.
We changed to IDE cables of different vendor - without success.
We changed ram modules - without success.
We changed Harddisk to Maxtor which seems to work but this one
is slower an so the question is if this solves or just hides the real
problem.
Today I received some MSI bords which I will give a try.
Seems that Asus mainboards are getting much worse since the
good old BX days.
PS. I have canceled all current orders for customer's systems
having ASUS mainboards until I really know what's going on here.
Kind Regards,
Frank Gruber
[GIG mbH Berlin/Germany]
Juergen F.
"Ron" <la...@ite.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:246c7d74.02050...@posting.google.com...
Today, Asus has released a new bios 1007 beta 002, right now I don't know if
the ATA100 issue has been fixed with this, but give it a test shot and
report:
ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_478/INTEL_Chipset/i845d/P4B266/
JF
Tom&Zen
60GB (120GXP). I successfully installed Win XP Home and I was burning it in,
suddenly the computer would just boot up in endless loop. Since no other
programs were installed, I wiped the hard drive and re-installed Win XP.
About the middle of the installation, it would reboot and start all over
again. I decided to let it reboot for a couple of hours and it still doing
it. It certainly looked like it was a faulty power supply or RAM. I replaced
both to no avail. My last hope was the drive. I had a Western Digital lying
around so I tried it and guess what! Win XP installed without a hitch. I ran
some benchmark test for 6 hours and it worked like a charm. Did somebody say
Asus has compatibility issues with IBM drives? I think it is the IBM drives.
Tom
"Juergen F." <j....@firemail.de> wrote in message
news:aboird$vni$03$1...@news.t-online.com...
Frank Gruber
if
> the ATA100 issue has been fixed with this, but give it a test shot and
Just tried it but it did not fix the problem.
Regards,
Frank
Frank Gruber
say
> Asus has compatibility issues with IBM drives? I think it is the IBM
drives.
We changed the IBM Deskstar against a Maxtor and this also fixes the
problem,
but there is a slight chance that this is not the cause but simply hides the
real problem,
because the IBM harddisk is faster than the Maxstor and nearly all of the WD
drives.
Which WD drive are you using ?
Thank's
Regards Frank.
olc...@cox.net
I got a P4B266 system Wednesday last week. It worked fine. I went out
of town over the weekend and I've come back to this problem of
rebooting just as Windows has put all the icons on the screen.
The difference in my case is I am using Win2K, not XP, and a Maxtor
and a Western Digital drive. No XP, no IBM.
Any ideas?
S.Lewis
<olc...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:7vgjeu0d1uhadpm8c...@4ax.com...
Remove the slave from the IDE channel, boot and see if it continues. If so,
boot the master into safe mode, see if it continues.
And that's just a start...
Stew
Frank Gruber
> of town over the weekend and I've come back to this problem of
> rebooting just as Windows has put all the icons on the screen.
>
> The difference in my case is I am using Win2K, not XP, and a Maxtor
> and a Western Digital drive. No XP, no IBM.
>
> Any ideas?
First you should check if DMA is involved.
Boot in save mode and force drives to operate in PIO mode
or lower DMA mode (UDMA33) in bios and check if this solves the problem.
That's just the beginning. Check it out and then come back and report.
Regard,
Frank.
Ian Carmichael
<fgr...@gig-mbh.de> wrote:
Hi Frank,
I am running an IBM Deskstar 120GXP 60 GB on an Asus P4B266 without
any problems.
My system:
Asus P4B266
512MB PC2100 DDR ram,
IBM Deskstar 120GXP 60GB HD,
Windows XP Home Edition,
Asus BIOS Rev. 1005
The hard drive is set as master on the primary IDE channel (no slave)
I have an Mitsubishi LS120 as a slave on the secondary IDE channel (no
master). Don't ask me why the LS120 is set a a slave drive but it's
been that way since I installed it many moons ago and couldn't be
bothered to alter it. I also have the on board sound and the Speech
POST Reporter disabled in the BIOS.
Like I said everything is working well with the 120 GXP.
regards,
Ian.
__
Frank Gruber
> 512MB PC2100 DDR ram,
> IBM Deskstar 120GXP 60GB HD,
> Windows XP Home Edition,
> Asus BIOS Rev. 1005
>
> The hard drive is set as master on the primary IDE channel (no slave)
> I have an Mitsubishi LS120 as a slave on the secondary IDE channel (no
> master). Don't ask me why the LS120 is set a a slave drive but it's
> been that way since I installed it many moons ago and couldn't be
> bothered to alter it. I also have the on board sound and the Speech
> POST Reporter disabled in the BIOS.
Do you have a CPU with Northwood kernel ?
Retgards,
Frank.
spyros
god damned ibm disk that don lets the machine boot!and the difference
with me is that xp makes a series of test regarding affidability and
thats why doesnt let it go on