P5ND2-SLI Deluxe Raid 0/SATA problem.. maybe? Driving me nuts

P5ND2-SLI Deluxe Raid 0/SATA problem.. maybe? Help!

2 weeks ago I build a new computer for my college work (3d/2d/flash animator) and fun.

P4 3.6 gig 2meg L2 cache 64 bit support
Asus P5ND2-Sli Deluxe
2 200 Gig Seagate Barracuda 8.7200 sata drives in a raid 0 array
Creative Labs Audigy 4 Pro
BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra
Enermax 600 watt power supply
1 gig Kingston Hyper-X ddr2 667
Coolermaster Stacker with 3 120mm fans and 3 80mm fans plus cross flow fan
Swiftech liquid cooling with Asetek cpu waterblock

Windows installed fine, drivers updated, updated windows, and installed programs. Temps for cpu 35-40 C and motherboard 25 C. Periodically my computer just freezes and the HD LED pulses. I thought I had a HD problem so I ran every test in the book from surface to file integrity but everything is fine. Updated my bios, nforce4 drivers, and I searched the internet all over but I can't seem to figure this out or even what might be causing it. Is this maybe a SATA or RAID 0 problem? If I need to return something I want to figure this out before my return polocy is up. I thought it was when I was running too many programs or disk examining things like antivirus while unzipping because it froze up but it also freezes if I leave the computer on over night and it is just frozen but I do have mouse movement. I defragged my raid array, I checked my memory, I set the timings to optimal 4-4-4-10 because it comes factory at 4-4-4-12 latency. I've been monitoring my temps and its an ice box. If anyone can help I would be greatful even if you can just lead me in the right direction.

Thanks

Update - HD LED always pulses when the computer is idle =/

see if changing the memory timings back to the factory defaults fixes the problem.

Thanks for the reply,

Unfortunatly the reason I changed the timings was to try and fix the problem.

I did unplug my second 21" monitor from my ups and things have been stable since. I'm not sure if that fixed the problem or what.

Nothing seems to work and I'm completely clueless as to what might be causing this. Running and installing, exiting a game, or just sitting idle causes these random freezes. Its so hard to diagnose when everything in my computer is new. I ran memory tests, hd tests, adaware, spybot, and spy removal tools although I have barely browsed the web. All my drivers are up to date, and all my temps are low. Mouse still functions but the entire desktop freezes up.

Any help would be appreciated

Download Asus Probe (may alrady have it on your mobo CD) and set it to record your voltages. I would bet it is a PSU issue.

My Vcore voltage is 1.26, 3.3+ is at 3.28, +5.0 is at 5.03, and my 12v is at 11.78. I have the computer and one of my 21" monitors plugged into a 800 watt UPS that shows everything ok. The voltages are stable and don't fluxuate. Its real strange because the freezing is so random I can't really figure out whats causing it. Sometimes during an install or sometimes when I wake up and the computer was idle. I do appreciate your comment.

That VCore seems really low! What are the specs for VCore for that CPU? Shouldn't it be more like 1.5v at least? You should be able to adjust it up in the BIOS. A VCore that is too low would cause problems like you are seeing.

I couldn't find information on the vcore specs but its set to auto in the bios. I'm not sure I want to play with the settings unless I could find the stock vcore information on this processor. I looked online briefly but couldnt find anything more than intels spec datapage stating .3-1.5 is the minimal and maximum. My computer is setup to "always on" under power schemes so I know speedstep isnt active.

I looked around to and couldn't find much either. Odd. Best I could see was 1.15 - 1.3. That just seems so low when compared to my AMD but you are within specs across the board voltage-wise.

I give up and its annoying as hell, I'm going to try and reformat, reinstall, and pay specific attention to what I install and if it causes the problem. If it still doesn't work I'm going to just use the sata drives without raid. I would so much rather have the performance for my animation work but what good is it if its freezing my computer?

first off, you have a way of finding out whether your problem is caused buy software or hardware before you reformat. upon booting, enter the bios and do not exit. let the machine sit untouched for awhile (overnight sounds good) and see if it reboots or gives you any trouble. you may want to create a password, so upon reboot the machine will not proceed to boot windows.

Zephead

Thanks for your input. I have a feelings my problem is related to software or drivers. When I was running just Windows XP and a few other programs I had no problems but after installing my usual software bundles the freezing started. Since I can't really test it I think just a fresh install might be able to lead me to where my problem is.

Thank you

please read my previous post. odds are you're going to be wasting your time reformatting.

Zephead,

Your probally right but I did it anyway. Good news is it doesn't seem to be hardware or hardware driver related. I left the computer on all night without any problems. I manually configured the memory in the bios according to Kingston and set the voltage manually to stock setting as opposed to leaving it at auto. Bad news is that means its software related and I won't know what software caused it. 3D max, Avid, Maya, and AutoCad dump drivers on and everyone seems to have trouble with Norton systemworks and internet security so one of these might be the culprit. I was reading that DEP causes problems with Nforce4 but that was months ago and I hope they fixed that by now. Creative drivers conflict with Nforce but I fixed that untill creative updates. What a mess. Well, I'm a computer dork at heart and love troubleshooting but I wanna play with my new toy. =) I'm going to install each program and let the computer run for a bit to maybe narrow it down.

Thanks for helping.

norton systemworks is poisonous crap, all you need is nav/nis.

Funny you said that because right now I only have a fresh copy of xp pro with sp2, updated windows, drivers, and norton systemworks + internet security, and low and behold the computer froze with mouse movement while liveupdating and having a ie browser window open. Its really hard to reproduce this problem so I'm not 100% sure if norton IS the cause but the computer is running kinda slow with norton installed. I might switch to Avant or something to see if it fixes the problem. Its not as frequent as before because its only happened once in 2 days but it still happened.

In event log I keep getting a system error, not sure what it is or why.

Tclass2k
Could not enable interrupts on connected port device \Device\PointerClass3.

I think its for my tablet which is on a USB port.

I am also getting a messenger error but I will end up getting rid of messenger anyway.

thanks for your help so far. I think I'm getting closer to fixing this problem.

it may not be related to your problem, bit i'm just saying that systemworks is an unnessesary burden on any windows computer. systemworks is a suite of software, such as norton nav/nis, cleansweep, and more garbage. all you need is nis, thus relieving the system of the extra burdens of cleansweep and the other crap included with systemworks.

I must say I appreciate your help. So far no freezes but I dont have anything else on my computer. I will start installing stuff tomorrow and we will see what happens.

Peeace

Well, Nothing worked.

As soon as I start installing things my computer starts with the freezing crap. I give up and I reformatted without the RAID 0. I would really love the performance it offers but if my box is going to freeze up like this its pretty pointless to bother with it.

No freezing after a fresh windows xp, drivers, windows update, and antivirus. As soon as I put a few programs on and open 2 IE windows or AOL IM and a IE window it freezes up.

I'll bet in 2 or 3 days nvidia or asus will post a bios fix and I'll be pulling my hair out.

I'm not even sure if anyone else has this problem or if its just me. I've tested my hardware countless times without any problems so I really hope it isn't some hardware issue.

Thanks for all of the input.

at this point it's safe to say your issue is software related. you mentoined ie, i reccomend mozilla firefox instead. most people find it to be a better main browser, and you'd probably like the tabbed browsing features. mabye your troubles are caused by a glitch involving ie...