Am I On the Right Track?

Summary: I've just put together a new computer and have had a rash of BSOD's and general instability. What else should I be doing to get this fixed?

ABIT Socket 755 IP35 Pro mobo
Core Duo 6450, 2.13GHz
2GB Memory
Silicon Image 3132 SATA RAID Controller (PCI Express attached)
+ 2 x 250GB Seagate SATA disks
1 x 750GB Seagate SATA, attached to MOBO SATA port
DVD/RW, IDE attached
Win/XP SP2

This was meant to be my new machine to replace the 7 year old Dell but since finishing it on Sunday it has had a slew of problems. So I've done the following:

- Reduced to 1GB as one stick is suspect (asked for an RMA from vendor)
- Continued instability forced me to remove the PCI controller and reconnect one SATA 250GB to an internal SATA port just to reduce the complexity

I then started to stress test the reduced config with 3D Mark benchmarks and video encodes. The system survived the benchmarks but after about 2 hours my first BSOD: IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL followed by another BSOD 2 hrs later DRIVER_CORRUPTED_MMPOOL. I re-booted in Safe mode and the line of drivers listed stopped at JGOGO.SYS and not having a clue I re-booted and did some research. It pointed to an on-board ESATA RAID controller from JMicron that appears to have flakey drivers. Their web site is an absolute joke and no driver download section (so no replacement). I re-booted in safe mode again and went to Device Manager and tried Driver Rollback (nothing to rollback to) and I clicked on the 'Verify Driver' Tab thinking that would help. I re-booted and carried on only to get BSOD; KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED. Back in Safe Mode I loaded 'AutoRuns' a nice utility that allowed me to manually disable the JMicron related drivers. For more info on this utility go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/AutoRuns.mspx

But another 90 minutes later BSOD again - IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL with a string of 'arguments' (for want of a better word) beginning with STOP 0x0000000D1

Checking around again some of the posts suggested that this could all be hardware related. So I booted from the XP install disk and went into Recovery Manager and I'm now 60% through a CHKDSK /R on the 250Gb disk with the XP System on it.

The research also suggests; check all cabling and replace suspects (all the cables are brand new)and run a lengthy memory test to check the 1GB stick in place.

I know that the real problem could well be being masked by symptoms that point to something else, so any ideas on what I should do next? Also*how* should I methodically go about eliminating the possible candidates and get to the real source of all this pain and distraction?

TIA

Pierre

 

'ello my Pierre, we meet again at Majeur Geekes.

I seem to recall it said on page 44443 of my last PW novel I wrote

'Test the system with an IDE disk to see if the fault lies within the SATA/Raid.'

 

Hi Dorothy

None of the disks are running through RAID controllers. I took out the add-in RAID controller and disabled the drivers for the on-board E-SATA controller (from JMicron, allegedly with poor drivers).

Should I try to turn of the E-SATA controller via the Bios?

Pierre

 

Non Non Non

I meant to temporarily disconnect the SATA and install an IDE (the old Dell?).
You will then find out if the problem lies in the rest of the system or in the SATA arrangement.