SLN
03-07-2006, 02:12 PM
I had the opportunity to work with the new raptor and I must admit the experience was frustrating to say the least.
I bought it, installed it, formatted it and used it as a backup space for a couple of days to test whether it was a faulty piece. After a short trial period, it took its place as the main OS-appz hdd in my DFI NF4 SLI-DR (that also supported a 74GB raptor for 1+year and a Hitachi 250Gb and a 7200.8 Seagate for 4+months). PSU is an OCZ powerstream 600W.
All was fine..... for 1 day.
The next day after I had installed the OS-NF4 (6.70)-6.2cat (gto2@X850XT-PE) and a couple of appz, during the booting of windows the blue bar just kept on loading... no activity.
Hard reset...same deal but this time I heard the sound of a hdd powering down.
Fear for my new raptor!
Reset...same power down during OS loading. Shut down... botted in windows!
Fast forward ahead to 10-15 formats later, all with the same sequence (OS, NF4, 6.2) but also tried 5-6 times WinXP 64bit (OS, NF4 6.69, catalyst6.2)
The problem persisted and was completely random. It would appear usually the 2nd day after the clean install and then it would become more frequent but no standard solution would make it go away...
Sometimes when I switched off the system it would boot normally,
sometimes after a simple hard reset,
sometimes it required switching off the PSU, and
sometimes if I went in safe mode and restarted it would boot normally...
I tried it on a different system (MSI K8N neo4 Fi- Heroichi 480PSU) and after days of running great, I restarted the computer and got the same power down problem.
1 step from returning the raptor for RMA (DOS WD diagnostics said the disk was fine) i tried something as a last resort. Also switched to a chieftec 550W PSU.
I set up the raptor outside the case on a cardboard box, installed the OS (WinXP) but when installing the NF4 drivers I PRESSED "NO" when they ask you if you want to install the SATA drivers (I installed the IDE SW drivers as well as all the others). After that for 6 days now, the raptor is working fine WITHOUT THE POWER DOWN PROBLEM.
Having tried the raptor on a different system I must say the only thing that seems to be causing the powerdown during boot up is the NF4 6.70+6.69 (64bit) SATA drivers.
I will continue using the system for a couple of days and if everything is clear I will install the SATA drivers and see if the problem re-appears. If it does not, I will try to put it in the case to see weather it is a short-cirquit that causes the problem. If not, I am out of ideas...
Note 1: when the raptor is not used as an OS disk it seems that no powering down problem takes place
Note 2: Once it gets past the windows loading screen no other glitch appears and the system can be ON for hours (even OCed)
Note 3 : Initial bios when I got the raptor was 623-3, but during the period I switched to 704-2bta. Problem did not seem bios-related.
I am looking for people with the new raptor and NF4 (6.70 + 6.69-64bit) drivers to see if you have the same problems.
Sorry for the lengthy post but I tried to explain my problem as best as I could.
I bought it, installed it, formatted it and used it as a backup space for a couple of days to test whether it was a faulty piece. After a short trial period, it took its place as the main OS-appz hdd in my DFI NF4 SLI-DR (that also supported a 74GB raptor for 1+year and a Hitachi 250Gb and a 7200.8 Seagate for 4+months). PSU is an OCZ powerstream 600W.
All was fine..... for 1 day.
The next day after I had installed the OS-NF4 (6.70)-6.2cat (gto2@X850XT-PE) and a couple of appz, during the booting of windows the blue bar just kept on loading... no activity.
Hard reset...same deal but this time I heard the sound of a hdd powering down.
Fear for my new raptor!
Reset...same power down during OS loading. Shut down... botted in windows!
Fast forward ahead to 10-15 formats later, all with the same sequence (OS, NF4, 6.2) but also tried 5-6 times WinXP 64bit (OS, NF4 6.69, catalyst6.2)
The problem persisted and was completely random. It would appear usually the 2nd day after the clean install and then it would become more frequent but no standard solution would make it go away...
Sometimes when I switched off the system it would boot normally,
sometimes after a simple hard reset,
sometimes it required switching off the PSU, and
sometimes if I went in safe mode and restarted it would boot normally...
I tried it on a different system (MSI K8N neo4 Fi- Heroichi 480PSU) and after days of running great, I restarted the computer and got the same power down problem.
1 step from returning the raptor for RMA (DOS WD diagnostics said the disk was fine) i tried something as a last resort. Also switched to a chieftec 550W PSU.
I set up the raptor outside the case on a cardboard box, installed the OS (WinXP) but when installing the NF4 drivers I PRESSED "NO" when they ask you if you want to install the SATA drivers (I installed the IDE SW drivers as well as all the others). After that for 6 days now, the raptor is working fine WITHOUT THE POWER DOWN PROBLEM.
Having tried the raptor on a different system I must say the only thing that seems to be causing the powerdown during boot up is the NF4 6.70+6.69 (64bit) SATA drivers.
I will continue using the system for a couple of days and if everything is clear I will install the SATA drivers and see if the problem re-appears. If it does not, I will try to put it in the case to see weather it is a short-cirquit that causes the problem. If not, I am out of ideas...
Note 1: when the raptor is not used as an OS disk it seems that no powering down problem takes place
Note 2: Once it gets past the windows loading screen no other glitch appears and the system can be ON for hours (even OCed)
Note 3 : Initial bios when I got the raptor was 623-3, but during the period I switched to 704-2bta. Problem did not seem bios-related.
I am looking for people with the new raptor and NF4 (6.70 + 6.69-64bit) drivers to see if you have the same problems.
Sorry for the lengthy post but I tried to explain my problem as best as I could.