GA-M56S-S3

[nmahy]

Hi, I have a Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 motherboard with a AMD 4450e CPU which worked great for about a year with 2x1GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix Ram.  A couple of months ago I started to get random lockups every few days.  Memtest indicated memory issues, so I returned the Ram sticks for replacement.  The replacement sticks are didn't solve the problem, so I bought some Corsair CM2X2048-8500C5C ram and am still getting the same problems.  Is it possible there could be a fault with the memory controller on the motherboard?
Thanks for any advice.

[absic]

Hi,

there could be a problem with your mobo but system errors and lock-ups can be caused by other things as well. Could you post your full system specs (HDD's, GPU, DVD/CD drive, Add-On cards etc.) to help trouble shooting?

What BIOS do you have?

Are you Overclocking at all?

What OS are you using?

cheers

[nmahy]

Hi there, thanks for the reply.
Full system specs as follows:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 - Bios Rev F6c - Serial No. 081490001072
CPU: AMD Athlon 4450e run at standard clock and bus speed with stock retail heatsink and fan
RAM: Corsair CM2X2048-8500C5C standard 2.1V 5-6-6-18 timings. Just one ram stick used & frequency reduced to 667 to reduce lockups to about once a week.  2 sticks at 800 locks up machine soon after booting.
HDDs:
2x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB WD1001FALS-00J7B1
1x Seagate Barracuda 750GB ST3750840AS
1x Seagate Barracuda 200GB ST3200822AS
VGA card: Gigabyte 7200GS
Video capture cards:
Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2
Hauppauge analogue PVR 250
Hauppauge analogue PVR 150
Optical Drive: LiteOn IDE drive LH-20A1H
Power Supply:Akasa AK-P400FG BL 400w
OS:Windows Home Server, fully up to date running Sage TV media server WHS edition

Hope the above is sufficent.  Thanks for the interest/help.

[absic]

Hi,

Have you always had the PC with this configuration or have you added some HDD's and/or other items?

Looking at your system specs I am wondering if the PSU is up to the task that you require. Although on paper 400W should be adequate maybe something with more power would be better suited and if it was my rig I would have at least a 450W PSU.

[nmahy]

Hi,

System was built in August 2008, nothing has changed except originally I had 4 x Seagate Barracuda 200Gbs, which have been swapped out periodically to add more storage (one of the drives remains, as per spec list).  I'd imagine the load at the wall plug would be the same as original +/- 5 watts or so.  Did a load check earlier and current load at wall plug is approx 200W.  If I run a few prime95's to get 100% CPU usage I can max the load out to about 240-250W.

[absic]

OK,

Thanks for the info it's much appreciated.

As a matter of interest did this problem start about the time you added the WD HDD's? The reason I ask is that I have come across quite a few issues that have ultimately been caused by these drives and although other people rate them I'm not convinced that they are all up to spec.

I know this still hasn't answered your original question with regard to the memory controller being faulty but, the memory controller is actually on-board the CPU not the motherboard, that is why I am looking at your other components and the history of your rig to try and trace the problem.

ATB

[nmahy]

I went with WD HDD's because the problems with the Barracuda 1.5TB drives put me off buying any more.   
I can't honestly remember when I bought those drives, but I think I had them a while before the problem started.
How about this as a test:
Unplug all 4 HDD's making a note of which one goes to which sata port, then plugging in one of my old Seagate 200's which is now lying around as a spare and installing an OS on it with both sticks of ram at standard settings and seeing what happens?  Do you think this would be any use?
Thanks for your continued help with my issue, much appreciated.

[absic]

Hi,

if you can do that it would be great as it could give a better understanding of what's occuring . Could you also test your add-on capture cards as one of those might be causing issues?

Thanks

[nmahy]

OK will do.  Will pull the capture cards to start with and see how I go.
Give me a couple of days and will post how I get on in here.
Thanks again.

[nmahy]

Well, pulled all the HDDs and stuck Win Xp on an old 200gb HDD, and it works fine!  If I then unplug that HDD and connect up the other drives as per normal, machine hangs within a few minutes.

I guess that leaves me with one of the following:
A HDD is causing problems
WHS installation has got screwed up
A driver causing issues

Thanks for your help with this, I totally misled myself thinking it was the mb.  Have learnt to keep a more open mind in the future.

[absic]

Hi,

Have you tried adding the other HDD's one at a time to your system, using the OS you have installed, on the older drive that you know is working OK?

If there is a problem with any of the HDD's this would be the best way to show it. If you can install the HDD's without the system falling over then you will know it is not hardware but software that's causing the problem.

Hope this helps