Jim,
OK. I sorta understand your True Image app use. I know zip about Linux,
other than it is another os. Really can not comment on it. I might suggest
a check that both the nVidia drivers for the on-board appliancs (NForce),
and the drivers for Sil3114 are up to date. Someone else mentioned a
possibly flakey SouthBridge chip. I suppose a case might be made for it to
be overloaded. I have never been a fan of Sparkle (r) psus, but I defer to
others more knowledgeable........ :)
Are there any "dust bunnies" laying about on the m/b traces? (channel
cross-talk)
At this point, I'm running out of ideas. Hmm......... :)
Best,
Duncan
At 19:06 03/09/2008 -0700, you wrote:
Duncan,
Actually the recovery disk for True Image is Linux based. It loads from CD
after boot but before Windows loads. It also comes with a Windows based
program that will create the image from within Windows. You have to re-boot
to the Linux program only when restoring the C:/boot drive. As long as I am
within Windows, True Image works perfectly. Only when I try to restore the
C: drive does it require a re-boot to the Linux version and I loose contact
with most of the hard drives. One hard drive (and always the same one) is
visible. The other drive on the same controller is NOT visible. I haven't
tried moving them around to see if it is the spot on the controller or the
drive itself that makes a difference.
As True Image boots to the program in Linux, there is a a flash on the
screen saying the nVidia and Sil3114 controllers (the controllers on the
motherboard) have been found, followed by a message that no volumes were
found.
The Opteron is a socket 939 dual core processor, almost identical to some of
the higher clock speed AMD64 X2 CPUs that AMD stopped making. It is 2.6 GHz.
Dual core, single socket.
The psu is a Sparkle Power FSP550-60PLN-B 550 Watts EPS12V Switching Power
Supply. If the psu is working, it should provide sufficient power. Of
course, if it is failing, all bets are off. I don't have dual video cards or
a power hungry single video card. It will take some time to remove a power
supply from another system to test the theory that the Sparkle is dying.
Will let you know what I find out.
I may be in denial, but the repeated weird problems seem to be getting
progressively worse in a way I would not attribute to the psu. Removing the
750 GB WD drive that was showing slow transfer times and putting it back
into the external enclosure produced a new problem. As long as the drive was
attached to the nVidia controller, the computer would stick at the
"searching for drives" section of the nVidia boot process. As soon as I
removed the drive, it booted fine. I moved the drive to one of the pcie-X1
SATA ports and everything boots fine. More and more I am suspicious of the
on-board SATA controllers. I have never been able to mount a boot drive on
the Sil3114 ports and now the nVidia seem to be acting up.
Unfortunately, it take time to test each hypothesis. In the meantime, my
main system is down making life a little more complicated.
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I will be trying to implement
them in the next couple of days.
Jim Maki
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DHSinclair
>
> Jim,
> Going to suppose that TrueImage is a sw system and that it
> has to be loaded
> after-the-fact (post boot, post logon). As such, it presumes
> that the base
> machine's power is AOK as well as all the machines I/O. As
> with base OS
> systems, I suspect that TrueImage will have internal problems
> if one or
> more of the hard drives are mis-reporting due to weak/marginal power.
>
> On top of this is your Opteron. I have to believe that this
> cpu is in the
> "power saving" category, but could be wrong. I have never
> had/used such
> exotics. Believe Winterlight could chime in here with
> stories about his
> dual-Xeon experience too.
>
> Your psu may be on the edge of its' ability to supply all the
> power your
> chosen HW is demanding ATM. And, when something/anything
> makes a demand on
> the psu for whatever reason, the psu sags and everyone else
> goes a bit
> goofy. A bit goofy may be correctable, bigger goofy nets odd
> events and
> blue screens.
>
> It does read as if your current psu has run out of capacity
> for whatever
> the reason. Which PSU is in use ATM?
>
> Just with your hard drives and CD drives I count ~25A of
> static (no load
> current). And, this does not include your cpu, m/b, and I/O card
> set. With what you shared to Brian a couple back, I'd hope
> you were using
> a 600W psu (maybe), 800W psu (better), or 1KW psu (best) just
> so that you
> have the necessary power headroom (spare capacity) to handle untoward
> demands. Again, JMHO.
>
> Until my Enermax fiasco 2 years ago, I have yet to have a psu related
> failure. My glitches fall into the "pilot-error", PEBCAK,
> and "way over my
> head" category!!! LOL!!
> Best,
> Duncan
>
