64 bit PCI - anyone seen a card that works?!

[Peter Hucker]

Got a dual athlon board with 64bit PCI slots. Plugged a creative labs modem in, power supply emitted smoke and smell, now the 64bit slots are busted, and the 32bit ones are terribly slow! New motherboard, plugged a raid controller into one, PC would not start. What's going on here? The cards has the relevant keys meaning they should work! The raid controller even specified it would!

--
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Served from a pentawatercooled dual 2.8GHz silent Athlon with half TB RAID.

Confucius say: "Boy who go to sleep with stiff problem wake up with solution in hand."

 

[Paul Murphy]

Using a Tyan S2460 with a 3Com 3C-996B-T Gigabit Server nic (a 64 bit card)
and it works well. The S2460 is very picky about PSUs and eats the "wrong"
ones - if you have a S2460 have you seen this:
http://students.washington.edu/vladis/atx_burn/ ? Its fairly common and I've
had it happen. If you're using another board however, this won't apply.
Since the power supply emmitted smoke and smell have you replaced it and if
so, with what? If not, how do you know its not a dead/dying PSU thats
causing your ongoing probs?

Paul

Got a dual athlon board with 64bit PCI slots. Plugged a creative labs

modem in, power supply emitted smoke and smell, now the 64bit slots are
busted, and the 32bit ones are terribly slow! New motherboard, plugged a
raid controller into one, PC would not start. What's going on here? The
cards has the relevant keys meaning they should work! The raid controller
even specified it would!

--
13 parrots and rising http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual 2.8GHz silent Athlon with half TB RAID.

Confucius say: "Boy who go to sleep with stiff problem wake up with

solution in hand."

 

[Peter Hucker]

Using a Tyan S2460 with a 3Com 3C-996B-T Gigabit Server nic (a 64 bit card)
and it works well. The S2460 is very picky about PSUs and eats the "wrong"
ones - if you have a S2460 have you seen this:
http://students.washington.edu/vladis/atx_burn/ ?

Christ that soldering is apalling! No I don't I have a Gigabyte board.

Its fairly common and I've
had it happen. If you're using another board however, this won't apply.

Hmm sounds like Tyan screwed up a bit there. Drawing far too much current.

Since the power supply emmitted smoke and smell have you replaced it and if
so, with what? If not, how do you know its not a dead/dying PSU thats
causing your ongoing probs?

Everything is/was fine until I plugged in that blasted modem. Now how could that overload a 550 watt(!) supply? And burn out something on the board inbetween too, as it stopped 64bit slots working and reduced speed of 32 bit ones.

Then the raid card (a very cheap one but it says 33/66MHz) will cause the PC to just not bleep at startup - blank screen.

Am I right in thinking that if a card has TWO cutouts in the PCI connector, it should work in a 64bit slot? According to the RAID card manual, it only does 32bit, but it WILL do 66MHz (which presumably requires use of a 64bit slot as the 32bit ones only do 33MHz?)

Paul

modem in, power supply emitted smoke and smell, now the 64bit slots are
busted, and the 32bit ones are terribly slow! New motherboard, plugged a
raid controller into one, PC would not start. What's going on here? The
cards has the relevant keys meaning they should work! The raid controller
even specified it would!
solution in hand."

--
13 parrots and rising http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual 2.8GHz silent Athlon with half TB RAID.

Women are like a pack of cards... you need a heart to love them, diamonds to marry them, a club to kill them and a spade to bury them.

 

[Paul Murphy]

Christ that soldering is apalling! No I don't I have a Gigabyte board.

I agree, I would never perform such "modifications" but it does highlight
the problem well. What is the Gigabyte model number for your board?

Hmm sounds like Tyan screwed up a bit there. Drawing far too much

current.

You're correct. They are now providing no-quibbles RMAs on such affected
boards and have developed a power adapter cable to help solve the problem
whilst still using a 20 pin ATX connector on the board.

Everything is/was fine until I plugged in that blasted modem. Now how

could that overload a 550 watt(!) supply? And burn out something on the
board inbetween too, as it stopped 64bit slots working and reduced speed of
32 bit ones.

Some PSUs aren't very good at coping with overloads. If there was a defect
with the mobo its possible that the gold strips on the card were misaligned
with (some of) the connectors in the PCI slot or there may have been some
sort of conductive rubbish in the slot before the card went in.

Then the raid card (a very cheap one but it says 33/66MHz) will cause the

PC to just not bleep at startup - blank screen.

A clissic sign of a power related problem is failure to POST - if the PSU is
struggling to supply the board, the last thing it needs is additional cards.

Am I right in thinking that if a card has TWO cutouts in the PCI

connector, it should work in a 64bit slot? According to the RAID card
manual, it only does 32bit, but it WILL do 66MHz (which presumably requires
use of a 64bit slot as the 32bit ones only do 33MHz?)

My S2460 only has 33 MHz PCI slots throughout (both 32 and 64 bit) and I'm
not up to speed with 66 MHz slots - I still think you have (at least) a PSU
related problem there though (it may have taken out bits of the mobo or
other hardware too). Do you have another known good PSU you can try with the
board? BTW PSU failure is one of the most common faults that afflicts PC
hardware. In my experience as a computer tech at a school, over a period of
15 months we had about 5 go pop, most complete with sparks out the back and
lots of smoke - not to mention the scared students and staff. This compares
with a similar number of HDDs failing over the same period.

RAID.

How did you get the PSU to be silent? Does it still have full airflow as
orignally designed - if not, consider this as the prime cause. Very few PSUs
of that wattage are "silent" (or even genuinely quiet for that matter -
despite claims by makers such as "whisper quiet" etc) and modifying them by
replacing the fans with slower, quieter ones, reduces their lifespan
significantly.
<snip>
Paul

 

[Peter Hucker]

I agree, I would never perform such "modifications" but it does highlight
the problem well.

I once slipped inserting a heatsink. Cut one of the very fine wires leading to the actual chip of a PIII. Took it to a guy at work, and he resoldered it using a very fine piece of wire and a high power microscope! (Just his bare hands no mechanical placing) I have no idea how he did it. But the board is still running a couple of years later!

What is the Gigabyte model number for your board?

GA-7DPXDW+

I notice the athlons run cooler on this one than the MSI K7D Master! I know there are instrructions a board can use to cool them when not in use, but I have mine on 100% all the time with distributed computing. The water tower feels like just over body temperature, it was more like a radiator before!

You're correct. They are now providing no-quibbles RMAs on such affected
boards and have developed a power adapter cable to help solve the problem
whilst still using a 20 pin ATX connector on the board.

Adaptor cable? Taking from a disk drive cable? I've seen some boards that have a HDD connector aswell.

could that overload a 550 watt(!) supply? And burn out something on the
board inbetween too, as it stopped 64bit slots working and reduced speed of
32 bit ones.

Some PSUs aren't very good at coping with overloads.

Ebay special.

If there was a defect with the mobo

I don't think much of gigabyte's return policy. They keep for 3 weeks then return with no note to say if they did owt!

its possible that the gold strips on the card were misaligned
with (some of) the connectors in the PCI slot or there may have been some
sort of conductive rubbish in the slot before the card went in.

Hmmmm I have 13 parrots - quite possible.

PC to just not bleep at startup - blank screen.

A clissic sign of a power related problem is failure to POST - if the PSU is
struggling to supply the board, the last thing it needs is additional cards.

The card is ok in a 32bit slot!

connector, it should work in a 64bit slot? According to the RAID card
manual, it only does 32bit, but it WILL do 66MHz (which presumably requires
use of a 64bit slot as the 32bit ones only do 33MHz?)

My S2460 only has 33 MHz PCI slots throughout (both 32 and 64 bit) and I'm
not up to speed with 66 MHz slots

The gigabyte has 32bit 33MHz and 64bit 64 mhz. I thought that's all there was!

I still think you have (at least) a PSU
related problem there though (it may have taken out bits of the mobo or
other hardware too). Do you have another known good PSU you can try with the
board?

May try that. Although I have now moved to the onboard raid (the onboard raid would not correctly read a trripe set made fomr the other card!) - so I don't have the problem.

BTW PSU failure is one of the most common faults that afflicts PC
hardware. In my experience as a computer tech at a school, over a period of
15 months we had about 5 go pop, most complete with sparks out the back and
lots of smoke - not to mention the scared students and staff. This compares
with a similar number of HDDs failing over the same period.

That's odd - maybe a bad batch? In 6.5 years teching at a university, I saw one PSU fail - and not drastically - it was producing alarming amounts of flutter (vinyl description - I'm sure there is an electronic version!) on the voltage lines (causing intermittent crashes and was only discovered after putting a scope on the lines). As for hard disks, well I sent back about 1 a month.

RAID.

How did you get the PSU to be silent? Does it still have full airflow as
orignally designed - if not, consider this as the prime cause. Very few PSUs
of that wattage are "silent" (or even genuinely quiet for that matter -
despite claims by makers such as "whisper quiet" etc) and modifying them by
replacing the fans with slower, quieter ones, reduces their lifespan
significantly.

Zero fans. Watercooled. PSU has three sources of heat - two big heatsinks on power transistors - these now have waterblocks on top. One coil in a metal box (looks like a small transformer but only one side is wired) - this has an athlon heatsink on it.


--
13 parrots and rising http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual 2.8GHz silent Athlon with half TB RAID.

Follow your dream! Unless it's the one where you're at work in your underwear during a fire drill.