Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
10 Posts
0
142403
XPS 420 SATA RAID and drive failing
I have recently bought an XPS 420 with 4GB RAM, and an Intel SATA RAID controller with a pair of 320GB drives in RAID 1 configuration running Vista Home premium
Sometimes the machine claims that one of the drives has failed, but (on the recommendation of a Dell support technician) I can go into the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software and mark the drive as active (or similar wording) then all is OK for a while, sometimes a number of hours, sometimes days and then it all happens again.
I was informed by Dell that this was a driver issue, can someone confirm this and also what Dell is doing to sort this issue out as the machine become very slow when the array is being rebuilt. Is it possible that the drives are failing but the software can bring them back online for short periods?
If this is a known issue, I am rather disappointed that it wasn't flagged up when ordering the system.
Any pointers or info on this would be appreciated.
THanks,
Rupert.
Davet50
14.4K Posts
0
April 10th, 2008 10:00
brl21
10 Posts
0
April 10th, 2008 10:00
I'm beginning to wish I had gone non-RAID as well!
Mine came with 2 seagate 320gb drives as standard, but still has the same issues.
I did the A04 BIOS and chipshet updates last night - no idea if it has helped at all, but will keep you posted.
Could Dell tell us what this new BIOS update is supposed to do? Is it aiming to fix any specific problems with the 420?
Shootyz
6 Posts
0
April 10th, 2008 14:00
brl21
10 Posts
0
April 10th, 2008 14:00
paulbeattie87
241 Posts
0
April 10th, 2008 14:00
For those intrested I flashed my Samsung hard drives and since then they have been working flawlessly. Using the patch I posted earlier and not a single problem yet. My 420 has been running for about 6 days solid now, did have 122 hours uptime before Windows updated and it has yet to slowdown or freeze up yet!!!
I have 2 500GB Samsungs non RAID.
Txtlocal
1 Message
0
April 11th, 2008 17:00
Hey,
Location: Malvern UK
Thought I would just join the club (unwillingly).
I have XPS 420 Dual Samsung HD321KJ in RAID(0) - Vista Home Premium
Been running for 2.5 months, get lockups nearly every day - spinning blue icon in Vista. It can happen at any time - totally random.
Also, sometimes get BSOD with generic 00000008086 error.
I then have to reboot and get the "Press Ctrl-I to enter config utility" where the system hangs for about 5 minutes and then attempts to start Windows. I then get options to "Launch Startup Repair" which apparently fails and can't find a problem, but usually allows me to get back to desktop.
I have just applies Samsung upgrade and Firmware A04 - so fingers crossed that all is now resolved.
This is driving me totally crazy!!!! I spend an hour every day messing about trying to get my computer to desktop. It is not accesptable, the support team were clueless when i called and went through the normal scripted stuff and denied that anyone else has this issue (when clearly hundreds - if not thousands do!!!!).paulbeattie87
241 Posts
0
April 11th, 2008 18:00
The Samsung upgrade fixed mine. Best thing about living in the UK is the great Dell customer care... or lack of customer care should I say.
Don't expect anything in the way of an apology from Dell for the trouble you have had or lost work when it locks up.
VirtualOdin
5 Posts
0
April 27th, 2008 07:00
I had just the same when I left my external HDD running on a re-boot. It seemed as though Vista tried to boot from the external HDD got in a tizzy so I had to do a hard power down; and then needed to re-set the RAID array back to a known good base (I surmise this because a small change I had made to one setting minutes before was lost after the re-boot). Pain! It took hours for the raid drive to re-sync. Can this all be fixed in the BIOS settings, I wonder? It is a pain having to remember to take out disks, switch off external drives. And sometimes an update will force a re-boot even whhen the machine is unattended.