Is my K9N Diamond defective?

Question

I have had quite a few problems so this is gonna be a long one.
Hi everyone.
Recently (1½ weeks ago), i bought all the parts i needed for a new computer. Heres the list:
MSI K9N-Diamond
AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ EE (Energy Efficient 65Watt) + Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 CPU cooler
Corsair XMS2 (2x 1024MB, DDR2-800, 5-5-5-12-T1)
Thermaltake 680Watt
 - +3.3v = 28A
 - +5v = 30A
 - +121 = 14A
 - +122 = 23A
 - +123 = 15A
XFX GeForce 7900GT, 256MB PCI-E
2x WD Caviar Raid Edition 320GB SATAII, with NCQ
And a floppy drive
Problems started from day one. First time boot, i enter BIOS. Change various stuff (like disabling Seriel/Paralell ports, disabling IEEE1394, setting boot order, enabling RAID controller and enabling all devices). I then enter RAID controller setup (F10), put my 2 WD drives in a raid0 array for maximum performance.
Pop in my WinXP cd, boot, press F6, loading BOTH the required drivers from the floppy i made using MSI cd in my old computer. I see one big drive with roughly 600GB. I make one partition on 16GB for Windows. Choose quick NTFS format, and setup starts copying files.
Then the trouble started, after copying alot of files, i suddenly got a message that setup was unable to copy the file: ABC.XYZ
I just thought: Argh, my cd is probally dusty, Open cdrom, look at cd. No scratches, no dust, no fingerprints... I clean the Phantom dust off the CD at put it in again, but it still cant copy. I restart the computer, starting over from beginning, remove partition and make a new one.
But same results, the setup copies some files but the stops with an "unable to copy" error, only this time its another file.
I tried serveral times, everytim a new file at a new random location in the copy process.
As i have no spare Windows CD, i went to my old computer, downloaded a new WinCD, burned it and tried again... but same results.
I started looking around various forums and found that other ppl had problems with the raid controller, and disabling would fix their problems. I really want to run Raid0 so this is kinda a last resort for me, but i tried it anyways... Enter Raid setup and remove the strip, enter BIOS and disable RAID controller, reboot and retry installing windows.
To my surprise, Windows Setup could actually copy the files and install Windows with no problems whatsoever.
I looked on MSI website and found that a new BIOS was up with the following bugfix:
"Fixed system can not auto boot from Nvidia Stripe 465.77G when onchip raid is enable."
It sounded familar to my problem so I flashed the new BIOS, reset CMOS, booted and made the usual changes in BIOS, made a new strip array in Raid controller setup.
I proceed with installing Windows the same way as described above, but same "cannot copy file xyz.abc" error.
So i destroy the raid array, disable raid controller and install windows again on single disks.
Next problem.
After windows is installed, I install all the drivers from MSI CD and the Creative Sound Blaster CD. I have a Denon 5.1 Surround Reciever hooked up to Coaxial S/PDIF on my computer. In Creative speaker setup, i choose "5.1 Speakers" and click test... but i get no sound. I see the "Digital Output Only" option and enable it and test again... this time i get sound, but ONLY from front left and front right speakers. Furthermore, i NEED the analog output aswell so "Digital Output Only" option should not be enabled in my case. I checked Creative homepage and found this: "On all Audigy series cards, S/PDIF cannot be disabled". That leaves me to think that S/PDIF should work regardless of that "Digital Output Only" setting. Furthermore, when i activate that option, not only does it disable the analog output but also the analog input (Microphone in this case, which i need).
The weird thing is that analog output works fine with surround sound (tried with some 5.1 headphones).
Next problem
Now ive been running with singledisk setup (non raid) for a week. But i have an alarming amount of BSoD errors. Its not just one BSoD, but all kinds of different errors. It is noteable that most of these errors are disk or driver related. After I got alot of different, i started writing them down. Heres a few:
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
0x0A (0x0000FFDF, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0xSomeAddress)
"Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or software. Technically, this error condition means that a kernel-mode process or driver tried to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel Interrupt ReQuest Level (IRQL) that was too high. (A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own)"
KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
0x8E (0xC0000005, rest of parameters is junk)
"A kernel mode program generated an exception which the error handler didn’t catch. These are nearly always hardware compatibility issues (which sometimes means a driver issue or a need for a BIOS upgrade)."
The following 2 errors happened alot while i was copying data from my old computer through network WHILE playing a game to kill time.
KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
0x7A (0xjunk, 0xC0000185, 0xjunk, 0xjunk)
This error gave me the filename Win32k.sys with the address being the same as parameter 3 in the error code.
"A page of kernel data was not found in the pagefile and could not be read into memory. This might be due to incompatible disk or controller drivers, firmware, or hardware."
KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR
0x77 (0xC0000185, 0xC0000185, 0x00000000, 0x00Frandom)
"A page of kernel data requested from the pagefile could not be found or read into memory. This message also can indicate disk hardware failure, disk data corruption, or possible virus infection."
While downloading some lost data via BitTorrent and watching a movie (on the computer), I got this error a few times (30 or so minuttes apart):
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
0xD1 (0x00000064, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0xjunk)
A filename was supplied: NVTcp.sys (A quick search revealed this as being nVidia Firewall, so i unistalled nVidia NAM)
"The system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. The most typical cause is a bad device driver (one that uses improper addresses). It can also be caused by caused by faulty or mismatched RAM, or a damaged pagefile."
Also got a few 0xF4 errors.
Most of these errors suggest RAM failure, so i started testing with Memtest86+ and let it run over night. 10 passes, 0 errors.
Next problem
This one is a bit more serious to me. As you might have read above, i was downloading some lost data via BitTorrent. This is how i lost it.
I have an External Maxtor 300GB HDD with USB connection. I use this to store movies when i go to friends and such.
Yesterday i plugged it in for the first time using front panel USB, Windows popped up and told me new hardware installed and bla bla.
I browsed the HDD and i saw a "thumbs.db". I dont like those hidden windows files (and i have them disabled), so i fired up a search for Thumbs.db. When search was finished, i selected all and pressed delete. DING "Windows cannot delete Thumbs.db. File not found.". I browsed the file using explorer and tried deleting it, but same error.
Start->Run->CMD
g:\>chkdsk /f /r
CHKDSK cannot scan RAW-Filesystem.
The file system is NTFS btw. So i safely removed and replugged the device, this time windows did not recognice the device. I tried different USB port (still front panel) and the drive got installed but was unaccessible, until i reformated it.
Could this be connected to above bluescreen and potential hardware errors that the HDD got wiped when i plugged it in or is this just bad coincidence?
Please help!

Answer 1

Disable memory EPP mode and retest. ("SLI-Ready Memory" from BIOS, enabled by default)
your board support(feature only on nVidia nForce 590 SLI that's mean only for K9N Diamond) this newest feature provide enhance performance via Enhanced Performance Profiles stored in SPD Memory. if your system memory do not support this feature and option is "Auto" or "Enabled" issues are expected. Sli Ready Memory:
EPP: This is an open memory standard put forth by Corsair and nVIDIA which takes over where JEDEC's SPD leaves off. As the Enhanced Performance Profiles description implies, it adds performance profiles to the memory SPD in addition to the conservative compatibility settings already programmed in. EPP compliant memory is dubbed "SLI Ready" memory on nVidia platforms (great marketing on nVIDIA's part) and allows the system to dynamically tighten up memory timings and increase voltages for better performance with no fuss. Whether you're a novice or experienced computer user, the benefits of EPP are immediate. Corsair is the initial memory manufacturer out the door with this new technology but others are already following suit.
Read more with details:
http://www.behardware.com/news/8167/nvidia-annonce-sli-memory-ou-epp.html
http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/pr/PR_Enhanced_Performance_Profiles_EPP.pdf
http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_31187.html
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/345/3/