K8T NEO - MSI/Via Raid Tool useless

Question

I am one of those unfortunate people who bought a K8T Neo FSR Motherboard (Mine has been replaced 3 times after failing totally but whose counting?). I am now having serious problems with my fourth version of this motherboard or at least I think I am. I am not sure!
Let me explain:
My SATA HDD Disk drives keep failing - or more correctly - I am getting messages from Windows Error Reporting that tells me there are disk problems. The exact error messages are reproduced below:
Event Type:   Error
Event Source:   viamraid
Event Category:   None
Event ID:                9
Date:      31/08/2006
Time:      8:32:41 PM
User:      N/A
Computer:   MASTER
Description: The device, \Device\Scsi\viamraid1, did not respond within the timeout period.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0f 00 10 00 01 00 6a 00   ......j.
0008: 00 00 00 00 09 00 04 c0   .......À
0010: 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 5b 09 00 00 00 00 00 00   [.......
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00   ........
0030: 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00   ........
This is immediately followed by the following message:
Event Type:   Warning
Event Source:   Disk
Event Category:   None
Event ID:                51
Date:      31/08/2006
Time:      8:32:41 PM
User:      N/A
Computer:   MASTER
Description: An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk2\D during a paging operation.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 04 00 68 00 01 00 b6 00   ..h...¶.
0008: 00 00 00 00 33 00 04 80   ....3..€
0010: 2d 01 00 00 00 00 00 00   -.......
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 57 87 00 00 00 00 00 00   W‡......
0030: ff ff ff ff 03 00 00 00   ÿÿÿÿ....
0038: 40 00 00 44 00 00 02 00   @..D....
0040: ff 20 0a 12 88 02 20 40   ÿ ..ˆ. @
0048: 00 00 01 00 0a 00 00 00   ........
0050: 00 00 00 00 00 06 6c 84   ......l„
0058: 00 00 00 00 60 36 62 86   ....`6b†
0060: 00 00 00 00 f7 04 81 05   ....÷..
0068: 2a 00 05 81 04 f7 00 00   *...÷..
0070: 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   €.......
0078: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
I started getting these messages from a brand new SATA HDD which I immediately replaced. All went well for a week or so and then I started getting the exact same error messages all over again!
Were both HDD's really defective? I am beginning to wonder!
The practical implication of the above errors is that my computer freezes totally - I can't do anything at all - no mouse - no keyboard - no saving work - nothing! When I reboot and run Scandisk /F /R I sometimes get some disk surface errors but mostly I don't.
To my way of thinking there are two possibilities:
(1) Both these disk drives have genuine technical problems (ie such as surface errors)
(2) The MSI/Via SATA disk controllers on the motherboard are faulty and this is causing disk errors or possibly even disk crashes (is this even possible? I don't know!)
After the bad run that I have already had with K8T NEO motherboards please forgive me for being suspicious that my HDD problems really could result from a faulty SATA/HDD/Controller rather than genuine disk errors.
To help resolve the issue I downloaded and installed MSI's latest SATA HDD disk drivers which includes the VIA RAID TOOL. The raid tool includes an option to "check the status of controllers and disk drives" and a system "log" which is supposed to record all error conditions/events that occur on devices it controls.
The main problem here is that *IT DOESN'T WORK* !!!
Just a short wile ago my system started acting strangely and then it froze again (third time this hour). I opened the MSI/VIA Raid Tool from the System Tray and checked the logs - There was nothing in them at all - and yet in Windows Error Reporting there were 5 distinct error conditions reported. Obviously the MSI/VIA Raid Tool doesn't work too well.
I am at a loss as to what to do next. Has anybody out there had similar problems?
What steps should I take to resolve these issues?
Any comments/suggestions?

Answer 1

Not sure how a scope can let you know if you are supplying enough amps. Ripple and noise are basically non issues as the voltages are further regulated on the MB before they get to the componant level.
Almost everything is now regulated from the 12v supply unlike past systems were. As Watts do not tell how much 12v is being supplied by the PSU it is a non starter when you desribe your PSU. You can have a PSU that is 500w and only provides 8a on the 12v rail. That will not even allow an A64 system to startup. As is said over and over again in the forum don't assume that a 500w PSU will ruin your Rig. 24 or more amps on the 12v rail is recommended for a small to mid size build now days. More may be needed as you add parts to your system.
As this is not a common problem on that board, and I should know as I built a fairly large rig from one... We need to have complete specs. Did you know that a high end ATi Vid Card can use more juice than many CPU's you can use on that board? See why this is a concern that we get all the specs?
Like Hans said though I won't bother asking again either. Without some idea what we are looking at all we are doing is looking into a crystal ball. We would like to see if we can help but working with a crystal ball isn't in the tech manual.