Hey All!

 

tldr; adding a GPU in PCI-E slot 3 of my Motherboard causes my array hard drives to throw UDMA CRC errors.

 

Not expressly looking for support, but wanted to share my experience as I wasn't able to find other posts on this sort of issue.. I'd rather not have to rebuild parity again if I can avoid it and don't want to risk any data loss. A second GPU is a nice-to-have in my case, but I can live without it.

 

I recently picked up an older GPU (AMD 7870) and had an even older GPU thrown in for free.. After adding the new GPU and booting unraid, I started getting UDMA CRC errors on my array drives within an hour - this caused issues with parity.. After some troubleshooting I figured out that it was the GPU, so I swapped the 7870 for the second older GPU figuring I got a dud.. Same thing happened again - more UDMA CRC errors.. Never encountered these errors before, and after removing the second GPU I haven't seen them again.. 

 

UDMA CRC seems to typically be related to bad SATA connections or cables, but this clearly isn't the issue here. After some reading I discovered that the lower PCIE SLOT is connected to the southbridge chipset, not the CPU directly.. I'm guessing I either have a defective motherboard (issues specific to this PCI slot) or the combination of 4 SATA devices, an M.2, and a GPU is too much for the chipset.

 

Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI)  BIOS 4602

CPU: Ryzen 3900x

1000w power supply

1 x M.2 

3 x SATA 7200 3.5" HDs

1 x SATA SSD

 

9 hours ago, zachamo said:

I'm guessing I either have a defective motherboard (issues specific to this PCI slot) or the combination of 4 SATA devices, an M.2, and a GPU is too much for the chipset.

Read the f*ck* manual of your Mobo carefully!

Today's boards are often "overpopulated", there are devices that cannot be turned on together at the same time.

So there maybe a notice like "if you turn on 4 additional SATA ports, you cannot use Slot 3 anymore".

Search for it.

 

(on buying a board it is sometimes hard to tell because the ads only tell you what is in there, not the restrictions. So it is wise now to download the manual before you buy the board and look out for these restrictions. Can save you some days of wondering and searching)

 

BTW: your "warning" is no help for anybody unless you also specify the Mobo you are using. These kind of problems are specific to certain boards, even certain revisions sometimes.

Edited December 17, 20232 yr by MAM59

8 hours ago, MAM59 said:

Read the f*ck* manual of your Mobo carefully!

Today's boards are often "overpopulated", there are devices that cannot be turned on together at the same time.

So there maybe a notice like "if you turn on 4 additional SATA ports, you cannot use Slot 3 anymore".

Search for it.

 

(on buying a board it is sometimes hard to tell because the ads only tell you what is in there, not the restrictions. So it is wise now to download the manual before you buy the board and look out for these restrictions. Can save you some days of wondering and searching)

 

BTW: your "warning" is no help for anybody unless you also specify the Mobo you are using. These kind of problems are specific to certain boards, even certain revisions sometimes.

 

That's the point -- I didn't come across other instances of people discussing this specific error in relation to a PCI-E slot's use.. It isn't like the SATA slots were disabled; the disks were still available, they just started misbehaving. Nothing in the manual that clearly lays out this kind of limitation so far as I can see. 

 

I did include my mobo in the post btw:

 

 

Edited December 17, 20232 yr by zachamo

That's a strange one, but looks hardware related, look for a BIOS update, or maybe someone else with the same board may help.