• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Lane congestion?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
Archer0915

Archer0915

"The Expert"
​
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
I did a review years ago where the hype for an EVGA FTW was high. Well I read the specs and decided to test it. It failed. I bring this up because I am crashing my current board.

I have 5 internal drives (4 nVME and one spinner) and 5 to 7 external. I was doing some data balancing and crash. Well this happened and the crash report made me think that I needed to add the second 8pin CPU power cable. Nope.

I would say the psu but that is not the issue. I only crash when moving data across many drives at one time... while downloading to a drive not involved in the data movement... while watching some stored anime (another non related drive) and I might be doing some other stuff as well.

Anyway, anyone else ever had issues like this?
 
Process of elimination...take one drive out and see what happens. It could be anything. Board. Drives..Droves... have you updated chipset drivers? Bios?
 
Never have the issue unless there is heavy traffic across the USB.

I have not updated the BIOS. Just got the thing where it will not fall to sleep.
 
Last edited:
JLK03F150 said:
Um, aren't we all a little crazed on this site? Just sayin. :)
Click to expand...
Perhaps.

Seems it may be overworking things. At this point I have decided to change the way I am moving data. Balancing is done. We have much work in the ripped music and converted VHS stuff. Need to keep things backed up.

I will stop moving to so many USB devices at one time. I mean I can crash a MB if I put my mind to it so I will put my mind to not crashing it.

Going to stick with externally powered USB for everything but my USB-C m.2 externals.
 
call me wierd, but i don't use externals if i don't have to...

Forgotten Legend has 1 m.2, 3 sata SSDs, 2 HDDs, and on occasion i'll use a USB flashdrive, but usually only while i'm populating with with more songs for my car, since it doesn't have a CD player, but only USB ports for physical media.
th eonly actual external i have on the machine is a BluRay drive, since the case isn't really designed for internal ODDs. i'd have to use a provided adapter that detracts from the appearance of the case, and reduces space available for radiators on the top and front: the top goes from being able to mount a 480 rad to only a 240 / 280. and the top fan mount on the front becomes blocked / unavailable as well. besides, if i mount everything right, and buy the cards for more sata connections, i could install 7 SSDs and 8 HDDs internally at the same time, as well as 5 M.2s... but i'd rather game... i spent 900$US on a case for it's looks (okay, for it's spaciousness and 3 chamber setup, where the PSU gets mounted in the wire-managment chamber, very few offer that)

see? i'm not crazy, i'm insane... there's a difference...
 
TerranBrackiatt said:
call me wierd, but i don't use externals if i don't have to...

Forgotten Legend has 1 m.2, 3 sata SSDs, 2 HDDs, and on occasion i'll use a USB flashdrive, but usually only while i'm populating with with more songs for my car, since it doesn't have a CD player, but only USB ports for physical media.
th eonly actual external i have on the machine is a BluRay drive, since the case isn't really designed for internal ODDs. i'd have to use a provided adapter that detracts from the appearance of the case, and reduces space available for radiators on the top and front: the top goes from being able to mount a 480 rad to only a 240 / 280. and the top fan mount on the front becomes blocked / unavailable as well. besides, if i mount everything right, and buy the cards for more sata connections, i could install 7 SSDs and 8 HDDs internally at the same time, as well as 5 M.2s... but i'd rather game... i spent 900$US on a case for it's looks (okay, for it's spaciousness and 3 chamber setup, where the PSU gets mounted in the wire-managment chamber, very few offer that)

see? i'm not crazy, i'm insane... there's a difference...
Click to expand...
I have 4 m.2 drives and 1 4tb spinner inside. I have stripped much of the mounting hardware in the case for better airflow.

Most of the externals are for redundancy or special purposes. I have 2x2TB externals mirrored for some backups. A 12TB that moves from place for some things.

About to get another 2TB drive to back up my 1.5 TB M.2 raid, I really do not want to re-download all those games.

I removed the optical drive and made it into an external.
 
Some of my specific games are crashing. I have 6 spinners and 2 Nvme drives.

2 Nvme drives in raid-0 = OS and other proggies
2 x 6TB Ironwolf in raid-0 = games. I moved these from a pair of wd red 3tb in raid-0
2x 3tb WD reds in raid-0 for media ( movies & music)
2x 300gb WD Raptors in raid-0 for back-up and mish-mash stuff.


When the games were on the WD reds, no issues at all. Upgraded as I was running out of space. Moved the games and everything was perfect. Now certain games will crash and I can't figure it out. Tried testing a single drive for my games, and those same games continue to crash. Doesn't matter if on the raid set or single drive, games still crash.

Tested all drives in good health. I'm hoping it isn't my board or my 3080.
 
Nebulous said:
Some of my specific games are crashing. I have 6 spinners and 2 Nvme drives.

2 Nvme drives in raid-0 = OS and other proggies
2 x 6TB Ironwolf in raid-0 = games. I moved these from a pair of wd red 3tb in raid-0
2x 3tb WD reds in raid-0 for media ( movies & music)
2x 300gb WD Raptors in raid-0 for back-up and mish-mash stuff.


When the games were on the WD reds, no issues at all. Upgraded as I was running out of space. Moved the games and everything was perfect. Now certain games will crash and I can't figure it out. Tried testing a single drive for my games, and those same games continue to crash. Doesn't matter if on the raid set or single drive, games still crash.

Tested all drives in good health. I'm hoping it isn't my board or my 3080.
Click to expand...

So... could there be PCIe congestion?

Some lanes off the CPU and some off the MB all getting processed and put together.

This is what I theorized and it always proved out. When loaded up with a mess of drives moving data (much data) you can easily crash many boards.

A board should be able to support every port and keep all lanes full.
 
I agree. I tried everything including formats and reinstalls. Swapped drives, cables. Nothing seems to fix it. So for the time being I can't play those particular games.

Kinda sux, right?
 
We have less than 50 lanes total. So 3 x16 slots and say they are set up x8 x4 x4 and generally an x1 or x4 slot we will say x1 +4dedicated to an m.2 slot per AMD.

THAT IS 21 RIGHT THERE.

Now how many lanes for SATA?
Rear panel USBc, USB 3.X, USB 2.0? Motherboard expansion for front panel and expansion slot? More USBc, USB 2.0...

Lanes for LAN and WiFi... oh audio...
 
Last edited:
Archer0915 said:
We have less than 50 lanes total. So 3 x16 slots and say they are set up x8 x4 x4 and generally an x1 or x4 slot we will say x1 +4dedicated to an m.2 slot per AMD.

THAT IS 21 RIGHT THERE.

Now how many lanes for SATA?
Rear panel USBc, USB 3.X, USB 2.0? Motherboard expansion for front panel and expansion slot? More USBc, USB 2.0...

Lanes for LAN and WiFi... oh audio...
Click to expand...

If I'm right, then the SATA controller shares PCIe lanes with some other stuff, and usually, it's 2 lanes only. I may depend on the chipset or motherboard manufacturer.
USB is usually on separate lanes. It also depends on the controller, whether in the chipset/native or external.
Motherboards barely ever use all possible PCIe lanes. Typically, they still could use 4-8 more when you count the total amount, but for some reason, motherboard manufacturers are not doing that. I find some new Gigabyte motherboards quite interesting, with more than usual M.2 sockets and a single x16 PCIe for a graphics card that isn't splitting into two x8 when other PCIe slots or other devices are in use.
 
EarthDog said:
You should look at a chipset diagram, archer. ;)

Plenty of lanes to go around.



How? Other games work using the same drive/bus. Why would most games work and a couple not?
Click to expand...

Games? How about data? Yes games move data but my particular situation does not involve games. I have not had a crash while gaming. It is only when all the drives are moving things around.
 
Can a motherboard (standard stuff not server level and the like) mathematically handle all ports filled and running full blast?
 
Kinda makes me think...

If every port were used, everything (unlimited POWER SUPPLY) with max draw with max throughput...

Anyone got a MB they are willing to sacrafice?
 
Archer0915 said:
Can a motherboard (standard stuff not server level and the like) mathematically handle all ports filled and running full blast?
Click to expand...

What ports? I guess that all will work, but not at full speed as many things are shared.

Modern motherboards can handle much more power than we think. Most have a much stronger power design than they ever need.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

torin3
Motherboard for streaming system?
Replies
6
Views
479
torin3
torin3
Neuromancer
NVME 4x 4.0 suggestions
2
Replies
27
Views
524
Woomack
W
Nebulous
Some games crashing, others not
2 3
Replies
45
Views
2K
TerranBrackiatt
TerranBrackiatt
Niku-Sama
System chugs after several minutes in game
2
Replies
21
Views
695
Niku-Sama
Niku-Sama
Overclockers.com
FRONTPAGE Corsair MP700 PRO 2TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD Review
Replies
3
Views
513
Woomack
W
Back