Hi bobm202,
What you are seeing has nothing to do with Raid. It is as old as hard drives have been around. It has to do with decimal vs bianary measurements.
Cheating and copying from a google search....
Decimal vs. Binary:
For simplicity and consistency, hard drive manufacturers define a megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes. This is a decimal (base 10) measurement and is the industry standard. However, certain system BIOSs, FDISK and Windows define a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes. Mac systems also use these values. These are binary (base 2) measurements.
To Determine Decimal Capacity:
A decimal capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,000,000,000 using base 10).To Determine Binary Capacity:
A binary capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,073,741,824 using base 2).
This is why different utilities will report different capacities for the same drive. The number of bytes is the same, but a different number of bytes is used to make a megabyte and a gigabyte. This is similar to the difference between 0 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the same temperature, but will be reported differently depending on the scale you are using.
It also has to do with formatted capacity versus bare drive capacity. It gets even wierder if you look at the SSD drives. Here you may have a 128gb drive. But the manufacturer reserves some spare space to fill in for cells that go bad. Sort of an automatic spare parts replacement.
If you are using Win7 and look at your boot drive, there is a hidden/reserved space of about 100 mb that windows uses for other things.
If you broke up the Raid Array and formatted either drive by itself. You will still only see about 930.5mb (maybe a little more or a little less).
In the real world, if you get to the point that you really need that other 69.5mb, your drive is too full anyway. I have 3tb of drive space according to the labels on the drives. Formatted, I have 2.772tb of space. I am only using 577gb. I do a lot of database work and do not want to be concerned about running out of drive space 
.
evwrt, I may wind up cutting my losses also for my main box. However, thru work I have access to free UPS/Fedex. So I can keep sending these things back forever or until I get tired or until I get one that works. I am torn between trying something else or staying with the board I had before I went the DX58SO2 route, until the X79 chipset comes out this fall. The only reason I switched boards was I wanted the SATA3 support without an addin card. With an Intel 510 drive the SATA3 versus the SATA2 connectors make about 80-100 MB/s difference (especially on reads).
I mentioned this forum thread (at that time with 173 posts) when I was on with Intel customer Support. I don't know if anyone at Intel reads the forums though. Even more interesting that the number of posts, is the number of reads. Last time I looked, it was over 22,000 reads. Seems there are more than a few of use that are "interested".
Bgolden0101: I admire your tenacity regarding the RMA, keep it up. There have been 24,283 views now, so it looks like quite a few people want to know whether replacement will fix this problem.
I went back to my notes last night looking for any unexplored leads, but nothing came of it.
Hi bgolden,
I was aware that some mbs would be gone but 69.5 Gbs semed like a lot. Thank's for explaining that though.
On another note I was wondering how many of these boards you have been through with this problem? Intel tech told me I would be very happy once I received a board that was fine.
bobm202,
My current DX58SO2 is my first one. I am a late commer to this thread. There are a number of folks who are a whole lot more knowledgable than I am, who have been hashing the Hang "00" issue for quite a while now. I am just sort of tagging along. Fortunately, I have another brand board (without SATA3) that works. Since I do not need the DX58So2 board immediately, for my main system, I can play the RMA game for quite a while. I agree, that if Intel sends us a board that works, we will be very happy. Seems that is sort of what we paid the money for in the first place.
The DX58SO2 motherboard seemed like it had all the bells and whistles, so I bought one. So far, it has been a complete nighmare.
I assembled the motherboard, ram, graphics card, sound card, 990X cpu chip, blower fan, power supply and case fan. The green power on light on the motherboard glowed, but nothing else worked - not even the case fans. I called Intel customer support. They told me to disconnect everything including removing the cpu chip and the blower fan. They said that the motherboard should power the case fan even with no cpu chip. But, the case fan did not move even when I substituted another known good power supply. The motherboard was dead on arrival. Things happen and I always try to be understanding, especially if a company works to solve the problem.
But, my encounter with warranty support was where the nightmare began. They gave me an RMA number and it was shipped to a center in Kentucky for repair. About five days later, I got an e-mail with four hazy, low resolution pictures attached. The e-mail said that there was physical damage to the motherboard. It said that there was cpu grease contaminant and bent cpu socket pins. I called technical support.
I asked technical support why in the world would they see cpu grease a contaminant and evidence of physical damage! They had no good answer to this. I told them that the cpu grease is a normal part of the installation of the motherboard. Its presence is to be expected. It was smeared on the top of the cpu chip. When I removed it at their direction, perhaps a small amount had reached the area outside the socket holder, but that no cpu grease was inside the socket. I said, "CPU grease is not a contaminant. It is a normal artifact of a cpu installation." But they were adamant that cpu grease was physical damage. The pictures were so hazy and of such low resolution that I could not definitely identify what might be cpu grease and what might be just reflection in the photograph.
I asked technical support how there could have been bent cpu socket pins. I said, "There are two notches on each side of the chip which prevent the chip from being oriented in the wrong way in socket. I could not have placed the chip wrongly. I was very careful. So, specifically, in these pictures where are the bent chips?" They could not tell me.
I asked for better photographs, but they refused.
During the course of the conversation, I found out that everyone I was talking to was in Costa Rica. The repair center was in Kentucky. They told me that they could not contact Kentucky in any way. They could not ask any further questions. They could not change the determination of physical damage. I asked to speak to a senior technician. I thought I would finally be talking to someone who could look at my motherboard and give me some definitive information. I told them that I was concerned about the reason for the bent socket pins. I wanted to know their opinion of how it could have happened. After about 12 hours of waiting, a senior technician called me. I detected a Hispanic accent. He was in Costa Rica. In the end, I learned nothing more. Even he could not tell me from the low resolution photographs pins were bent.
In the end, they told me that if I wanted a working board back, I would have to pay $71. So, now I get the board back and I fear the next stage as I put the cpu chip in the socket again and see this all repeat itself.
My recommendation is "Don't Buy Intel". They treat their customers badly when there is a problem. It is a management decision to move all of the people who take calls to Costa Rica and totally insulate the actual tech support people who can talk definitively about a customer problem in Kentucky. This is outsourcing at an outrageous extreme.
If ever you send a board back to Intel for RMA , MARK it , even a dab of white paint where you know where you marked , That way you know it's your board and NOT ONE that they had setting around , and if they send it back to you , You Know it's the SAME Board. If I send in a brand new DOA Board , I expect a Brand New UN-Opened Board , Not a RE-Maned board , Because I did not Buy a RE-Maned Board , I've Had Intel try this to me before. SO Mark it.
Hi bgolden,
YOU SAID: Seems that is sort of what we paid the money for in the first place. Exactley, well said!
I have put windows 7 pro 32 bit on my computer and updated any added boards software attached to the MB. The only bad experience was updating the bios to 0779. The first file downloaded only half the mbs and executing it said it was corrupt. The second time I made sure all mbs were there and when executing it it said do not power off the computer for at least 3 minutes. The file shut off and on the power twice during the installation of the EXE file and never said a successful installation as windows programs usually display, but in checking bios it said 0779. I was wondering if this was the way it is supposed to power off then on in a EXE file as I used to use a bio file in previous computers. So far the computers been on for a few hours and no noticeable problems with this new board yet. My first board I noticed a stained two inch spot on bottom of board that looked like some chemical ate away at the shiny finish and was wondering if any of you have noticed an area like that on your boards. Intel upon telling them this knew nothing of course. My new one is all shiny on the bottom and I.m hoping I don't see your problems.
I think it is pretty much normal when updating the BIOS to have the process shut things down and restart. I usually just sit back and let the process do it's thing. I figure it is probably smarter than I am.
I am waiting with fingers crossed for you guys to get your RMA's back.
Ha swiss I don't know if I can wait for Intel to get all these bugs out of this board , don't get me wrong I have always been a #1 Fan of Intel , But now I am looking at two other boards and wanted your opion Gigabyte ( GA-P67A-UD7-B3 ) or ASUS ( P8P67 Deluxe Rev.3.0 . What do you think is a better choice to be used with a I7 2600K ???
well Robert, historically I would have gone with the Gigabyte board having personally had great experiences with them in the past. I have not had any experiences with the socket 1155 boards so I'm really not sure. what I'm finding is that many of the socket 1366 boards are having problems and the customer service for both ASUS and Gigabyte leave something to be desired, meaning its almost nonexistent. I have built many computers over the yrs and I have never in my life had so much trouble making up my mind what board to buy I'm actually thinking of selling my i7 960 chip and bailing. I have preached Intel for years, as apposed to AMD, but I have to say I'm getting concerned about where things are headed. this has turned out to be an exercise in wasting time and money to the extreme for me. um.. so anyway I would go with the ASUS Robert it has more reviews and the percentage of positive reviews is high.
Thanks for your input , right now I'm looking at a New chipset Board ASUS P8Z68-V Pro , about $200.00. Has some new feathers about using SSDs to cashe std HD. More to come , I need to read up on this Z68 chipset.
Ha Swiss did a little checking Intel does have a Z68 board off there own , But No OC and No crossfire , it's pretty plain only 1 16X slot , Media center board , Maybe someware down the road Intel will release a Extreme Ver. But right now the ASUS Board has so many more feathers it's no choice ASUS is the way to go , I like the idea off the SSD cashing and the other new thing is the onboard graphics are now intergrated with any add on cards so you use both.
hi,
thank you all for your posts and suggestions. i have this DX58S02 motherboard, and im having similar problems as everyone else.
What a piece of crap this MB is. I swapped from Asus (my last MB) to Intel brand this time to increase stability (or so i thought). Turns out its been the opposite.
I have experienced blue screens and freezing and the bootup problem everyone else describes as well. Sometimes when trying to start i get the 3 beeps, pause, 3 beeps etc forever. Turns out it was memory problem.
The problem has been solved by 2 things:
1:/ removal of the Intel Extreme utility. This was suggested here on the first page of this thread. This utility is indeed a problem, it changes the memory bios settings and causes chaos.
2:/ overriding the memory settings. The bios was incorrectly detecting the memory timing and voltage. for some reason it was choosing 5.1 volts? when it should be no more than 5v.
My system is now stable (Win7 x64, Bios 779).
i hope they fix this bios further soon to detect memory correctly.
Thanks again for everyones help.
Blackout
