PCI Parity Error

jboyinabox

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Sep 4, 2010
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18,510
Hi

I'm not sure if I've posted in the right category but I'm having trouble with my computer. When I orignally built the computer I kept getting PCI Parity Error whenever I turned on the PC but for some reason when I re-installed Windows XP it went away for a while. On sunday I started to get the error again and everytime I turned it on the error would appear 3-5 times before it would boot into Windows. Now it will no longer boot into Windows but the BIOS logo still shows. My motherboard is a Gigabyte X38-DQ6 if that helps. I have tried clearing CMOS but no luck I have tried to boot from disc and make sure the Hard Drives are OK but still no luck. It may even be as simple as changing a value of something in the MB Intelligent Tweaker since the it is overclocked. Is the motherboard on it's way out?

Thanks in advance
 
Solution
I think your motherboard has failed.

Your PCI bus slots are wired to an 8 bit parallel data bus. The basic way to constantly monitor this is to add a nineth bit. Then the circuits that put the data on the bus count the number of bits in the word and if it is an even number of bits usually adds a parity bit so the word contains an odd number of bits. This is called "odd parity". Even parity can be used, the the usual convention is odd. Then once the data arrives, it's checked. If you picked up or lost a bit, the system flags an error.

Yes, there's an obvious flaw in the system. What if you pickup or lose two bits? Parity checking will not be able to detect that. A more complex ( read expensive) system can correct a single bit...
I think your motherboard has failed.

Your PCI bus slots are wired to an 8 bit parallel data bus. The basic way to constantly monitor this is to add a nineth bit. Then the circuits that put the data on the bus count the number of bits in the word and if it is an even number of bits usually adds a parity bit so the word contains an odd number of bits. This is called "odd parity". Even parity can be used, the the usual convention is odd. Then once the data arrives, it's checked. If you picked up or lost a bit, the system flags an error.

Yes, there's an obvious flaw in the system. What if you pickup or lose two bits? Parity checking will not be able to detect that. A more complex ( read expensive) system can correct a single bit error and detect a 2 bit error.

You have this system for the PCI bus, but not the PCIe bus. Remember, PCI Express is basically a serial bus



Google "parity error" or "parity checking".
 
Solution