Ivy
09-06-11, 07:29 AM
Well there is kinda a issue with stability but i have no idea its source, its mind busting. But the highest probability which may be causing it seems to be my Vertex 3 SSD because no matter how hard i tested the other parts, i saw no issue at all.
Setup:
Shuttle SX58H7PRO (ICH10R)
CPU: I7 990X (stock clock)
GPU: Radeon 6950 (currently at stock clock to check out stability)
RAM: 12 GB Mushkin DDR3 1600 MHZ (currently at stock clock to check out stability)
OS SSD: Vertex 3 MI 120 GB
OS: WIN 7 64 ULT
Behaviour:
>>>>The instability is extremely low, its therefore close to impossible to detect. And i can NOT force the issue to arrise, it may randomly happen, complete random.
>>>>I can NOT pin the issue down to a certain program or condition, it can happen at browser, desktop, game or whatever.. it does not matter.
>>>>I can NOT pin down the problem to a certain load condition. It can magically happen when the PC was in desktop idle mode and all of a sudden it might have a BSOD and then the system may show a critical failure in blue screen text. The PC was NOT working at all and for example i been away for many hours and then when i come back.... critical error but there was absolutly no program actively used.
A typically situation about its behavoiur is, the game freezes ingame, but maybe short time after the game still will continue to work for a few seconds or even min, and then it freezes again and that time its completly frozen. Then i try to move into desktop screen, and i try to close the program. I can move to the desktop screen but most of the functions wont react anymore, so i can not close the program. Then i try to release task manager, however. the screen just will stay black and it wont move at all. Sometimes when i wait many min, there comes a critical error in which is stated that it failed to load that items. The only thing which will help at that point is to power off PC and restart. Under some circumstances Kaspersky will be corrupted after, one time even the OS was apparently corrupted (blue screen) and then i tried to restore and then it worked again.
Those freeze or hang up issues are completly random, in average it may happen once every 12-24h but it can aswell happen 10 min after i start PC or it can aswell run 48h in a row without issue. The most dirty stuff about that issue is that it cant be pinned down and unable to detect, like a curse.
Program check:
The only program which could have been activated was Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 which is always running in background and might "update" itself automatically. In fact i had issues where Kaspersky after a system freeze, was corrupted and unable to repair itself. Then i had to reinstall the whole Kaspersky again, because it simply was corrupted.
RAM check:
I was running the RAM at 1600 MHZ for 1 month and some days ago i switched to standart clock. I was running Intel Burn Test for many hours at 10 GB RAM usage so it was extremely high load (the CPU always in theoretical 100% load). Same for Prime 95 although its not using all RAM. The RAM had no stability issues under massive load conditions. The Windows owned RAM test aswell always have passed. The only stuff i didnt use was "Memtest 86" because its not fully suitable for a X64 System with so many RAMs so i didnt bother.
Anyway, to increase stability i turned the RAM down to standart clock, but the issue still didnt go away, so most likely the RAM are not responsible at all.
SSD/HDD check: The OS SSD is a Vertex 3 which may have bad reputation at stability, and considering the completly random behaviour there seems to be a high risk that the SSD may be the cause of it. Which seriously would be a mess, for a piece that expensive its a NO GO.. I kinda feel like a labor rat (its ok to be a labor rat but not for that price), in term it truly comes up to that drive. I would not have paid so much if i knew about those issues. Additionaly it doesnt help that the Vertex 3 is a beta version (red light) with Firmware 2.02. From my view, nowadays, i would say that this drive is incapable to be OS drive because it may be a issue to way to many systems and a foolproof fix isnt known yet.
GPU check: From my experience, impossible, because in term the GPU will freeze then the system will completly stop to work (you can not switch to desktop menu because the impact is to high). In term its only slightly unstable then the AMD driver is very advanced and is trying to restore itself which always have worked in the past on older systems. So that behaviour is not GPU related however, i will now clock it down to get max stability on any spot.
Other Actions i might execute:
Increase the overal stability to the max level possible. I will now remove Spread Spectrum, and aswell i will remove Hyper Threading, that will give additional stability. HOWEVER, the intel burn test and prime 95 was tested including such conditions and still nothing detected at all. Because of the extemely hard to detect nature, it always need many days in order to test, its how i name it.. a mess.
Anyway, thats just my guessing, i totaly dunno what to do.
Setup:
Shuttle SX58H7PRO (ICH10R)
CPU: I7 990X (stock clock)
GPU: Radeon 6950 (currently at stock clock to check out stability)
RAM: 12 GB Mushkin DDR3 1600 MHZ (currently at stock clock to check out stability)
OS SSD: Vertex 3 MI 120 GB
OS: WIN 7 64 ULT
Behaviour:
>>>>The instability is extremely low, its therefore close to impossible to detect. And i can NOT force the issue to arrise, it may randomly happen, complete random.
>>>>I can NOT pin the issue down to a certain program or condition, it can happen at browser, desktop, game or whatever.. it does not matter.
>>>>I can NOT pin down the problem to a certain load condition. It can magically happen when the PC was in desktop idle mode and all of a sudden it might have a BSOD and then the system may show a critical failure in blue screen text. The PC was NOT working at all and for example i been away for many hours and then when i come back.... critical error but there was absolutly no program actively used.
A typically situation about its behavoiur is, the game freezes ingame, but maybe short time after the game still will continue to work for a few seconds or even min, and then it freezes again and that time its completly frozen. Then i try to move into desktop screen, and i try to close the program. I can move to the desktop screen but most of the functions wont react anymore, so i can not close the program. Then i try to release task manager, however. the screen just will stay black and it wont move at all. Sometimes when i wait many min, there comes a critical error in which is stated that it failed to load that items. The only thing which will help at that point is to power off PC and restart. Under some circumstances Kaspersky will be corrupted after, one time even the OS was apparently corrupted (blue screen) and then i tried to restore and then it worked again.
Those freeze or hang up issues are completly random, in average it may happen once every 12-24h but it can aswell happen 10 min after i start PC or it can aswell run 48h in a row without issue. The most dirty stuff about that issue is that it cant be pinned down and unable to detect, like a curse.
Program check:
The only program which could have been activated was Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 which is always running in background and might "update" itself automatically. In fact i had issues where Kaspersky after a system freeze, was corrupted and unable to repair itself. Then i had to reinstall the whole Kaspersky again, because it simply was corrupted.
RAM check:
I was running the RAM at 1600 MHZ for 1 month and some days ago i switched to standart clock. I was running Intel Burn Test for many hours at 10 GB RAM usage so it was extremely high load (the CPU always in theoretical 100% load). Same for Prime 95 although its not using all RAM. The RAM had no stability issues under massive load conditions. The Windows owned RAM test aswell always have passed. The only stuff i didnt use was "Memtest 86" because its not fully suitable for a X64 System with so many RAMs so i didnt bother.
Anyway, to increase stability i turned the RAM down to standart clock, but the issue still didnt go away, so most likely the RAM are not responsible at all.
SSD/HDD check: The OS SSD is a Vertex 3 which may have bad reputation at stability, and considering the completly random behaviour there seems to be a high risk that the SSD may be the cause of it. Which seriously would be a mess, for a piece that expensive its a NO GO.. I kinda feel like a labor rat (its ok to be a labor rat but not for that price), in term it truly comes up to that drive. I would not have paid so much if i knew about those issues. Additionaly it doesnt help that the Vertex 3 is a beta version (red light) with Firmware 2.02. From my view, nowadays, i would say that this drive is incapable to be OS drive because it may be a issue to way to many systems and a foolproof fix isnt known yet.
GPU check: From my experience, impossible, because in term the GPU will freeze then the system will completly stop to work (you can not switch to desktop menu because the impact is to high). In term its only slightly unstable then the AMD driver is very advanced and is trying to restore itself which always have worked in the past on older systems. So that behaviour is not GPU related however, i will now clock it down to get max stability on any spot.
Other Actions i might execute:
Increase the overal stability to the max level possible. I will now remove Spread Spectrum, and aswell i will remove Hyper Threading, that will give additional stability. HOWEVER, the intel burn test and prime 95 was tested including such conditions and still nothing detected at all. Because of the extemely hard to detect nature, it always need many days in order to test, its how i name it.. a mess.
Anyway, thats just my guessing, i totaly dunno what to do.