New Rig Keeps Freezing, Sometimes Requiring Restart. Any Advice Welcome...

So, this is my first post here. Been a follower for years and can usually find my solutions elsewhere in the forum, but unfortunately this issue seems tailor made to drive me crazy.

NOTED: I have found similar issues but find it bad forum etiquette to hijack threads and pour my issues into someone else's thread and have them lose the opportunity to community support tailored to their issue.

PLEASE AVOID FLAMING ME AND POINTING ME TO QUASI-SIMILAR POSTS, however if there is an IDENTICAL issue already solved elsewhere please kindly point me there.

Having said that here is my issue(s):

**RED FONT INDICATES UPDATES BASED ON REPLY POSTER(S) ADVICE

I recently built a new rig in June/July 2011. I went pretty much all out on this one as I have been slowly and meticulously building a cart and doing my homework on various components.

(Scroll down to see the full specs)

My issue is that intermittently, my system will freeze. The mouse will not move and all sound/video will stop. This issue has a 100% chance to correct itself if I am doing regular tasks like email/web-browsing/listening to music/homework etc. However, it seems that in games it will not correct itself and requires my hitting the reset button and waiting for a restart. Granted, it may fix itself in the game, but my patience is less than that of regular tasks as I am an avid online gamer and cannot be out of play that long without serious repercussions to my overall games outcome. So I have not given it the chance to reset itself. The normal reset time of regular desktop tasking during freeze is from 1:15 to 6 minutes. During gaming I normally give it the 1:15 then just restart as this is quicker than waiting.

If/After the freeze fixes itself (without my restarting the system) the screen(s) flash and 20% of the time I get a Windows error of "Video card Driver _InsertDriverVersionHere_ stopped working and has recovered". Other times it just flashes and the sound and video resume.

Also, 30% of the time when I force restart my system cycles 2-3 times before it actually starts back up. The system shuts down during these cycles when "Loading Operating System" is shown. After the 2-3 times it normally boots correctly or finally asks how I want to boot windows.

The below list of attempted fixes will be updated throughout the solving phase of my thread's life and I will eventually highlight the attempt that solves the issue for future readers to identify and hopefully avoid some headache:

I have henceforth:
-dropped all system component overclocks to base clock speeds/timings
-ran upwards of 15 hours of Prime95
-ran MemTest 8-10 times at both start up and after several hours of intense use
-Ran FurMark Stress Test for multiple two hour periods
-Ran FurMark Benchmark (720 and 1080) countless times
-Ran IntelBurnTest several times
-Ran numerous other stress/benchmark/etc tests as suggested by other threads dating back to late 2009
-Used MSI AfterBurner to adjust Core Voltage and Fan Speed in the attempt to offset voltage shortages and overheating, these are applied at startup
-Adjusted HDD/Fan location/direction to best promote airflow to all components with an emphasis on RAM/GPU's
- Loaded Optimized Bios settings and then reinstalled drivers for gpu using safe mode to driversweep and reinstall after uninstalling them
-Replaced Monitors with monitors of like resolutions ( this was mentioned in a few forums as causing problems without identical resolutions)
-Removed the secondary GPU card and ran it alone
-Swapped the primary card with the secondary, running that one alone as well


SYSTEM SPECS:
(apologies for any erroneous entries, but for completeness sake)

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
HDD1: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB (ALL PERSONAL FILES/MUSIC/PICTURES/ETC AND COMPUTER BACKUP ON HERE)
SSD1: OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G 2.5" 60GB ( OS ONLY ON THIS)
SSD2: OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB (RAID STRIPED FOR ALL PROGRAMS)
SSD3: OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB (RAID STRIPED FOR ALL PROGRAMS)
OPTICALS: 2x LG Black Super Multi SATA WH12LS30
DISPLAY 1: ASUS 24" VW246H
DISPLAY 2: ASUS 24" VW246H
**Setup as extended displays with the main display set as the LG and thus all games are ran on this display. browsing and homework are done on the LCD TV**
GPU: 2-WAY SLI- EVGA SuperClocked 015-P3-1582-AR GeForce GTX 580
PSU: OCZ ZX Series 1250W Fully-Modular 80PLUS Gold
CPU COOLER: CORSAIR Hydro H70 CWCH70 ( BOTH FANS REPLACED WITH- Scythe DFS123812-3000 "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm)
GPU COOLER: DOOR FAN REPLACED WITH-COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200 R4-LUS-07AR-GP ; GPU VENT FAN - Scythe DFS123812-3000 "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm
-BOTH FANS ON TOP AND ON FRONT OF CASE IN PLACE STILL-

**All overclocks are stock at this point with the only exception being the GPU voltage.


These are imaged detailing my error message and showing the frequency of my issue.





These images indicate voltage/temperature at idle and after 5 minutes of load using FurMark.
IDLE:

LOAD:

This image is my Afterburner settings, based on the above pics it seems that the second GPU does not adopt these voltage settings until under load. Not sure if this is an issue.


These photos below are for OCZ who is currently attempting to help me with what they believe to be the SSD causing the error.



If you need anymore information please do not hesitate to ask and I hope collectively we can find a solution as I am on the edge of insanity. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

I am now in talks with EVGA and OCZ to figure out what the issue is.

EVGA feels that if it's happening with both cards that it most likely is not the cards causing the problems. They feel it is the PSU based on my HWMonitor screenshots.

OCZ feels that the PSU is fine, but that it is the SSD's and that my setup is 'odd'. They are currently walking through how to setup the BIOS to AHCI, which I cannot get to boot when doing this, and how to break a striped raid without losing data.

please weigh in if you have any additional help

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697

Did you monitor the 12 volt rail with a digitalmultimeter(dmm) idle/loaded? Could be a flucuation in the voltages.

1st up go into bios, load optimized defaults, save and exit. If the program persists let me know. Also as the above poster said monitor your 12v rail. If you are a baddie and dont have a dmm like me, you can use a few different programs. One of them being easytune6 since you have a gigabyte board, just click on hwmonitor i believe its called and you can see it there. Cpuid hardware monitor is also a great tool to have.

Next up uninstall your current drivers *while your at optimized defaults in bios*, then restart, delete all folders make sure it was a clean uninstall, reboot, install new drivers. Make sure you have all chipset drivers aka, everything on gigabytes website for your board. Also make sure you update your bios, f7 helped me out a lot lately.

If you dont have the issue at "load default/optimized settings" then thats great, if so, report back. Also either way, let us know what your 12volt rail is at load. Use furmark to put a load on the gpu and use intelburntest to put a load on the cpu.

Watch your temps and give us some screen shots.

Arn't you lukcy just this week i had a very similar build repair required to do at work NRG tornado i7s - google the specs you will be suprised how close they are - I did everything i could think including re-installing the whole damn os.

so after a day and a half of testing every piece of hardware in this beast i went back to basics and noticed that me in a brain fart Friday moment had installed the onboard Video Drivers which was causing the SLI to collapse and only allow one video card to read Bogging the System right down.

My fix was to Uninstal the Intel HD graphics driver from the Device manager so i could only see the 2 GTX560's in the display adapter section here and Walla! no more problems after a full day of Prime95 and reboot tests with furmark Bench's thrown in to boot system became stable and stopped having Video Card report driver errors and stop working.

Let me know if this one works otherwise i can burn out some Buffer stock and try replicate the fault for you to find a different fix.

Good Luck

Chewmeatsa said:

My fix was to Uninstal the Intel HD graphics driver from the Device manager so i could only see the 2 GTX560's in the display adapter section here and Walla! no more problems after a full day of Prime95 and reboot tests with furmark Bench's thrown in to boot system became stable and stopped having Video Card report driver errors and stop working.

Click to expand...

I do not currently have the Intel graphics drivers installed as far as I can tell. I use LogMeIn and that is the only other driver listed under Display Adapters other than my two 580's.

Thank for for the tip and I am curious for more suggestions!

OnDborder said:

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697

Did you monitor the 12 volt rail with a digitalmultimeter(dmm) idle/loaded? Could be a flucuation in the voltages.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, my DMM was damaged by rain water during my move in April and I haven't replaced it. Although, I have added some CPUID Hardware Monitor pics to the OP and some other info. Thanks for the tip and I am eager to hear your thoughts and gain more advice!!!

killerkid said:

1st up go into bios, load optimized defaults, save and exit. If the program persists let me know. Also as the above poster said monitor your 12v rail. If you are a baddie and dont have a dmm like me, you can use a few different programs. One of them being easytune6 since you have a gigabyte board, just click on hwmonitor i believe its called and you can see it there. Cpuid hardware monitor is also a great tool to have.

Next up uninstall your current drivers *while your at optimized defaults in bios*, then restart, delete all folders make sure it was a clean uninstall, reboot, install new drivers. Make sure you have all chipset drivers aka, everything on gigabytes website for your board. Also make sure you update your bios, f7 helped me out a lot lately.

If you dont have the issue at "load default/optimized settings" then thats great, if so, report back. Also either way, let us know what your 12volt rail is at load. Use furmark to put a load on the gpu and use intelburntest to put a load on the cpu.

Watch your temps and give us some screen shots.

Click to expand...

Alright, I have done all that you have noted. Please see OP for pics and whatnot. I am now running at optimized defaults with only the afterburner settings as any form of OC. I will update upon first freeze/crash. I have not used IntelBurnTest in a while since my system seems stable other than GPU issues based on what I am seeing with voltages here. If you still would like to have the Burn Test screenshot I can definitely do this. Thanks for the tips and I am eager to hear your thoughts and keep chipping away at this problem together!!!

Voltages and temperatures all look within normal, just a curisoity have tried running a test after un-installing the LogMeIn Display adapter?

I know that it shouldn't cause the drama if it still causes same issue after running with only the two 580 adaptors installed then try a different SLI bridge.

Wish i had it here i could test things seperately of your build must be painful not having multiple pieces of different hardware for testing

Judging by the screenies, the 12 volt is .96 idle(which isn't correct but we'll go on) and 1.58 load. That's a pretty big swing.
If I were you I'd get a dmm and check.
Have you pulled one of your 580's and tried running it for awhile?

OnDborder said:

Judging by the screenies, the 12 volt is .96 idle(which isn't correct but we'll go on) and 1.58 load. That's a pretty big swing.
If I were you I'd get a dmm and check.
Have you pulled one of your 580's and tried running it for awhile?

Click to expand...

I don't see the 1.58 you are speaking about. I see 1.13 which is what I have it set to in Afterburner. I have not tried pulling one of the cards yet. I have done the things listed in the OP and since 6:40PM ET 10/11/11 I have had no freezes or crashes. Crossing my fingers the red items in my OP did the trick.

Chewmeatsa said:

Voltages and temperatures all look within normal, just a curisoity have tried running a test after un-installing the LogMeIn Display adapter?

I know that it shouldn't cause the drama if it still causes same issue after running with only the two 580 adaptors installed then try a different SLI bridge.

Wish i had it here i could test things seperately of your build must be painful not having multiple pieces of different hardware for testing

Click to expand...

I have done the things in red in the OP and had no crashes or freezes since 6:30PM ET 10/11/2011. Crossing my fingers that this works. but uninstalling the logmein drivers will be the next attempt if we get another freeze.

I had a new GPU for a year or so. My PC would freeze. Boot, brousing web, gaming, freeze, sometimes BOD, lots of just odd things. I was running SLI thank goodness so I could go one GPU. FINALLY isolated it to a GPU, took a few weeks of using the PC to verify each card.

Moral of the story, it could be freaking anything. But since you have SLI and a 580 by itself is pretty powerful, give what I did a try.

The problem is very likely to be the vertex3's.

VERY likely. It's a problem that only occurs on the new intel chipset, which you and I both have, and with the Vertex3 with the new sandforce controller, which you and I both have. I've had the problem, except mine forced a restart immediately after a short hang.

Check the ocz support forum under the vertex3 section:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...-Agility3-Solid3-support-and-discussion-forum

Their instructions to get vertex3's to act right are a HUGE pain in the ***, and some of them are total crap. Some of the steps make no sense at all, and you will know upon first glance that you can skip them. The other steps, however, might help you fix the problem. Start by updating your firmware. I suggest downloading the Overclockix linux distro that mbentley maintains for this community, here:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=671690

and installing it on a USB flash drive or burn it to a cd

then boot into it

Then download the fwupd utility from ocz's download area here:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/files/ssd_tools/fwupd_v2.12.05.zip.gz

Then open up the disk utility from the applications menu at the top left, and check what your vertex 3 drives are called. if the vertex2 is plugged in to the first slot then the vertex 3's should be called /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 or /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc

extract contents of the folder to the desktop (drag and drop style), click the the start menu thing at the top left and open up a Terminal window, and run these commands
(replace /dev/sdX) with whatever you determined in the previous step)

cd Desktop
sudo chmod u+x fwupd
./fwupd /dev/sda1

wait for it to finish, then

./fwdupd /dev/sda2


Good luck sir

In the HW screenshots. The "+12" voltage reading..

The 12volt reading is OBVIOUSLY inaccurate with his board lol.

HyndeSyte2020 said:

Alright, I have done all that you have noted. Please see OP for pics and whatnot. I am now running at optimized defaults with only the afterburner settings as any form of OC. I will update upon first freeze/crash. I have not used IntelBurnTest in a while since my system seems stable other than GPU issues based on what I am seeing with voltages here. If you still would like to have the Burn Test screenshot I can definitely do this. Thanks for the tips and I am eager to hear your thoughts and keep chipping away at this problem together!!!

Click to expand...

Alright, so it's been a little over a day and a half and I have been trying to make this thing freeze and to no avail. I think the optimized defaults and driver re-install (for the nth time) did it. I will allow until Saturday before I mark as solved. Thank you to all those who helped.

Good job,
For future references with posts use that edit button in the bottom right corner so you don't double, triple, etc.. post. It can clutter up a thread pushing things to multiple pages. Fyi. Just a note for the future.

You are welcome. It's always best to start with optimized defaults and then work your way up from there. Use stability testing programs at defaults before overclocking

PS: Your issue was ram timings <3