Freezing/Blue Screen

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jimdoe
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:08 am

Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by jimdoe » Sat Apr 21, 2012 5:59 am

Hello

My computer is 2 months old (I built it), it ran fine up until this morning.

My build is the following:
i7-2600
GTX 580
16 GB Ram
Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium
Seasonic X650
Two (2) Mushkin 120GB SSD Raid 0 (240 GB)

Suddenly this morning, it keeps freezing (locking up), and it's usually followed by a blue screen (saying there's a problem, but it's not specific as to what the problem might be).

This usually happens while I'm gaming, or watching a movie.

I checked the temperature of my GTX 580, and 2600 while I was gaming, and watching video, and the temperature is normal.

My CPU idles at 35c, and it hits 60c-70c (max) while gaming.

My GPU idles at 35c, and hits 60c (max) while gaming.

I have the latest drivers from my GPU.

What could be causing my PC to suddenly freeze during gaming or watching a video?

jimdoe
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:08 am

Re: Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by jimdoe » Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:04 am

So, something weird happened.

It took 3 tries to boot up into Windows.

The first 2 tries, it wouldn't boot, and it said my Raid0 Status Failed.

The 3rd try it booted up normally...

jimdoe
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:08 am

Re: Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by jimdoe » Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:11 am

Picture of failed boot:
Image


Picture of successful boot:
Image


Does this mean one of the SATA ports is bad, or that one of the SSD's is bad?

Falkon
Posts: 115
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 6:59 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by Falkon » Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:32 am

Based on your original and subsequent posts I would have guessed that something is up with either your RAID config or more likely one of the SSDs. I'm not particularly well-versed in those areas though, so I can't help much beyond that.

m0002a
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2004 2:12 am
Location: USA

Re: Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by m0002a » Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:54 am

Just curious, is there really any noticeable benefit to using RAID 0 striping on SSD's (as opposed to a single SSD)?

SebRad
Patron of SPCR
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Location: UK

Re: Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by SebRad » Sat Apr 21, 2012 2:27 pm

Just curious, is there really any noticeable benefit to using RAID 0 striping on SSD's (as opposed to a single SSD)?
In normal, real world use, probably not... but it didn't stop me from doing almost the same! Same pair of 120GB Sandforce drives on Intel controller, just mine are Corsair Force 3s. So far no issues at all.

Atto bench mark will give me some scores that are double a single drive but some others are rather less convincing.
I would suggest that generally a single 240GB SSD would be preferable. SSD performance scales with capacity (more or less) so a single 240GB drive is usually significantly faster than 120GB drive, and you avoid and RAID headaches and less chance of failure.
[Obviously I'm generalising like crazy here but if you look up reviews with real-world tests the bigger drives are faster.

The main reason I got the drives I got is that they were much cheaper than anything else comparable, and significantly less than 240GB of the same model!

Going back the OP, a drive dropping out of the array will cause the array to fail and Windows to lose it's boot drive, which will give you a blue screen crash. Sometimes some of the info on the blue screen helps, if a driver file is mentioned or an error code that can be Google'd.
I would check your data/power cables and back up your data ASAP.

Windows Backup can create an Image of the boot drive and create a recovery CD/DVD that you can boot from and recover the image to save reinstalling everything etc, if you have no other drive imaging software I would do this too.

I would say it's most likely to be the SSD and not the motherboard etc. Removing any over-clock (if you have) and swapping SATA cables is worth a try too.
You maybe able to RMA your SSD on the current evidence or you may need to wait for it to get worse before you can get it replaced.
If small enough data size you could restore the image to a single SSD so you're not with out your PC functioning.
[leave SATA in RAID mode and remove any array config so can access the single drive]

Hope this helps, Seb

larsjuh
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 2:28 pm

Re: Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by larsjuh » Thu Feb 21, 2013 2:30 pm

I have exactly the same problem..

Any update what so ever? :D Was it a failed drive?

xan_user
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Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: Freezing/Blue Screen

Post by xan_user » Fri Feb 22, 2013 7:36 am

As Confucius would say; "Raid is often more trouble than its worth."

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