BSOD/system freeze/& SMART false error

Gabbon

Posts: 23   +0
Hi,
I'm running a windows 7 64-bit computer which I've known to be stable. Yesterday, it crashed three times throughout the day, the first of which was a BSOD. I felt alarmed when the POST afterwards noted SMART failures for the two Hitachi HDS721010KLA330 drives (the OS is on an intel x25-m, there's another x25-m & a Maxtor also attached).
Last night, I ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness test (in IDE mode), and both checked out fine (0x00). The SMART notification only happens immediately after the OS crash, and only in the first POST (subsequent ones are fine).
All I could think is that the drives are power saving green drives & might be switching off at awkward times, so I've just disabled Write Caching.
Can anyone think of another reason why the system would be crashing? I took a look at event viewer, but I'm not so good at reading the logs. The three re-starts were listed as Event 41, Kernel Power events.
I've previously updated the SATA driver for the HDD's to the latest driver (RST 9.​​6.​​0.​​1014), for it's TRIM support, but hadn't noticed any problems there (it's been updated for about a month now.
Any input would be wonderful
Thanks
 
What are the complete specs of your system? Kindly do not forget to add PSU type/model/make etc.

Also attach minidumps with your next post for analysis, they can be found in C:\windows\minidump. If there are multiple files zip them together in a single file.

For now, I would suggest you to turn off all power saving options in windows except for the ones related to monitor. Regards
 
Thanks. Here's the specs. As it turns out, there were two minidumps yesterday (both attached).

CPU: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD5 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
RAM: OCZ Platinum 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
GPU: EVGA 01G-P3-N964-LR GeForce 9600 GSO 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
PSU: SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS
OS: Windows 7 64 Bit
OVERCLOCK: BCLK 185x19 = 3515Mhz (stable on prime for 4 hours)

edited to add, yes, I have power saving options disabled (I had issues with these two HDD's reinitializing correctly after OS power-saving switch offs, so this has been disabled since then. Only the monitor goes off, and the CPU goes down to 5%)
 

Attachments

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Both of these are 0x7F UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP, double fault (instant death) events.

This means a trap occurred in kernel mode and the trap is either one the kernel is not allowed to have or is always fatal.

The most common causes of a STOP 0x7F are:

1. Hardware problems are usually related to CPU, RAM, or bus
2. Mismatched memory modules
3. A malfunctioning motherboard

My recommendations to troubleshoot / and isolate this issue are:

1. Return your CPU clock to factory default (NO OVERCLOCKING)
2. Test RAM with memtest (you can find it in Techspot's download section), run at least 8 passes on each RAM module.
3. If the above two doesn't help, try booting your system with minimum hardware, i.e. with only one boot drive, no cd, 1 Ram module etc. if the system tables stable, then start adding things one by one.
4. Check that your motherboard's BIOS is uptodate.
 
Hmmm, that's a pity. Thanks.

I'll do memtest on the RAM, and update the BIOS (it's a couple updates old). As for overclocking, rather than setting it to stock speeds, could I trouble-shoot this problem just by ensuring it's stable on prime?

Since I disabled the write caching on the two drives, it's been stable (36 hours). Is there any easy way of determining a MOBO fault?
 
I think if you don't OC for a while you got enough Oomph even at stock speed to get things pretty swiftly with that processor, and it would also make the task of troubleshooting one step easier.
 
Cool. Thanks. So, apart from following the above, is it just a waiting game to see if the fault recurrs?
 
Once you've gone through the above, we should have some idea what may be causing this, although troubleshooting hardware issues can take some effort and time.
 
OK, I've completed an overnight memtest and the RAM came up with no errors. I haven't updated the BIOS yet, but will get on to that when I have a chance.
The system was stable for 72 hours, so I re-enabled write caching on the suspect drives. Since then it's continued to be stable, so I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to track this fault down.
Do you have any clues what might trigger it?
 
Have you returned processor to its stock speed as well?

We can only guess at this moment, as there is insufficient information/data which can lead us to something more tangible about these issues.
 
OK, cool, thanks. I'll update if/when the fault returns and trouble shoot at that time.

Thanks for your help :)
 
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