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Microsoft Level 3 Support Can't Help - can AT? **STILL UNSOLVED AS OF 2/6/12 - help**

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ViRGE said:
The thing about the SandForce BSODs is that they manifested themselves as random F4 errors, which is exactly what you're seeing. It took Anand & crew quite a bit of effort to come up with a reproducible test case for SandForce to actually fix the issue. Ultimately you have some other good suggestions here worth following, but I wouldn't rule out the SandForce BSOD because it's random; you should rule it in because it's random.
Click to expand...

Good call. I'd +1 this if I could. 🙂
 
When you set your ram to 1.6v, did you adjust the qpi/vtt? If not, set it to 1.35v and see what happens.

If that doesn't work, try using a regular hard drive instead of the ssd and see if that works.

-D
 
My electricity shows a reasonable power of 122.9... not even sure what that means, but the guy said it was good and not an issue of an undercurrent. Guess it's in the case 🙁

I'll try the 1.35v setting and the SSD swap next.
 
tami said:
My electricity shows a reasonable power of 122.9... not even sure what that means, but the guy said it was good and not an issue of an undercurrent. Guess it's in the case 🙁

I'll try the 1.35v setting and the SSD swap next.
Click to expand...

The problem here is the issue is only happening sporadically, so you need to monitor and log the power readings, checking it when you experience a problem. Checking the voltage once is not going to reveal the issue if the issue is with the power.

This is what you want to be able to check for when researching power issues (from a UPS log here in the office):

02/06/2012 05:19:20 UPS: No longer on battery power.
02/06/2012 05:19:19 UPS: On battery power in response to an input power problem.

Date Time Vmin Vmax Vout Iout %Wout Freq %Cap Vbat TupsF %VAout
02/12/2012 23:06:32 114.4 115.2 115.2 9.46 38.3 60 100 54.81 81.3 34.4
02/12/2012 22:56:32 114.4 115.2 114.4 9.46 37.7 60 100 54.81 81.3 35.7
02/12/2012 22:46:32 114.4 114.4 114.4 9.46 37.7 60 100 54.81 81.3 35.1
Click to expand...
You can then check the logs after a BSOD to see if there were power issues on the line at the time.
 
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Lifted said:
The problem here is the issue is only happening sporadically, so you need to monitor and log the power readings, checking it when you experience a problem. Checking the voltage once is not going to reveal the issue if the issue is with the power.

This is what you want to be able to check for when researching power issues (from a UPS log here in the office):

You can then check the logs after a BSOD to see if there were power issues on the line at the time.
Click to expand...

So I need to get a UPS device to do this? Or what do you suggest as an affordable power management device?
 
MadScientist said:
Since you are/were getting a f4 error, as Virge suggested, it would seem like it's pointing to an SSD drive issue, but this is just an opinion.

Try analyzing your dump files with BlueScreenView http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html or Windows Debugging Tools http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic176011.html
Click to expand...

Yes, Microsoft tech support actually remoted into my computer and referred to those apps for about 6 weeks. BlueScreenView and WhoCrashed as well as Windows Debugging Tools did nothing to indicate the source of the problem.
 
Sounds like you have some parts that are incompatible, you just going to use the process of elimination and swap them out one by one. And by that I don't mean RMA everything, try a regular hard drive first, then different memory. Microsoft are not set up to help you identify hardware problems over the phone.
 
paul878 said:
Sounds like you have some parts that are incompatible, you just going to use the process of elimination and swap them out one by one. And by that I don't mean RMA everything, try a regular hard drive first, then different memory. Microsoft are not set up to help you identify hardware problems over the phone.
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In case you missed the mentions, I already did that.

I tried different RAM combos, different video card combos (onboard, no drivers installed, and my current Radeon), different motherboard combos, different PSUs (a 550w and a 900w). I did RMA most everything, sure, but I also tried that process of elimination too, Paul. It would be pretty silly for me to post in desperation after 8 months without having tried what seems pretty logical to have done much earlier on.

I don't think your suggestion is applicable at this time, but I do appreciate the feedback.

At this time, I'm down to it being the SSD chipset and have asked OCZ to review this thread to see if they have any feedback. It's a long shot, but I've got little else to go by here.
 
I am not going to read through all the posts... maybe this was mentioned.. is your RAM on the motherboards manufacturers certified list?
 
rudder said:
I am not going to read through all the posts... maybe this was mentioned.. is your RAM on the motherboards manufacturers certified list?
Click to expand...

I've tried 2 different motherboards and two different RAM sticks (different speeds too) so I don't know if this would be the issue here.
 
Okay, so I'm at the point where I have an open ticket with OCZ. No luck yet (and I couldn't get my other SATA working to truly isolate it to a chipset issue) but they gave me new things to try.

What's a good SSD to try that may not have this SandForce chipset issue? The Intel 520 seems to have the same chipset. I want to avoid it but also use a super fast SSD that is comparable to the Vertex 3.
 
I've been using a crucial M4 in one of my machines for a month now. No problems.... except a couple flaky things happened during windows install. Honestly, the impression I got was that it was so fast it actually messed up the windows installers. lol. I cant find any other explanation that fits.
 
Just an update... I've been on the Crucial M4 for about a week now and no BSODs. I'm still not 100% sure that it was a SandForce issue but it seems to be pretty likely right now. I'm waiting for a solid 4-5 day uptime to be absolutely certain but I've rebooted a few times and normally do encounter BSODs in the interim, none of which happened with the new SSD. So far, so good.

I never figured out *why* the SandForce chipset is a problem with my various motherboards despite trying a few bugfixes suggested by their support staff, but at this point, I suppose it's a moot issue. Fortunately, OCZ is going to refund me for the Vertex 3 (not the full cost that I paid, but not market value either).

If I have any updates, I'll post. 🙂

thanks all for your help.
 
tami said:
Just an update... I've been on the Crucial M4 for about a week now and no BSODs. I'm still not 100% sure that it was a SandForce issue but it seems to be pretty likely right now. I'm waiting for a solid 4-5 day uptime to be absolutely certain but I've rebooted a few times and normally do encounter BSODs in the interim, none of which happened with the new SSD. So far, so good.

I never figured out *why* the SandForce chipset is a problem with my various motherboards despite trying a few bugfixes suggested by their support staff, but at this point, I suppose it's a moot issue. Fortunately, OCZ is going to refund me for the Vertex 3 (not the full cost that I paid, but not market value either).

If I have any updates, I'll post. 🙂

thanks all for your help.
Click to expand...

The Vertex 3 is/was infamous for causing mysterious BSODs with certain (seemingly random) systems. Was supposed to be fixed via firmware update a couple months ago though.
 
i had a similar problem for over a year with my WHS box in my old apartment. it would bsod every 1-3 days. Reinstalling/replacing hardware didn't do anything.

moved to a new place, and it hasn't crashed in a year.
 
Only thing I have not seen yet is heat. What is the temp of your CPU and how hot do you keep your room/house? Maybe when you are at idle the fans are running slower causing a spike in heat. Just throwing that out there.
 
just bumping this up because I missed the last few posts and I have confirmed that the Vertex 3 didn't work with my chipset. The Crucial M4 is a dream and this thing finally has reasonable uptimes. 😉
 
Getting back to the heat issue....sounds simple, but is there dust build up? Try going into the bios and disabling fan throttling. Being a BSOD it is a harware proble, but overheating could be the issue since it BSODs after running a bit.
Just a thought.
 
Sportin said:
Getting back to the heat issue....sounds simple, but is there dust build up? Try going into the bios and disabling fan throttling. Being a BSOD it is a harware proble, but overheating could be the issue since it BSODs after running a bit.
Just a thought.
Click to expand...

BSoD != hardware only.
 
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