New HD's causing random lockups and BSOD's?

[jimbob200521]

So I recently installed two shiney new 4tb HGST drives in my server which is based off of the X58 (socket 1366) chipset. They work and recognize fine in Windows 7 but the BIOS & RAID BIOS don't recognize them correctly during boot but they work in Windows so whatever, right? Wrong. Ever since I've installed these two drives, the PC randomly (and frequently) locks up and/or reboots. How can this be related to two RAID'ed random hard drives if Windows recognizes them and utilizes them just fine? I'm scratching my head trying to avoid building a newer UEFI PC but at this point I don't know what's left...

 

[Lorne]

What is the BSOD error reporting?, Are there any other drive/controller errors showing in the Events viewer.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's actually kind of surprising. What if you switch the BIOS out of RAID mode, and into AHCI mode?

I know that I had my GA-P35-DS3R v1.0 Gigabyte P35 S775 board, with ICH9R and Jmicron ("G-SATA") SATA controllers, and I'm pretty sure that at one point, I had my Toshiba 3TB HDDs connected, without issue, to the Intel controller, in AHCI mode. Was running Win7 64-bit, formatted in GPT mode.

Maybe your X58 board / RAM / etc. is just getting old, and it's coincidental. Though, probably not.

 

[jimbob200521]

That's actually kind of surprising. What if you switch the BIOS out of RAID mode, and into AHCI mode?

I know that I had my GA-P35-DS3R v1.0 Gigabyte P35 S775 board, with ICH9R and Jmicron ("G-SATA") SATA controllers, and I'm pretty sure that at one point, I had my Toshiba 3TB HDDs connected, without issue, to the Intel controller, in AHCI mode. Was running Win7 64-bit, formatted in GPT mode.

Maybe your X58 board / RAM / etc. is just getting old, and it's coincidental. Though, probably not.

Two things: 1) From what I've read RAID is an extension of AHCI so it is essentially AHCI with a few bonus items, so to speak. 2) If I switch to just AHCI mode instead of RAID (which I've thought about) I lose one of my RAID arrays which, yes, I could recreate within Windows. I'm just not convinced it's a RAID vs AHCI issues...

What is the BSOD error reporting?, Are there any other drive/controller errors showing in the Events viewer.

Upon reboot, this is the error message Windows reports:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 124
BCP1: 0000000000000000
BCP2: FFFFFA800CC60028
BCP3: 00000000FA000000
BCP4: 0000000000400405
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\111816-13150-01.dmp
C:\Users\Ryan Schrader\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-39676420-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is it overclocked? I got 0x124 BSODs when I was overclocking my G3258 when it wasn't stable.

 

[jimbob200521]

Is it overclocked? I got 0x124 BSODs when I was overclocking my G3258 when it wasn't stable.

No sir, the i7 965EE is not overclocked. I played with it a bit when I got it but seeing as how little real "power" I require of my server, I set it back at stock.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, because that seems like a stability / RAM BSOD to me.

 

[Elixer]

Hmm, because that seems like a stability / RAM BSOD to me.

I tend to agree with this.
I would turn off auto-reboot on BSOD, never did like it, so you can see the actual errors.
I would also run memtest86+ overnight to rule out RAM errors. That is usually the #1 problem for stability. Then run OCCT or prime95 for a few hours to check CPU stability.

 

[PianoMan]

Another vote on a memtest86+ run; it ruled out the memory on a BSOD/boot fail I had earlier (and I zeroed in on the SSD, which also wasn't at fault).

On my fileserver, memtest86+ uncovered the fact I had two DDR2 sticks of slightly different timing. So highly recommend to run and go from there.

 

[jimbob200521]

Hmm, because that seems like a stability / RAM BSOD to me.

I tend to agree with this.
I would turn off auto-reboot on BSOD, never did like it, so you can see the actual errors.
I would also run memtest86+ overnight to rule out RAM errors. That is usually the #1 problem for stability. Then run OCCT or prime95 for a few hours to check CPU stability.

Another vote on a memtest86+ run; it ruled out the memory on a BSOD/boot fail I had earlier (and I zeroed in on the SSD, which also wasn't at fault).

On my fileserver, memtest86+ uncovered the fact I had two DDR2 sticks of slightly different timing. So highly recommend to run and go from there.

I shall run the memtest86+ overnight and see what it gives me. However, I am doubting it being a memory error. PC was rock solid 24/7 for months and month then I install two hard drives and it gets shakey...but I will report back on the memtest.

 

[PianoMan]

When you say the BIOS doesn't recognize them "correctly", is the data incorrect at boot, or it doesn't see them at all?

Also - are you running the HDDs hardware or software RAID?

 

[jimbob200521]

When you say the BIOS doesn't recognize them "correctly", is the data incorrect at boot, or it doesn't see them at all?

Also - are you running the HDDs hardware or software RAID?

Upon boot, the BIOS/RAID BIOS see's the two drives but only recognizes them as something like 1.67tb (something in that area). Once fully booted up, Windows see's the drives just fine.

And I am running the drives in Software RAID via Windows as the RAID BIOS won't allow me to create an array that will utilize the full capacity of the drives.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Did you try pulling the drives to see if the BSODs persist?

 

[PianoMan]

And I am running the drives in Software RAID via Windows as the RAID BIOS won't allow me to create an array that will utilize the full capacity of the drives.

I vaguely recall encountering a similar situation when my WHS was on an MSI (AMD AM3) mobo that couldn't recognize larger hard drives. For the life of me, I don't recall if I just pushed ahead with the install, or used an option on the BIOS that would "convince" the mobo it really can see the drives. I believe I did the latter, then SW RAID'ed the HDDs. My WHS is on an Intel mobo now, and I believe it could see the drives correctly. (was it that long ago? Mebbe I'm getting too old, LOL)

The HDDs show correctly in the OS setup screen when you go to install, correct? If it doesn't, and then a subsequent driver installation fixes it, I'd be concerned that may be the culprit.

Have you disconnected the drives as dave suggested above?