Multicolored Lines, computer crash, Drivers?

Alright guys,

So after a 5 days of just the computer, minimal installations, no steam, etc.

I am not sure what exactly driver verifier is supposed to do, but if i understand correctly if drivers are in conflict i would get a BSOD with the driver conflict information. Is that correct?
regardless I did not get any BSOD's during this period of time.
typeing verified /query popped up another cmd type black screen briefly. But whatever it said just scrolled rapidly by, making it unreadable.

However,
I got a singular crash with matching symptoms, those being, in this case the computer completely locked up forcing a restart. Certainly not the multicolored death lines, but previously when using steam and troubleshooting, it would occasionally freeze in this fashion as well. Refer to post #24 for my mention of the different failure mode, last time.
Still no dump file or BSOD.

During this crash, I was letting windows media player do its thing and discover all the music in my music directory, and reading an article on chrome.

So, I am wondering 2 things.

Is it possible that this is all related to some glitch inside either my SSD or RAID5 triple drive? I did find an obscure post on one of the steam forums, saying that if the drive has some sort of error it can cause the GPU to hang and lead to these kinds of multicolored displays.

And if so, How does one go about diagnosing such a thing, if their is no trace left behind in the form of a dump file or whatever?

I am debating, installing windows on just the SSD with no raid5 triple drive connected, and then switching it, installing windows on just the raid5 and not SSD. But would this be a real test? As I am unsure I could keep the computer in raid5 mode, while simultaneously testing the drive, ie invalidating it being driver or drive related.

Are their any direct tests I can put the drives through to see if i get errors when trying to quickly push a lot of data and the like.

Thank you all for any and suggestions.

Did you turn the Cool 'n' Quiet OFF (as recommended in the mobo manual page 48)?

"Please note that enabling this function may reduce CPU voltage and memory
frequency, and lead to system stability or compatibility issue with some memory
modules or power supplies. Please set this item to [Disable] if above issue occurs."

Can you enter the OC Tweeker setup and provide screen shot of the DRAM Timing Configuration settings?

Regards,
GEWB

GEWB, thanks for the reply.
Anak & ICIT2LOL, Thank you both for your recommendations on driver locating as well.

I did not, but it is now off, per your and apparently the manuals recommendation.

for everyone's reference here is the manual
ASRock > 970M Pro3

Ill let that change settle in for a couple days and see if i get a crash.

I did not make any adjustments to the bios settings, aside from setting up the RAID stuff. I don't really know what any of it is, and just assumed that its defaults were set intelligently, and I have no plans to overclock, i don't really have the need to.



Here is the DRAM Timing controls


Not sure if you want this info, but For good measure here are what the bios has to say about the rail voltages



Anything seem suspect to you?

Aemornion said:

Ill let that change settle in for a couple days and see if i get a crash.

I did not make any adjustments to the bios settings, aside from setting up the RAID stuff. I don't really know what any of it is, and just assumed that its defaults were set intelligently, and I have no plans to overclock, i don't really have the need to.

Anything seem suspect to you?

Thanks for following up with my request. Let's see what happens with C 'n' Q turned off.

I didn't think you made changes to timing but I have learned that the manufacturer doesn't always set things properly - just look at the earlier post about their BIOS text.

I don't see anything unusual but I concure with member Mellon Head about checking some settings in Manual instead of Auto.

Keep us posted!

Regards,
GEWB

Hello all,

So long story short, I seem to have fixed my issue. its been a few weeks and I have not had any problems (fingers crossed).

I had installed windows on just my Raid 5 array, and the problem was non existent, so that lead me to check out my SSD further. Updated the firmware (no change), bought a new SSD (no change). Changed the sata port on the mother board (no Change).

I thought well ok, what if these cables as a batch just suck. I had swapped the cables previously, but they all came from the same bag, same manufacturer, etc, etc.

So, I bought a new batch of cables from a different supplier, and behold!!
Swapped in the cables from the new batch, and haven't had a problem since!

I guess in the old batch the shielding was ineffective or something, but now they are in the trash.

I thank you all for your support and help along the way, I did in fact learn a lot about troubleshooting my computer in the process, and cannot thank you enough for the assist.

Cheers,
Aemornion