Random Freezes, BSOD, error 0x116

writhziden said:

RAID: Marvell* SATA Driver should help.

Okay, some updates.

That RAID Controller driver is mv91xx but my RAID Controller is mv61xx. The ones in that link do NOT work. I think I have the latest ones for the mv61xx controller; I got it from station-drivers.net.

I set everything to default, no OC at all, and the system still crashed when I played that game (Trine 2). I tried another game, same thing. I tried reinstalling NVIDIA driver, same thing; I even rolled it back to 296.10 WHQL to no avail.

What is so annoying is that when I do 3-Way SLI, with BOTH the CPU & GPU OC'd (or even default), there are no crashes! I was able to play Trine 2, Metro 2033, and other games without issue! This time, I even had the three adjacent PCI-E lanes occupied; lanes 1, 3, and 5!

I went ahead and got an RMA with ASUS. I just haven't shipped out the board to them yet. What do you think I should do? I think I've exhausted all troubleshooting methods. Should I just go ahead and RMA the board?

writhziden said:

Sorry the link was for 91xx; it would make everyone's lives so much easier if providers would list the .sys file... Marvell hard disk controller drivers seem to be difficult to find, too.

I do not know if that site you found the drivers from is trustworthy. I will post a thread in the drivers section of the forums and see if our driver experts can help me find a trustworthy, working 61xx driver.

As for the motherboard, it is your call. Going back through the thread, I see you did a repair install at one point. Have you done a clean install yet to see if that would resolve it. You mentioned re-installing Windows, but I cannot tell if that meant you clean installed it or you were referring to the repair install.

If you Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 and then only install the applications causing crashes, that would help determine whether your Windows/software is magnafoozled or it is hardware.


EDIT: I started a thread in the drivers forum: Difficulty finding mv61xx.sys Marvell RAID Controller. I found out the station-drivers.com site does provide reliable drivers. Further research I did on my own suggests the latest driver on that site may be a beta, though. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P5Q Deluxe -> SATA -> Beta Version 1.2.0.8300

If you used 1.2.0.8300, you may consider switching to Version 1.2.0.8000 to see if it provides more stability.

Thanks for the updated links. I think the RAID controller is working fine; I've never had any trouble with it.

I am going to RMA the motherboard. Yesterday, the computer crashed even with 3-way SLI after about 15 minutes of game play. So, instead of crashing right away (with 4-Way SLI), ti took a little longer to do so.

I did do a clean install of Windows 7. In fact, I did it twice. I reset the CMOS and reflashed the BIOS and then installed Windows 7 after secure erasing the SSDs. None of it helped.

Hopefully the new board they send me will work well.

Thanks for the advice and help.

You're welcome. Sorry we couldn't find a simpler solution. Let us know when you get a replacement motherboard and whether it resolves the issue. Best of luck it does!

writhziden said:

You're welcome. Sorry we couldn't find a simpler solution. Let us know when you get a replacement motherboard and whether it resolves the issue. Best of luck it does!

Okay, I got the motherboard back today from ASUS. The thing is, they sent me the SAME board again!

When I called their customer service and spoke to them, they said that all they did was reset the CMOS battery and "reset everything to default"!?!

The manager said he didn't have more information on what they actually did!!

And, sure enough, after spending about 2 hours setting everything up, the problem is STILL THERE! BSOD with 0x116. Heaven 3.0 doesn't even run for more than 10 seconds before locking up and BSOD'ing (again, 0x116). I am really starting to wonder if it is one (or more) of the GPUs.?!? Even though I've tested all of them individually, the BCC 0x116 is most likely the GPU(s).

I am going to be calling ASUS but what else do you think I can do at this point??

If you run all three boards in the system together without the SLI bridges, do you still have problems? Have you tried different SLI bridges?

writhziden said:

If you run all three boards in the system together without the SLI bridges, do you still have problems? Have you tried different SLI bridges?

I haven't tried running all 4 or 3 of the GPUs without the SLI bridge. I'll try that but I don't see how that would help.

I did, however, use 2 different SLI bridges; one is a 3-Way SLI bridge and another a 4-Way SLI bridge. Last night, I had multiple crashes with both 3-Way and 4-Way SLI. So, I'm pretty sure it's not the SLI bridges.

I am now testing the system with one GPU (again). I reinstalled the drivers (301.42 WHQL) and ran Heaven 3.0 for multiple runs and it ran fine. I haven't tried any games on it yet but will do that later today.

Although, I am going to call ASUS on Monday to get a new board. I can't believe they sent me the same board after resetting the CMOS and the BIOS - that doesn't address any hardware issue with the board. I wrote a clear note that they should test 3-Way and 4-Way SLI and I doubt they did that. There was no note with the board when I received it stating what they actually tested! Very poor service IMO.

Yeah, I've heard some bad reports with a number of motherboard companies. It seems to depend on the actual people involved in the service. Sometimes you get technicians that care, and other times you get people who just want to get it done and shipped out so they can move on to the next problem. It is unfortunately a drop in the bucket...

Let us know what ASUS says and whether you determine anything by running the cards together without SLI enabled. The point of that test is to see if you still crash with the cards in even if they are not running collectively.

writhziden said:

Yeah, I've heard some bad reports with a number of motherboard companies. It seems to depend on the actual people involved in the service. Sometimes you get technicians that care, and other times you get people who just want to get it done and shipped out so they can move on to the next problem. It is unfortunately a drop in the bucket...

Let us know what ASUS says and whether you determine anything by running the cards together without SLI enabled. The point of that test is to see if you still crash with the cards in even if they are not running collectively.

Okay, so I tried what you said; running all the cards without the SLI bridge. The system seems to be running fine in that setup. When I tried SLI even with two cards, Heaven 3.0 locked up within a few seconds and the computer froze forcing me to hard-reset. Without SLI, I was able to run Heaven 3.0 for an hour maxed out (of course, only 1 card was being stressed) and also play some games without issue.

So could it be some issue with SLI? I've used 3 different SLI bridges and all of them cause problems so it's not the bridges themselves. When I use 3-Way or 4-Way, I'm having to kind of squeeze the cards together to get the bridge(s) to install properly. They don't go into the slots correctly otherwise. Could this be causing the issues? I doubt it though because when I used the SLI connector (for 2-way), which is an orange flexible connector, there were no issues of installation but the system still crashed. It certainly seems like SLI is totally screwed up but how do I make sure? Even if it is the SLI at fault, how do I fix it?

Have you tried the 2-way SLI connector on all configurations. There are three possible setups with it. If we label cards 1-3, you can do 1 and 2, 1 and 3, or 2 and 3. See if all yield the same results of freezing. We need to determine if maybe one of the cards has a bad SLI contact.