Random freezes - Seven Professional x64

Right so there's a good chance either one of my HDDs or my RAID controller is failing. If so, how do I test the RAID controller and prove the failure so I can get a replacement?

What indicates this failure? I thought the freezes have stopped since you got a decent install?

What do you use Adobe AIR for? Only install programs which you absolutely use. Do you know for sure you even use Java? Most of us dont' even install it because of problems and risks. I've never been prompted for it.

gregrocker said:

What indicates this failure? I thought the freezes have stopped since you got a decent install?

What do you use Adobe AIR for? Only install programs which you absolutely use. Do you know for sure you even use Java? Most of us dont' even install it because of problems and risks. I've never been prompted for it.

Yeah, the freezes seemed to stop but they came back. Couldn't this be happening more and more as the array fills more and more? This could explain why the freezes get worse over time.

And yeah, I kind of need Java because I'm trying to learn Java programming (and I didn't even install JDK yet). Either way, I'm inclined to think this is hardware, because the last clue we had was the driver and it's not even here.

I dont' remember you mentioning RAID. WIn7 doesnt' much like RAID and we see nothing but problems with it here. What is the exact benefit you're getting from using dated RAID? It is not only not redundant but you lose everything if you lose one HD, so it makes no sense to use it unless you're working with extremely large files like a video editor.

I would unRAID and install to only one HD in AHCI mode, with the other unplugged. Afterwards save your backups and storage to the other HD.

gregrocker said:

I dont' remember you mentioning RAID. WIn7 doesnt' much like RAID and we see nothing but problems with it here. What is the exact benefit you're getting from using dated RAID? It is not only not redundant but you lose everything if you lose one HD, so it makes no sense to use it unless you're working with extremely large files like a video editor.

I would unRAID and install to only one HD in AHCI mode, with the other unplugged. Afterwards save your backups and storage to the other HD.

I didn't? I could swear I mentioned it somewhere. Either way, I don't know how to do that. And as you have already probably guessed, it's RAID 0, so I'll probably have to format again, isn't it?

You confirmed earlier you had followed the step to set SATA controller to AHCI, but apparently it was set to RAID. Change it to AHCI, unplug one HD and install Win7 to it. See if you can actually follow the steps this time.

If this HD gives any problems test it with the maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan, followed by Disk Check to confirm its condition. If it fails use the other HD.

Something really weird just happened. The computer froze but I didn't shut it down. Instead, I let it be, because, despite all its weird-ness, the sound was odd but not completely frozen. Around one minute later, the screen turned black, the sound came back to normal, and then when the video came back and the computer responded again, with the message: "Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 314.22 stopped responding and has successfully recovered." It's again working as it should and I'm not sure if it's the HDDs anymore (could be a GPU failure as well, this is new), despite all stress tests I ran on the GPU. This could also be the HDD failing because the driver is written there, after all. Not sure about what just happened, will look into it and update.

EDIT: No, not overheating - I had just booted the computer and the GPU is fairly cool right now.

The problem is the Nvidia Display driver. Where did it come from?

Go to the Dell SUpport Downloads webpage for your tag number and import the latest Display driver.

If you already have it go to the Nvidia Support Downloads webpage and try that latest driver for your GPU.

The replacement order you want to try is: 1) Win7 installer/Windows Update driver, 2) Dell driver, 3) Nvidia driver, 4) next oldest driver from Dell or Nvidia.