Windows 7 Random Lockups vs Perfect Vista x64 operation

[TommyboyCAN]

Hi guys,

I'm not one to usually post asking for help, but I'm at my wits end of things to try after wasting a whole evening trying to figure it out yesterday.

I started testing windows 7 RTM on a couple of PCs at home to see if I could make the transition. Basically I have 3 PCs, one dev PC downstairs, wifes upstairs, and a home theatre PC that serves the house.

I have had no problems upgrading the downstairs and upstairs PC but I'm at my wits end on the media PC (which specs are in my profile)

The media PC has been running rock solid for about 2 years on vista x64, but I wanted to move it to Windows 7 based on my evaluation and the new WMC. Things looked good, however I keep this PC on all the time since it serves stuff to other PCs and does things like removing commercials over night etc. Anyways at about 8am in the morning it just halted, no blue screen, no activity just halted. Need to do a hard power off. Anyways here are the things I have done so far to troubleshoot. All have lead to a lockup at some point or another:

1) Upgraded the MB bios to latest
2) Turned off on board audio (use ATIs), turned off 1394, serial, parrellel, secondary SATA chipset
3) Took out 2 dimms (run at 2gB)
4) Thinking it could be heat (but had no temp evidence to support it), opened the case and put a fan on the components.
5) Upgraded the Intel Matrix Manager to latest release
6) Tried tweaking some voltages on memory

Its just the weirdest thing, but I'm use to seeing a bluescreen or an error like that and with this I have nothing to really go on.

All my attemps have sort of left me at a loss, not really sure what component to really concentrate on. I'm thinking memory but I'm not sure.

My system is in my profile but its basically a
Q6600
P35 Chipset with 4GB RAM(4x1GB)
4 500GB HDs (1 RAID 0, 1 RAID 5)
ATI HD 4800

Since I was running stable with vista x64 I can't really come up with why I'm not running stable with Windows 7. Could it really be hardware if I was running fine before?? Does Win7 access memory differently? It leads me to believe its drivers, but I'm not running really anything extravegent. If anyone has any suggestions or methods to try let me know.

Thanks

TM

 

[zigzag3143]

TM

two things I noticed the raid (win 7 is finiky abt them), and what kind of errors are in event viewer app tab?

Ken

 

[chev65]

You mentioned that you played with the memory voltages but how bout adjusting the northbridge voltages up a bit. This worked for me and I was having the same problems as you had, stable in Vista but not in Win7. The same adjustment has worked for a few people so far. That's all I can think of for now.

 

[TommyboyCAN]

Chev,

What is a good voltage on the NB, where you experiencing these kind of hard lockups or BSOD's?

Ken,

In the event viewer the only type of errors I get are errors like Windows search failed to start, because a file it was using was corrupted because of the last lockup. I can clear that up by running a chkdsk.

 

[TommyboyCAN]

If I were to test random hardware components:

Aside from memory, PSU, what should I look at?

 

[TommyboyCAN]

Just to update this thread if anyone has any ideas. I upped the NB voltage a bit and have been running stable under full load for about 4 hours doing various memtests and prime 95.

To note however the last two times the PC became unresponsive it has been under zero load with low temps (so I don't think heat or load is the problem). So I'll leave it idling over night and see what happens. Does the zero load as well as load halts point to anything in particular?

 

[arfster]

If I were to test random hardware components:

Aside from memory, PSU, what should I look at?

Graphics card - is the fan not working perhaps? Or has the heatsink got knocked loose? Might be worth using a tool like speedfan to check what temps are.

 

[TommyboyCAN]

Graphics card - is the fan not working perhaps? Or has the heatsink got knocked loose? Might be worth using a tool like speedfan to check what temps are.

Checked out my card last night actually. Temps were in the 50s but for fun I manually turned the fan speed up.

The thing that gets me is it locked up again just 20 minutes or so after stressing it last night. This was at an idle state, checking my real temp log, all the temps were nice and low (30s). Does the fact that it locks up at an idle state, point to anything else. I'm looking for helpful suggestions before I tear apart this rig and/or just go back to vista.

 

[bummpr]

Once again...have you seen anything in the Event Logs? Opps...I see you have checked that.

All device drivers have been installed?

Are you satisfied that the CPU cooler is still intact and functioning?

Have you run OCCT for a stress/temperature check?

How old is your power supply? What is the wattage?

You are clearly not a newbie so this might be a tough one to track down...just need one of us to spark an idea that you will connect with your observations.

 

[Antman]

There seems to be power issues in Win7 across the board. Check your power plan settings and wiggle them around.

 

[chev65]

Chev,

What is a good voltage on the NB, where you experiencing these kind of hard lockups or BSOD's?

Ken,

In the event viewer the only type of errors I get are errors like Windows search failed to start, because a file it was using was corrupted because of the last lockup. I can clear that up by running a chkdsk.

The NB voltage requirements are slightly different depending on the motherboard and bios.

At this point I would consider running memtest just to rule out the possiblity of this being a memory problem which can also cause freezing.

I would also make sure that the memory voltage and timings are set to manufacture specs.

Memtest for Windows here. MemTest for Windows Download Page
Directions for using Memtest for windows here.
How to use Memtest for Windows

 

[TommyboyCAN]

The NB voltage requirements are slightly different depending on the motherboard and bios.

At this point I would consider running memtest just to rule out the possiblity of this being a memory problem which can also cause freezing.

I would also make sure that the memory voltage and timings are set to manufacture specs.

Memtest for Windows here. MemTest for Windows Download Page
Directions for using Memtest for windows here.
How to use Memtest for Windows

I was looking thru some of your previous posts in other threads yesterday so I hit it hard with memtest last night and everything was solid. No errors and ran through multiple tests both in windows and booting, no issues. I also stress tested for a good 2 hours with prime95 so I'm happy with the cooling function there.

 

[TommyboyCAN]

Once again...have you seen anything in the Event Logs? Opps...I see you have checked that.

All device drivers have been installed?

Are you satisfied that the CPU cooler is still intact and functioning?

Have you run OCCT for a stress/temperature check?

How old is your power supply? What is the wattage?

You are clearly not a newbie so this might be a tough one to track down...just need one of us to spark an idea that you will connect with your observations.

Let me answer the questions quick:
Device Drivers
- I ran with stock everything, lockup happened
Then I installed updated ATI (9.8 catalyst), Realtek, any windows updates recommened
- Still locking up
Updated Intel ICH9R drivers to latest from intels site
- Still locking up

As far as I know everything is the latest there.

Cooling
I'm satisfied here as the lockups are coming in completely idle states more often then of states with load.

Stress Testing
I have been using mostly prime95 to test stressing while watching temps with real temp. Would OCCT do anything different then those tools?
My results with prime95 were fine so I don't think its heating at all.

Power
I have an antec 550 watt PSU that I have been using for about 2 years now. If that could be the problem I bought a spare yesterday that I could test with if that could be the area of problem.

Thanks for the help from everyone. Not too sure how to rep people but once I figure it out I will =).

 

[TommyboyCAN]

There seems to be power issues in Win7 across the board. Check your power plan settings and wiggle them around.

I was thinking the same thing, so this morning I changed everything to be full power ahead, including even shutting off monitor and hard disks.

 

[TommyboyCAN]

Just wanted to give a quick update. The last lockup occured at abotu 11pm last night. I rebooted and have been running steady just idling since then till present time, no lockups yet so maybe it was Antmans suggestion. But I want to see 3 days straight before I'm comforable.

 

[TommyboyCAN]

So I was cautiously optimistic since I had been running a fair long amount of time, but of course my hopes that one of the power settings had fixed it was destroyed.

As I was watching Live TV while attempt to encode a video to DVD it just halted again. I'm really perplexed on this one, as I cannot come up with one component that I haven't tested that would cause a lockup just out of the blue in both an idle and use state.

I have spares in other PCs of most parts so I guess I'm looking for a good recommendation of where to start?

HD, PSU, Memory??

If I were to try a different component chances are I would try a fresh install, update all the drivers and see if I can get it working consistently.

 

[TommyboyCAN]

Update
I got the PC to last about 26 hours till it decided it had enough last night maybe around 5 am or soemthing. Anyways I'm going to start taking pieces of it apart and maybe even disassemble the raid. Maybe then I can figure out the culprit.

 

[LilBG]

Do you have the option to raise ICH voltage? I been told this is sometimes needed in a raid environment. Are you running the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager software? Also run memtest+ for 24 hours atleast.

 

[EarlZ]

Are you doing a full reinstall or just the upgrade option ?

 

[chev65]

So I was cautiously optimistic since I had been running a fair long amount of time, but of course my hopes that one of the power settings had fixed it was destroyed.

As I was watching Live TV while attempt to encode a video to DVD it just halted again. I'm really perplexed on this one, as I cannot come up with one component that I haven't tested that would cause a lockup just out of the blue in both an idle and use state.

I have spares in other PCs of most parts so I guess I'm looking for a good recommendation of where to start?

HD, PSU, Memory??

If I were to try a different component chances are I would try a fresh install, update all the drivers and see if I can get it working consistently.

I would investigate the memory or memory timings-voltage settings or try another set of memory.