ocz raid 0 debacle

[Arrakis9]

Ok, so i recently bought a brand new ocz SSD from newegg not knowing that there was a 34nm and a 22nm part with almost identical part numbers

(OCZSSD2‐2VTX60G vs OCZSSD2‐2VTXE60G)

not knowing this and thinking everything SHOULD work i installed it, raided the two drives together and installed windows with all the updates and drivers and what not. a few hours into gaming i encounter a stuttering problem were my system starts hard locking every few seconds then just completely stops responding.

i dont give it much thought and think maybe its the video card overheating or something, so afterburner goes in & i setup a custom fan profile for it. try again a few hours of gaming, everything seems well. exit game and come back to the desktop and a few minutes in the same problem happens again stutter stutter freeze.

OK, this is a bit more complicated that i first anticipated, i start reading up how to flash the frimware on the SSD's all said and done 2 hours later after doing a full backup and flashing the drives everything is back up and running again. 5 hours later after my gaming session i finally decide to go to bed and leave the comp on for a full backup. come back to the thing in the morning and you guessed it, it starts stuttering as soon as i start moving the mouse and locks again.

i finally went back to my order history to make absolute sure that i purchased the same drive and go figure i didnt E vs non E drive, i do a bunch of research of the differences between the drives and it seems that they are very much different but share a part number. so ordering from the egg i feel confident that they would be awesome like always and throw me a bone and maybe give me store credit to buy the correct drive... WRONG heres the email i got back

Dear Rick,



Thank you for contacting Newegg.



We apologize for any inconvenience that may cause you. Unfortunately, we do not offer exchanges; all returns are processed for a refund or a replacement of the same make and model. We show that the item is non-refundable so that we are unable to issue you an RMA for a refund.



If you have any further questions or concerns, please visit our FAQs page. If you still need assistance, please feel free to reply to this email directly and we will be happy to assist you.





How did I do today?


Eggcellent! Poorly

Thank you,

Devin Yin


Newegg.com

of course being so short with an answer and just flat out saying NO results in me clicking poorly and filling out feedback against the rep :shadedshu



So i have two choises that i can take, send my original E drive to ocz in hopes for an exchange of a non E drive

or sell one of the drives and match a pair

any insight/suggestions/thoughts will be rewarded with thanx

[/rant]

 

[Arrakis9]

Update : i've gotten a new SSD from ocz to match the one i bought & updated the bios on my sabertooth - still stuttering ...

trying to isolate if it maybe has something to do with my storage drives on the same controler, they are currently unplugged for some testing

 

[Mussels]

try disabling the HDD power down in windows control panel/power. i've seen that cause random stutters before as drives power back up.

 

[AsRock]

Just get a refund if the item is not working as it should do. I have never had a issue with egg regarding this sort of thing.

 

[Arrakis9]

try disabling the HDD power down in windows control panel/power. i've seen that cause random stutters before as drives power back up.

Just get a refund if the item is not working as it should do. I have never had a issue with egg regarding this sort of thing.

all the windows related options/tweaks were applied when i installed the operating system and was installing drivers

as far as a refund goes newegg is unwilling to deal with me, every time i buy from newegg and get something defective i always seem to have a hard time getting something replaced or they just flat out tell me no like quoted above

Im on the last 3 things i can think of to try and isolate whats causing this
1 unplug the storage drives (currently doing)
2 change out the motherboard (ordered a new one from evga)
3 change out the psu

 

[Steevo]

Disable PCIe power management in windows. Run WEI. Disable SMART. Make sure any overclock does not spill over to the PCIe bus. Make sure you have enough southbridge and northbridge voltage.

What drives are they, connected to what controller?


I have two Agility drives that work perfect in RAID.

 

[Arrakis9]

Disable PCIe power management in windows. Run WEI. Disable SMART. Make sure any overclock does not spill over to the PCIe bus. Make sure you have enough southbridge and northbridge voltage.

What drives are they, connected to what controller?


I have two Agility drives that work perfect in RAID.

I've got 2 vertex drives hooked up to the intel matrix raid controller


pcie power management is disabled, WEI is at 7.9 for everything i'll have to look at the SMART options in the bios (if there are any) the overclocking doesn't seem to be affecting anything - - setting everything to default yields the same results as far as drive stuttering goes

i'll also try bumping the SB voltage up a smidgen to see if that helps with stability

so far system has been running 5 hours without a hiccup

update: 6 hours still no issues
went into the bios and upped the ICH voltage by 0.1v
there are no SMART options in the bios at all so that remains on

before anyone stupidly suggests this:

 

[Arrakis9]

its been over 48 hours total that my pc has been on since i unplugged my storage drives - everything is running smoothly with no hiccups at all. going to try plugging back in the storage drives to see if it reproduces the effect

maybe its a bad cable ? ....

 

[Mussels]

its been over 48 hours total that my pc has been on since i unplugged my storage drives - everything is running smoothly with no hiccups at all. going to try plugging back in the storage drives to see if it reproduces the effect

maybe its a bad cable ? ....

as i said earlier, if a drive powers down, it causes lag when it powers back up. i get it all the time with 12 externals (Which is why they're powered off at the enclosure most of the time)

 

[Kast]

I ran into problems trying to use 2 raid setups with my onboard controller. My system would not update correctly after fresh windows installs and would also hang. I bought a raid controller and solved everything.

 

[Arrakis9]

as i said earlier, if a drive powers down, it causes lag when it powers back up. i get it all the time with 12 externals (Which is why they're powered off at the enclosure most of the time)

it shouldn't cause lag until the entire system just locks.. that's what im encountering, it will stutter like drive lag then the entire system locks and has to be hard reset

I ran into problems trying to use 2 raid setups with my onboard controller. My system would not update correctly after fresh windows installs and would also hang. I bought a raid controller and solved everything.

I was considering that but i don't want to have to throw more money at storage solutions when the on board is suppose to "just work" plus i would need to invest in a controller that supports trim and as far as i can see those are expensive

 

[t_ski]

I have three OCZ Agility 2 and one 500GB WD drive for storage. No issues for my system.

 

[Mussels]

it shouldn't cause lag until the entire system just locks.. that's what im encountering, it will stutter like drive lag then the entire system locks and has to be hard reset

mine doesnt hard lock, no... but i can imagine that an SSD might crack the shits if the system pauses while sending commands to it.

 

[Arrakis9]

Just an update, i changed the motherboard & the cables and the problem went away

 

[AsRock]

Just an update, i changed the motherboard & the cables and the problem went away

Cool thanks for letting people know.