Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit + ASUS Sabertooth Z87 motherboard - strange issues.

Thanks for the reply.

I have not installed anything else at this point. It was the first thing on my list for when I got home after work tonight.

When you said, "first entry under utilities" - where did you mean? I followed that link you provided and it just brought me to the ASUS Sabertooth Z87 support page.

I'm sorry if I ask some questions that may seem basic, but it has been about 6-7 years since I built my last machine from the ground up.

Thanks,
-Rob

Ok, thanks. Safe to say that could be the cause of my grief? Will that resolve the freezing at the logo?

I'm also thinking I could have one or more of my devices in the wrong type of SATA port - I'll have to double check when I get home. I think I need to put the 2x SSDs, 2x HDDs, and the 1x Optical DVD drive into the BROWN SATA ports. No real need for me to use the BEIGE ports since I will want to RAID my drives, and the optical needs to be bootable - which is not supported on the BEIGE ports.

Correct? What do you think about the CPU temps I'm getting? Decent?

COLGeek - I appreciate the help, but unfortunately I'm unable to find that. I loaded up the support dvd that came with the motherboard, and there is no entry for ACPI drivers on any option on the tool loaded from the DVD.

However, I did find the latest ACPI drivers on the ASUS website which I downloaded and installed.

Still no change in behavior.

It still hangs at the ASUS TUF logo screen EVERY single time I reboot the computer, press the reset button or it automatically reboots after a Windows hotfix.

This is getting really annoying, especially since there are a lot of Windows updates that need to be applied.

Additionally, ASUS support is practically non-existant and completely useless. I spent an hour or so chatting with a "Tech" last night who advised me to move my SATA device from the BEIGE ports to the BROWN ones.

All I had attached to the 2 beige ports were my two Western Digital HDDs that contained the old data from my previous build. Since the most important files had been backed up to the cloud and an external 300gb USB drive I did it.....good thing too, since the BROWN ports are all set up for RAID and once I powered up the second drive is now non-functional. It doesn't show up in Windows at all - and I can't access the volume information from Device Manager....I can't be sure until I check a few things later tonight after work, but I think it was either somehow put into a RAID with the other WD HDD - even though I didn't create an array - or it simply died in some way.

The physical device shows up in device manager, but beyond that I can't do a thing with it.

Suffice it to say, I'm NOT happy right now. I don't care too much about the data on that old drive since I had backed up the important stuff, but there was other historical stuff there that I would have liked to keep.

The really big issue is the freezing on reboot, reset, restart. That simply HAS to be resolved. I'm completely stumped as to the cause. When the system is up and running it runs very fast. I have not benchmarked it yet or done any other testing on the components.

What could be causing the freezes? I ran an SFG /verifyonly on the Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS I installed and it reported back that everything was good.

Could the freezes be caused by the memory in some way? CPU? The motherboard itself, or some other component? Or perhaps a driver? Maybe once the Windows updates are complete it will magically disappear?

I could use some guidance here since ASUS support appears to be totally useless.

Thanks,
-Rob

Thanks for the advice. I was going to try and simplify the build later tonight to see if I can isolate the freezing issue.

Regarding your suggestions I had a question:

1) Having the SATA ports set to RAID in the bios does not require me to utilize RAID on them at all - correct?

I'll go through the exercise again since I had not done it with a single SSD, but my initial build was the 2 SSDs in a RAID 0 - no HDDs attached - and it still exhibited the freezing behavior on reboots, etc.

I even had one freeze at the BIOS.

I'll run through the testing to try and nail it down, including even dropping back on the memory - I currently have 4 x 4gb Corsair Vengeance installed - to see it if is playing a part in the issue.

At this point I'm leaning toward this being an issue with the motherboard itself or the CPU, but I could be wrong.

Any other advice you can give?

Thanks again,
-Rob

Thanks COLGeek - that was something I was planning on doing as well.

Do I need to test the memory sticks one at a time, or will Memtest be smart enough to do that?

I was just thinking about the CPU as well, any reliable way to test that out?

Should I remove the CPU and reseat it and the water cooling block as well? I'm reluctant to do that since I don't like tempting the fates and risk having an issue with the chip - and I'm getting 25-29 degree Celsius temps right now at idle, and I like those numbers.

What do you think?

Ok thanks again. The temp is good so it would not be a heat issue...but is there anyway to test put the CPU just in case there is something else up? A moderator at asus forums also said to try and disabled the launch csm in the bios...what are your thoughts on that?

Me too. Thanks.

I know you obviously can't say for sure - but what does your gut tell you is most likely to be my issue?

Sure thing. I've been powering off, unplugging, switching the jumper, waiting 5 minutes each time I test something - just to be sure. I'd LIKE to pull the CMOS battery, but I just can't get the damn thing out...it is very tightly crammed in that area of the mobo and my fingers are too big to get a good enough grip on it and move the tab aside that is holding it in place.

My intentions tonight are to try setting "Launch CSM" to disabled first...then proceed as needed. I will likely break down to a single SSD + single HDD anyway - to see if I can figure out why my secondary HDD is not working after switching it from the BEIGE to BROWN SATA ports last night. It was just fine prior...

One thing to keep in mind is that I have no overclocked anything in my build, everything is running at stock. To date I haven't ever tinkered with any overclocking - I've always been too petrified about damaging one or more components and having to spend money I don't have replacing them.

I'll let you know later tonight how things worked out.

If you - or anyone else - happen to think of anything else I should try or do, please let me know.

Thanks,
-Rob

Once this is all up and running I would like to find a benchmarking/testing tool that can exercise my components. Any suggestions?

As promised here is my update at this point.

Well, I worked on this all evening:



1) Single SSD and the DVD drive....no issues at all, none. It never once gave me grief during any restart or anything...and I did it about 25 times.



2) 2x SSDs in a RAID.....almost instantly caused trouble. Same behavior as before.



I started loading device drivers at this point, trying to find the one causing me trouble. So far no luck. RAID, ACPI, all updated but the behavior still exists. I'm installing all of the Window Updates right now, hoping that maybe one of them may resolve the issue somehow.



After this is complete I'll do Memtest and see what else I can locate to test out...



Then I'll have to do the stupidly boring task of checking each device driver to be sure it is the most recent.



Someone REALLY should come up with an automatic way for this to get done. UGH!



-Rob

If I delete the array, reload the system and apply the Kingstos firmware to the drives and THEN put them in an array and re-install Windows 7 will the firmware still be there? How can I tell?

Then that is what I am trying now...I hope it works

Thanks COLGeek

Here is the update.

OK, I reloaded with the 2 SSDs in ACHI and yes, I can see the firmware for the drives finally. Thanks!

Unfortunately, I don't think that will get me any closer to the solution since the firmware for both drives is listed by the tool at 507KC4 - and it says that there is no firmware update required.

When I checked online the latest firmware I knew about was 503 from Kingston, which I wasn't expecting to find and downloaded earlier - couldn't even get it from Kingston, I had to search it out and grabbed it from another site.

What is this one? I never heard of 507KC4.

So, now I'm back on the RAID controller of the motherboard being the most likely culprit.

BTW - With the 2 SSDs in ACHI reboots of the system are instantaneous - literally seconds from restart command to back up in Windows 7. Wow.

So....the RAID controller on the ASUS Sabertooth Z87 motherboard seems to be the issue. I've loaded the very latest driver for the RAID controller from ASUS - and still nothing. Slower reboot times (20-30 seconds)and constant freezes. When the drives are NOT in a RAID everything works just fine.

I want to have my system SSDs in a RAID 0 and my data drives in RAID 1 - so unfortunately I guess a call to ASUS is in order. Ugh.

Wish me more luck. I hate talking to those techs since they are just plain useless.

-Rob


Thanks for the help.



-Rob

OK thanks. I'll give that a shot later on tonight. Thanks again, I appreciate the help - that's FAR easier than calling ASUS.

So, I'm going to create the array on both SSDs - install WIndows, and after it starts I'll update to that driver and see what happens.

Sound about right?