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Problem with Hard Freezes on New Lynnfield Build

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Hello all. Thanks in advance for taking a look at my problem and sharing your thoughts.

I recently built a new system with the following components:

Intel Core i7 860 CPU 2.8GHz
ASUS P7P55D PRO LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) low voltage 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply

I reused a couple of SATA HDDs and an IDE DVD-RW drive. All of this is housed in a very well-ventilated Thermaltake V9 case.

I have been running Windows 7 32-bit RC and switched to Windows 7 64-bit this week.

I started with all BIOS settings at the defaults / auto settings initially, except for RAM timing, which I had to set manually. The PC would crash frequently after being on for about an hour or two, going to a BSOD with the message “a clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor.” Sometimes it would just lock up, with the action on screen hard freezing unless I reset the computer.

I tested all RAM in another PC and via DOS-based Memtest86. All passed with flying colors.

I then read on some overclocking site the “clock interrupt” error, at least for a Lynnfield processor, could be due to insufficient Vcore, or CPU voltage.

For Lynnfield, the max is apparently 1.40V, so I upped my Vcore in that direction, which seemed to stop the “clock interrupt” error. I was still getting hard freezes after an hour or two, so I did some additional research. I found some posts online that suggested raising what Asus calls “IMC voltage,” or integrated memory controller voltage. This is apparently what they call the DRAM controller that is now integrated into the Lynnfield chip. I upped that gradually to 1.35V but am still getting hard freezes.

I am really getting frustrated with this process and hope that someone else has experienced this problem and has some ideas. The PC passes OCCT, Linpack, and Prime95 just fine, but simply leaving it on, running Media Player or a web browser seems to be enough to result in a hard freeze.

All ideas for getting the system stable are appreciated! Not looking to overclock, just to stop the freezes.

I should add that I have a decent aftermarket CPU cooler and idle temps are about 31C, spiking to 70C on Linpak, so I don't think that this is a thermal issue.

David

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I had pretty close to the same problem on my new build a couple months ago. it was an i7 920 build with a gigabyte mobo, corsair psu, evga gtx 275... etc
i thought it was the stability as well since i was in the process of overclocking it however with all the tests i did on prime 95 it seemed stable (would go for 24 hours just fine). Every couple days or so though just accessing a website or opening an avi would hard crash it. Turned out to by my hard drive it seems, I had a wd 640 black and just replaced it with a spinpoint f3 500 and it hasn't happened since.

I'm not saying this is your problem, it just happened to fix mine so i would definitely take a look at your hard drives. Maybe try installing your os on each one and testing them out individually.

Hopefully somebody more knowledgeable can help you out more, good luck man

I too have a new build , with hard freezes it is a:

P7P55D EVO board, i7 860 Lynnfield 2.8,
750 watt psu,
8 gig corsair xms3 ram.
Western Digital 1 TB Black HD.
I was about to buy some patriot ram and try that as I was thinking it is a ram problem.
Or should i try the hard drive first it is new but does make a little noice..

Just wondering (because I may have the same problem) - when you say it Hard Crashes, does it cut your USB devices? (for me, my keyboard loses power and so does my mouse)
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:hello:  Hello! DONT buy another CPU, PSU, Motherboard or RAM!

My specs: Asus P6T (BIOS 1004) , 920 i7 1366, 6GB mushkin ram, 800 watt Silverstone, 1 sata hitachi hard drive, 1 sata writescribe DVD. The CPU and 4890 VID card are watercooled (so add a pump in), and, several case fans.

This computer runs very cool a few degrees above ambient room temps. It will get the SAME BSOD as you for NO reason. At least once a day, at random times, about every 6 hours of run time. It might happen after startup, wakeup, or before shutdown after 6 hours. Random. At idle.

It has 1 common thing with you. Windows (Vista and Win 7). I am running vista 64.

I have seen this same problem (a clock interrupt was not recd...etc) written about for AMD AND intel CPUs, all makes of motherboards, all ram types, (now hard drives). I also have some (very rarely) random freezes. I need do a hard restart when it happens.

Microsoft has a beta hotfix, that I have not tried due to it being a BETA. I know this because they sent me this solution due to error reporting after crashes.

WARNING This hotfix has not undergone full testing. Therefore, it is intended only for systems or computers that are experiencing the exact problem that is described in the one or more Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are listed in "KB Article Numbers"...it continues on...

KB Article Number(s): 967170
From MS:
This hotfix package uses a password. Therefore, you must enter for each package the password that we included in this e-mail message. To make sure that you enter the correct password, we recommend that you highlight, copy, and then paste the password from this e-mail message when you are prompted. If you do not enter the correct password, you cannot install the hotfix.

I am going to suffer thru until the is a NON BETA hotfix.

I hope someone fixes this soon!
I am looking at YOU M$ :fou: 

roboguy said:
I went to the ASUS site and downloaded a BIOS update for my mobo (ver. 1207)
I have been running a week now with no freezes, I have left my computor on 24/7 and it is fine......

SWEET. I am routing for you!
I downloaded the 1104 Bios today (released the other day FEB 10th? 2010) and installed it. No crashes today so far. BUT, I am no longer overclocked. I will post results after I do that later this week. I was going to update my post, then. Thanks for the push.
I also installed the hotfix from M$ in my post, after I wrote it. It went well with no noticeable problems. It may even be running better as far as startup speed, load times, and surfing, etc. Between the 2, Maybe this will be put to rest. :bounce: 
Its really been just annoying, but if I lost any major data, or was doing a BIOS update during a crash or hangup. OH MAN... :pfff: 

Best solution

OK! Folks, no more crashes...SO FAR. :bounce:  :D  It appears that the microsoft update I posted, updating to the latest ASUS BIOS, and an update on my 4890 drivers (CAT 10.1) (there is now a 10.2), fixed the crashing / hanging issue. I am not sure which, but I suspect it was the M$ hotfix. I have the PC running @ a healthy 3.88 GHZ (on water), again. So, overclocking was NOT the problem. I will try to see if I can maintain stability with higher clocks soon, but so far my old settings (before bios update 1104) seem rock solid. Maybe I can get this thing to my desired 4ghz afterall. I get MAX temps of low 70sC on water @ 3.88 1.36v. with 4 cores loaded 100 % (CPU burn). If anyone would like more detailed voltages, etc., send me an email. I will tell you that the asus BIOS lies to you, and my voltages are in the RED. Several sites I found (including ASUS forum tech support) recommend these settings. I have found zero overheating issues with the higher voltages. I am running 185 x 21 FYI. So, you should not need to scale back anything. For the P6T I highly recommend an 80 mm fan aiming at the northbridge heatsink. Mine sits right on the videocard with 1 zip tie. Nice and happy. I changed many other BIOS options to get it stable tho. :wahoo: 

I had a similar problem for a while... P7P55D EVO with an i7 860. The computer was hanging every 2 or 3 days. I'm not on Windows, but on Linux with my own kernel build. Before I start googling, I was experimenting and removing/replacing everything in the computer to know what was triggering this thing. I knew it was hardware because the whole computer was frozen. Linux gives you some debugging tools to easily know if it's either software, or hardware.

Once I replaced everything, I was down to: RAM / MB / CPU. I never really expected the CPU to be the problem because it's an embedded "single" chip. When you get a problem on this kind of chip, it usually kills it completely, or the problem will be reproducible very easily. Here it isn't the case.

So, RAM or MB? If you look at all the BIOS for Assu P7P55D *, you'll see that many versions were released to "help improve the stability of the system"... yeah, that's kind of obvious. Asus knows that there is a problem here. They even tried fixing it. Did they succeed? Hard to tell yet. I've been running for about 3 days now with the latest update and no freeze. I'll confirm later if it really fixes it.

The other thing you may want to look at if your ram specs. Make sure the bios gives you the exact timing as the manufacturer says. If the timing does match, then it isn't the problem. Last thing, the dram voltage. By default, the Asus P7P55D tries to use a 1.5V current on the memory. That might not be enough. Here, my specs are saying 1.65V for Corsair memory. Remove '[Auto]' setting and set it to the right voltage. It can't hurt, but make sure you know exactly what should be this value before modifying it.

If doing that doesn't help, then post your configuration here. We will try to help you...
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