SRT Causing Boot Problems?

[rjkucia]

I'm currently using Intel SRT with a 60GB OCZ Vertex Plus on an Asus P8Z68-V motherboard. Usually, this setup works fine, but every few times when I reboot, the system fails to boot. Normally when booting, this motherboard shows the splash screen, then beeps, then shows the disk manager, and then boots up. Occasionally, the disk manager apparently refuses to load under this setup, and shows only a black screen with a blinking "_". Neither the EFI BIOS nor the OS will load, and it will stay at this screen until the machine is shut off. This can be fixed by physically unplugging the SSD, rebooting, disabling SRT in the disk manager, plugging the SSD back in, rebooting, and resetting SRT in the Intel Rapid Storage application. I have updated the BIOS, but the problem persists. Another (possibly unrelated) problem is that the machine randomly freezes during heavy loads, such as gaming for a few hours. This too is an inconsistent problem. When the machine freezes, the picture on the screen is frozen, and loud sounds come out of the speakers. I have not yet noticed any of these problems occurring with the SSD disabled, however I have not spent enough time with it disabled to be certain. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me!

 

[icy dock]

Hi Rjkucia,

It sounds like it could be an issue with either the SSD's firmware or the SRT driver software. Check to see if both these are up to date. Does this issue occur in both enhanced and maximized mode? Regarding the freezing problem, you're right, it's difficult to tell if that's an issue with SRT or not. The way to find out is to use the system without the SSD as you mentioned. For all we know, it could be a driver issue unrelated to the SSD and SRT. Hope this helps!

 

[rjkucia]

Thanks for your reply! I will check to see if I can update the SSD's firmware. As for the SRT, I updated that recently so there shouldn't be any problems with that. The issue occurs for sure in enhanced mode. I'm not sure if the boot problems occur in maximized mode, but the freezing problems do (that's why I changed it back to enhanced). For now I'll run the system without the SSD and see if I have any problems. Would SMART testing be of any use in this situation?

 

[icy dock]

Hi Rjkucia,

Are there any updates to your testing? You can try and use SMART testing, but it may or may not help. I would double check about the driver for SRT as there was an a software update that had some fixes included. Another thing that you can do is delete the cached information completely and try again. You may also want to check with Intel and or OCZ for any known compatibility issues.

 

[rjkucia]

I updated the BIOS (there was an update about a week ago) and the SRT, the problem appears to be fixed. I had performed a recent restore, and it had rolled back the version of SRT. Since then, there have been no problems. Thank you so much for your help!

As for the freezing problem, I have been troubleshooting it in the following thread: http://bit.ly/qyxCcL

 

[rjkucia]

Best answer selected by rjkucia.