Hi there, recently did a clean install of windows 2008 R2 x64 on an brand new SSD and i'm having this really annoying problem where windows freezes for a second, unfreezes for 5 to 10 seconds, then freezes again for a second, and so on, and it is doing this constantly, even with no open applications. previously had 2008 SP2 running from a HDD on the same system with no problems my system info is: Motherboard; Intel S5520HC CPUs: 2 x Intel Xeon X5660 Memory: 12GB DDR3 10600 Viking SSD: Sandforce 1500 based from Viking Have got nothing plugged into the motherboard PCIe slots. thought it might just be the display but when i did plug in a HBA and ran some IO to an array the problem was there to. There are no spikes in CPU usage, never gets any higher than 6%, and less than 2GB of memory is being used. Have updated the chipset driver and the AHCI driver. Is it the SSD thats causing me this issue?

Hi Random, All fingers do seem to be pointing to this drive. What other diagnostics have you done so far? Have you taken a look at the Event Viewer, Reliability Monitor, Performance Monitor, Resource Monitor? Thy running a System Diagnostic and Performance tests within Performance Monitor. The collectors can be found in Data Collector Sets > System and you'll see "System Diagnostics" and "System Performance" list here. Right click and run each individually. The results can then be found under Reports > System. Regards, Nathan Owen (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) - Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you. Links: www.mad-monkey.co.uk - www.capitalnetworks.co.uk

Hi Nathan, Thanks for the reply. Looking at the event viewer, nothing in particular jumps out at me. all the reported errors are to do with software i've installed after i had already noticed the problem, and nothing new in the last hour at all even though the problem persists. Have run a system diagnostic and system performance, neither throw anything up. I have a few of these SSDs so i tried a second clean install on another SSD from the same batch and i'm seeing exactly the same problem. think my next port of call is to contact viking and see if there is an firmware update available for the drives. are there any other suggestions as to why this is? Andy

Have you ever noticed what happens to a system when you add say a bad CD into a CD-ROM drive? as it tries to read from the disc Windows will appear to freeze? this happens when the driver sends the CPU into Spinlock waiting for the I/O operation to complete. With some older systems, when newer drives released with features such as "Read Ahead", would try to drive controllers faster than what they were designed to be, and this would also cause the same problem. I've noticed similar problems can happen in particular with any storage device. Beyond software diagnostics though, only Intel/OCZ may be able to answer that question at a hardware level, and probably the only ones truly qualified. In the meantime, I would start by updating your storage controller drivers and if necessary the firmware for your controller seems to be a lot more likely than the SSD itself. I can't see any obvious compatibility problems otherwise, the board should happily handle up to 3gbps, so the extra speed shouldn't be an issue. See also: Intel Drivers and Firmware: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Server+Products&ProductLine=Intel%C2%AE+Server+Boards&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Server+Board+S5520HC More about Spinlocks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinlock Regards, Nathan Owen (MCSE, MCITP Server Admin) - Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you. Links: www.mad-monkey.co.uk - www.capitalnetworks.co.uk

I know what you mean by the spinlock reference. i tried using a different USB keyboard and mouse to see if that was somehow generating interrupts that were causing these pauses but no joy. i've already installed all the latest drivers from the intel website. i've also just done yet another clean install onto a different SSD from another vendor that uses a different controller and i'm still seeing the same issue. it's starting to make me think there could be some setting in windows somewhere that is causing all of this.

Different controller from a different motherboard?? I didn't mean the disk controller. I have installed similar OCZ SSD's without any issues. I'm absolutely certain there is no Windows setting that would directly cause that problem, especially since it's a fresh install, and not much control at that level other than what you primarily find in Device Manager. That's not to say there isn't a registry fix out there.. but I'm not personally aware of any. I've taken a look around the net for any similar issues with this drive, it doesn't appear to be a known problem. :/ Regards, Nathan Owen (MCSE, MCITP Server Admin) - Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you. Links: www.mad-monkey.co.uk - www.capitalnetworks.co.uk

Hello Randomla1, Did you install the Operating System with AHCI drivers that give the SSD drive full functionality the way it is supposed to? AHCI Drivers are not selected by default. Also: Have you tried running the Reliability and Performance monitor to see where your IO delays are coming from? I've noticed that on Windows 7, except I noted that the end result is drive failure. I checked the resource monitor and my disk I/O was peaking. Run the command "perfmon.msc" to pull up the monitor or access it from Administrative Tools. You might find what you're looking for in there. If this is the case, download the AHCI drivers from Intel @ http://support.intel.com Steve Kline Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Active Directory, Network Infrastructure, Application Platform, Windows 7 Microsoft Certified Product Specialist & Network Product Specialist Red Hat Certified System Administrator This posting is "as is" without warranties and confers no rights.

So i've managed to get to the root cause of the problem, the windows provided driver for the integrated motherboard NIC was what was causing all the problems, as soon as i updated to the latest Intel driver then the freezes stoped. thanks for all your help and suggestions guys.