Need Advice

[Dave_07]

Hi,
I've been having a problem with my 3xs system.
It no longer seems to be able to handle games that it used to be able to play just fine.
I'm getting poor performance, in the form of jerkiness and stuttering in game.
This is a recent development, and game's never used to exhibit this jerkiness.

I tried to rule out a software issue & other things, buy:
Updating video drivers,
Updating games themselves,
Updating mouse drivers,
Updating other stuff like direct-x
Defraging, closing un-needed background programs, virus scanning.
Also air intakes & filters are ok and clean.
GPU & CPU Temperatures also seem fine.
Also tried disabling one of the graphics cards, but still get this stuttering even with one card.

I realize this might seem like a trivial issue to ask for assistance with, but i bought the system as a gaming rig, and at the moment, i can't really play anything on it, because of this frustrating jerkiness.

At the moment i have know way of knowing if it's software or hardware related, and everything i've tried myself to fix it, has failed - i'm at a loss as to what to do next.

Thank you.

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Dave

Can you email your build and invoice number to systemsupport@scan.co.uk and we will look into this for you

Have you tried a fresh install of windows or a re-image if you have Acronis?

Regards

Ben

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Dave

I have looked at the spec of the system and I suggest if you have tried the reload or fresh install of Windows that you disconnect the storage drive and see if this causing an issue

The other thing you can try is running memtest on the system overnight and see if there are any memory issues, as you have the onsite cover we will arrange replacement Ram onsite for you

Regards

Ben

[Dave_07]

Hi Ben,

I haven't tried a windows re-install, as i'm not sure how to do so. I've never done a full windows re-install before. Also i'm unsure of how it works on a raid array. Would the array setup be deleted ?

I noticed that there is a "Acronis Secure Zone" system folder.
Would a restore from this Acronis backup be the same as a full windows re-install ? - or is it similar to when you restore to an earlier point, using a windows restore point ?

I will try disconnecting the sata cable from the samsung storage hard drive, see if it helps.
I have a Mem-Test-86 bootable CD (Ver 3.5), i'll try it aswell.

Thanks.

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Dave

If you restore from Acronis and use the backup file we created this will revert the system back to as it was the day you got it and is easier than a windows fresh install

If you start the Acronis Software and select Recover you will be presented with an image file if you right click this and follow the onscreen instructions you can recover the system

You will need all drives connected as the image is on your storage drive

Windows will see your Raid as 1 big drive


We recommend Memtest 4 or Higher for the X58 systems

[Dave_07]

Cheers Ben,
On a side note, a friend told me today that my monitor could be the culprit.
It's a 17" CRT iiyama (Model:HM703UT A) and although the 3XS system is only about 6 months old, and i've replaced the mouse and keyboard, maybe i'm over looking the monitor.
The monitor must be about 4 years old now. From your experience, could issues such as i have been having, be down to the monitor getting old ?

Been browsing the scan site and the LG W2261VP looks pretty good.

[Dave_07]

Update, i ran a preliminary memtest 4.10 run and got 4 complete pass's with no error's.
I'm going to try do a longer run through the night.

Unfortunately i have been getting lots and lots of BSOD over the past few days now.
The system didn't have even have one single BSOD in the first 6 months of it's life, now it dose it quite often. I think the first BSOD it had, has now some-how made it more prone to that type of crash.

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Dave

Please run a full 10 Passes and see if you get any failures

Can you also confirm what the blue screens are, are they all different ?

You can stop the system from rebooting after a blue Screen by doing the following

Press Windows Key and Pause Break
On the left click on Advanced System Settings
Select Startup and Recovery
Untick Automatically Restart
Click ok and restart the system, the next Blue Screen BSOD you get will stay on the screen and you can make a note of the 0x00000 code and the faulting application as this will help establish the issue

You can send your error messages to systemsupport@scan.co.uk if you include your build and invoice number and a link to this thread it will help identify you

Regards

Ben

[Dave_07]

Hey Ben, thanks for sticking with me on this one.

Ok so with the blue screens, i saw that they seemed to occur only when starting CPU-Z or GPU-Z.
That was the only trigger i saw that seemed to cause them. (or at least it was the only instance where it happened) I've tried to replicate it since, but no blue screens. So i'm not sure about what was going on.

Ben, i wanted to try setting the system to a non-overclocked state, just to test if it was the overclock that was causing the skipping in games.
So i was going to load the non-overclocked saved bios profile, that scan include with their 3XS overclocked systems.
However after comparing the overclocked profile and the non-OC profile and checking the bios settings that would load if i did boot the scan saved non-overlocked profile. I saw that in the Boot Device Priority section, that the non-overclocked profile doesn't seem to have the option to boot the raid array (with the OS on) it just lists the 1st Boot Device as " [Raid:SamsungHD502HJ]" which is the storage drive, not the OS Disk, and raid array doesn't seem to be in the selectable boot devices list in the non-OC profile. So effectively dose this mean that if i try to boot up with the non-OC profile, that the system it just going to end up hanging ? I was going to try, to see what would happen, but i thought i should ask here first.

Also the DRAM Frequency is set at default of "DDR3 1866Mhz" under the non-OC profile, and under the overclocked profile the DRAM Frequency is set to a custom setting of "DDR3 1814Mhz" The reason the overclocked profile DRAM Frequency is set lower than the non-OC profile, is because that was the maximum stable frequency that could be achieved when the system was being built. This was all explained to me by Chris P when i bought the system. My concern is that if i try to load the non-OC profile, that obviously the system is then going to boot up with the default DRAM frequency of 1866Mhz, which as far as i understander when it was explained to me during the system build, 1866Mhz was deemed to be unstable for my system.
Do this mean that i won't be able to test the system in a non-OC state ?

Thanks.

PS i'll run 10 memtest passes and report back.

[Dave_07]

Update,

I ran memtest, just using the standard test that it dose automatically.
I ran 3 sessions of 10 passes (so 30 passes total) and memtest didn't' seem to pick up any errors.

I received a new monitor today that i bought from scan (LG W2261VP) and tested it using HDMI & DVI.
The juddering in games is still present, so i dont think it's a monitor issue. Infact the juddering is worse on the new monitor. I think that is probably because it has a lower refresh rate, and so the juddering become more noticeable.

I am really thinking that it could be the main graphics card, as i've started to see some minor artifacting/freezing when just using that card. The artifacting is hardly even noticeable, but it could be an indication that the card is dieing.

I was thinking that i could swap the gpu's around and try running the card that is currently in the second pci-e slot, in the primary pci-e slot. Would this cause any problems if i did ?
I have a feeling that the master card is dieing.

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Dave

I would suggest you try in Non Sli (take the Sli Bridge off) turn off Sli in Nvidia Control Panel

Failing this I suggest You can either swap the cards around or just try with the second card in to see if the issue is still there

Regards

[Dave_07]

if it's the card, would i have to RMA it then ?
as there is 1st year scan cover, and subsequent 2 years cover by 3rd party.
the system is still in it's 1st year

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi

If the card is faulty it will be replaced onsite for you

Regards

Ben