P8Z68-V LX Random reboot - boot sequence loss

[falaniz]

Hello,

I recently built a system using a ASUS P8Z68-V LX and it seemed to be fine until one day, out of nowhere the system rebooted. On its way back up it appears to have lost the boot drive. It stopped with a cursor flashing in the upper left have corner! When I rebooted into the BIOS setup I could see that the sequence had changed and I had to rearrange it to proper sequence.

My boot Drive is a a 60GB OCZ-VERTEX3 which houses the OS and I have a second drive, A Seagate 1.5TB that houses apps and other storage. I noticed that after the reboot the Seagate drive is move to the first slot in the boot sequence.

The problem is 2 fold...

1. Why is the machine rebooting (nothing apparent in the System Event Logs.

2. Why is the boot sequence changing in the BIOS.

Any suggestions on where to start to troubleshoot this issue?

 

[falaniz]

Update... BIOS is current, latest release, version 0703.

Change the order of the SATA connectors, plugging the OCZ-VERTEX3 to the first 6.0 GB port, (SATA6G_1)

2 days have passed and I have not had the problem reoccur.

Fixed? Not sure, time will tell!

 

[jaquith]

Especially with P67 but also Z68 and X79 yeah its a smart idea to use the latest BIOS. Further, Intel is the best choice with ALL SATA drives. Marvell is a lot slower and less reliable. The fact that you moved the SATA ports forced Windows to rewrite the registry entries.

Two days all depends on the root causes of the problems. If it was a 'shutdown' (BIOS typically) vs any BSOD (OS typically) then sure the BIOS update was the root otherwise other than 41/63's (BIOS/MOBO) in Windows Event Manager then the registry was the root cause.

Assuming you're running in AHCI or RAID make sure that both Start values = 0:
ref - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
Manually verify and change or run 'Fix It'. In IDE mode which I do not recommend the Start values should = 3.

 

[falaniz]

It does not appear a BSOD as the machine shut down and I did not see any hint of the color blue flash by. It simply went into POST and tried restarting. I have seen plently of BSODs in my day and this appeared to be more of a MB problem.

When checking the BIOS settings, I could see that they changed, almost as though it was told to go back to the system default settings.

I am not running in RAID, its simply a single drive that houses the OS.

Start value for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci is 0
Start value for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV is 3

 

[jaquith]

If the SATA is set to AHCI then this "IastorV is 3" is wrong, ONLY IDE = 3, and needs to be set as 0 (zero).

Look in the Event Manager [+] Critical, anything other than 41/63's is typically and OS issue.

I also suggest using the latest firmware on your OCZ (v2.15) -> http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssd_tools/

 

[falaniz]

SATA is set to AHCI and as you suggested I have changed IastorV to "0".

Event Manager, Critical has 1 entry, a 41

Currently the OCZ firmware is v2.11 but I am a bit hesitant about updating. I am a new to SSD drives and want to make sure I preserve the data before the update. It does state on OCZ's website that you cannot update the primary drive. Which leads me to believe that I will need the Linux version on CD and boot off that CD. Any guidance on this process would be appreciated.

 

[jaquith]

Depends, if you have another PC with Windows 7 simply attach it (SATA/power), SATA -> AHCI (see above), and update the firmware; easy. Otherwise yep you need the boot Linux 'drive' method. Their guide is detailed so my advice is to follow it and not second guess.

If the problem is 'solved' then you're not required to flash the SSD's firmware; don't fix it if it works.

 

[falaniz]

The problem reoccurred so it still exists... I successfully updated the OCZ firmware to 2.15 so now I guess its wait and see...

 

[jaquith]

Well, let me know...and Good Luck!

 

[falaniz]

Almost 2 weeks have gone by and no sign of the error. I believe the OCZ firmware upgrade did the trick!

 

[jaquith]

Cool! Good to know!

 

[falaniz]

Best answer selected by falaniz.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr