System freezes after SRT acceleration enabled

[idata]

I'm looking for guidance or suggestions to a problem that has me stumped. Last week I built a new system based on the Asus P8Z68-V with Intel 311 SSD for Smart Response Technology (SRT) caching. When the SRT is disabled the system is rock-solid stable, and it passes stress tests perfectly. However, shortly after I enable SRT the system begins to intermittently freeze then it becomes 100% non-responsive, which in turn requires a hard-reset. There are no entries in the event log that indicate there was a problem with Windows.

When I first built the system I put both the Intel 311 SSD and accelerated HHD on the two available SATA III ports. About 15 minutes after I first enabled SRT the system began to intermittently freeze, then it completely locked up. After a hard-reset the system would come back up for a few minutes, and then it would freeze again. I did this cycle a few times with the same results, but once I disengaged SRT everything worked normally again. I ran extensive stress tests (Prime95 and Memtest 86+) and found no problems with any components. I then reformatted the HHD, reset the SSD, moved both the SSD and HHD from SATA III ports to SATA II ports, and rebuilt the OS. Once again, about 10-15 minutes after I first engaged SRT the system began to randomly freeze and eventually locked up. Subsequent hard-resets led to similar lockups within minutes. But once I disengage SRT everything works perfectly again. I'm at a loss. I'm looking for additional trouble shooting techniques or guidance as to whether or not to RMA the mobo and/or SSD. Have I missed something? Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Tobster

System:

Asus P8Z68-V (BIOS v. 0501 and Intel RST v. 10.5.0.1027) I5 2500K (no OC)8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (no OC)Western Digital Caviar 1TB WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 (accelerated HHD)Intel 311 20GB SSD (cache)Two Samsung 500GB Spinpoint HHDs in RAID 1 (media files w/ backup)EVGA GTX 570Corsair 850W PSOS Windows 7 x64 SP1 w/ all updates

[idata]

Intel SATA3 ports.

[idata]

In order to rule out the possibility that I had a defective Mobo, I returned the Asus P8Z68-V to the store where I bought it last Saturday and exchanged it for an identical make/model replacement. After I installed the new P8Z68 I simply plugged everything back in and fired it up (with the same OS install and drivers). It started up fine without any problems, and then I engaged SRT. Everything ran perfectly, and over the next 24 hours I ran the system hard trying to trip up the SRT, but it worked without a hitch and not one single system freeze. On Sunday night, after I thought I had everything working, I created a RAID 1 volume with my two Samsung 500GB HDs. Within about five minutes my system slowly began to stutter and eventually it completely froze up. To make a long story short, I tested and retested several different configurations, and in each test where SRT was engaged when I had a RAID 1 volume the system would freeze (note: there was no difference when I swapped the SRT and RAID 1 drives between the SATA 2 and SATA 3 ports). Once I deleted the RAID volume OR disengaged SRT the system worked perfectly again. Since Monday I have only been running SRT with no RAID volumes, and I have not had a single system freeze in 5 days. My best guess now is that the problem lies somewhere in the RAID controller or RST drivers. I would love to hear Asus's opinion, but they haven't bothered to respond to my initial inquiry from 10 days ago on their tech support site. If they ever respond I'll update this post.

[idata]

I have the Asus P8Z68-V Pro and am using SRT with the Crucial m4 64gb. For the most part it works well but occassionally the systems hangs for about 20 seconds before coming back. I am using the very last SRT version from intel as well.

[idata]

Just an update on the issue...

ASUS informed me that they have reproduced the issue, and that it is a problem across all Z68 motherboards. They are in contact with Intel to resolve the problem.

Any chance anyone from Intel can give us an update?

[idata]

I too have the same problem. I have a new Asus P8Z68-V Pro and I get lockups with Intel Smart Response enabled and a RAID 1 made from two old drives. With both SR and RAID 1 enabled I get complete screen freeze and lock-up. No CTRL-ALT-DELETE, no option but a hard reset. The problem can occur any time, during low-intensity web surfing, gaming or simply trying to shut down. I need to do a hard reset to get going again and there is no feedback indicating what went wrong. Basically exactly what was described above.

One thing that has me very confused is that the Intel Rapid Storage Technology does not list the Z68 as a suppoted chipset in RST v. 10.6.0.1002. Is this an oversight? Here is the complete list from the System Requirements:

Supported Intel® Chipsets■ Intel® Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset■ Intel® Mobile Express Chipset■ Intel® 3 Series Chipsets■ Intel® 4 Series Express Chipsets■ Intel® 5 Series Chipset■ Intel® 3400 Series Chipset■ Intel® PM55/HM57/PM57/QM57/QS57 Express Chipsets■ Intel® H57/P55/P57/Q57 Express Chipsets■ Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset family■ Intel® 965 Express Chipset family■ Intel® 5000P Chipset■ Intel® 5000V Chipset■ Intel® 5000X Chipset■ Intel® 975X Express Chipset■ Intel® 955X Express Chipset■ Intel® 945 Express Chipset family■ Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset family■ Intel® E7230 Chipset

The Intel Smart Response Acceleration is featured prominently in the Asus features list and was a major reason I purchased this board over a less expensive motherboard. I would like an explanation from Intel and/or Asus as to when this will be fixed.

System:

Asus P8Z68-V (BIOS v. 0606 and Intel RST v. 10.6.0.1002) I5 2500K (no OC)8GB G.Skill Ripjams DDR3 1600 (no OC)

Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (Cache)

Seagate Barracuda ST3160828AS 160 GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s and Maxtor Maxline Plus II 250 GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s (Raid 1)

Asus GTX 560

Cooler Master 850W PS

OS Windows 7 x64 SP1 w/ all updates