Pearl Expert w/ Titan 6.1 freeze

[illumn8r]

Literally a couple of minutes before showtime tonight I had a freeze. Had set a walk-in look a couple of hours earlier, walked into the booth just before showtime and the touchwing had an upside down Blue screen and the console would not respond. Text said something went wrong, couldn't take time to read the whole thing as I needed control quickly. Held in the button to force a shutdown, waited a few seconds and restarted, looked normal for a few seconds but while the wing lit up it stayed blank, the lcd started normally but said please wait, I repeated shutdown and restarted again with the same result. I didn't need the wing tonight so I shutdown again and undid the wing and restarted. This time it came up ok though it couldn't load the show so I loaded a saved version. I'll try reattaching the wing after the show but in the meantime any ideas?

[niclights]

Not good. A BSOD is the most serious sort of problem, almost certainly driver or hardware related. Obviously it would be best to contact service about this as soon as possible.

Does your console have an SSD?
And, if the answer is yes and it's an OCZ, has the firmware been updated?

Similarly, but probably less likely, if you have a SATA DVD has this been disconnected?

Note that whenever a console does not shut down normally it will be necessary to load a saved show.

[illumn8r]

...Does your console have an SSD?
And, if the answer is yes and it's an OCZ, has the firmware been updated?

Similarly, but probably less likely, if you have a SATA DVD has this been disconnected?.

Yes, the Vertex 2 and it was updated during the upgrade to 6.0, No SATA, this is the newer white expert. Show is still on so haven't had a chance to test again yet

[niclights]

My instincts say it's related to the SSD but I'm only guessing.

[illumn8r]

Hopefully it's something I can fix myself, we only have a few non-show days this Month and the next one isn't until the 18th

[illumn8r]

Show is over, shutdown and hooked the wing back up making sure connections were tight, restarted and all looks well at the moment. Saved logs to a usb stick and may try and look at them later and see if I can decipher anything, hope it was an anomaly and doesn't happen again

[illumn8r]

Is there a particular log I should look at? I have no idea what I'm looking for so I'm hoping if there is an issue it will pop out at me.

[niclights]

Unfortunately I very much doubt anything will be logged due to the nature of BSOD.

[illumn8r]

Ok Thanks, I've emailed this whole Post to Phil at CSL where we bought the console, fingers crossed when I get to work this afternoon that it will work LOL. No idea what we will do if it needs repair, I have 20 or so shows this Month and have to have the lights obviously.

[Phil Heid]

Unfortunately I’d have to agree with niclights. It is almost assuredly hardware, and I suspect the SSD also.

I would consider running 6.0 recovery and then 6.1 when you get a chance.

I would also consider obtaining a spare SSD and install 6.1 on it and have it at the ready. Considering the cost/benefit ratio, I would do this with any desk these days as part of the spares kit.

[illumn8r]

Thanks Phil, where would a get a spare SSD, from you?

[Phil Heid]

We can provide one, or you can source from normal IT channels. The desks are currently shipping with Intel Series 330 drives, so that's what I'd recommend.

[niclights]

Or a traditional spinner....

The problem with this sort of thing is there might not be anything specifically wrong with the drive and it is an OCZ firmware/driver issue. I have occasional BSOD with a Vertex 3 drive in my desktop. The firmware update with 6.0 was to resolve any BSOD problems but this is reliant on the manufacturer. My understanding is the 330's have proven themselves the most reliable.

SSD's improve boot times and solve rare issues with spinners in high vibration environments (ie. ridiculous sub-bass). Personally I would consider replacing with a spinner unless I was affected by vibration.

All this said, I strongly recommend speaking to service first.

[illumn8r]

Ok, been speaking with Phil, he IS my service contact here in the US, general agreement seems to be a hard drive issue. I'm going to go buy an Intel 330 locally tomorrow and install it, he is going to check about getting us another one under warranty that I can have as a backup. He suggested asking you guys if there is some utility I can use in the meantime to see if it is indeed a bad HD, like you would check for bad sectors or something. The only other option would be sending it to them for testing and that just really isn't possible with our schedule, no loaners or even an Avo rental around here from what I can find.

[illumn8r]

Ok, hard drive replaced, 120GB Intel 330, overkill LOL but all they had. Installed 6.0 and upgraded to 6.1, so far all ok. Really hope that was it. I can download some SSD tools from there website, maybe I can run them off a stick to check on it's status. Thanks for the help everyone