Not Shy's Guide To BIOS Settings / Memory & CPU Testing

[notshy]

Fantastic Post Not Shy. HOWEVER

(please skip to the end for my question and system info. this is all bg info on the prob)

I found this link (thanks to great moderators here) from a post about random freezes in 10.6.6. I have identical issues:

- boots fine, re-boots fine (with and without reset-button)
- sleeps fine, wakes fine, etc.

but then 5 minutes in, typically with iTunes, or net-app (tbird, firefox, chrome, etc.) the finder locks up. mouse ok, sound ok, but you can't do anything. if you go to finder or the apple, it opens then freezes. only way out is the reset button.

I had burned-in my system pretty good, and used my gigabyte-supplied OC'ing util to push my i7-860 to 3.3GHz. It set my BIOS and mem settings. I chose a not-crazy OC, and used realtemp to set my fan speeds to keep my CPU temps below 80 C when slamming the box with a memory testing app (name escapes me, it's the usual one, will re-post with the name when i'm back home).

that was months ago. I've had nary an issue (THX CUSTOMBEAST FTW) with either SL or Win7 until 10.6.6.

I tried new multibeast(s), rolling back audio, networking, etc. and no dice.


So what should I look for in which system log to find out what is making 10.6.6 puke?

Where do i look if my memory/BIOS/etc. checks out, and I still have issues?

GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 P55 (F11 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz (OC'd to 3.3)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit
Intel 80GB SSD (SL 10.6.6)
WD 64GB SSD (Win7)
External Audio (M-Audio FastTrack Pro USB)

-murph

Maybe try looking in Console for any particular activity each time it locks up?

 

[najmurphy]

So i think I have it licked. I checked in Console and I was seeing some function calls from Adobe Acrobat.
I trashed it, and it seems to working OK now...

 

[notshy]

So i think I have it licked. I checked in Console and I was seeing some function calls from Adobe Acrobat.
I trashed it, and it seems to working OK now...

Good luck !

 

[najmurphy]

OK - it wasn't Adobe. I cleaned it off and it was freezing more than ever. I'm pretty sure it was the native NTFS write support that I turned on. I'm now demo'ing the tuxera driver (http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/) and so far everything is working great.

Also here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11373

long story short: use a 3rd party NTFS driver, or your OS X will freeze...

 

[notshy]

OK - it wasn't Adobe. I cleaned it off and it was freezing more than ever. I'm pretty sure it was the native NTFS write support that I turned on. I'm now demo'ing the tuxera driver (http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/) and so far everything is working great.

Also here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11373

long story short: use a 3rd party NTFS driver, or your OS X will freeze...

Why do you need to write to NTFS ? I would recommend adding a FAT32 partition to any Windows drive that you have - then you can use that partition to copy things between the two systems.

I would not recommend regularly reading and writing to NTFS from within OSX nor reading and writing to HFS in Windows.

Both will lead to problems somewhere down the line.

 

[Khan]

I would recommend adding a FAT32 partition to any Windows drive that you have - then you can use that partition to copy things between the two systems.

Again, thanks for the tip!!!

 

[gmoore]

notshy, i have the same MOBO as you and was wondering if you knew of a good guide for flashing the bios (or at least the one you used?). i have done quite a bit of research but haven't found the detail i'm looking for. i'm still really new to this type of thing and need REALLY detailed instructions since i have never ever played around in BIOS.

 

[notshy]

notshy, i have the same MOBO as you and was wondering if you knew of a good guide for flashing the bios (or at least the one you used?). i have done quite a bit of research but haven't found the detail i'm looking for. i'm still really new to this type of thing and need REALLY detailed instructions since i have never ever played around in BIOS.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/27576-bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide.html

I use Keka to extract the Gigabyte BIOS file download which is an exe. You can temporarily set Keka to "Always Extract" and drop the file on your Keka dock icon and out pops the BIOS file.

http://www.kekaosx.com/en/

 

[vasquezalonso]

long story short: use a 3rd party NTFS driver, or your OS X will freeze...

That's true. Happened to me once, spent hours and hours trying to figure what it was. Got rid of that Tuxera (and Windows, some time after that) and everything back to normal.

 

[gmoore]

notshy, i have the same MOBO as you and was wondering if you knew of a good guide for flashing the bios (or at least the one you used?). i have done quite a bit of research but haven't found the detail i'm looking for. i'm still really new to this type of thing and need REALLY detailed instructions since i have never ever played around in BIOS.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/27576-bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide.html

I use Keka to extract the Gigabyte BIOS file download which is an exe. You can temporarily set Keka to "Always Extract" and drop the file on your Keka dock icon and out pops the BIOS file.

http://www.kekaosx.com/en/

so essentially i need a windows machine to extract and save the bios on a fat32 formatted usb. am i correct?

sorry i'm such a novice, i'v been a mac user for the better part of a decade.

thank you for your help!