New Core i7 builds, but big freezing problem on main client! Pls help!

[Teejayv]

So i decided to jump on the core i7 bandwagon a couple weeks ago for multiboxing. I run two machines and 5 accounts between. 3 clients on the i7 machine and 2 clients on my old e8400 c2d.

I'm just going to quickly describe my problem that i've been having on my i7 machine and then i'll list my specs. Hopefully, a kind soul can help me out here.

Background: After I built my i7 Windows 7 machine, i've made a folder on my storage drive (let's call it d:/ for now) called "WoW". Within this one folder, i've got 3 separate folders of the game, one for each client (WoW1, 2, 3). I use keyclone to load up the three clients split across 2 monitors using maximizer.

Each folder has its own interface>addons folder. Each account that i play uses its own set of addons and such. My main client obviously has more mods loaded (recount, omen, atlasloot etc). I use InputDirector to share one mouse and keyboard between the two computers.

Problem: I notice that very very frequently, my main client that i use (mostly pally tank) crashes to the desktop. Sometimes my system even BSOD's intermittently and locks up completely forcing a hard reboot. I don't know what causes this. I'm sure that my system specs are up to par. It happens very often when i'm logging in all the toons to Dalaran, or sometimes when i'm running an instance. It's also crashed on me when i'm on the flight path to the Argent Tournament Grounds, or some other flight paths in northrend.
I haven't observed if this is happening in zones in either Outlands or the Old World though. Mostly Northrend.

So these are my system specs for the i7 Computer:
-Core i7 920 - @2.66
12 GB of Gskill pc 1600 DDR3 RAM
Windows 7 RC
Nvidia 9800GX2
Seagate and WD HDD's (regular SATA drives, 32mb cache, 7200rpm)

The rest is probably not important. I've thought that it might be a problem with the way my hard drive is loading the actual files. I know that i have 3 separate copies of WoW (copy pasted from the original one) on one drive, so it might cause some read/write issues, and the drive might just be buckling from all the stress!

I don't know much about symlinking and such. I've briefly glanced over a couple threads regarding it, but i guess i should delve into it a bit deeper.

Does anyone have experience, or insight as to why this might be happening to me? I thought that building this system would alleviate all my troubles when it came to boxing, but obviously it hasn't. An advance thank you to anyone who can help me with this situation!

[cybernerv]

sounds like a memory problem

did you set or have to set up the memory in the bios? what motherboard do you have?

could also be a video driver issue

[Teejayv]

i've got the triple channel memory set up proper in my bios. all 6 slots in my MSI X58-PRO mobo are used up.
i've also got the latest NVIDIA drivers set up (64 bit of course). I've monitored the memory usage in task manager. When running all clients, along with Windows 7 and all the other processes, the system is using about 6 gigs of the 12 that i have installed in the system. It have over 6 gigs left of free memory space. I don't know why it would be crashing due to memory though

As i stated earlier, i thought it might be a problem with the HDD and the way that the programs were installed. Do you think that this could be the problem?

Thanks for the quick reply

[rahven32]

i've got the triple channel memory set up proper in my bios. all 6 slots in my MSI X58-PRO mobo are used up.
i've also got the latest NVIDIA drivers set up (64 bit of course). I've monitored the memory usage in task manager. When running all clients, along with Windows 7 and all the other processes, the system is using about 6 gigs of the 12 that i have installed in the system. It have over 6 gigs left of free memory space. I don't know why it would be crashing due to memory though

As i stated earlier, i thought it might be a problem with the HDD and the way that the programs were installed. Do you think that this could be the problem?

Thanks for the quick reply

Did you test the memory? Like memtest or anything? Also have you tried to symlink instead of 3 seperate folders?

[Teejayv]

i haven't run memtest on the RAM yet. Good idea though!
Also, i don't really have a clue on how to symlink the folder(s) yet. I'm gonna have to do a search on the procedure later when i get home from work. I'd love to try that though, it seems that i really takes a load off of the read/write processess on the HDD's.

Thanks again!

[Fizzler]

Although Symlinking is cool I would hope that does not solve your problem. You have a beast of a machine I do not symlink anymore and do not have any issues 5 boxing with my meager machine.

If it pans out that it is not a memory issue I would look at drivers more closely or maybe even heat. Drop all your video to minimum and see what happens

[Teejayv]

i will try these suggestions when i get home tonight. I never really thought about heat. I am just running the stock HSF on the i7 920. i guess it could get pretty hot in there.
Thanks again!

(btw: i tried to search for links on symlinking on this website, but everytime i try to click a link it always takes me back to the general forum page. Not sure if this is an issue with a borked iexplorer at work, or if it's a site thing)

[Fizzler]

When it comes to symlink I can not recommend Link Shell Extension enough. I read about it on a forum post on this site somewhere. It works great with Win7 and really just simplifies the process.

You can download and read up on it here. http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinks...kshellext.html

Google Link Shell Extension if that link scares you.

[Teejayv]

Fizzler, thank you for that link. It's quite a read; I will be tackling that first thing in the morning. I'm new to this whole symbolic linking thing and dont' really know much about LSE's. Let's see what i can figure out though

[rahven32]

If you get that it's really as simple as cut and paste no lie.