Twice today, and a number of times previously, while browsing using Firefox 3.0.10 and multiple tabs open, Firefox locked up. i.e. it became 'whited out' and nothing would work. When I tried to kill it via task manager, it stayed open and the system became unusable. The last time it happened I was reading Slashdot. I had just scrolled down several stories when it happened. The only thing remarkable about this was that I noticed one of the stories was missing the comment count. I've never seen a Slashdot entry without a comment count (we're talking the main page for Slashdot), and the several stories above it (newer) and the ones below it had comment counts. I mention it because it might be a symptom or a cause. It might not have got the chance to render before it locked up, or something in the java script/ajax (pulling an example out of my ____) could have caused it (yes... I know the chances of this are a thousand to one, just trying to elucidate my thoughts with an example). I have noticed several times the 32 bit apps have also caused ugly lock up similar to this. App locks up, and when you try to kill it, the system locks up. Today it started to do this again a third time, but I waited about 45 minutes to give it a chance to close (not sure the exact time, I went away to kill time... but I did wait about 15 20 minutes before I left... so it took at least that long). I have a number of Firefox 'Add Ons' installed: Ad Block Plus, Dictionary, Dictionary Search, Flagfox, Flashblock, Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant, PDF Download, Slashdotter, Wikipedia Lookup Extension. Either way, this is bad behaviour, and I hope one of the Microsoft folks installs Firefox on Windows 7. i7 920 on Asus P6T Mobo 6 Gigs DDR3 RAM Asus ENGTX275 Video Card DLink Type N Wireless Card (internal) 2 x 640 GB Western Digital HDs in RAID1 for the system volume (using the Intel on board RAID + Matrix Manager) 4 x 1TB Seagate HDs in RAID10 for storage (same on board RAID) I am thinking very hard on replacing the on board RAID with a 3ware RAID card, since the on board RAID keeps telling me I have bad drives and wanting to rebuild the arrays. All the drives are new but I replaced one just in case. The one I replaced I did a disk check by putting it in an external drive enclosure and there were no issues with it. It seems to me this on board RAID by Intel is either wonky or Windows 7 doesn't play well with it. It did however recognize the volumes without me needing to load the drivers on system installation. Anyhow folks, that is my story and I'm sticking to it. I am posting this more in the hope that Microsoft employees actually read through these and it can help them make W7 better. If someone has some insight that can help resolve these issues I'll take 'em too. :)

No, no BSOD. But I think I know what is happening... I am pretty sure (like 99%) that it is the on board RAID causing the issue. Every time since (since I am paying more attention to the things going on around this) the Matrix monitor shows one of the drives in the RAID arrays being bad. I am 99.9999% sure it is not the drives since it can be a different drive being seen as bad by the RAID software/drivers. I would be hard pressed to believe that I bought 6 brand new drives and they were all bad. But just to make sure, I ran the Seagate diagnostic software on the four Seagate drives (bootable CD iso download from Seagate); the two WD drives while "failing" (according to the apparently misguided RAID manager), really haven't been much of an issue and anyways, four out of six drives is a more than good enough sample size for testing. Both 'short test' (runs/reads the drives own diagnostic tests) and the long test (testing sectors etc.) showed no errors. I even ran the test twice on two of the drives that the the Intel Raid manager said were most problematic. Nothing. Nadda. Not a peep. The drives showed good. So my belief is it has to be the Mobo or the drivers. I've just ordered a 3ware 9550SXU-8PL RAID card with BBU to take over the duties from the on board raid. But I am still going to take the whole unit to the store where I bought the parts so they can look it over. I am going to ask for a replacement Mobo regardless. I need the workstation performance for some of my projects, so this is a real @#$@%@ time I'm having. Ah well... it is a good thing I like working with computers or I'd have shot myself years ago. :-D

theshowmecanuck,Do you have the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver from the intel site?

sure do. I think I might have a solution, but if so, it is kind of crappy one. :) One the Arrays, I set "Hard Drive Data Cache Enabled" to 'No' I already had "Enable Volume Write-Back Cache" set to 'No' for the volumes. Every since then, I've not had a problem. I don't like it though. It removes some of the performance perks of RAID. However, I guess it forces me to be protective of RAID arrays built on hardware that doesn't have battery backup to ensure cache doesn't go 'bye bye' for any reason. Like I said, I have a 3ware card coming that has its own risc processor on board as well as 128 MB (and is expandable) or DDR2 RAM AND battery backup. ;-) The only problem is that now I have to buy one for my other tower PC. I can see it is feeling jealous.

theshowmecanuck,Also probably lame question:Do you have the latest BIOS (0603, may 25th 2009)?Let me know how the new card works.