preferred stable OS for z x20 series workstation

[AnthonyK]

Hi

It has now been almost a month an I still do not have stable system based on Windows 10 Pro x64.

My machine is a V1 of the Z620 with one E5 2660 8 core Xeon and the lastest available BIOS.

One Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB  as the main C:\ drive and

24 GB of DDR3 ECC memory.

Windows 10 Pro just is not stable in my case.

At the root of the issues lays the Intel ESRV_SVC_QUEENCREEK that supposedly cannot be found according to the Windows Log file.

It drives me nuts and now I have just had it with Windows 10, never had stable system in more than 30days.

So I am either now considering downgrading to 8.1 Pro or go the linux CentOS rout and install VMware workstation to run an older version of Windows 7 for office use and applications for which I really need Windows.

What do you think about my plans for a downgrade and what do you guys, gals run on your Z workstation.

[SDH]

W7Pro64.  Run BIOS in legacy mode.  Update to the latest BIOS (3.91).  Quality RAM all identical sticks, all 8 slots filled, assuming you're running 1 processor, which you are.

Make sure you have latest firmware from Samsung.... some earlier firmware from them has been stink.

Clean install.... know how to get the small system reserved partition on the install.

That is an excellent workstation.... do not despair.

[MtothaJ]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

Hi

It has now been almost a month an I still do not have stable system based on Windows 10 Pro x64.

My machine is a V1 of the Z620 with one E5 2660 8 core Xeon and the lastest available BIOS.

One Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB  as the main C:\ drive and

24 GB of DDR3 ECC memory.

Windows 10 Pro just is not stable in my case.

At the root of the issues lays the Intel ESRV_SVC_QUEENCREEK that supposedly cannot be found according to the Windows Log file.

It drives me nuts and now I have just had it with Windows 10, never had stable system in more than 30days.

So I am either now considering downgrading to 8.1 Pro or go the linux CentOS rout and install VMware workstation to run an older version of Windows 7 for office use and applications for which I really need Windows.

What do you think about my plans for a downgrade and what do you guys, gals run on your Z workstation.

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Can you detail the specific instances where the system is behaving in an unstable manner? This will help troubleshooting.

Personally I am running WIn 10 Pro on the Z420 and have not encountered any problems, . Regarding switching to WIn 7 I would consider this a last resort, since this is now an old OS, for which support both fromt he hardware and software side will be dwindling.

I would try giving Win 10 Pro one more go:

- install fresh Win 10 Pro from USB in EFI mode

- see what drivers you are missing in Device Manager after isntallation and install only those ones

- turn off any power saving features in the bios,

- in Windows set power profile to Maximum Power

- turn off stuff you don't need / are not using in the bios (e.g. RAID, AMT / ME features)

The points regarding power saving features are important since the error you are getting would indicate this area as a casue for further investigation.

Regarding your SSD, I do not believe the Samsung 840 / 850 drives use any specific drivers under Windows, just the standard WIndows AHCI ones. There is the Samsung Magician software, but this is only really useful as a diagnostics / information tool and also to turn on rapid mode on some supported drives. THere is of course the question of running the latest firmwareo n the drives and Magician will also allow this to be updated.

Regarding the RAM, this is something you probably already know, but its best to run using same size, make, type memory modules, either in 4 or 8 slots (quad channel mode).

[AnthonyK]

Well thank you both again for some great insights.

I prefer however to go one more time the Win 10 route before even considering to try 8.1 Pro but at the moment I very curious at just two things that came up in my mind.

These things related to optimal performance and stability

My system will run DDR3 Registered memory sticks I know this, but I have two rated at 1600 mhz en two rated at 1333 mhz - all four of them at 4GB each and all DDR3 Registered. That would put my system to 16 GB of ram while I currently have configuration as I bought it with 4 DDR3 unbuffered single rank 2GB memory sticks and 4 DDR3 unbuffered dual rank 4 GB memory sticks. In total 24 GB.

I read that unbuffered and registered do not go well together, a shame but understandable.

Would it be wise to try to sell off the DDR3 unbuffered 2GB ones for 4 DDR3 4GB dual rank sticks or go fully in with the registered modules ?

One thing I know for sure  is that my modules do not do well on the second hand market like they might do in the US or plainly on eBay, but although I have business account on eBay.de (Germany) i find selling hardware items there cumbersome.

Like to hear / read your thoughts on that one.

[MtothaJ]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

Well thank you both again for some great insights.

I prefer however to go one more time the Win 10 route before even considering to try 8.1 Pro but at the moment I very curious at just two things that came up in my mind.

These things related to optimal performance and stability

My system will run DDR3 Registered memory sticks I know this, but I have two rated at 1600 mhz en two rated at 1333 mhz - all four of them at 4GB each and all DDR3 Registered. That would put my system to 16 GB of ram while I currently have configuration as I bought it with 4 DDR3 unbuffered single rank 2GB memory sticks and 4 DDR3 unbuffered dual rank 4 GB memory sticks. In total 24 GB.

I read that unbuffered and registered do not go well together, a shame but understandable.

Would it be wise to try to sell off the DDR3 unbuffered 2GB ones for 4 DDR3 4GB dual rank sticks or go fully in with the registered modules ?

One thing I know for sure  is that my modules do not do well on the second hand market like they might do in the US or plainly on eBay, but although I have business account on eBay.de (Germany) i find selling hardware items there cumbersome.

Like to hear / read your thoughts on that one.

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Regarding memory, there is a seller on ebay based out of Germany - Superfonse2000 - who iMHO has very good prices on memory for our machines.

I bought 64GB 1866mhz registered ECC kit (8x 8GB) for c.a. 200 EUR, the 1600mhz prices were even lower, although from what I see he has raised prices by quite a bit since then. Of course, I then had to sell my exisiting 32GB (4x 8 GB) unbuffered ECC kit, and as you say this took some time, not a whole lot of interest locally, but finally I manged to sell it for c.a. 110 EUR , so the upgrade wasn't very expensive all things considered. The main motivation was to have 1866mhz memory when I finally decide to upgrade to a Xeon v2 Ivy bridge CPU and also to run a 32GB Ram disk (very handy).

I think in your case it may be worth sorting out the memory situation. Both configurations you have at hand are not ideal - the registered one has two sticks running at 1333mhz so below the 1600mhz speed of the E5 v1 processors. The unbuffered configuration mixes single rank and dual rank modules.

From what I recall you have the boot block date of 2011 so or the time being you are restricted to the v1 Xeon CPU and 1600mhz. Therefore you do not need to get the 1866mhz memory, unless you plan on upgrading the bios chip or board to the v2 specs. The used Ivy Bridge v2 chips are still pretty expensive but prices will drop over time, so maybe its something worth considering at some point.

BTW can you let me know the type of bios chip you have in the Z620? Its probably a Winbond, would be interested in the exact chip designation.

[AnthonyK]

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@MtothaJ wrote:

BTW can you let me know the type of bios chip you have in the Z620? Its probably a Winbond, would be interested in the exact chip designation.

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Let me post  my configuration then you m ight be able to tell me the name or type of the bios chip.

[MtothaJ]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

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@MtothaJ wrote:

BTW can you let me know the type of bios chip you have in the Z620? Its probably a Winbond, would be interested in the exact chip designation.

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Let me post  my configuration then you m ight be able to tell me the name or type of the bios chip.

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The image is not showing, in any case I do not think its possible to determine it on the basis of the configuration alone.

My assumption is that its a Winbond 25Q128BVFG, same as in the Z420, but only sure way of telling is to have a look on the motherboard.

[joselso]

May I suggest that you make sure your version of Intel processor is validated for operation with Windows 10. You can follow Intel's instructions in URL: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/000006105.html

[AnthonyK]

Well friends I followed the path of doing a full fresh install of Windows 10 on my "new" z620 and only install what is really bare nescessity. I had to install a specific Windows driver for my Transcend SD - USB 3.0/3.1 reader that prompted a reboot.

Event ID: 158 is logged for identical disk GUIDs.

fixed with this link

https://support.microsoft.com/nl-nl/kb/2983588 and I needed to install and configure MPIO in the Windows Features itself.

After applying the feature I did not experience any issues like I had before.

Fingers crossed.

Things I did not do are

1. install the Driver Chipsets from HP for my z620

2.install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise Driver

3. install or upgrade the Intel Management Engine Firmware Update and Utilities

Sofar no issues I am very hesitant to install the Intel Driver Chipset Drivers for Windows 10.

Your thoughts MtothaJ, Brian1965, BambiBoomZ ?

PS just my thoughts on the Boot Block, would it be a financial worthwhile enterprise to start a business in updating the boot block date and how to go about it ?

In The Netherlands where I live and work there are alot of z workstations now being offered and not too many being sold at what we would call a reasonable price level reflecting the boot block date.

[MtothaJ]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

Well friends I followed the path of doing a full fresh install of Windows 10 on my "new" z620 and only install what is really bare nescessity. I had to install a specific Windows driver for my Transcend SD - USB 3.0/3.1 reader that prompted a reboot.

Event ID: 158 is logged for identical disk GUIDs.

fixed with this link

https://support.microsoft.com/nl-nl/kb/2983588 and I needed to install and configure MPIO in the Windows Features itself.

After applying the feature I did not experience any issues like I had before.

Fingers crossed.

Things I did not do are

1. install the Driver Chipsets from HP for my z620

2.install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise Driver

3. install or upgrade the Intel Management Engine Firmware Update and Utilities

Sofar no issues I am very hesitant to install the Intel Driver Chipset Drivers for Windows 10.

Your thoughts MtothaJ, Brian1965, BambiBoomZ ?

PS just my thoughts on the Boot Block, would it be a financial worthwhile enterprise to start a business in updating the boot block date and how to go about it ?

In The Netherlands where I live and work there are alot of z workstations now being offered and not too many being sold at what we would call a reasonable price level reflecting the boot block date.

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I think its worthwhie you install all relevant drivers, but do it one at a time over a period of a few days / weeks so in the event of any problems you know which driver is causing it.

As for the bios boot block updating, have you updated your machine yet to the v2 bios / bootblock? Clearly this would be a good start if you are planning on offering such services. Can you confirm what bios chip is in the Z620?