Primo Ramdisk Boot problems

[jaysee]

I'm using Primo Ramdisk 5.6.0 Professional. About one eighth of the time, if Primo is enabled my PC freezes during boot, requiring a hard-reset (and reboot) to continue.
That said, once booted, Primo works well and seems perfectly stable. Here are my stats:

MB: Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
CPU: Intel 2600k, 3.5GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3 1600MHz
OS: WinXP (SP2)

Primo settings: Disk0=3GB IM SCSI (Page File); Disk1=20GB IM SCSI (Scratch Disk); unused IM = ~6GB (for possible PrimoCache use later)

When freezes occur, it's at the point where the usual 'Windows XP' animated logo fades-in for a few seconds. It's at the same point where there's a dramatic slowdown (for about 4 seconds with the current settings) in the animation when Primo's enabled; the more IM allocated to Primo, the longer the slowdown lasts. If Primo is disabled (or set to be less than a few GB) no slowdown (or freeze) occurs. I assume Primo is busy testing/formatting RAM during this period, but is it normal to bring a fast CPU to its knees doing it?

I'm using the latest BIOS and have performed a 24 hour RAM test; I've also swapped the two 16GB DDR3 banks to see if behavior changes (it hasn't).

It's hard to trace exactly what's going on when the freeze occurs; can Primo generate a log?

Please advise.

[Support]

It seems that the issue is caused by the Invisible Memory detection. Mainly IM feature is related to the motherboard/bios. I'm sorry that currently I have no idea on this issue. Primo Ramdisk cannot generate the log file during this phase. Perhaps you may update the Windows XP to service pack 3 to see if it helps.

[InquiringMind]

Another possibility might be conflict between IM and graphics card memory (which may also be mapped into the >4GB memory space depending on motherboard BIOS settings). Such mapping is desirable as GPU VRAM would otherwise eat into the 3.25GB memory available to 32-bit Windows, but it may be worth experimenting with this (if offered as a BIOS option) and Primo's IM settings (try adjusting front- and back-end reserved space as detailed here).

[jaysee]

Thanks for your replies.

Support: Using separate images, I've tried a couple XP variations (one of which was SP3) without any change in freeze behavior.

InquiringMind: Yes, one of the first thoughts I had was as you've suggested; I began with 1GB front-and-back but have since reduced that to 500MB each. I can't say there's been any effect on stability, but it's probably cheap insurance.

The current strategy is to find the maximum IM allocation in Primo that still results in successful boots. Starting with a 'safe' 4GB last week, it's now up to 12GB. Unfortunately, since the problem is intermittent, it takes several days to assess the results of any changes made (I also need to use the PC, so it's been kept running as long as possible between reboot cycles).

Given that there doesn't appear to be any other similar problem posted in the Forum, I assume there's something unique to my PC setup. I'm still hoping that ultimately a solution will be found allowing access to the full 32GB available.

Additional thoughts are welcomed. I'll update this post with any progress...

[InquiringMind]

IM functionality can be very sensitive to the motherboard BIOS (I had a Dell nForce590 system which wouldn't work with IM even though nForce590 is on the supported chipset list). Updating the BIOS might be worth a try if nothing else works (and probably worth doing anyway if it's well out of date).

Aside from that, good luck.