USB3 versus USB2 Kernel-Power BSOD & AH has stopped responding W7 64

[Chalenge]

I moved my APC USB link from USB3 to USB2 and eliminated all kernel-power crashes and 60% of AH has stopped responding crashes. I cannot understand why the USB connectivity is the issue. I eliminated the USB3 from the system entirely and experienced the same frequency of crashes. However by moving the UPS USB line to a USB2 card the frequency of AH crashes (and four BSOD events) have been eliminated. I think the kernel-power crashes could be an anomaly of latency and I dont know how to go about further testing except for monitoring the frequency of USB3 versus USB2 crashes or replacing the device in question with a more expensive device. The device in question is a APC BackUPS XS 1500 LCD in use with an ASUS U3S6 (suspect device) which gives USB3 connectivity as well as SATA3 6Gb service. The test period was ten days with and ten without.

[BoilerDown]

You use an add-in card for extra USB ports?  And your statement about when you removed it reads ambiguously... you removed it and the crashes remain at a high rate or a low rate?  Are you using an add-in card for USB2 as well?  Since Skuzzy thinks its a driver issue, the obvious thing to do is try different driver versions for your USB add-in cards.

Another thing... how does the communication to the UPS work?  Does it poll the computer at intervals for status updates (my guess)?  If so is there a way to decrease the polling frequency?  Also is APC aware of any issues with using USB3 ports with their UPSs, they have a very solid online knowledge base as I recall....  I use a UPS as well, but I leave it unconnected to the computer, so obviously if I lose power while I'm not home my computer will do a ungraceful powerdown once the UPS drains.  So I'm not familiar with how it works atm.

[Chalenge]

The add-in card is primarily for SATA3 and the USB3 ports are secondary but yes I was using them for the UPS. Removing the card in and of itself did nothing to the frequency of crashes EXCEPT where the UPS connectivity is involved. Sorry should have been more precise about that.

As to your other questions I have an open problem report in with APC.

[Chalenge]

I have an X58 motherboard and I will be repeating the same test for the next few weeks. I dont think this is so much an issue with the UPS as it is with the U3S6 but all-in-all I think its more latency related meaning it is a combination of drivers and hardware items that when mixed together cause the problem but the problem is probably (as Skuzzy says) seated deep within the kernel itself.

The simple solution is to use W7 32 for AH.

[Delirium]

The simple solution is to use W7 32 for AH.

Considering the amount of 64 bit W7 users out there, I would have to say make AH run properly on it. It may not be HTC's fault, but they are getting the blame from the player base, regardless of fault.

The 64 bit OS isn't going away.

[TequilaChaser]

I have installed windows 7 64 bit Ult on 6 different PC's to date and have also installed Aces high on each PC ( just to see how well AH would perform on them compared to my main system )........

I have yet to run in to any problems with Aces High crashing or BSOD or locking up on any of them....... the only problem I have experienced on one of the PC's with Win 64bit and AH was the sound dropping out, but if I Alt-tabbed out and then came back in the sound would come back just fine.....

I know others have ran in to problems with Aces High & Win 7 64 bit......... but so has people using Win 7 32 bit & AH, Vista 32 bit or Vista 64 bit & AH, as well as others with WinXP 32bit or WinXP 64 bit & AH......

I do believe it has to do with the way each individual person has setup their PC's, and what components have been combined to make a particular PC..... and what software, programs.... a person uses on the same PC they fly on ( ie... anti-virus, P2P, internet or download boosters, firewalls...etc...) and how a person keeps their drivers up to date ( or not depending on a bad driver )

[Chalenge]

Of course I prefer to use W7 64 myself and when I started to see crashes of AH were frequent and unpredictable I decided to install fresh copies of W7 32 and 64 with nothing but updated drivers... Windows updates... and AH. I would agree that you can make matters worse by not updating drivers and probably by loading software like it was going out of style. I believe that the problem is much larger than that and that there must be a combination of hardware items that make things progressively worse.

I really think this is tied to latency somehow as if a device is stuck waiting for a system response.

[Skuzzy]

Hmmm, I wonder if Windows 7 is dealing with the low power USB condition?  It seems most Windows OS's do not deal with it and instead send a flood of messages about "device changing" to all the applications who are hooked in.

We do hook into the USB bus so we can know when a stick has been changed or moved or unplugged.

I wonder if there is something particular about that flood of messages causing problems in Windows 7 64 bit.

All this is just speculation and best guesses, at the moment.