New SSD failing

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strewart

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Feb 24, 2011
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Hi all, I bought a new Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD about 3 weeks ago and installed it in my computer. I have 3 other old HDDs as well, and made the SSD the C drive with a fresh install of windows. In the last week or so, every day or two the screen will go fuzzy for a second or so, sometimes a buzz is heard, then the computer crashes and restarts. Upon restarting, the SSD is no longer recognised so one of the other HDDs loads. To get back to the SSD, I just need to turn the PC off for a few seconds and upon restart it loads normally again.

First thing I did was open up my case and check cables. Nothing seems loose or dodgy, the SSD was mounted pretty much directly on top of one of the other drives so I moved it so there is more of a gap. There is plenty of airflow over them as I have an NZXT Phantom case. My power supply is about 750-800W so it should be sufficient. I can't see why it would crash.

It sometimes happens while under strain, like me watching videos on media player, but also sometimes I get up in the morning and it has crashed while it was sitting idle overnight.

I downloaded Aeo3 HD SMART lite to diagnose, it claims the SSD is running at 128C while the others are at 25-30C, so running very hot. I'm not sure I believe the 128C value though since it reports that as soon as the PC is turned on after it has been off for a while as well.

Any ideas on what could be wrong and how to fix it?
 
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Hmm I guess it could be video card... At the same time as I put the SSD in I also installed a second video card to Crossfire. Radeon 6800 1GB. Guess I should get a diag tool for that as well.

However, I ran Assassin's Creed Revelations for 30 hours without a crash. Also if it was the video card, why would the computer not see the SSD when it first restarts?
 
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Yeah it is. When it crashes and resets, I go to the bios and check, the SSD is not listed in the list of HDDs. When I turn it off for a few minutes then back on again, the SSD is back in the list and back set as first boot device.
 
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I have a Corsair Force 3 60gig SSD, and was experiencing the EXACT same symptoms you are, as well as long periods of the system hanging, or being busy, you could move the mouse but nothing else, for about 3 minutes. Crashes for no reason, SSD not being detected on the first reboot, rebooting to a secondary drive with my old Windows install, exactly the same problems.
I updated the firmware on the drive a couple of months ago, and it has worked flawlessly since then. Not a single glitch.
 
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^ Concur, Verify you have the latest Firmware Update It's a Sandforce SF22xx drive which which have had problems most of which have been cured with newest FW.

I normally disable hibernation whith SSDs. Saves space, decreases writes, and some SSDs have problems waking from sleep (Beleieve this has mostly been resolved).
 
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@darkguset, no overclocking.

Thanks for the firmware suggestion. I went to the Corsair website and followed the instructions in here:
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=100162
I had V 1.2, the latest is 1.3.3
I run the update, it said it completed successfully, I rescanned drives with the program and it still says I have 1.2... Strange.

Well, I also didn't have AHCI enabled and I am now running that (tried the update again after that, still didn't change status) so maybe that alone will help.
 
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Comment, if AHCI was not enabled then windows was probably not passing the trim cmd to the SSD. With Trim disabled it could adversly effect the performance over time.

Try downloading AS SSD. Run the program (DO NOT need to run the BENCH mark). Upper left side it should indicate: The SSD make/model, The Firmware version, the driver being used (msahci, or if an intel chipset iaSTor, Forgot what driver for Nvidia or AMD - MB model would be helfull), and if the partition is aligned correctly.

Added: If firmware still indicated incorrect version, would check with Corsair forum. May be a little quirk that you omitted. I know that this happends with the OCZ SATA III SSDs occassionally - seems that after you do the update you have to also remove power and then repower on.
 
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Ok I ran AS SSD and it says 1.2 as well. I shut down the computer, tunred off the power at the switch at the back, restarted, and it still says 1.2. I guess I'll get on the Corsair forum and see whats going on with that.

The earlier tools I ran said that trim was enabled despite not being AHCI. AS SSD says underneath the version that it is running PCI IDE drivers, and they are bad. I guess that means activating AHCI didn't work properly. I followed instructions for running the windows tool (which just changes the registry) then in the bios activated it, upon starting the PC it installed AHCI drivers and they are listed in the Device Manager. Flicking through my drives, the second 500GB drive is running PCI IDE, but the third 2GB drive says it is running the AHCI controller properly. Damn... Do I need to change something for the specific HDD in the bios to enable AHCI?

Edit: There was an option in the bios to allow both IDE and AHCI, which I guess is why one HDD had it but the others didn't. I disabled that so they all ran AHCI, computer kept crashing on boot before reaching windows so I had to disable it again... I know you aren't meant to activate it on a drive with the OS already installed, but I did do the registry change to allow it and do it properly.
 
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1) On FW Flash. The corsair should be simular to flashing a OCZ (I've flash both my (juk) Agility III SSDs - required using a linux boot disk and the Bios set to Ahci. Hopefully the Corsair forum will help.

2) On driver, YES the PCide driver will result in poor performance. If you can not resolve this, I'd would highly recommend re-instqlling the OS. NOTE: When installing the OS make sure you DISCONNECT all other HDDs during the install.

3) The fact that TRIM is enabled (ie verified by entry in registry) does NOT mean that it is working, that is that the drive receives the command and acts on it. Trim is Only passed if the driver passes it. For an Intel chipset that means that the Bios Must be set to AHCI (or Raid), and the driver used must be msahci, or better yet iaSTor (again for intel). For Intel chipset you need to down load and install the latest RST driver (10.6 i think)- that will install iaSTor. For non intel chipset you need to verify that the driver will pass trim, or use the default uSoft msahci driver. (would have been helpful if you had identified which chipset (or MB) you have.
 
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I agree with RetiredChief. At his point it does look like the best course of action is to do a complete reinstall of Windows. Make sure AHCI is turned on. I know it sounds like a pain, but it seems that the original install is simply causing too many problems. On a side note, you didn't like have the OS installed on a regular hard drive, and then clone it the to SSD did you? That is kinda what this looks like, and the results are pretty much typical of that situation.
 
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No it was a clean install of windows not a clone. I did consider doing that, but decided against it.

I will do a reinstall when I get a chance then.. I guess a repair won't be enough?

Before I do that I will confirm here that I have all the correct settings in the bios for AHCI as there seems to be several options. My mobo is an Asrock 890GX Extreme 3. I'll edit in the options I have in a sec.

In Advanced - Storage Configuration I have:
Onboard SATA Controller [Enabled]
SATA Operation Mode [AHCI]
AMD AHCI BIOS Rom [Enabled]
SATA IDE Combined Mode [Enabled] (This is what makes 2 of the HDDs operate in IDE still. Should it be disabled, or will the SSD automatically go to AHCI when the OS is reinstalled?)
SATA3_6 Mode [Gen2]
 
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1) Make sure you disconnect the HDDs durin the re-install.
2) May want to go to amd and download their AHCI driver. If simular to Intels' iaSTor driverthis would be installed after windows intal. Not sure which driver, AMDs or uSoft msahci driver provides the best performance. In Intel systems the Intel driver preforms better.
3) Combined mode - I'd probably disable unles need for compatability. I'm an Intel guy so would have to defer that to an AMD user.
 
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I disconnected my secondary HDDs, changed bios settings to disable combined mode, set to boot from disk with Windows disk in, it skipped the disk and went straight to Windows. (I can fix that myself) As soon as it reached windows, it tried to install AHCI drivers again then reset. I checked AS SSD after it restarted, it now says that the AHCI drivers are working properly for the SSD. Cool.

I tried to update the firmware again, it updated properly this time. Great. So it looks like the problem was caused by one of my secondary HDDs, possibly one that is too old for AHCI. I haven't tried reconnecting them to see if it is stable with them present yet, and haven't had a crash again yet but its only been a few hours.

Only problem is the Aeo3 HD SMART lite program still says the SSD is running at 128C, but I didn't completely believe that from the start anyway. Do you think I no longer need to reinstall windows since it seems to be working now? I will see what happens when I reattach my other HDDS, I might have to just keep the newer one and forget the older third one.
 
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Not true. You need to enable SMART in order to get readings from any HD, not just the SSDs.

I recently purchased a Patriot Pyro and the SMART reporting seems to be legit with temps hovering in the 35oC area.

The SMART option would be in the BIOS.
 
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