topic Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD in Solid State Drives (NAND)

Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

DWund — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 21:55:30 GMT

I've been using a 240GB Intel SSD 520 as my boot drive for about three weeks (Intel RSTe v3.5.1.1009). I have not had any problems with day to day operations and the AS SSD benchmark for the drive is about what I would expect it to be. Yesterday I attempted to optimize the drive using Intel SSD Toolbox v3.1.2. At 85% I got a BSOD that completely froze the system. I did a hard reboot and the system came up without an issue. All of the trim files created by SSD Toolbox were still on the drive. I deleted them manually and attempted to optimize the drive again. The result was the same. Except this time when I restarted the system the SSD boot drive could not be found. The second time I tried to turn the computer on the SSD drive was found and the system booted. I ran SSD Toolbox quick and full diagnostic scans and neither found a problem with the drive. I also ran optimize on an X25-M SSD drive I also have in my system and it completed without a problem.

Although the drive seems to be working fine, the fact that running optimize crashes the system has me concerned with its long-term reliability. Any suggestions for further troubleshooting the problem (or fixing it) would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:24:22 GMT

I am also having the same problem on a 120gb 520 drive. I am running RST 11.7.0.1013 drivers on windows 8 64 bit.

I have been having this problem for several weeks if not longer.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:55:49 GMT

Same problem here with an Intel SSD 520 240GB.

Intel SSD Optimizer stucked at 85%. (Toolbox 3.1.2)

After reboot, i had a blackscreen after Windows Logo disappeared.

The next reboot, all was fine.

Checkdisk didn't find problems.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

KenF_Intel — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:00:23 GMT

Hi All,

We are looking into the issue you are reporting.

Are any of you using your drives in a RAID?

Are any of you using your drives in systems with non-Intel chipsets?

Thanks.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:09:56 GMT

I am using my 120GB Intel 520 SSD on a Dell Latitude e6400 (PM45 northbridge, 82801IEM ICH9M-E southbridge),

Dell BIOS A32.

Driver version is: RST 11.7.0.1013

OS: Windows 8, 64bit. Fully updated up to February 15, 2013.

The drive is not in a RAID.

I should note that the Bluescreen does not happen during the optimization process, but occurs within 1-2 minutes after completion.

This may be a related issue, but I am having difficulty hibernating the system with the 520 drive. Entering into hibernation fails 100% of attempts while the 520 drive is present in the system. This is regardless of RST driver versions, and also occurs under Windows 7. I have the exact same experience with two separate 520 drives. "Fast startup" on windows 8 also fails when shutting the computer down.

Mirroring and swapping the 520 drive to another non-intel HD alleviates the issues with hibernation and fast start-up.

Any ideas Ken?

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

DWund — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 03:23:18 GMT

Ken,

The system is set to RAID in the BIOS. However the two SSDs in the system are not part of a RAID array. Four HDDs are in two RAID0 arrays.

Here are some additional details of the system:

Motherboard: Rampage IV Extreme (BIOS Rev. 3404)

Processor: Intel i7 3930K

Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance Dual/Quad Channel DDR3-1866MHz (CMZ16GX3M4X1866C9)

SSD1: Intel SSD 520 (240GB) on SATA Port 0 (6Gb/s, Intel) (Boot)

SSD2: Intel X25-M (160GB) on SATA Port 1 (6Gb/s, Intel)

HDD Raid 0 Array 1: 2 Seagate 1.5TB Barracudas on SATA Ports 2 and 3 (3Gb/s, Intel)

HDD Raid 0 Array 2: 2 Seagate 2.0TB Barracudas on SATA Ports 4 and 5 (3Gb/s, Intel)

Optical Disk 1: LG BD-RE BH08LS20 on SATA Port 6 (3Gb/s, Asmedia)

Optical Disk 2: LG BD-RE BH12LS38 on SATA Port 7 (3Gb/s, Asmedia)

Graphics Card: ASUS Nvidia GTX 680 (4GB model)

Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Titanium

Power Supply: Antec 1000W HCP-1000

OS: Windows 8 Pro with Media Center

If I can provide any other information, let me know.

Cheers,

DarWun

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:52:58 GMT

I also get BSOD's in RAID mode when trying to TRIM an SSD drive.

I have the DX79SI motherboard and two Intel 520 SSD's.

I have given up on getting any answers to this problem after 6 months of waiting. The x79 chipset will apparently be obsolete before this SNAFU will be solved - if ever. And by the way - forget about Smart Response for the x79. It was promised last year. Apparently socket 2011 support isn't high on Intels agenda.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:23:35 GMT

I have the same problem with the 520 240GB. Stuck ar 86% - then a system failure - but in Windows 8 which is not a BSOD, but a system failure page. Same thing.

I have lots of Intel SSD's. The 520 is the only model with this problem.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:37:06 GMT

I just tried installing the new RST drivers: 11.7.1.1001, and the computer BSOD as it was restarting as soon as the install completed.

Windows 8 error message:

"CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED"

EDIT: To follow up, after restarting, I tried running SSD optimize and it reached 100% but then the computer locked up but did not BSOD. Had to manually power off after 5 minutes of being non-responsive.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:19:34 GMT

IMO, this issue is related to the SandForce controller used in the 520. Given the way the SandForce controller works, which is very different from other SSD controllers, it is difficult for the Optimizer to perform its work relative to other SSD controllers. Note that other Intel SSDs that don't use the SF controller do not have this problem.

I doubt there is much if anything users can do to fix this issue, it will require an update to the Toolbox so it will work correctly with Windows 8.

Until then, the Windows 8 Optimize feature for SSDs works fine in my experience, even with SSDs in RAID 0 volumes.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

DWund — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:14:18 GMT

A bit of an update. I just installed the Intel RSTe ver.3.6.0.1093 drivers that were released on February 21. After doing so, Toolbox optimize only made it to 35-percent before throwing up an error saying optimization had failed and a reboot was required. Although I did not get a BSOD this time, the system performance was "sluggish" after I closed the Toolbox program. As I was navigating to the shutdown option, multiple memory access violation errors occurred for other running processes before the system locked up entirely. I had to do a hard shutdown of the computer at that point.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

RCram — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:47:46 GMT

This problem effects the 180 GB SSD 520 models.

Intel SSD Toolbox: 3.1.2

Intel 520 180 GB Firmware: LCSi

Intel RST: 11.7.0.1013

SSD is connected to the SATA III as my only internal drive. No RAID. Two external hard drives via USB 3 ports.

OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP1 with current patches

System: HP Pavilion dv7t-7000 Quad

CPU: Intel i7-3720QM four cores.

BIOS: Insyde F.24

I have own the PC for five months. Today after the scheduled SSD Optimizer ran, the PC did not respond to opening applications. The mouse moved, however when I clicked on an icon on the desktop about 1 or 2 minutes after the SSD Optimizer finished running, nothing happened.

Then all of my desktop icons disappeared along with the system taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Basically, I was staring at my wallpaper image. Then I started getting memory access violation errors and about another minute later BSOD which was unable to create a crash dump file. I had to hold the power button down and crash the PC.

No errors reported when I ran full diagnostics in the Intel SSD Toolbox.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

KenF_Intel — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:43:23 GMT

Hi all,

I have not been able to recreate this issue yet.

Do any of you that are experiencing the problem have an HDD password set in the BIOS? If so, please try removing the password and then run the optimizer.

Thanks.

ken

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

RCram — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:46:54 GMT

For my 520 180 GB SSD, I am not using BIOS password when the incident occur per my original post.

PS: In case it matters, I have never had a BIOS password set on the machine or a password set on the SSD.

Also, I was unable to recreate the problem when the schedule task initiated the SSD Optimizer. However, from this thread, it appears that the SSD will stop responding after the Optimizer completes causing the BSOD and in my case the BSOD could not create a crash dump.

Thank you.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

RCram — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 14:08:12 GMT

Ken,

In your attempts to recreate the problem, have you tried making a lot of deletes to the SSD drive that would cause the SSD Optimizer to have cells that needed to be clean-up when the SSD Optimizer job is run from the scheduler?

Maybe clone the SSD and restore the image to the SSD. With wear leveling, this should cause cells that are unused that contain data that need to be cleaned-up after the image restore correct?

Thank you.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

DWund — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:30:33 GMT

Thanks for your efforts Ken. In response to your latest query, I do not have an HDD password set in the BIOS.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

idata — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:44:53 GMT

Mirroring and swapping the 520 drive to another non-intel HD alleviates the issues with hibernation and fast start-up.

I have solved the hibernation issue by installing RST drivers 12.0.0.1082. The toolbox issue is still unresolved.

I must note my displeasure with Intel for discontinuing support of ICH9 with the latest v12 drivers, especially since the drivers fix an issue I have been having for 8 months. I have to use modified driver pack from a german forum to get the new drivers to install.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

KenF_Intel — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:47:23 GMT

Hi All,

No luck recreating this yet. I'll keep plugging away. I encourage anyone who would like 1:1 help to contact our customer support center. You can find contact information at http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport.

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

EKim11 — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:00:50 GMT

I have a somewhat similar problem. I run the SSD Optimizer (SSD Toolbox) for my Intel 520 240GB (400i) and after it goes to 100%, it kind of locks up for a minute and I can't open any apps. After the minute the lock up is gone and everything seems to be normal. But this still concerns me and the long term reliability of this SSD.

During the lock up, my hard drive activity light glows continuously until the lock up is gone. I tried the optimizer with and w/out buffer flushing and I have disabled hibernation completely. I also don't let my SSD go to "rest" in the Power Saving options.

Should I RMA or just leave it? I bought an OEM version with a cardboard box and product labels on the box (NCIX). Do warranties apply to OEM products, too?

Re: Running Toolbox Optimize on 240GB Intel SSD 520 Results In BSOD

DWund — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:43:18 GMT

Ken,

Over the weekend I played around with my setup to see if I could find anything that might provide insight to the problem. I removed all other drives (four hard drives, one SSD and two optical BD drives) and unnecessary hardware (sound card) from the system, reconfigured the Intel SATA controller to AHCI, and disabled the Asmedia SATA controller. I then did a clean install of Windows 8 on the SSD 520 drive. After applying all Windows Updates, I installed the latest RSTe drivers and SSD Toolbox. When I ran the Toolbox optimize, the result was the same as previously reported. So that rules out RAID or a conflict with the other SATA controller as being the issue.

As the next step in my troubleshooting efforts, I picked up another SSD 520 from a retailer with a 15day return policy. I did a clean install of Windows 8, applied all Windows Updates and installed the RSTe drivers and Toolbox. Toolbox optimize errored out part way through the process as it did with the other drive. So that rules out a bad drive (unless I am extremely unlucky and the second drive is bad too).

Short of installing the drive in a different computer (which I would do if I had a second computer) or testing the drive under Windows 7 instead of Windows 8, I'm out of troubleshooting ideas. I had hoped that I could trace the problem to a bad drive so I could go down the RMA route to receive a replacement. But there is no point in doing that given that a second identical drive exhibits the same behaviour. For now the drive seems to be operating fine for day-to-day use. But I'm a bit concerned with the fact that each time I have run optimize the percentage complete that is reached before it crashes is less than the time before (made it to 86% a month ago, but on the latest run it only makes it to 15%).