Intel 520 freezes on MacBook Pro/Mac OS X Snow Leopard

[idata]

Hi all,

I installed an Intel 520 SSD (240GB) in my MacBook Pro yesterday. After reinstalling the system, I moved my datas.

I encounter freezes! A few seconds freezes/hangs. Quite often actually.

It seems a bit random but it is really annoying! The whole computer is frozen.

I noticed it happens more often when a lots of datas are going in and out. Browsing the web doesn't do much things. Copying a file from a disk image (DMG) to desktop, it freezes… sometimes.

The SSD has the 400i firmware. I installed the drive in the HHD bay. Negotiated Link Speed is 6 Gigabit. MacBook Pro EFI is up-to-date. Software is up-to-date.

I haven't activated the "Trim Enabler" software (Mac OS X doesn't manage for 3rd party drives).

I cannot run the SSD Toolbox from my Mac. I'll try to install Windows and see if it hangs up.

Have you heard about these problems? What can I do? I don't want to keep a drive behaving like this!

Thanks for your help,

[idata]

Same issue here. I'm on a MacBook Pro 5,1 running Lion. Just installed a 520 Series 240 GB Intel SSD, and am noticing irregular and unpredictable complete stalls of the system. Everything freezes. Cursor still moves, but everything else freezes. Other times, only a particular app will freeze (beach ball). Any help would be much appreciated.

[idata]

I have noticed in the Activity Monitor, that during the course of these "stalls" that I/O activity on the drive completely drops to zero for the duration of the stall. Is this an issue with the SSD or an issue with Mac OS X Lion?

[idata]

Hi Mark,

You perfectly described the problem. It is like that on my MacBook Pro too. I didn't find a specific reason for the hangs and freezes. I seems random.

I also noticed that I/O activity drops to perfect 0 during the hangs.

I have a MacBook Pro 8.2 and I am running Snow Leopard. So I would say, whether the driver is really bad or there is a problem with the controller. Some says the SandForce controller behaves badly with Mac systems.

I called the Intel support yesterday and they told me that I had to contact Apple and ask them if they knew about issues with this specific model of SSD. I am planning to do that today.

[idata]

Well, without any sign of a solution, and the problem completely rendering this MacBook Pro unusable, I exchanged the Intel 520 for a Crucial M4 256GB and everything is working perfectly. So, there's clearly something wrong with the Intel firmware or controller that is conflicting with the Mac hardware or OS. Could be a million things. Hope this helps.