Intel 520 Series 120G SSD random BSOD's - please help

[idata]

Gday guys,

just wanted to humbly ask for some help. I've recently fitted a new 520 Series SSD into my PC and im getting random BSOD's. I've had 2 today so far after loading a fresh installation of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 early this morning. I wasnt doing anything taxing (just using Firefox and copying files to another PC over ethernet).

My hardware:

Gigabyte P67A-UD7-B3 running 2nd latest BIOS.

8Gb Corsair Vengeance RAM

2x GTX570's in SLI

2Tb WD RE4

1.5Tb WD Green

72Gb WD Raptor.

LG Blu-ray

History:

I had an OCZ Vertex 2 fail completely in my machine last week. No history of any problems before that. I fitted a backup SATA HDD till i received the Intel 520 i planned to replace the Vertex with. No issues with the backup SATA HDD running in IDE mode.

I fitted the intel 520 and initially set it up using IDE. Realising i should have set it to AHCI, i tried the registry tweak trick but it didnt work and wouldnt load windows on reboot anymore. So re-installed Windows fresh using AHCI. Loaded the latest Intel inf drivers, RST drivers and the other mobo drivers from Gigabyte. I also flashed the BIOS to the most recent non-beta version.

First issue was the extremely slow boot times (2 mins to desktop). After i was at desktop, there didnt appear to be any problems except for the first BSOD. Tracked the slow booting problem down to the 1.5Tb WD drive. If i remove it, the boot time is only about 20 secs. Fit the drive, and its back to 2mins. I plan to replace that drive this week but will leave it fitted for now to remove data from it.

Most annoying issue atm is the random BSOD's. The first time it happened, it was too quick and i didnt see the code/ file. No dump file either. I changed windows settings to catch the next one and it happened a few hours later calling a MSRPC.SYS file.

Problem signature: 

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1 Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem: 

BCCode: 7a BCP1: FFFFF6FC4000CA68 BCP2: FFFFFFFFC0000056 BCP3: 0000000127165860 BCP4: FFFFF8800194D780 OS Version: 6_1_7600 Service Pack: 0_0 Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem: 

C:\Windows\Minidump\020412-120214-01.dmp C:\Users\cylon2\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-121867-0.sysdata.xml

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Im not sure what to do now. Im just waiting for it to crash again to gather more data i guess. I've read that the Sandforce controllers can cause BSOD issues but i would have thought intel would have ironed those issues by now if theyre using it on their new 520 series. You guys have any thoughts on this?

Apart from swapping the HDD out with another one, is there anything else i can do to narrow down/ force the problem? Maybe its the AHCI playing up? Maybe its not the SSD, but the history of events points towards it. Am tempted to try installing Windows again in IDE mode to see if that changes anything. Is there any special "drive erase" that i should do before reloading windows in IDE mode? Ive just been formatting the drive as per normal.

Would appreciate any advice at all guys. Bit disappointed and have had my head in the pc case for some days now and quite frustrated. Need to get up and running to continue my work. 😐 Thanks for reading so far.

Cheers

Anthony

[idata]

Gday gents,

Dave, thanks for the tip, however from i what i read in the help section in IRST, writeback cache is for Arrays and volumes and i dont have that option to turn on.

You're both correct, i dont believe there is any problem with this drive, and i dont think this was an Intel 520 specific issue either. In my case, there was a long string of issues ranging from multiple BIOS settings that were wrong, another HDD pulling system performance down, and the Intel RST issue (LPM). This could have happened with any fast SSD on the market (in my opinion).

To date, after doing the LPM tweak, i havent had a single BSOD and the OS runs faster than it ever has.

However, i do feel for those consumers who are going to throw one of these fast devices into their machines and not know wtf is going on. Its been a steep learning curve for me and i've only gotten so far because of the broad range of helpful people who have shared their experiences and settings with the same mobo and SSD combos. Thanks also to the guys who have helped in this forum, really appreciate it.

Parsec, haters gonna hate. Enjoy your new drive when you receive it SSD's are the future. HDD's went out in the 80's, lol.

[idata]

skiman, Dave might be referring to the write cache option that is available from Device Manager, in the Disk drives section. Select a drive and in the Policies tab you'll see the Write caching option.

The Intel SSD Toolbox is great to use with an Intel SSD, you really should use it if you have an Intel SSD.

I've used Intel SSDs with RST drivers on three different PCs, and never had any problems, including LPM. That may depend on your Windows Power option setting, if you use high performance, which I do, that is not a problem.

[DShar11]

In terms of performance the 11 series driver just smokes the enterprise driver, either one of them.

Also, with the 11 series driver the Intel Toolbox is fully functionable.

[idata]

Hey Parsec,

thanks for clarifying. I just checked write cache in device manager and it is turned on. Also checked my power settings before i did the LPM tweak and made sure they were on full. I do use the SSD Toolbox, but apart from using the optimiser and diagnostics and tuning (the first time), i dont imagine you would use it very often. How often should i optimise the drive if its my OS?

Cheers mate

[idata]

The recommendation for optimization is once a week, as it states in the Optimizer screen. You can set it up to perform that on a schedule, automatically.

No, you don't use the Tool Box all the time, just like that special wrench in your other toolbox. But when you need it, you're glad you have it.