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Intel SSD 320 160GB issue

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Hello all,

So I just bought an Intel SSD 320 160GB to add to my existing system as a new boot drive. However, it's not going smoothly...Windows 7 64-bit did install, but is highly unstable and will periodically hang for ~20 seconds every couple of minutes and eventually crash after a couple of these hangs. I booted back into my existing hard drive (which was still fully stable) and downloaded Intel's SSD toolbox - checked the firmware (was already the latest version) and ran a full diagnostic scan (came back clean).

So I formatted it and tried installing Windows 7 again...same deal. Then I tried my old XP 32-bit...stayed up a couple minutes longer, but after ~10 minutes I got a hard error that forced a reboot, followed by a chkdsk which came back clean...and then it would no longer boot into it.

So far I have tried the following:

-Flashed motherboard BIOS to latest version

-Installed latest motherboard drivers

-Disconnected the other hard drives

-Moved it to a different SATA connector

-Installed a different OS

-As mentioned, ran full diagnostic scan via SSD Toolbox and verified the SSD's firmware was the latest revision

Anyone have any other ideas? I'm running out, I think it may just be DOA. For reference, my system specs in case there's some weird compatibility thing:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

MSI P6N SLI

ADATA 4GB DDR2-800

Leadtek Geforce GT 240 GDDR5

Samsung 1TB and Western Digital 250GB hard drives

Thank you all.

2 REPLIES 2

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Did you also install the latest nForce drivers from Nvidia? n650 chipsets are pretty terrible (not just because they're old. they weren't very good from the start) - you may want to switch the motherboard to something more modern so that you can get AHCI and trim for your SSD.

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Thanks for the reply.

Turns out the drive is fine. This is actually a known compatibility issue with nForce chipsets that there are no plans to resolve. Tried a few workarounds, but no luck.

Fortunately my brother happened to have a system with a very similar CPU with an Intel-based chipset. Swapped computers with him, switching over the memory, hard drives and video cards - works like a dream.