Intel SSD 330. Windows 7 freezes frequently after fresh installation

[idata]

I had purchased intel SSD 330 120 Gb.

At first I installed in my desktop (AMD Board), a lot of time the SSD fail to be detected with SMART error.

After that I had it installed in my notebook. It worked, but frequently the windows freezes, I have to reboot, and it's ok. After that the problems comes again and I have to reboot again.

I had the SSD removed, then installed to another desktop (intel), the same problem comes up. I had to reboot to resolve the freezes. I could not get into the Internet when the windows freezes.

THis is very frustrating, I could not get tow work with three different machine. I have another SSD (OCZ),which work with my desktop and notebook.

Can anybody assist me on this.

I had done fresh installations on all three machine.

Can I proceed with RMA?

Thanks.

[idata]

... and you can add me as well.

Symptoms are that every few hours or so, for a few minutes the drive will go full unresponsive.

The BIOS cannot even recognize it...

Does intel even monitor its own support forums?

[idata]

Have you guys tried contacting Intel customer support?

[idata]

>> Have you guys tried contacting Intel customer support?

Yes, and was told to send the thing in for replacement. The problem with that is that I have a ton of very personal family and business stuff on it before the Toolbox stopped recognizing it. I can still access the drive using Windows Explorer and the data is all still there.

Things like log-ins to all of the family AND business bank accounts, spreadsheets of business analysis, Accounting for family AND business etc. Of course I have backups but I do NOT feel comfortable sending in a drive with all that stuff on it.

IF I could get the Toolbox to see the drive, I would use the Secure Erase and then send it in. Right now I am out $150 and all I have to show for it is a thing to set my coffee cup on.

IF I could get some way from Intel to run the Secure Erase via Explorer then I would happily send it in. Although to be honest, I'd much rather get a refund as this seems to be very common fault and I could expect to see it happen again with a replacement SSD.

Since there IS a Secure Erase option, I assume that just erasing the files with Explorer is NOT secure.

The irony is I bought the Intel drive because of the Intel name. I understand things can have bugs, but I do NOT understand why Intel seems to be ignoring this issue. I guess because it is not their core business, it doesn't really matter to them all that much. Make $10B from CPUs and $1M from SSDs, which squeaky wheel gets the grease?

[idata]

Freezing issue are usually power related. That is, power saving settings in WIndows that work fine with HDDs do not with SSDs. Laptops are particularly known for this problem with SSDs, since they are set up to save power at all times. Laptops are also designed and configured for their stock hardware, and changing to other drives will have varying levels of risk and success.

In Windows Power Options (Control Panel), click Change plan settings, and then the Advanced settings for your power plan. Under Hard Disk, set Turn off hard disk after: to Never.

If you use the Toolbox, be sure to use the System Tuner option.

An Intel SSD not being seen in the Toolbox can be caused by the SATA chipset and driver the SSD is used with. If the chipset is non-Intel, and the standard Windows 7 msahci driver is NOT used, then the Intel SSD may not be recognized by the Toolbox. Many boards have a secondary non-Intel chipset, such as a Marvell, that don't communicate correctly with the Toolbox when the Marvell driver is used, for example. When the driver is changed to msahci, the SSDs will be recognized. Optional Windows Updates may have installed a new driver on a chipset, which caused the Toolbox to no longer see a SSD.

Boards with AMD chipsets and drivers will be unpredictable in their compatibility with the Toolbox and SSDs. Some may work, others won't.

"Erasing" or deleting files in Windows Explorer has never erased or over-written data on any HDD or SSD. With OS's that have TRIM support, a file deleted on a SSD will actually be erased, either immediately or later on when the SSDs garbage collection function is running. A SSD Secure Erase will also remove all data on a SSD. HDDs must be Secure Erased in their own way, by over-writing the entire drive, or a full format. Never full format a SSD, it will be cleared of data but filled with garbage data, and will need a SE or at least a quick format to bring it back to decent performance.

[idata]

Parsec, thanks for taking time to reply in detail but you have based your comments on way too many assumptions, certainly in my case. If you check this thread I started a week back,

You will see that the SSD had been working with this computer, it is just recently, after some successive freezes, stopped looking like an SSD to the Intel Toolbox. I cannot select it with the Toolbox to do anything with it but Explorer shows it and it seems to operate as a perfectly good data disk. Not quite what I sprung the 150-bucks for though.

I had read probably 100+ postings here and elsewhere on the problems and have tried all of the power settings, AHCI, Registry tweaks etc and suggestions but the Toolbox still does not see it. Note that in the above posting, a fresh-burned Firmware update CD also does not see it, but Explorer does. Thus; selecting "System Tuner" or anything else is useless as the Toolbox no longer sees *any&* Intel SSD. Yes, I did download and install a new copy of the Toolbox, - same same.

Finally, thanks for the emphasis on the deleting capabilities of Windows OS' in general since the beginning of their time. As a programmer with 35+ years (before there was an IBM PC) experience, I am well aware of the method used to "delete" a file. And - that is specifically why I would not use Explorer to delete the files and then send the SSD in for replacement.

I was merely trying to show that having Secure Erase as an option in the Toolbox to indicate that Explorer deletes were not actually deleting anything, just changing a few Bytes.