Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD hangs/freezes in Windows 7

[idata]

About a week ago, I bought Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G1 80GB SATA II MLC from NewEgg.com.

I plugged in the new SSD as my main (OS) drive (all my specs are in my sig.) and started installing Windows 7. During install I split the drive into 2 partitions: 20GB for win7 & the rest. On the first attempt win7 install froze at "completing installation" stage, iirc. As it was only my 2nd attempt to install windows 7, and first attempt to install it on the desktop pc, I waited for it to "unfreeze" or continue for ~30 min. Finally I gave up and had to push the reset button. I did my first windows 7 install that very same day on my Acer AO751h netbook and it went smoothly and pretty **** fast (and is still working perfectly).

On the second attempt I was able to install windows 7 successfully. I deleted partitions during second install and recreated/formatted only 1 partition 20GB for win7. The 2nd partition I created/formatted already in windows 7. Just after installation, on my first log in to windows 7, I installed Acronis True Image Home 2009 and tried to create an image of my fresh win7 OS partition. That is something I always do, I like having last fresh windows install image for quick "fresh restore", especially in this case, as I knew there are numerous tweaks to be made, to optimize SSD drive usage. Creating the image failed, as True Image software froze and shortly after-wards windows completely froze as well. At that point I had 5 Seagate 1.5TB (ST31500341AS) drives connected to my pc. Knowing the story behind those drives and from my own experience (from the 17 Seagate 1,5TB drives I had, 2 developed freezing/hanging problems), I obviously suspected the problem was one of them. I disconnected all drives, but Intel's SSD and tried to make partition image again. I probably tried 5-6 times and all attempts failed. By now I wasn't sure, maybe True Image was not working properly on windows 7, so I gave up on making image. I used windows 7 for a couple of days, applied tweaks for SSD, like moving paging file, temp files, disabling system restore, hibernation, indexing, superfetch, defrag, firefox memory cache, etc. Windows 7 was flying, I was ecstatic seeing the performance of windows. Though time from time, windows would just freeze up and nothing helped, but the reset button.

I started googling for solutions. All I could find, that maybe Intel SSDs have trouble with nForce chipsets (ironically, neweeg product review that was posted just yesterday put me on this track).

The questions I would like to ask:

What software should I use to diagnose this SSD? I could not find any tools on Intels site, and googling for SSD diagnostic tools gave me nothing.

Is the incompatibility of nForce chipset an Intel SSD the main and only reason for these hangs and freezes? Does the new G2 drives have this problem as well? If it is, I need to think about returning this drive.

Any other ideas/solutions?

I'd be very disappointed to return it, after experiencing the performance boost it delivered, when it was working

Thanks in advance.

[idata]

I doubt its Tagged Command Queuing actually because the first time I installed my O/S I installed it with IDE mode in Bios which means there is no Tagged Command Queuing in sata mode. Now I would have thought this is the problem because first time I installed it it worked but the second and third time I installed my O/S it was with IDE mode on and I had the freezing problems. 4th to 7th time I installed the O/S using AHCI mode but again it worked fine before the format its the drive...

[idata]

Well I had the Drive RMA'ed monday for overnight delivery tuesday. The Ups guy just left the note on my door so I waited in line for 3 hours and 30 minutes to get my SSD... The 2 guys infront of me had there packages lost by UPS so you can imagine how happy I was to get my drive in my hands. I sent Intel's drive back installed everything and after all this it still froze... So I do some snooping around and I figured out why the freezing was going on. Realtek Audio HD manager had Echo Cancellation on and whenever I would be in vent talking it would randomly freeze so after an unecessary RMA and a bunch of installs of windows Im just happy everything is working and wish I didint spend a week RMA'ing a perfectly good drive. Anyway hope that helps save someone an RMA as the issues all point toward's SSD or Memory .. Good Luck all!

[idata]

Not sure if this helps anybody, but the original drive I was having problems with in this thread is still in my possession and is now working like a charm.

I had long since given up on getting the drive working in my desktop PC. The MB I am using has an nvidia chipset and I was not able to find an option to disable Tagged Command Queuing anywhere. Then I bought a new laptop which had an Intel chipset. I installed the drive and it has worked fine ever since. Maybe if you have an option to change this in your BIOS it is worth a try but it seems that not every Nvidia chipset has this option available.

In my case I have never had a single problem after I moved the SSD to an Intel chipset motherboard.

[idata]

I've been seaching for ages to try and sort out my SSD after having problems exactly like most of you've mentioned.

I was thinking it could be RAM, PSU, all sorts of problems, but I'm at a loss to explain what could be causing my SSD with the OS installed on it to freeze and lock up.

It now doesn't even get past the Windows logo boot screen, even after trying to repair the system using the pre boot options, safe mode, F8 key etc.

Right now I'm using my standard HDD with the OS running so far fine on the same hardware. The SSD in question is now set as my secondary storage space where it works fine.

That's where I don't get it. It gradually froze worse and worse until became so bad that it doesn't even now boot the OS, yet as a secondary stoarge device it works fine when using files from it.

Help..

[RGiff]

Alot of the Nvida chipsets do not support AHCI so if yours does not support AHCI you can't install the SSD tool Box and have it work right.