09-12-2009 06:15 PM
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.
10-16-2010 03:29 PM
Last try failed... I tried secure erase through the intel toolbox and secure erased my drive installed Windows 7 Ultimate in AHCI mode on and It still freezes very randomly... I could be playing a game or surfing the web for hours and then again the random freeze.
Also a side note Windows 7 took 1 minute and 30 seconds to load after I installed everything this specific time which never happend before. Then a few hours later and a few reboots later all taking 1 minute and 30 seconds it is back to normal taking about 30 seconds to boot in but still freezing... It is the X25M that I have. I spent a week of trouble shooting almost and ran every possible test I need to RMA it first thing monday. Thanks for the info in the forums guys it helped alot!10-16-2010 03:39 PM
I'm not saying it's not your SSD but have you checked your RAM lately? Just a thought and worth checking if not. Try Memtest86and run it for a least 6 consecutive runs, preferably from a cold boot.
http://www.memtest.org/ http://www.memtest.org/
Locks up as you describe sound much more like bad Ram than a bad SSD.
Go easy on the hdderase! It will reduce the life of your NAND if you over use it.
10-16-2010 04:38 PM
Trust me I know it sounds like a Ram issue but its not. My pc was working fine for the 4 months that I had it and all these problems started occuring right after a format and reinstall of Windows 7. Ive ran Windows Mem test a few times and my ram is fine... I've trouble shot this thing for almost a week im 100% positive it is the SSD.
10-16-2010 10:16 PM
You could try turning off the Tagged Command Queuing as I described in an earlier post see if that stops the freezing. Still RMA the drive though if that's an option for you.
Alec
10-17-2010 09:43 AM
I went into device manager and my IDE/ATAPI Controllers and I have ATA Channel 0 all the way to 5 followed by a Intel (R) ICH10 Family 6 port SATA AHCI controller -3A22 .
I did not see an option to turn off the feature alec... Im running on Windows 7 Ultimate but either way I know its the SSD Im just over night it tommorow to Intel and hope they do the same... My only regret is not sending it Friday since Ive known its the SSD I figured I troubleshoot every possible option before I sent it in. But again my PC ran fine for 4 months not a single crash or freeze and after I format I get random freezes not to mention windows taking 1 minute and 30 seconds to load up and then that fixed it self and it was back to 30 seconds. The drive is acting very weird Ill get a new one and let you guys know how it goes but either way im not second guessing it its the SSD...