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]

My problem has been entirely solved by a Generation 2 Drive.

You can read posts by me prior to this one in the thread to see what I had done before, what I had been told might be the problem, and the saga of my journey through their customer support system, but the bottom line is that they eventually agreed (suggested even) exchanging my Generation 1 X-25M 80GB SSD (the generation 1's are the ones that are black) with a Generation 2 (silver) and everything now functions and is extremely fast.

I will add two footnotes: When installing a very large program from DVD (several gigabytes) the installaton froze once and I had to reboot. Later when installing an addition to that same program that required unpacking a multi-gig compressed file, making changes to it, and repacking it, it also froze the system. Both times I was able to try again and succeed. Its impossible to know if it was the program, the DVD drive, or the SSD, or even possibly Windows 7 as this was the first time I had attempted to install this program under the new OS, but in the end I was able to install and update the program and it functions as it should. I have had no other issues since installing the drive and I have been running it nearly non-stop for going on three days.

[idata]

The thing is, I DO HAVE a Generation 2 Intel SSD. AND I've got this problem. So everyone else got Generation 1 SSDs?

Damn I'm getting sick of this problem I've tried everything. Do I have to contact Intel och can I contact the store where I bought the SSD to get a new?

[idata]

Right now I'm going a test if it's really the SSD that isn't working... Removing it from the PC and installing windows at my other normal HDD. If the problem dissapears (gonna install same drivers and stuff ofcourse) I guess I'ts the SSD that isn't working and I will send it back.

[idata]

I have been suffering the same problem: hangs and freezes under windows 7. I have now rebuilt my PC using Windows 7 on a normal disk and everything is fine. I mounted the SSD back in the machine to copy some files off it, and straight away it locked my PC up. thankfully as the SSD was no longer the system disk the PC recovered, but was not able to access the SSD without a reboot.

Not sure yet if the problem is a windows 7 problem, or a drive problem: but my advice is the same: Do not buy an intel SSD, they are just having too many issues at the moment. So many people are reporting similar problems that this cannot be conincidence. SMART Data says everything is fine, but then drive locks up when it is put under any real load.

[idata]

I to have been struggling with this issue.

XFX MB-750i-72P9 Motherboard

nVidia 750i SLI SPP chipset

Installing Windows 7 froze at "Completing installation" twice, before finally managing on a third attempt, and then the system would just freeze up at random for the next 2 weeks.

Finally reinstalled Windows 7 on my original HDD and have had no issues at all since, BUT, when I try to copy some data from the the SDD it will freeze up the system mid copy.

I was contemplating obtaining an RMA, but what others seem to experience even after a replacement makes me think it's a compatability issue.

I would love to get this wokring properly, the drive when it functioned was lightning fast.

Timm