" Intel has a task team in place " Why don't they join us?

[idata]

It's been a week since the problems began and basically no word from Intel. This is really a lame response to a major problem.

Why doesn't someone from the "task team", who are supposedly working on this issue, join this forum? Start a thread, let us know what's going on and, most importantly, seek some feedback. There are alot of smart folks on this forum, and maybe if you let us know whats going on and ask some questions, you might get some helpful answers.

Or, are you just too big and important that it would be too low for you to stoop?

[idata]

mikellini wrote:

I just thought I'd throw this in here. My drive was bricked, I phoned the support number and was speaking to a live person within 5 minutes, and paid $25 to have a drive cross-shipped air mail, which arrived 2 days after the phone call. Still the old firmware, and I'm still waiting to hear what is going to happen with a new firmware, but I have a brand new drive running and it only cost $25. I don't know about this 8-10 week RMA..

I did the same actually, I dialed the support number and spoke to some really friendly dude and can only repeat what I was told. Chance is he did not know himself. The difference to you is, I live in Germany.

I don't know what you mean by "cross shipping" (well, my english sucks as I'm no native speaker), but if you mean that you and Intel sent their packages simoultanously I can only envy you, since I don't have that option or atleast it was not offered to me. It is pretty common for an RMA-request to take about 8 weeks over here.

If cross-shipping is what I guess it is, than I will call them again tomorrow, that is f'ing awesome if they do that.

[idata]

I appreciate the responses regarding calling phone support. But this is my point exactly, why do we have to pay $25 to get a new drive shipped when it was INTEL's fault for the bricked SSD's in the first place? Also why do they have email support when no one responds to them? I have a hard time believing that a company as big as Intel lacks the resources to have a responsive support center. Intel is one of the biggest technology companies, yet they have a hard time responding to emails?!?

[idata]

Well, to be fair, I didn't HAVE to pay $25, I could have gotten them to email me a shipping label, print it out, ship my old drive, wait for them to get it and process it, and then they would have sent me a new one. I chose to pay the extra for cross-ship because it was quicker...

Actually the way their cross-ship works is, you pay the $25, then they send the new drive to you, and once you get the new drive, you put the old drive in the same box and ship it back with the included UPS label. The only catch is they hold some money on your credit card until they receive the old drive; I think it was only $180, and they took the hold off 5 days after I shipped it back to them.

P.S. The cross-shipping wasn't offered to me either, I had to ask about it, and then they transferred me to the cross-ship department.

[idata]

Intel did update their announcement (at the top) yesterday:

"We have been contacted by users with SSD issues after using the firmware upgrade tool (version 1.3) in a Windows 7* 64bit environment. Intel has replicated the issue on 34nm SSDs (X25-M) and is working on a fix. If users have downloaded 02HA firmware and not upgraded, Intel recommends they don't upgrade until further notice. Intel is pursuing the resolution of this as a high priority. No related issues have been reported by users who have successfully upgraded to 02HA firmware via the firmware upgrade tool (version 1.3)."

[idata]

So this is a win 7/64 problem? If so why are the drives being replaced? If it is a compatibility problem with the new firmware why not issue a down grade firmware to fix the problem and save having to do an rma?

Also I am currently experiencing problems that developed after a successful firmware update. My OS freezes, I get the BSOD and the drives "disappear." I have to clear the bios swap over the sata ports and the drive then reappears until it eventually (within 2 hours) crashes again.

I could switch to win 7/32 if that would be an interim solution, but is it? Someone please tell me. If I wipe the drives with hdderase and install win 7/32 will I be ok? I'' I'm quite happy to do this as an interim measure but I don't want to waste any more time on a futile exercise.