SSD no longer found in Bios, can it be recovered?

[idata]

Hi Guys,

First time poster with limited knowledge here so please bear with me and apologies for any stupid questions. My system consists of i7 965, 6Gb RAM, DX58SO Mobo and of course Intel X25-M 160GB 2.5" SSD. For a few months the system ran as expected with Windows 7. As a student this PC stays with my mum whilst I'm living in a different house closer to the university during the week. A few weeks back she phoned to say the PC wasn't working. When I got home and tried it the system now took around 3.5 minutes to boot hanging several times before a message was displayed stating a boot drive could not be located. It can no longer be located in the bios either. Following a lot of online advice I tried several things to no avail so contacted intel. Having tried the SSD on 2 other computers I can say the same symptoms occurred and the drive couldn't be located on the Bios of those PCs either. However when its not plugged in the system boots as normal and if a different SATA Hard Drive (Western Digital) is inserted it is located and Windows boots as normal. So there is an issue with the SSD i'm assuming (with my limited knowledge).

I've been told by intel support to try updating the firmware, firstly is this possible if the SSD cannot be located in the BIOS? and secondly as I'm still a complete novice at these things how can it be done as the email received from support had no details as to how this could be done? I'm still awaiting a response from Intel which hopefully I'll receive tomorrow but is there anything I could do in the meantime and is this SSD recoverable or is it a case of RMA?

I haven't tried booting with the current Hard Drive and SSD both connected as I'm not sure what settings to use in the BIOS? Is there a way of testing the SSD (found a few discussions on this but not sure) and has anyone come across something similar to this and found a solution?

Sorry again for posting so many questions, the problem may be something simple and I apologise for my lack of knowledge but I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to try next and could really do with the help. Any help would be greatly appreciated !

PS the dx58so has been updated to the latest firmware, could this be an issue?

Regards,

Kingsheep

[idata]

Kingsheep007, I'm interested in what the the intel customer support did for you. My two intel x25-m postville 80gb was the exact same problem. One functioned fine for about a month and when I went to install RAID 0 for windows 7 64-bit, I formatted one of them and it cannot be recognized by the BIOS. Second one I installed vista and wanted windows 7 instead. When I formatted the partition, it cannot be recognized by the BIOS once more. The firmware on the SSD were 02HA. I'm kinda pissed off right now with these SSD. HDD shows much more reliability when it comes to formatting this. In my case, I was issued an RMA and had them replaced. I hope you don't get stuck with a ~$300 piece of coaster.

[idata]

Hey, thanks for the reply...thought maybe cos I'm a newbie that nobody would reply. Basically after they got me to try a few things out the guy suggested that it can't be repaired and that a request to escalate it to an RMA had been made. I gave him the details on Friday of the model etc of the SSD and sent an email with proof of purchase. Haven't heard anything back. I'm assuming there shouldn't be any issue in getting a replacement? There is no doubt that the performance of the SSD is great but with all the problems people have had I've began to wonder whether or not it is worthwhile! I'm a student so it was a lot of money for me to spend to have what is currently an expensive paper weight. The only other concern I have is I'm from the UK but bought the SSD through Intel themselves when I was employed there on placement (Internship). I'm wondering because of this will I have to return to device to the US or is there somewhere more local like in the UK? As you can imagine the shipping costs and customs would make it quite expensive for me to return and get a new one sent out. Obviously if anyone have any experience of this, what generally happens in this case?

[idata]

I'm a student too! I paid over $500 for both my SSD. CLEARLY, it was the wrong decision. I had to pay shipping back to newegg. Since i live in Canada, I don't get dinged by customs. But I do believe that RMA does not recieve any customs or anything. If they do, you have to follow up and talk with the postal office and etc...