System hang / freeze when using X25M G2 and Windows Server 2008

[idata]

Our company is trial testing general use of the X25M G2 with Windows Server 2008 R2. All the existing basic hardware works perfectly fine with all typical hard drives (disk). The Intel X25M G2 runs great except for very unusual system hang problem that seems to occur randomly during server use.

Here are the details:

System will hang when it is being used in all kinds of situations, web browsing, looking at the event viewer, looking at server roles, runing cmd prompt, etc. This is a true system hang. Cursor won't move, Cntrl+Alt+Delete does nothing, realtime processing is gone. There is no system activity.

They system seems to be stable running and not doing anything. It ran overnight without any hang or errors reported. So, it is definitely use related.

Board is an Abit AB9 Pro (P965 chipset using ICH8R controller)

BIOS configured to use ACHI

X25M is plugged into ICH8R SATA port 1, and another disk drive is in port 3

Server 2008 installed and detected the drive without any errors (verified it does the correct config optimizations as well)

I have updated the drive firmware and run the Intel disk tools to make sure there were no errors.

I've seen this thread here which seems very similar but is for Windows 7 and started with the X25M G1.

/thread/6579?start=45&tstart=0 http://communities.intel.com/thread/6579?start=45&tstart=0

The explanation seems on that thread seems to be some problem with the wear leveling algorithm? (So the user claims). I don't see why a wipe and re-image would fix that or just delay the problem from reoccuring. Is there any truth to this?

Message was edited by: PICWebmaster

[idata]

I've had long running problems with system hangs/ BSOD. I am fairly confident I have now isolated the problem, although I need more time to verify 100%.

I believe the problem is with SMART. If you are running in AHCI mode make sure that SMART monitoring is disabled in the BIOS.

(AHCI/ ICH9. ASUS motherboard. Win 7/64).

[idata]

I'm averaging about 1 hang per day thus far. I want to give it one more day to make sure it is repeatable problem. After that, I'll try the disable S.M.A.R.T. monitoring to see if it changes things. I can't really run a system like that however as I would need to know if the drive was going to fail? Do the standard smart errors really apply to a SSD?

Also, why would a smart monitor hang the system? If that is the case, it would sound like a poor design...

[idata]

I'm on my 4th day with no problems since I switched off SMART in the BIOS. I'll give it another couple of days and if I don't see any problems I'll switch SMART back to see if the problems come back.

Problems included system lock ups and/ or the BSOD. This would typically happen quite soon after switching on the PC. When the PC was rebooted the G2 drive would typically "disappear". The only way to get it back was to uplug the power and reset the cmos.

Event viewer messages included numerous atapi errors and disk errors, which would indicate controller or hard drive.

If it is SMART it's kind of weird that it's not a more common problem but I've checked everything else along the way and have swapped bits out to no avail. Its been a real pain.

Don't worry too much about switching SMART off in the BIOS. The Intel Toolbox still reports SMART data.

If switching off SMART fixes your problem please let me know.

[idata]

The system hang / freeze seems to have gone away with apparently no settings change from me what-so-ever. It has been 4 days of use and no problems. Not sure if there's some sort of "burn in" period on these drives or what exactly caused and fixed it. I am very certain I made no system changes however and the problem has not reoccurred. My test server still has SMART enabled. So, in a round about way, maybe I'm answering your question? Was your drive brand new as well? If so, try it with SMART enabled and see if it makes any difference. Maybe, like mine, it was just a burn in period?