Update from Intel's NAND Solutions Group - Firmware issue

[Alan_F_Intel]

To 34nm (G2) Intel® X25-M Solid-State Drive consumers,

• Intel has confirmed an issue with the firmware update process for 34nm (G2) Intel® X25-M SSDs (80GB and 160GB). This predominantly affected Windows* 7 (64bit) users during or immediately after the upgrade process to 02HA firmware using the firmware update tool (version 1.3). Intel plans to release a fix for this issue by the end of November 2009.

• Please see below to decide what you should do:

• If you have not upgraded to 02HA but using 02G2 or 02G9 – then use new tool when available to upgrade to new firmware to get Trim support and better sequential write performance (160GB)

• If you have successfully upgraded to 02HA - then continue using the SSD, there are no known issues.

• If you have received a SSD with 02HA pre installed – then continue using the SSD, there are no known issues.

• If you have unsuccessfully upgraded to 02HA - then contact Intel Customer Support for instructions on how to recover the SSD via secure erase or return SSD to Intel for replacement or refund.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Alan

NAND Solutions Group

Intel Corporation

[idata]

Intel plans to release a fix for this issue by the end of November 2009.

Does this mean that Intel will release a revised 02HA firmware which can only be applied by those who still have 02G2 or 02G9, or will the new firmware be offered to anyone including those who successfully upgraded to 02HA?

I am asking because while I successfully upgraded to 02HA, I was told by Intel support staff that I should not replace the Intel MSM drivers with the Microsoft ones, since, with the current 02HA firmware, it might trash my SSD if TRIM is passed to the drive (Win7 x64). Also, the raw amount of data written to the SSD is inplausibly high, according to SMART (numerous gigabytes each day, even when virtually nothing is written to the drive) - could that mean the lifespan of the drive is shortened significantly, or will the drive produce SMART errors once the calculated lifespan (based on raw writes) is exceeded?

If so, I'd expect that either Intel will offer a new firmware open to anyone including those who successfully flashed 02HA which also fixes the "raw writes" problem, or will at least offer to replace those 02HA drives who exhibit no direct failure but still suffer from a severly shortened lifespan or SMART errors.

[DZand]

@ derkurt:

As far as I understood the start post, it is not the Firmware version 02HA, which is faulty, but the installer version of the flash tool.

[idata]

derkurt,

When did the Intel support line say this to you? If it was early on it may have been before they realised that it was the loader program that was causing the incorrect firmware installation, and not the firmware itself.

It is clear now that the 'new firmware' is not a new firmware at all, just a firmware + a corrected installer. So if you have successfully upgraded to 02HA you should have no further problems, and you should be able to reinstall the Microsoft drivers to successfully use TRIM.

[idata]

I am not so sure about that. If the installer was bad, why have some of us been able to upgrade the firmware? Maybe some compatility issue, but maybe something else is not right with the 02HA firmware.