Brand new 525 SSD (120GB) stops responding on write

[ANiel2]

Hi all,

I am just setting up a brand new 525-series SSD (SSDMCEAC12) and as soon as I try to write more than a few MB of data to it it stops responding. I can't even use smartctl to get any details out of the drive, and if I reset the PC it locks up at the BIOS logo (motherboard is an Intel DH87MC.)

If I power off the board for a few minutes then everything seems fine until I write more than a few MB to the SSD and then it stops responding again. Am I doing something wrong? I'm just booting Linux off a USB stick and copying files onto the SSD over the network (so that I can then boot off the SSD instead.) The SSD is not warm at all so it's not a temperature issue. Before it locks up smartctl reports a normal temperature (33 degrees.)

Here are some of the kernel messages I get when things break:

Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0xfffffff SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: [135B blob data] Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: status: { DRDY } Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: [138B blob data] Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: status: { DRDY } Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: [138B blob data] Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: status: { DRDY } Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: [138B blob data] Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: status: { DRDY } Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: [138B blob data] Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: status: { DRDY } Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: [138B blob data] Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: status: { DRDY } ... Sep 07 16:07:52 archiso kernel: ata6: hard resetting link Sep 07 16:07:58 archiso kernel: ata6: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0) Sep 07 16:08:02 archiso kernel: ata6: COMRESET failed (errno=-16) Sep 07 16:08:02 archiso kernel: ata6: hard resetting link Sep 07 16:08:08 archiso kernel: ata6: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0) Sep 07 16:08:12 archiso kernel: ata6: COMRESET failed (errno=-16) Sep 07 16:08:12 archiso kernel: ata6: hard resetting link Sep 07 16:08:18 archiso kernel: ata6: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0) ... Sep 07 16:08:47 archiso kernel: ata6: COMRESET failed (errno=-16) Sep 07 16:08:47 archiso kernel: ata6: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps Sep 07 16:08:47 archiso kernel: ata6: hard resetting link Sep 07 16:08:52 archiso kernel: ata6: COMRESET failed (errno=-16) Sep 07 16:08:52 archiso kernel: ata6: reset failed, giving up Sep 07 16:08:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: disabled Sep 07 16:08:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 Sep 07 16:08:52 archiso kernel: ata6.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Malvineous, you may want to try updating the BIOS. In case it does not help, I wonder if you have the possibility of testing the Intel® SSD 525 in a different computer.

Please let us know about the results.

[ANiel2]

Thanks for your reply. I tried updating the BIOS (v43 to v47) but it didn't make a difference, which is probably because Linux accesses the hardware directly.

Unfortunately I can't test the SSD in a different computer as it's an mSATA device and the DH87MC motherboard is the only device I have with an mSATA slot. I do however have another two 3.5" hard disks attached to the board through the same onboard SATA controller and they work normally.

Are there any known problems with this series of SSD that causes them to lock up and stop responding to host commands?

[Jose_H_Intel1]

We are currently researching this issue.

[ANiel2]

Is there any news on this issue? After working through diagnostics with Intel support, and having their diagnostic programs report the drive as not responding after the first write, I returned the SSD via the standard warranty replacement procedure.

The replacement SSD arrived yesterday and I just tried to set it up and the replacement one also freezes as soon as I try to write to it! In the meantime I bought an mSATA to normal SATA adapter, so this time I am trying the SSD in a completely different PC, yet it behaves exactly the same way!

I have to say I'm pretty annoyed - two out of two devices failing, a 100% failure rate - is pretty poor by any standards. I expected much better from Intel. Do these devices actually get tested before they leave the factory?? It appears not:

[1075679.229162] ata8.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x7000ffff SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen [1075679.229170] ata8.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED [1075679.229178] ata8.00: cmd 61/00:00:00:30:09/04:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 524288 out res 40/00:01:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x4 (timeout) [1075679.229182] ata8.00: status: { DRDY } [1075679.229185] ata8.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED [1075679.229192] ata8.00: cmd 61/00:08:00:38:09/04:00:00:00:00/40 tag 1 ncq 524288 out res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) [1075679.229196] ata8.00: status: { DRDY } [1075679.229199] ata8.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED [1075679.229205] ata8.00: cmd 61/00:10:00:3c:09/04:00:00:00:00/40 tag 2 ncq 524288 out res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) [1075679.229209] ata8.00: status: { DRDY } [1075679.229212] ata8.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED [1075679.229218] ata8.00: cmd 61/00:18:00:40:09/04:00:00:00:00/40 tag 3 ncq 524288 out res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) [1075679.229222] ata8.00: status: { DRDY } [1075679.229225] ata8.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED [1075679.229231] ata8.00: cmd 61/00:20:00:44:09/04:00:00:00:00/40 tag 4 ncq 524288 out res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) [1075679.229235] ata8.00: status: { DRDY } ... [1075679.229376] ata8: hard resetting link [1075689.232475] ata8: softreset failed (1st FIS failed) [1075689.232482] ata8: hard resetting link [1075699.232459] ata8: softreset failed (1st FIS failed) [1075699.232467] ata8: hard resetting link [1075734.232447] ata8: softreset failed (1st FIS failed) [1075734.232456] ata8: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps [1075734.232460] ata8: hard resetting link [1075739.409117] ata8: softreset failed (device not ready) [1075739.409124] ata8: reset failed, giving up [1075739.409128] ata8.00: disabled [1075739.409136] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409140] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409145] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409149] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409152] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409156] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409159] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409164] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 [1075739.409168] ata8.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0 ... [1075739.409284] ata8: EH complete [1075739.409325] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] Unhandled error code [1075739.409328] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] Unhandled error code [1075739.409331] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] [1075739.409334] Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00 [1075739.409336] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] CDB: [1075739.409345] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] [1075739.409348] Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00 [1075739.409350] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] CDB: [1075739.409339] cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a [1075739.409353] cdb[0]=0x2a [1075739.409355] : [1075739.409357] 2a [1075739.409358] 00 [1075739.409360] 00 [1075739.409361] 09 [1075739.409363] 34 [1075739.409364] 00 [1075739.409365] 00 [1075739.409367] 04 [1075739.409368] 00 [1075739.409369] 00 [1075739.409373] end_request: I/O error, dev sdi, sector 603136 [1075739.409378] EXT4-fs warning (device sdi3): ext4_end_bio:332: I/O error writing to inode 1442316 (offset 0 size 8388608 starting block 75520) ... [1075739.411155] Buffer I/O error on device sdi3, logical block 0 [1075739.411156] lost page write due to I/O error on sdi3 [1075739.411174] EXT4-fs error (device sdi3): ext4_journal_check_start:56: Detected aborted journal [1075739.411177] EXT4-fs (sdi3): Remounting filesystem read-only [1075739.411179] EXT4-fs (sdi3): previous I/O error to superblock detected [1075739.411192] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] Unhandled error code [1075739.411194] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] [1075739.411196] Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00 [1075739.411198] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdi] CDB: [1075739.411199] cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a 00 00 04 08 00 00 00 08 00 [1075739.411206] Buffer I/O error on device sdi3, logical block 0 [1075739.411207] lost page write due to I/O error on sdi3