Intel 40GB 320 Firmware update and 8MB glitch

[MSlig]

Today I woke up to see my computer in a stuck hibernation mode and had to force shut it down, it comes back with the 8MB BAD serial glitch, I ran through the process in a linux recovery environment and brought the drive back, after messing with the drive to get it out of a frozen security state as well.

anyway with it back the bootable firmware update wont see the drive, and I get the lame message about the Toolbox having trouble communicating with my drive, because I have an Nvidia SATA controller I guess.

but the toolbox states I have firmware 4PC1 firmware... the most recent?! Wasn't this supposed to be fixed by firmware update? should I trust what the toolbox is saying?

Not a couple days ago I ran the SSDhealth tester and it said I had about a 99% health with about 8 years life left, although I am sure thats a representation of read/writes, but I mean the drive hasn't been used much..

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Hello PseudoKirby,

I am sorry for the issue you encountered.

It is very likely the Intel® SSD Toolbox is having trouble communicating with the device because of the SATA controller you are using. In this case we recommend connecting the Intel® SSD to a different SATA controller, if possible Intel® SATA controller chipset.

Then, you may run a secure erase or low level format and verify or update the firmware with Intel® SSD Firmware Update Tool:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18363 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18363

I hope this helps.

[MSlig]

Joe, I already formatted, what I just want to know, is: with the most current firmware, is this glitch completely fixed?

[Jose_H_Intel1 · Accepted solution]

The firmware update fixes the 8MB issue that was identified as triggered by a power loss. However, there are several other possible causes for the 8MB state that are different than the power issue fixed by the firmware update.

[CBrei]

Whoooo...

That's simply not True.

The Firmware does not fix the 8MB Issue after a power loss.

I really do not understand why Intel and Intels Engineers disregard all the Customers reporting that they have experienced exactly this bug in spite of the newest Firmware.

Everyone can read about it even in Intels own forums.

It is so sad.....

Intel SSD 320 Series technology brief:

quote on......

The Intel SSD 320 Series contains hardware- and firmware-based power-loss data protection features.

The SSD includes a power-fail detection circuit, which sends a signal to the ASIC controller in the SSD indicating there is an imminent drop in power level.

Triggered by this, SSD firmware disconnects the input power from the SSD.

The SSD then relies on its on-board power-loss protection capacitance to provide enough energy for the SSD firmware to move data from the transfer buffer and other temporary buffers to the NAND.

.......quote off

The Truth is, that this doesn't help anyone when the on-board capacitors are under-dimensioned and can not keep the Power long enough stable to help the controller finishing the last write process (which is normally a translation table Entry).

Hundreds of Customers with corrupted Translation Tables (BAD_CTX Error) are standing in the Rain with no Help from Intel but a paperweight full of Data they can not access.

IT IS A HARDWARE ISSUE ! ! !

Regards,

D-Info