Intel 520 SSD Boot up issues

[idata]

I purchased a 520 series 120GB SSD a week ago. It is on a MSI Z77A-GD65 on the 6GBps Sata 3 port.

The drive has random issues when booting from a cold boot. I will get the windows 8 logo and before the spinning circle appears it locks up. Also from hibernation windows is frozen. Also at times the drive from a reboot or a cold start will take well over a minute to start up.

I have all the latest drivers etc, i am in AHCI mode and my bios settings are correct. Yet this drive has been a problem since day one. Is it a DOA or what?

I have no problem with my old Sata drive on the same hardware...

[idata]

Do you have the Intel Toolbox installed? You could run the diagnostic tests it provides to check your SSD. You should also run the OS optimizer that the Toolbox provides.

Sorry but must ask, do you have your 520 connected to an Intel SATA III port? Your board has a secondary ASMedia SATA interface, and it's common to get them confused. The Intel SATA ports are always preferred.

When you say the latest drivers, what are you using? The native Windows 8 AHCI driver, storahci? The IRST driver available from MSI's site for Windows 8 is 11.5. Intel and other mother board manufactures only provide IRST 11.6 and 11.7 drivers for Windows 8. Why MSI has IRST 11.5 for Windows 8 is strange, since 11.5 was a buggy version even with Windows 7.

What Windows power plan do you use? In the Advanced settings, find the Hard Drive setting, and set Turn off hard disk after, to Never.

[idata]

Toolbox was installed and is on the proper sata port i clearly stated it was on the 6GBps port which is the intel one. It's not my first build. The Secondary ASmedia are the bottom ports which are not even being used..Diagnostic test is useless, it says the drive is fine. It's already been optimized etc. The drive has had issues since day one!

It's nothing to do with power settings i run it wide open (High performance) 24/7. Hence even on a COLD start it won't boot into windows it freezes at the windows logo. I use Intel's latest IRST drivers. Pretty sure it's the crap sandforce controller causing problems. Might just send it back and get something else. The drive is less than stellar performance wise anyways.