Intel 540s SSDs keep disappearing

[JJohn158]

I have 8x Intel 540s SSDs all with Firmware LSF042C (newest as of this post).

Originally I have them in RAID 10 on a PERC H730 controller and they worked beautifully for a year and then the problems started.

The array over night reported that 3 drives were offline. They'd redetect when removed and reinserted but would then disappear x hours later.

I attempted creating a new array with fewer drives but that fails during initialisation also.

So I connected 4 of them to my Asus Z170-P (updated the firmware, drivers etc) and attempted to create a RAID 10 array using IRST but that causes drives to disappear during initialisation also (only recoverable with a power cycle).

The Intel SSD Toolbox reports them as healthy (between 99 and 100 on all of their statistics).

Any suggestions ?

[JJohn158]

Morning Adrian,

I updated all of my systems drivers and firmware last night without any change of outcome (after the first failure I didn't continue testing the drives).

It seems that the load of an initialisation causes a few of these SSDs to lockup/freeze and disappear. So far the initialisation has been successful once but drives would then disappear when transfer data to them.

My thinking is leaning towards a defective batch of SSDs.

Thanks and regards

[AdrianM_Intel]

Hello JJohn158,

Thank you for your reply.

It sounds like an issue with the SSDs I would like just to confirm a few details:

• Did the issue happen after updating the RST to 17.8? Was the issue seen on older drivers?
• Was there any change before the issue started appearing?
• Could you please try an older RST driver and check if the issue happens?

Best regards,

Adrian M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JJohn158]

Afternoon Adrian,

Once again thanks for your time.

The issue started on a Dell R630 utilising a PERC 730 controller (no IRST). Came in to find an offline array (4 drives offline), removed and reinserted the drives resulted in the array coming back online. The next day the array was offline again. (The server is protected by UPS etc).

The only think that would happen during that time frame would be an incremental backup of about 30GB.

So I attempted creating a new array on the Dell... the array would create but would then fail during it's initialisation.

Due to the coronavirus (I'm isolated atm) I then continued diagnosing on my home system.

That's where IRST was introduced... originally tried with version 15.x then updated to 17.x.

Performed firmware updates and then yesterday I updated everything in my system.

Thanks and Regards

[AdrianM_Intel]

Hello JJohn158,

Thank you for your reply.

Based on the fact that the issue has been happening in 2 different systems, you also tested different driver versions of Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) and the disks disappear when transferring data to them, I would recommend you to submit a ticket in Intel® Solid-State Drive since this points to be hardware related.

Regards,

Adrian M.

Intel Customer Support Technician