Intel SSD 530 startup problems - Bug in SSD?

[ajoha7]

I just bought an Intel SSD 530 240GB to replace my Intel SSD510 for my HP Elitebook 8460p.

When i cold-start my computer everything is fine, but when I restart my computer from within a freshly installed windows-7, the drive is not found.

If i turn off the computer and start it again, the drive is found and boots up again as usual. So the drive fails after reset.

I have upgraded the firmware of the SSD to the latest version via the SSD toolbox but still no luck. also updated laptop bios to latest version.

I had no problems in the past with the Intel SSD 510 edition.

Any ideas on what to do?

Clarification:

So, when I insert my Intel 510 SSD and start windows and restart windows it works without problem. But with the Intel 530 it wails when I do restart, the BIOS does not find it after a normal reset. So that must conclude that the Intel SSD 530 has some bug? or is sensitive to some timing issue?

Should I return it? or just assume its incompatible with my laptop?

Message was edited by: andy johansson (added some clarification at the end)

[KenF_Intel]

Thanks for the info Osmonde, but I'm a little confused.

When you say 'BIOS restart' it appears you are not talking CTRL-ALT-DEL. Are you referring to just exiting the BIOS using what ever method they supply?

Just to be clear, going into BIOS and doing CTRL-ALT-DEL works but using the standard BIOS exit routine (with or without saving changes), causes the problem?

Ken

[WZach]

My mistake. Didn't have my laptop in front of me for that last post. Saving and exiting the bios on a warm reboot will allow the computer to boot, however, if you choose the boot selection menu on a warm reboot, and manually select the drive, it will not boot.

Additionally, when the boot fails on a warm reboot, the boot selection menu will appear when no other device (CD, Network) is available.

CTRL-ALT-DEL at any point in the bios/boot selection will reboot and then successfully boot.

[MvanR1]

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with one of our own HP-certified engineers, they've discovered something interesting:

* With AHCI on, when Intel RST is removed and in Windows 7 the power management plan is set to 'high performance' the problem is gone. Changing the setting with RST installed doesn't work, neither does any other power plan with RST removed.

It seems like the the drive's controller is not responding correctly to power-state related commands from the chipset or it's driver. That the problem persist after a warm reboot suggests that it might be SATA link-state power management-related, but I'm no expert.

(for those just reading in) The workaround already known to us was disabling SATA native mode/AHCI entirely in the BIOS, though this requires either a reïnstall or changing the controller driver manually, which is not something most of the average end-users know how to do.

As for us, this willl have to be escalated to another level at HP-tech support, since we're certified to service HP-costumers a lot of technical research is done here, but I don't think there's a whole lot more that can be done outside of firmware/driver engineering.

[LKrus1]

@Interlace84

Yes, changing to IDE mode is a known workaround.

It is not a solution though, since major features af the SSD are disabled.

The DC12 firmware was supposed to fix issues with SATA link-state power management, but it seems that new problems have arisen with this update.

Insiders at HP confirm that this problem has been known for some time.

I can not be certain if that statement is related to the DC12 firmware or the previosus one that DC12 was supposed to fix.

[MvanR1]

@Lars_Kruse

I know losing performance and functionality is unacceptable, I'm just trying to help people new to this issue who might miss something browsing through the pages but ontopic; since other brand SSDs with the same controller exhibit the same issue (i.e. an OCZ Vertex 3.20) I am doubtful but hopeful this can be solved with just an SSD-firmware update. Fingers crossed!