SSD keeps disappearing

[Skypix7]

Hi, I haven't found any posts that directly address this problem, I hope someone can help.
I have two Corsair 240GB Force GT drives, set up as data drives. I have my OS on a different drive, a very stable, fast Samsung 830 256GB.
Both Corsair GTs have the latest 1.3.3 firmware update.
The first Corsair drops out, as if it was going to sleep but not able to recover. It sometimes happens when the system is on for awhile (1 hour +) without me doing anything, but sometimes it also happens when I'm in the middle of editing in Adobe Lightroom too. I can't seem to find a common event for each disappearance.
I have power settings in Win 7 Pro 64 all set to never sleep or hibernate, including in advanced mode for hard drive. I have an 850W UPS (CyberPower SineWave) that shows I'm drawing a peak of 200W and usually around 160W
My system is Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Gen 3. 16GB Crucial DDR3 RAM (2x8GB) which passed 12 hour mem test with 0 errors, very stable. Case is NZXT Phantom tower.
The Force GT is connected to the Intel 6GB/s gray port #2. OS drive is connected to #1.
The other Force GT, connected to 3GB/s Intel, never disappears, it's only the drive connected to the #2 port that has the problem. I have Marvell and JMB SATA ports disabled.
I tried to follow Corsair forum tech Yellowbeard's recommendation to disable QuickBoot in bios (for Force SSD, not GT) but the deluxe gen3 either doesn't have that option or it's buried in some other bios sub-submenu, it's not in Boot, Advanced, Tools or other menus.
Hope someone has an idea, otherwise the system is solid as a rock, boots in under 30 seconds to a working system, and the drives are all very fast and so far very reliable, other than the disappearing act.
thanks

 

[groberts101]

this should get rid of the power mgmt related issues you're dealing with there. You need to disable that active setting to see the correct AHCI link mgmt features your after here become implemented.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-enable-hipm-dipm.html

Good luck with it.

 

[Puppies04]

Skypix is your MOBO bios up to date you don't mention it in your post.

 

[Skypix7]

Hi Puppies, yes it is. They've not released one since the board was introduced....I'll check again but as of a couple weeks ago it was the original bios.

Groberts, thank you for that. One question: How do I find out if my SSDs support HIDM and HIPM?

 

[groberts101]

It's a Sandforce controller and all versions currently made will support those modes.

In essence.. you want to take some of the software/driver control away and give it back to the device as it's far better suited to looking after what it needs.. versus what Intel thought to interject and force upon it. That about sums it up.

 

[Skypix7]

It's a Sandforce controller and all versions currently made will support those modes.

In essence.. you want to take some of the software/driver control away and give it back to the device as it's far better suited to looking after what it needs.. versus what Intel thought to interject and force upon it. That about sums it up.

Thanks much, I installed the reg tweak and the AHCI item showed up in power options, and I set it to HIPM + DIPM, is that right? I still don't exactly know what these allow me to do.

Since DIPM means Device Initiated Power Management, should I just select that one?

 

[groberts101]

read some other SF-2281 users feedback here.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...tbook..possibly-desktop-AGILITY-3-STUTTER-FIX

after looking through it real quick.. I may have inadvertantly steered you the wrong way in some small part. Apparently the implementation of the HIPM/DIPM will just give you the option of disabling the boards/devices power mgmt schemes by setting the necessary ones to "incative" rather than "activating" them as I mention above.

Unfortunately, the old memory ain't what it used to be. Good luck with it.

 

[Skypix7]

read some other SF-2281 users feedback here.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...tbook..possibly-desktop-AGILITY-3-STUTTER-FIX

after looking through it real quick.. I may have inadvertantly steered you the wrong way in some small part. Apparently the implementation of the HIPM/DIPM will just give you the option of disabling the boards/devices power mgmt schemes by setting the necessary ones to "incative" rather than "activating" them as I mention above.

Unfortunately, the old memory ain't what it used to be. Good luck with it.

Thanks, I appreciate the help, will read that. I booted up and the drive disappeared! Booted again and it's there and working on it just fine. It's not a big problem so far, just a nuisance, but I'd like to eventually track it down. Will probably call tech support at Corsair and see if I can get some insight, as they're not answering my forum query.

 

[Skypix7]

Ok....just did a little troubleshooting. I swapped cables so my number 2 Corsair drive is now connected to the Intel 6GB port and the drive that kept disappearing is now connected to the 3GB port.

I booted up without incident, all drives showed up, opened Chrome, opened Lightroom to start processing image files from the problem Corsair drive...and it disappeared. So that tells me it's not the Intel port, and is either the drive itself or the cable.

Any other conclusions I might be missing?
thanks

 

[machasm]

Well the cable should be easy to figure out.
Change it with the working one.

 

[Skypix7]

Well the cable should be easy to figure out.
Change it with the working one.

Righto. Meanwhile I've just bought another Samsung 830 SATAIII SSD, it's bullet proof, almost as fast as these Corsairs, and I'm tired of messing around. Once I get it, I'll SE and sell the Corsairs.

 

[Obsoleet]

Certainly an interesting thread, our resident self-proclaimed SSD expert couldn't get the Sandforce (which a small cadre of experienced users who have owned many SSDs over the past 5 years now warn against..) to work. Not surprised.
Previous statements-

And yeah.. the one's who have deeper understanding of all the 6 series platform/driver issues with various SSD controllers do actually understand that. Unfortunately, the one's who often point fingers or play the fanboy card usually don't have a clue that Intel(and some others) have had to do that within the firmware of their controllers just to work around the mess that they themselves created. Kinda "funny", is right.

have included that users are to know more about how to design and get a SSD to work than Sandforce and their vendors. That's unacceptable as a standard of quality and validation.

It's a Sandforce controller and all versions currently made will support those modes.

In essence.. you want to take some of the software/driver control away and give it back to the device as it's far better suited to looking after what it needs.. versus what Intel thought to interject and force upon it. That about sums it up.

Yet Intel is bashed for giving two shits about their customer's experience. The non-Intel customers are just so much smarter they're being pushed to Samsung or Intel product.


My recommendation to the OP, and the recommendation of many others here: Ditch The Sandforce. Stick with the Samsung 830 series or Intel 520 if you're a must-have-Sandforce kinda guy. Most of those people buy based on benchmark scores with cheaper pricing, not a focus on having good chances of having a working drive. That was the real strength of the Sandforce love. If it wasn't we'd see parades in the streets for the Intel 520 Sandforce, but people were only interested in cheaper drives with high benchmarks, not quality.

My pick is what you ended up doing: Samsung 830. The industry's best reliability record with reasonable prices considering the value.

Until the 520 proves itself to be as reliable as the Samsung, and match their equals (or superior competitors) at Samsung with closer pricing.. the 830 is the way for anyone who wants a broadly compatible, fast drive at a reasonable price.

 

[Skypix7]

Interesting comment too, Obsoleet.

Meanwhile, the problem Corsair SSD I've been struggling with is now disappearing within a minute of bootup. I'm thinking it's been a bad drive all along. My other 240 GT is solid, no problems. Meanwhile, I'll swap out for another SATA 6 cable but I don't have a lot of hope that that's the problem. It feels like the drive, based on all the problems I had with my previous pro/gen3 build, when it was the OS drive and I had 300 BSOD. I think that motherboard must have died of sheer combat stress fatigue!

 

[Coup27]

This SSD forum is a definite martmite split between people who want a reliable and trust worthy drive vs the enthusiasts who want an enthusiasts drive which might be fractionly quicker.

I am certainly in the first camp. I use my PC for work as well sometimes so I have no time for the arsing about which seems to follow Sandforce drives, regardless of who or what is at fault.

With that in mind, the Samsung is clearly best drive on the market IMO.

 

[Skypix7]

This SSD forum is a definite martmite split between people who want a reliable and trust worthy drive vs the enthusiasts who want an enthusiasts drive which might be fractionly quicker.

I am certainly in the first camp. I use my PC for work as well sometimes so I have no time for the arsing about which seems to follow Sandforce drives, regardless of who or what is at fault.

With that in mind, the Samsung is clearly best drive on the market IMO.

I agree, I use my computer 90% for work also, that's why I went to the Samsung. 300 BSOD vs. 0, works for me.

 

[Obsoleet]

Let's not pretend the 830 is 'slow'. They keep up, and can surpass even the crowned prince of Sandforce drives in the 520.
There's no negative, or even reason to worry if you just use a Samsung..

I'm an Intel guy all the way, I can't deny them when my Intel G2s were the first SSDs I encountered that were consistently problem-free. That said, Intel has the world's top SSD OEM and consumer provider to compete with now- with an in-house controller that is up there with Sandforce for speed.
They really outdid themselves with the 830, and I have to hand it to them. Intel took a steaming pile of dung (Sandforce) and hopefully made it stable.. there's a significant difference between Intel and Samsung at this point.
Though I'm personally still pretty happy, I wouldn't call my 160GB (or even 40GB) G2 'slow'. There's just no reason to cut corners on reliability when all modern SSDs are fast, other than to be cheap and risk data.

 

[Skypix7]

.... There's just no reason to cut corners on reliability when all modern SSDs are fast, other than to be cheap and risk data.

I couldn't agree more. I wish I had just $10/hour for the six weeks I've lost chasing down SSD and motherboard problems. I wish I'd heard about the Samsung 830 before the Corsair, which worked (and works) great when it's working.
As pricey as all of these drives are, they're so fantastic in the boost in productivity (I used to wait 10-15 minutes for my old, loaded Vista 64 system to completely load!) that saving $100 to buy an unstable drive like an OCZ for instance, or even mine, which had high marks in a number of the vendor websites (Newegg, Amazon et al) just doesn't, as you say, make any sense.

SSD is a fantastic technology. Everything but everything goes so much quicker, way beyond gaming. The time it takes me now to import and render 900 1:1 (full rez) RAW images is a fraction of what it used to take: <15 minutes vs. 45 to 60 min before. That alone, for those of us who use computers as a vital part of our work, is worth spending the dough for. Sure, they'll be cheaper in a year. Meanwhile, how much time will you waste on spinning drive time?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Skypix7]

Okey dokey, just finished backing up data off the disappearing drive, then did a Secure Erase with Parted Magic by having the drive connected via USB3/SATA adapter, which worked like a charm.

Plugged the drive back in, booted up, went into Disk Management, the disk was there, told it to create a simple volume and format the drive, clicked ok...formatting...formatting...formatting...bang, drive disappears.

I think I have my answer: the drive is bad.

Any other thoughts? I wish I knew why I could work with the drive when it was connected through the USB3 port, but not connected to the onboard SATA ports. Could it be a Windows problem? It's a new install. And works fine with the other Corsair drive. And Trim is enabled, I've doublechecked that.

I tried the drive on two different ports too, the Intel 3GB/s and the Intel 6GB/s. The other Corsair drive works great on either port, so it's not the ports. Also changed the cable. No dice.

Marvell and J Micron are disabled based on advice from other folks.

Weird, right? I'm RMA'ing the drive.

 

[griff122]

Hey,

This thread is ancient, but I was curious if you ever swapped the SSD into a new computer, and see what happened (or if any1 else is seeing this, and having the same issue). I have an SSD which is doing the same thing, and I plugged it into another computer, and the problem seemed to have stopped. I've read that it may be a firmware issue.

 

[Skypix7]

Thanks for your query, I'd meant to come back and finish this off.

The final chapter is I RMA'd and then sold all my Corsair Force GT disks, I had four in total. I could not get them to work on my system, even with the new motherboard.

I have since bought a total of 5 Samsung 830, 256GB drives: one for my C: drive, two for photo files working with Photoshop and Lightroom, one for my laptop (C: drive) and one for my wife as an external backup drive for her laptop.

The short tell: I have had Not. One. Single. Problem! Period. I have never experienced a 10 month, no-glitch, no-crash, no corruption, no-confusing- hassles period since I started computing in 1983 with my first Heathkit all-in-one computer. Yep, 29 years of computing, and thus my expectations of eventual disaster or at the least, consistent problems have gone by the way side, to be replaced by:

• 30 second cold boots, every time, i.e. push the power button to ready to work on the Win 7 desktop.
• crash-free confidence
• fast, cool, quiet operation.
• super-fast program loads (Photoshop and Lightroom, 2 to 4 seconds max)

I used to have wait sometimes 8-10 mins for the system to be ready to work from boot. I'd turn it on, then go brush my teeth, make some phone calls etc.
Anyway, you get the picture: I think those drives just didn't like my system, either motherboard. Perhaps Corsair has fixed them by now. Or Sandforce. Meanwhile, I have not lost a single minute dealing with tech issues. Not one. I can use my computer now for what it was intended, without having to become an expert in stuff I'm not really very interested in mastering.
And of course I'm sold on the Samsungs. Every one works perfectly. I just got my wife a refurb but new-model Macbook Pro with 16GB memory and...a Samsung 830 256GB drive. It's also such a major improvement over her six year old, 80GB HDD-driven MBP, she can't believe the difference.

 

[hal2kilo]

Let's not pretend the 830 is 'slow'. They keep up, and can surpass even the crowned prince of Sandforce drives in the 520.
There's no negative, or even reason to worry if you just use a Samsung..

I'm an Intel guy all the way, I can't deny them when my Intel G2s were the first SSDs I encountered that were consistently problem-free. That said, Intel has the world's top SSD OEM and consumer provider to compete with now- with an in-house controller that is up there with Sandforce for speed.
They really outdid themselves with the 830, and I have to hand it to them. Intel took a steaming pile of dung (Sandforce) and hopefully made it stable.. there's a significant difference between Intel and Samsung at this point.
Though I'm personally still pretty happy, I wouldn't call my 160GB (or even 40GB) G2 'slow'. There's just no reason to cut corners on reliability when all modern SSDs are fast, other than to be cheap and risk data.

Intel G2's are like the old Powerglide automatic transmission. Only 2 speeds, not very efficient, but you can't break them.
Plus I really, can't use anything faster with a SATA I port. Still, my system is completely up usually in less than 40 seconds, and shuts down in less than 10 seconds.