Intel SSD Back To Life

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retiredfields

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Oct 27, 2009
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Like many others, my Intel 80GB SSD was trashed yesterday by the firmware update. I am now back running Win7 64 on my SSD, as I write this post. In the hopes of helping someone else, here's my story:

Yesterday, I installed the TRIM update on my SSD. The firmware update seemed to go fine as the Intel updater reported success with the update. On re-boot, my Win7 install booted OK, windows loaded the drivers (Intel AHCI 10 driver) for the updated SSD, and then told me to re-boot. On re-boot, again windows loaded fine and all looked well.

I ran the new Intel Toolbox and that is when the trouble began. The first thing I did was run the Diagnostic Scan. I noticed that the read test was greyed out with a red warning to contact my sales rep. I hit the start button and only the Integrity test ran. It passed the test. but I was concerned that the Read test would not even run. Then I ran the SSD Management Tools (TRIM support) and the it ran to completion and reported success. Great!

The system ran fine for about 5 minutes, then I got a warning message from Windows that my disk drive was failing and I should make a backup (SMART error). I looked around a bit to try and find the cause and then boom, blue screen.

I re-booted the system and the BIOS reported no boot disk available. I booted to DOS and ran the Intel firmware updater again. It reported that the update was already done, but I noticed the drive serial number as BAD_CTX. Not good.

I re-installed my old hard disk and put the SSD on another SATA port. After booting into Win7, the SSD showed a size of 8MB and reported errors when I tried to write to it.

I booted into DOS and ran HDDErase 3.3 on the SSD. Then re-booted into Win7 off my old drive, and the SSD was back to 75 GB in size. I formatted the drive and ran some write tests and they all passed fine. I ran the Intel Toolbox, and this time the Read test would run and complete with no problem. I noticed the the SMART attributes were all good except the End to End Error Detection Count, which showed 48 raw errors. This number has not changed, so I believe these errors were logged the first time, when the drive went bad.

I tried to install Win7 on the SSD, and it wouldn't allow me to install to the SSD because of the old SMART errors. SO, I tried to find a way to clear the SMART errors, with no luck. Finally, I installed a backup drive image I had of my previous SSD Win7 install and it installed and booted fine. I have now been running for several hours with no probs. The only legacy problem I have is the SMART errors, which I can't clear. However, Win7 is not reporting any problems or SMART errors with the drive.

Meanwhile, I had already called Intel and have a new SSD on the way. So, what to do? I did a cross ship ($25) and Intel said they would charge me $128 if I did not ship the old SSD back. Thats a pretty good price for a new SSD, so I may just keep it.

I'm not sure why the first install failed. It appears to be a problem which would not allow the Toolbox to run a read test on the drive. If I was doing another firmware update, I would make an image of the windows SSD install, then delete any partitions on the SSD, do the update, put the SSD on another windows system and test it there with the Toolbox, and if all passed, then re-install the image onto the SSD. If necessary, run HDDErase along the way.

There's alot of great info on this forum, so I hope this helps someone out.
 
I bet you could ebay it for a lot more. Besides, once the next firmware update comes out, you might be able to just flash it then and fix whatever errors you're getting. It's highly unlikely anything is physically wrong with these drives, just the controller screwing up.
 
The bugs of a young technology, this is why im nervous to upgrade to those speed demons.
 
Simple solution (albeit a temporary one if it works at all):

Disable S.M.A.R.T. detection in the BIOS. This will probably not work because Windows bypasses BIOS routines and hardware calls and speaks directly to hardware but, it's worth a shot I suppose, at least till the replacement arrives.

Can't hurt at this point, right? :)
 
I did a cross ship ($25) and Intel said they would charge me $128 if I did not ship the old SSD back. Thats a pretty good price for a new SSD, so I may just keep it.
Click to expand...

If those figures are correct (25.00 + 128.00 = 153.00) I'd figure I just bought a second drive and if I didn't need it maybe Ebay would.
 
Old Hippie said:
If those figures are correct (25.00 + 128.00 = 153.00) I'd figure I just bought a second drive and if I didn't need it maybe Ebay would.
Click to expand...

Right, but your original drive now has zero warranty, since INTEL will kill that off when they send the replacement.
 
aamsel said:
Right, but your original drive now has zero warranty, since INTEL will kill that off when they send the replacement.
Click to expand...

Now there's a thought!

I've never defaulted on a advance replacement but why would Intel cancel the warranty?
 
Old Hippie said:
Now there's a thought!

I've never defaulted on a advance replacement but why would Intel cancel the warranty?
Click to expand...


You call them with a dead drive, drive #1.
They ship an advanced replacement drive #2.
which carries the remainder of your original 3 year warranty.

Whether or not you return drive #1, the warranty for it is gone,
since they have replaced it with drive #2. If you call in for service for
drive #1 again, they will tell you that that drive has already been replaced
under warranty.

It is all by serial number, and you only get one warranted serial number, and
the replacement drive is likely going to have a serial number designating it
as a refurbished drive. That's what most of the HDD manufacturers do.
 
Great point. Had not thought of that. Hmmmmm...... Still, for me that only removes the e-bay option. There is nothing wrong with that drive that new firmware isn't going to fix. I'd chance it.
 
I dumped the strings in the issdfut.exe file (Intel SSD firmware update tool), looking for some switches. I came across this string embedded in the exe:



What is your favorite color? Bring out your dead. HOOT.00

Maybe someone is having some fun with us!
:mad:
 
Easius said:
Let us know.. might be a good way to get a couple cheap g2 drives *cough*
Click to expand...

Got a response from Sergio G.at Intel.....


Hello Richard,

Thank you for contacting Intel Technical Support.

I understand that you have some questions regarding the Advanced Replacement procedure.

Note that the warranty on the original drive will be cancelled immediately, as by the agreement you are supposed to send it back within a specified timeframe.

This can also result in inconveniences for you, as the Advanced option could be denied in future RMA’s
Click to expand...

They're not gonna come and arrest ya so if a cheap Intel SSD is your goal.......:)
 
Post #15 to say do the right thing. You know these drives are expensive, you know Intel is trying to do the right thing. Dont be the reason that excellent service like this goes away. Dont come to the Internet to ask if its ok to steal, ask your parents or something.
 
send it back so they can diagnose the problem that way they can keep it from happening again.
 
Seems to me they are also saying they may not offer you the same service if you need an RMA again in the future.

With the track record on firmware upgrades so far, this would be a concern if I was contemplating screwing with Intel's policy.

Plus the fact that your drive could be degraded somehow and you only think it's fine, plus the fact that I too see the virtue in respecting Intel's intent to provide good customer service on faith alone......and I think you should just ship it back.

Karma can be a...
 
Right, agreed.
The only possible valid reason for hanging onto a drive that
has been replaced would be if it had the only copy of some
critical data on it that you were hoping might be recoverable
through a future firmware flash.

In that case, you would have told that up front in your conversation
with the manufacturer.
 
Anybody found the way to fix "End to End Error Detection Count" problem in SMART Attributes?
 
My guess is the only fix for that would be for Intel to issue a second special firmware that also resets the drives SMART data.
 
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