Crucial M4 drives failing in droves at 5200 hours of cumulative operation!

Reminds me of the Seagate 1tb 7200.11 firmware bug disaster.
 
Quick question, what's the easiest way to see the runtime on your drive? Work just got me a m4 for my laptop and I'd like to at least see this coming before it runs over my data. Only problem is, it's a mac and I'm running OSX.
 
This was taken from one of the moderator's over at the crucial forums:

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Re: 0x00000f4 error on M4 64GB
01-05-201202:45 PM - last edited on 01-05-201202:50 PM

We are aware of an issue that is currently affecting a small number of users whereby their m4 causes their system to require a restart. This issue occurs after approximately 5,000 hours of actual “on time” use. Following the initial reboot, the system then requires subsequent restarts after each additional hour of use. However, the data on the SSD is unaffected and will not be lost due to this condition.

Through our investigation, we have determined the root cause of the problem and will be releasing a firmware update that rectifies the situation. We are currently running through our validation and compatibility process. Once this process is complete, the firmware will be made available to our customers. Although we understand the desire of some people to start using unreleased firmware now, we want to ensure that our solution works across multiple chipsets, systems, and operating systems before publishing the release code. We are currently targeting the week of January 16th, 2012 to publicly release the new firmware update.

We understand the impact that this is having on some users right now and apologize for this inconvenience. We appreciate your continued support, feedback, and patience as we finalize code and resolve this issue.

Dude, Crucial Employee, US
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Just great, I have 2x 512GB M4's.... hopefully they come out with a FW update soon...
 
That figures. I sweated researching this and finally broke down and bought the M4 256 after my Corsair Nova 128 bit it. Eeeek.
 
I just bought two M4 128's. Does updating the firmware require reinstalling WIndows 7?
 
At least they were able to reproduce the problem and identify the source.

moore327 said:
Just great, I have 2x 512GB M4's.... hopefully they come out with a FW update soon...
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Well, at least you know when the failure is coming, if it does. If you only have a few thousand hours on the drive, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

HardBytes said:
I just bought two M4 128's. Does updating the firmware require reinstalling WIndows 7?
Click to expand...

Normally not. Make a back up first, though, just to be safe.
 
I`m surprised this isn't affect a lot more people since that's not too long of usage.

Glad my m4 is not crucial to my operation :cool:
 
updating the firmware on crucial drives is generally done through a bootable cd.
 
ZodaEX said:
So much for Crucial being more reliable than sandforce.
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It seems that crucials problem isn't erasing any data, or rendering the computer unusable. AFAIK the sandforce drives ranged from being DOA, dying randomly to BSOD, the former 2 I would say is worse than having it restart all the time.

I guess no manufacturer is immune from having problems, at least it seems like they have a quick fix for the problem, we will see if the 16th brings a solution or not.
 
Liggywuh said:
I guess no manufacturer is immune from having problems
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I used my Intel X25-M G2 over 2 years without a single issue, and it's still going strong in a 2nd box. Hard to beat Intel I guess.

I have an M4 now, but I'm glad that with SRT, it's one click to disable SSD acceleration and at that point my SSD is completely divorced from having anything at all to do with my Windows 7 install and all of my files remain intact. If it comes down to that.
 
I have a 120gig C300. anybody know if it's a M4? I have seen it referred to as a M4/C300 on a couple of sites but most just refer to it as a C300.
 
How exactly does it force your computer to restart? It just powers off for no apparent reason?
 
The irony is I bought my Crucial due to its better reliability than the sand force chipsets. I have 2538 hours on the drive so Im getting there. Thanks for bringing this to my notice.
 
Hrrm I would be sure to atleast start imaging your PC's to ensure that if it does occur atleast you took preventative measures.

Just my two cents. Also in the meantime I am sure that Micron will get this fixed as they are a very reputable company. There is probably a software glitch in the firmware and it will get resolved. I would err on the side of caution though to ensue that you are prepared in case something happens.
 
GotNoRice said:
I used my Intel X25-M G2 over 2 years without a single issue, and it's still going strong in a 2nd box. Hard to beat Intel I guess.

I have an M4 now, but I'm glad that with SRT, it's one click to disable SSD acceleration and at that point my SSD is completely divorced from having anything at all to do with my Windows 7 install and all of my files remain intact. If it comes down to that.
Click to expand...

Not on your model but the 320 8MB bug springs to mind.

IMO no manufacturer is immune to problems, seems like all these drives (maybe with the exception of the Intel 510 have had some type of problem (even samsung 830 seems to have issues)), so I guess the choice isn't so much of which is most reliable, question is who will fix the problem fastest when it arrives ;)
 
Last edited:
Liggywuh said:
Not on your model but the 320 8MB bug springs to mind.

IMO no manufacturer is immune to problems, seems like all these drives (maybe with the exception of the Intel 510 have had some type of problem (even samsung 830 seems to have issues)), so I guess the choice isn't so much of which is most reliable, question is who will fix the problem fastest when it arrives ;)
Click to expand...

All of this, great post...
 
Liggywuh said:
It seems that crucials problem isn't erasing any data, or rendering the computer unusable. AFAIK the sandforce drives ranged from being DOA, dying randomly to BSOD, the former 2 I would say is worse than having it restart all the time.

I guess no manufacturer is immune from having problems, at least it seems like they have a quick fix for the problem, we will see if the 16th brings a solution or not.
Click to expand...

Well from just purely my own personal experiences the Crucial M4 and the Illundix OCZ Vertex are the only SSDs that have given me data corruption problems. Twice, my data on my M4 self-corrupted it's self and once my illundix SSD panic locked/bricked it's self along with all my data. Interestingly enough I have 2 sandforce powered SSDs and they have both given me flawless, trouble free service. Plus i've used the sandforce drives considerable longer than the others so it's really a shame my crucial has already acted up on me multiple times.
 
The Crucial M4 has been really good to me to be honest.

I hit 5210 hours via USB and it's sort of been failing on me, but knowing the data is still there and that Crucial is looking to provide a firmware update next week resolves a lot of concerns I had.
 
I'm at 4700 hours on my M4 in a linux/kvm box. It has the OS only, no VM's...is this going to keel over at 5k hours? What are symptoms in Linux?
 
Robstar said:
I'm at 4700 hours on my M4 in a linux/kvm box. It has the OS only, no VM's...is this going to keel over at 5k hours? What are symptoms in Linux?
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You're probably going to luck out and get the firmware update before you hit the 5200 hour mark, so that's good.

From what people are reporting, it doesn't seem like the drive actually "keels over"... it just goes offline after an hour but it returns to normal operation (without data loss) on a reboot. I suspect on linux there will be a kernel panic reported in the log and the system may hang. I don't know if linux is sophisticated enough to continue operating even after the disk has gone offline (though it seems feasible). I guess you could say that there is a slight risk of data loss if the disk goes offline just before a filesystem sync occurs... but I think it would be more likely to win the lottery on the same day you get struck by lightning for that sort of thing to occur.

Nevertheless, it might be a good idea to make a backup of your SSD anyway (a straight rsync copy should be sufficient)... just in case. And you know you're going to have to update the firmware anyway and there is a tiny risk there too, so you might as well have a backup.
 
awesome. i just got mine two months ago so it should be ok for now.

5000hrs/24hrs = 208 days / 30 = ~7 months.
 
The error hit me as well. While the data remains intact, the problem is affecting other things. Such as my front USB inputs stopped working as well as my DVD burner. It also affected the speed of the drive. So I thought maybe there was some kind of corruption. I unfortunately did a clean install before I found out about the Crucial defect.

Prior, the drive was averaging 470MB/s read speeds. After it started crashing, I tested it and got 230MB/s. I know they experience a gradual degradation of speed over time but a 50%+ drop in 7 months is ridiculous.

Once I saw the forum post, I still called their tech support. They said they would gladly RMA the drive but suggested I wait until the 16th for them to release the fix. He also recommended I update the firmware and did so. That brought the drive back up to about 350MB/s which I still think is quite a drastic drop for such a short time. I am going to call them back about that issue. Unless that's normal. This is my first SSD so I don't know all the ins and outs like some do.

I ended up using a free backup program http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm which is pretty damn nice. Plus it's free. I had a spare 500GB SataII drive laying around so I formatted it and used the backup program to clone the SSD to it. It took about 8 minutes, I powered down, removed the SSD, set the replacement as primary boot disk and I was up and running. Now my front USB ports work and my burner works.

I am glad they copped to it being an issue with their equipment and got on a fix fairly quickly. If they didn't I bet they would be in a class-action lawsuit in no time. I am a bit skeptical about their fix working and I am skeptical about having another one of their drives if I end up RMA'ing it. I feel a bit more comfortable though now that I can clone the drive and just keep a spare handy. I have never been able to get a cloned drive to work on other computers.

There are no real guarantees with anything in electronics. You can have problems with all makes, models, and manufacturers. If the company takes care of the problem to my satisfaction I will stick with them. Corsair, while screwing me out of almost every rebate I've ever sent, has never blinked an eye when I reported a problem to their tech support. Same with Logitech. Both companies have done advanced RMA's at no charge to replace items with little hassle.

This old 500GB drive is slow as hell. I think it averaged about 90MB/s read speed.
 
Re Todo backup: It is developed and sold by a company in the PRC. Given all the news about cyber-attacks from China, I am just not comfortable using any software sourced from the PRC; especially not something which has access to all your data. I am probably being a bit too cautious about this, but better be safe than sorry.

I just opened my M4 yesterday so it is great to see this news :(
 
Franko said:
The irony is I bought my Crucial due to its better reliability than the sand force chipsets. I have 2538 hours on the drive so Im getting there. Thanks for bringing this to my notice.
Click to expand...

A simple firmware update will fix the situation as its been stated. If I had the money I would buy 4 more Crucial M4's simply because they work and well , OCZ has been nothing but a joke as far as I'm concerned.

No need worry at this point , at least there chipset controller won't randomly fail during a firmware update like 2 of my OCZ Vertex's did.... :mad:
 
Godmachine said:
A simple firmware update will fix the situation as its been stated. If I had the money I would buy 4 more Crucial M4's simply because they work and well , OCZ has been nothing but a joke as far as I'm concerned.

No need worry at this point , at least there chipset controller won't randomly fail during a firmware update like 2 of my OCZ Vertex's did.... :mad:
Click to expand...

Wow you have 100% faith in this Crucial company to fix this. I remember when Intel made the initial press release that they fixed the 8MB bug, then it turned out they actually hadn't fixed it but merely reduced the occurrence. I'm glad your satisfied with you M4 but, when I buy a new computer part I expect it to be reliable the day I bring it home, not months later. I've never had to touch the firmware on my hard drive, my 50GB Vertex 2e, or my motherboard and i'd like to keep it that way. When I tried to update the firmware on my Vertex 1 it wouldn't work initially and it took me over a week to determine it was due to a hardware incompatibility issue with my Nvidia chipset motherboard. This was a massive headache for me because I changed my motherboard out just so I could reflash my SSD which took a tremendous amount of time, and now I have a spare extra motherboard I don't need. If the SSD simply came with a reliable FW in the firstplace i'd still be on that same motherboard which I was really happy with aside from that one flashing issue.
 
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