Asus Maximus V Gene Bricked My SSD

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CuriousGeorge

n00b
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
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I have a Maximus V Gene motherboard (BIOS 1204) and it bricked my SSD.

How did it do this? I made three simple BIOS changes after installing a GTX660; I switched PCIE on the first slot from ‘Auto’ to ‘Gen3’, primary display from ‘Auto’ to ‘PCIE’ and render standby to ‘disabled’. Three simple changes; no big deal, right?

Wrong. Immediately after hitting F10 to save and quit the motherboard did a hard power cut (and I do mean hard - we’re talking audible pop here, like when a PSU blows) and then went through some reconfiguring magic. Unfortunately the SSD in the system (Crucial M4, latest firmware) didn’t like that much and decided to abandon its mortal coil. Emergency power cycling tricks to reset the controller didn’t help; it’s dead, Jim.

Now I’m no BIOS engineer; maybe that type of power cut is necessary. Maybe Crucial should have designed their SSD to be more tolerant of power loss. Maybe I should've just left everything on auto. Maybe I shouldn’t have pissed off that old gypsy. Dunno.

What I do know is that a simple BIOS change bricked my SSD and (warning: drama queen ahead) ruined my weekend.
 
Holy shit, that sucks. Maybe since Asus has the best customer service ever, they will be willing to replace your motherboard AND your SSD?

I would call and bitch and complain very loudly.
 
Whenever I make certain bios changes mine too cuts the power completely, waits about 5 seconds and then boots back up.

Never caused me any problems though, also I never get that loud pop noise you describe, maybe that was the SSD blowing a capacitor or something.
 
Yeah, my first thought that something had just blown - I immediately looked over at the tower to see if there was any smoke coming out. I don't think the M4 has any big caps in it that could've popped, though. I'd guess that it was just some power delivery circuitry reacting to the abrupt load drop.

Motley said:
Holy shit, that sucks. Maybe since Asus has the best customer service ever, they will be willing to replace your motherboard AND your SSD?

I would call and bitch and complain very loudly.
Click to expand...
The motherboard still works and the SSD is getting replaced under warranty, so just about the only thing Asus could do is reimburse my time. I'm thinking $250/hr? :D

The HDDs in the system survived unscathed (although they are connected to a separate RAID controller) so I'm thinking Asus just didn't plan on sensitive SSDs when they set the reset timer or whatever it is that's powering down the system.

My primary goal in posting was just to vent (I had just done ~4hrs of not backed up work on the SSD) and potentially warn other people with the same motherboard that this could happen. If it gets the attention of somebody at Asus that it might be nice to wait an extra few milleseconds for a "power down" or whatever signal to reach a SSD, that'd be swell too.
 
Solution:Unplug all SATA cables/power before flashing BIOS
wow..power-cycling didn't even work?.that sux.
 
No. Something else happened, an the SSD damage was coincidental.
 
Pure coincidence, would probably happen even if you would only regularly reboot/turn on-off computer.
 
CuriousGeorge said:
snip...(Crucial M4, latest firmware)... snip
Click to expand...
^ - that means that you have the 010G firmware for that Crucial M4.

There's a known problem with the latest firmware, the SSD simply disappears after a reboot.
The workaround (from G3D) is:
There are steps you try to recover the SSD. Windows desktop users follow these steps.

Connect the SSD towards power only. Once you have the drive connected and sitting idle, simply power on the computer and wait for 20 minutes. We recommend that you don't use the computer during this process.
Power the computer down and disconnect the drive for 30 seconds.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 one more time.
Reconnect the drive normally, and boot the computer to your operating system.
Click to expand...

I hope it helps, dunno :(
 
Ruoh said:
No. Something else happened, an the SSD damage was coincidental.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree. Everyone here seems to be jumping right onto the conclusion that the pop was from the SSD. I'm more inclined to think it came from the power supply. I have not yet read where the OP has positively tested the power supply is still functional, which I think should be done first before assigning blame to the motherboard.
 
Thanks Seb1, I actually tried that 4 times before giving up. I didn't realize the SSD disappearing was from a reboot, I thought it was from a sudden power loss. Maybe I was hasty in judging Asus; it could definitely just be a coincidence, but it's sometimes hard not to blame the most recent action for a problem.

The PSU (Seasonic X660) still works to power the system (including when stressed) so I'm assuming that it's fine. When I said "audible pop" I probably should have made it clear that my office is extremely quiet - from where I sit by far the largest source of noise is a WD Green drive in a NAS box. In other words my "audible pop" might be someone else's "mouse fart". :)
 
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