Failing SSD or just a glitch?

ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
On boot this morning, instead of Windows I got a message on screen about the Realtek Family controller (ie. Ethernet port) cable being unplugged. I know this is because the SSD was not found on boot and, there being no CD in the drive, the system tried to boot from the LAN (which isn't connected).

I've never had an SSD before so my question is; is this just a glitch and nothing to worry about, or is it a first sign that my SSD might be failing?

:helpsmilie:
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
ubuysa said:
Yes, it's only happened once and that was this morning. Booted fine after a switch off and back on. I did look at the SMART data when it rebooted and saw nothing scary but thanks for the toolbox link. I'll see what that says. :)
Click to expand...

I experienced a problem a few weeks ago, it took longer than usual to reach Windows from boot. I reinstalled Intel Rapid Storage Technology and everything was fine afterwards.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
keynes said:
I experienced a problem a few weeks ago, it took longer than usual to reach Windows from boot. I reinstalled Intel Rapid Storage Technology and everything was fine afterwards.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I've just run the toolbox which gives better SMART info that I was getting before. The only two entries that in any sense cause concern are:

B8 End-To-End Error Detection Cont which has a value of 90. The Normalized field (is that the normal value?) is 100

BB Uncorrectable Error Count which has a value of 50. The normalized field here is 150.

Drive health is all the way in the green and a quick diagnostic scan is good too. I just ran the optimizer and I've scheduled that to run weekly. The Firmware update button is greyed-out though, is that because my firmware is up to date (400i) or because the tool can't update the firmware of 520 series drives? I'll download the .iso update tool and run that when I have the time.

Many thanks for your help. :)
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
The latest firmware for the 520 is 400i. Not sure about the errors, have you try the Intel SSD optimizer?
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
keynes said:
The latest firmware for the 520 is 400i. Not sure about the errors, have you try the Intel SSD optimizer?
Click to expand...

Yes, I ran that with no problems. It's now scheduled to run weekly.

I'm going to put this down as a glitch....unless it happens again. And then I'm going to run around screaming like a headless chicken. ;)
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
just to let you know, you cant update the firmware on an ssd whilst you have your OS installed on it. I think the drive has to be a freshly formatted. Well it does on a desktop, so i presume its the same with laptops.

Edit, this was the case when i updated the firmware on previous OCZ and Corsair ssd's.
 
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ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
tom_gr7 said:
just to let you know, you cant update the firmware on an ssd whilst you have your OS installed on it. I think the drive has to be a freshly formatted. Well it does on a desktop, so i presume its the same with laptops.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Tom, I didn't know that - and it's important to know! :)
 
Yamikotai

Yamikotai

Expert
tom_gr7 said:
just to let you know, you cant update the firmware on an ssd whilst you have your OS installed on it. I think the drive has to be a freshly formatted. Well it does on a desktop, so i presume its the same with laptops.
Click to expand...
This isn't true; it doesn't matter what data is written or not written to the drive.
Source: My knowledge, and having updated both my SSDs and a friend's.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Yamikotai said:
This isn't true; it doesn't matter what data is written or not written to the drive.
Source: My knowledge, and having updated both my SSDs and a friend's.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, to be fair tom_gr7 did qualify his post. My firmware is up to date so I've no plans to muck about with it. In any case, following my usual catious practice, I'd take a full disk image of the SSD before I attempted a firmware update. :)

FWIW The laptop booted perfectly normally today. I'm satisfied it was a glitch, my main reason for posting the question was to see whether those more experienced with SSDs would say something like "ah yes they do that, don't worry"...... :)
 
mitchell65

mitchell65

Gold Level Poster
ubuysa said:
In any case, following my usual catious practice, I'd take a full disk image of the SSD before I attempted a firmware update. :)
Click to expand...
HAve you installed the Intel SSD Toolbox? Here's hopefully what you will see there:

SSD Toolbox.PNG

I researched much befire investing in the SSD and found that on balance a spinner would fail quicker than an SSD. I assume you have Trim enabled and auto defrag disabled?
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
mitchell65 said:
HAve you installed the Intel SSD Toolbox? Here's hopefully what you will see there:

View attachment 3458

I researched much befire investing in the SSD and found that on balance a spinner would fail quicker than an SSD. I assume you have Trim enabled and auto defrag disabled?
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, keynes put me on to the toolbox (post #5). Yes, TRIM is enabled and autodefrag is off.
 
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