Can't flash firmware to cssd-f80gbp2

Hello. I'm at my wit's end on this. I purchased a new system with the specs in my profile a few months ago and I have been having constant problems that I believe are related to my SSD. Last week, I thought I might give flashing the newest firmware to the SSD a try, but I have had absolutely zero success.

 

First off, I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I downloaded the Force Series 2.0 firmware from the forum here, and when I run the program that flashes the firmware, it fails to find my hard drive every single time. I have UAC disabled and my account is a local admin. I have tried right clicking the exe and running it as admin just in case, but I receive the same result. I have made sure I am running in AHCI. I have made sure that the SSD is plugged into SATA3 port 1. I have tried running the flasher in UBCD4Win. I have tried using both the Microsoft AHCI drivers as well as Intel RST 9.x and 10.x.Regardless, it never ever finds my drive. What else can I do?! Even if I have to reinstall Windows, I want to get this flashed to attempt to resolve my other issues.

 

As a side question, please give me your thoughts on the issues I've actually been experiencing that lead me to flashing the firmware, if you would be so kind. By the way, these issues have persisted even after two formats and reinstalls of Windows and seems to get slightly better after installing Intel RST 10.x drivers.

 

Regardless of the web browser I use, occasionally when it is loading a webpage the whole browser will hang for about 30 seconds. I assumed this was related to browser plugins, however I have uninstalled and disabled all plugins from every browser I have tried (IE, Chrome, Opera). I have moved my temp/cache folders to another HD and it still does the same thing. All programs were installed to the SSD, however. This is also regardless of the page I attempt to visit - it will even do this on Google or my SABnzbd website (at localhost).

 

Also, randomly when I shut down my PC (legitimately, might I add... going to start -> shutdown, and it shuts off 'normally') and the next day start it up again, it says Windows shut down improperly. The event logs have zero information regarding why. There is no BSOD. I have automatic restart on BSOD disabled and nothing ever shows. There is no problem at all as far as I can tell, it just... randomly happens.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts? Regardless of the other issues, I would still like to flash the firmware to the SSD. Are there any SSD diagnostic tools that I can run? I haven't been able to find any!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Edit - I forgot to mention that I also ran a memory test and all RAM sticks checked out okay as well... I do not believe they are suspect.

Please run Crystal Disk Info and see what Firmware version is installed.

Also please run ATTO disk Benchmark and post a screen shot of both please.

And you will want to use S-ATA 2 controller for best performance.

 

Thank you for the reply.

 

Forgive my ignorance, but why would I want to connect my SSD to a SATA2 port when I can put it on SATA3 instead? Wouldn't that limit the transfer rate, as SATA3 is considerably faster?

 

Since I've been under the impression that I should have my SSD on SATA3, I ran the tools you requested with it still connected as it has been. Once you answer my above question, I will gladly switch it to SATA2. For now, I'd like to keep it the way I have it. The screenshots are attached to this post.

It doesn't saturate SATA II, so you might as well leave the SATA III open for future expansion.

Forgive my ignorance, but why would I want to connect my SSD to a SATA2 port when I can put it on SATA3 instead? Wouldn't that limit the transfer rate, as SATA3 is considerably faster?

 

It's a SATA2 drive so it will not take advantage of SATA3 ports. The Force drive plays best with Intel SATA2 ports. Using other manufactuers such as Marvell, JMicron, especially SATA3 ports could (potentially) lead to stability or speed issues. Also, you might as well leave the port open for future expansions.

 

I saw a benchmark a while back here that showed the Force drive performs slower on Marvell SATA3 ports than Intel SATA2 ports. I repeat, there is no point in plugging a Force drive into a SATA3 port.

Okay. I plugged it into SATA2 port 1. The firmware updater still does not see the drive in Windows - please note that I have not tried UBCD4Win since putting it on SATA2 (and I left my disc at work that has it). Here are the new results of the applications you asked me to run.

Alright, after switching it to SATA2 port 1, I uninstalled the Intel RST drivers and used the Microsoft ones. After that, the drive was recognized by the firmware installer. I started running the firmware flash and it stopped at sector 852. A minute or so later I got a BSOD. I shut down my PC and it started back up okay. CrystalDiskInfo says that firmware 2.0 is on the drive, but I'm worried that the flash may not have finished entirely. Do you guys think I am okay or should I flash the alternate package?

BSOD can happen when flashing to current OS drive. Most likely you are fine. You can try flashing alternate pkg if you want but chances are it will not want to flash it. your previous atto score were on par so test that again and if they look the same your drive is in good condition.

The benchmark scores are about the same. I guess I'll leave it alone. Thanks for the help everyone!