Force 3 240 GB BSOD's and Vanishings

Installed a new Force 3 240GB three days ago, and have been having some trouble with it. I've seen plenty of threads discussing BSOD's and the drive not registering as being connected, but they've all seemed to be about the Force 3 120GB woes. Trying to be as long and detailed as possible, but this paragraph is an adequate summary of the problem.

Config Details:

I have 2x 2TB Hitachi data drives in RAID on a pair of SataII ports on Intel controller. I have the SSD plugged into the first SataIII port on Intel controller. Final SATA device is my optical drive which is on the Marvell controller by itself.

Install Details:

Since I have the RAID array, I was forced into keeping the UEFI setting on RAID rather than AHCI. I detached the HDD's to leave only the SDD prior to installing the OS. The install of Windows 7 64bit went smooth as could be. Once finished, I updated Rapid Storage Technology to the latest version, along with chipset, et al. drivers and OS updates.

First hint something was amiss was when explorer did what I'll call a "soft lock" for ~20 seconds on that first day (I've seen a lot of mention of this, nothing is responsive but you still have mouse pointer control, albeit with the spinny blue wheel graphic). Later the same day, there was another soft lock, during which my display suddenly went black and my monitor lost signal. When it came back to life ~5 seconds later, it was only to show the quickest flash of BSOD and then my POST screen.

When the PC rebooted, it didn't recognize any SSD attached. Unfortunately, I kind of panicked and ended up changing multiple things at once. I tried boosting the PCH voltage, I unplugged the HDD's, and I randomly decided to swap the ends of the SSD's SATA cable. On next boot attempt, the SSD appeared again and Windows behaved fine. The next 24hr+ was without issue.

Today I woke up to find my computer at the initial Windows 7 install screen. Evidently, it had BSOD'd again in the middle of the night, and the only boot device available was the Win7 DVD that I had in the drive still. As before, the SSD was not recognized as being connected. I powered down, flipped my PSU switch, pressed/held the power button a few times to clear things out, and then turned the system back on. SSD was recognized, OS booted fine.

This isn't exactly what I'd hoped for when installing the Force 3, obviously. I am hoping that maybe someone has information on how I can have a stable system. Thanks for your help.

I am sorry on your behalf gte206w, but I am a little relieved to find out that I am not the only one who also have some problems with my 240gb force 3 SSD.

I've had the SSD for 2 weeks now, and in 2 occasions I've woken up in the morning seeing a POST on the monitor telling me there is no drive to boot from, and no SSD detected by the BIOS.

A complete shutdown and power up solves the problem(by again detecting the SSD as normal) without any other side effects in windows or in the boot phase.

With an average of one crash a week, it may be acceptable from my part, but it is absolutely a stabillity and reliability issue, and should be fixed in some way.

I have not tried any of the "fixes" written in the linked thread by you, Yellowbeard, although I will definitely give it a try if the problem worsens.

I just write this to let you all know that there might be some issues with the 240gb SSD as well as the 120gb.

Thanks for good support.

No, nothing in the event log that describes the crash. Now, 15min ago, I caught my PC with a BSOD while performing some HDD heavy work(compressing 16gb). I took a photo of the screen to your amusement. :)

Maybe it helps, or maybe its exacly what other people post. Anyway, here it is.

There's a TechNet article

It probably won't help, but it has some suggestions.

Same here, also having problem with my Force 3 Series 240GB. Having exactly that freezing problem when the system locks up for like 10 sec - 1 min. Sometimes even longer! While this is happening I can also move my mouse but sees this loading wheel as described. I also noticed that the Disk Activity LED on my chassi lights up in a constant bright light, just to go back to normal again after this Freeze dissapears.

Been trying to solve this problem for 1 week now. A few related notices I've made on my journey is that this never happends on the Marvel Storage Controler on my ASUS P8P67 Deluxe board. But the speeds on this is horrible so I will never use that.

I also see after bootup, and sometimes later, that the Intel RST Icon complains on not having RST running. It shows "OK" after I click it and wait a bit, but one time it did even freeze when I did so, stating "Not responding" and then the LED light was constant on again.

My Even Log after freezing Issues:

\Device\Ide\iaStor0

0F0028000100000000000000090004C011111111090004C0010000000000000067452301EFCDAB89010000000000CCCC2A00B0CD80032040000000003C000000000000005A1A8ABD00000000012D8CBD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Binary data:

In Words

0000: 0028000F 00000001 00000000 C0040009

0008: 11111111 C0040009 00000001 00000000

0010: 01234567 89ABCDEF 00000001 CCCC0000

0018: CDB0002A 40200380 00000000 0000003C

0020: 00000000 BD8A1A5A 00000000 BD8C2D01

In Bytes

0000: 0F 00 28 00 01 00 00 00 ..(.....

0008: 00 00 00 00 09 00 04 C0 .......À

0010: 11 11 11 11 09 00 04 C0 .......À

0018: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

0020: 67 45 23 01 EF CD AB 89 gE#.ïÍ«‰

0028: 01 00 00 00 00 00 CC CC ......ÌÌ

0030: 2A 00 B0 CD 80 03 20 40 *.°Í€. @

0038: 00 00 00 00 3C 00 00 00 ....<...

0040: 00 00 00 00 5A 1A 8A BD ....Z.Š½

0048: 00 00 00 00 01 2D 8C BD .....-Œ½

I was getting iastor stopped responding, so I uninstalled IRST it hasn't happened since - two days so far.

What errors are you getting in your event log?

I was getting iastor stopped responding, so I uninstalled IRST it hasn't happened since - two days so far.

What errors are you getting in your event log?

Not at home at the moment, sitting at work but couldn't stay away from watching this thread.

However, I see that I missed to show what error message I had. It was something about that the service took to long time to respond. Obviously due to the freezing.

But, that's interesting, why didn't I simply try to uninstall IRST? I made the impression of needing this for good speeds with the SSD. But is it really necessary, or is this more for monitoring and related to raid configurations?

I will definately uninstall it once I come home and see if I get any more freezing issues after that. And I will have a good time to try it since I just reinstalled Windows 7 while troubleshooting, meaning I'm gonna sit a long time installing things again ;)

But, that's interesting, why didn't I simply try to uninstall IRST? I made the impression of needing this for good speeds with the SSD. But is it really necessary, or is this more for monitoring and related to raid configurations?

Yeah I know what you mean, I read the same on here about installing IRST, even though I have never installed it before. I thought it was a replacement for the Matrix Storage manager but all IRST seems to do is say your drive is working - which I knew as I was booted into windows D'OH.

Since I had never used it and my PC was fine before, it was the first thing I removed lol.

My BIOS was old too, so I flashed it to the latest.

Once you've removed the Intel Rapid Storage, did this help?

Was IRST the cause of the problem stalling / freezing.

How many days have it being running since without a problem of freezing?

I having problem with my corsair force 3 240gb freezing on my laptop?

I have the latest Intel Rapid Storage Tech installed.

I don't have any problem running with the older SandForce SSD with intel rapid storage tech installed?

Why is it having a problem with the newer & higher speed Sandforce SSD (corsair force 3)???

thanks!

I have been having some of the same problems reported here with my new Force 3 240GB SSD.

I just purchased a brand new laptop last week (Asus G74SX-A1) and replaced both of the factory hard drives with the new Corsair Force 3 240 GB SSD.

I've been having random freeze ups that end up requiring the entire system to be rebooted. They all appear related to disk activity.

I ran Prime 95, maxing out all CPU cores at 100% for over an hour, with no stability problems.

I ran the Windows memory test as well as Memtest86 for several hours each and found no problems with RAM. I also ran Furmark and other GPU stressing tests and had no stability problems during any of these.

What I did notice is that when doing certain activities like web browsing (where many, small files are being rapidly written to the drive) that the freezing starts to occur. I've specifically noted seeing Google Chrome display a "Waiting for cache..." message which further indicates a hard drive issue. Internet Explorer has the same issue although any moderate HD activity will result in freezing.

I've seen the iaStor errors in the event logs and just yesterday I also had the Kernel_Data_Inpage_Error BSOD (blurry pic attached).

This is a completely fresh install of Windows and mainly only has software development tools (Visual Studio, SQL Management studio, etc.). I'm not sure what else can be done to test this system or determine definitively that the SSD or something related to SSD is the problem.

Any help in resolving these issues would be appreciated.

Thanks for posting your Bug Check Codes squirrel and Zeruel, although different files were involved in your respective BSODs, they were both Bug Check Code 7A which means it may be a problem with the paging file.

I recommend you both disable paging and let's try to pinpoint the problem.

Remember when reporting BSOD you have to report the Bug Check Code, file involved, or provide a small memory dump.

Hello again! I am running without IRST right now, I will come back with results after 1 day or 2. But right now I am also trying some different things meanwhile.

1. Enable HOT PLUG in BIOS for my Corsair Force 3 240GB SSD, this because I read somewhere that someone having similar problem on the same board as me(ASUS P8P67 Deluxe) with another brand of SSD and sucessfully got rid of this problem after doing so.

2. Set the SSD as the only BOOT device in both: /Boot/Boot Option Priorities/Boot Option #1 and under: Hard Drive BBS Priorities/Boot Option #1.

I will be back with an update, running the latest Intel Chipset Driver on this.

Thanks for posting your Bug Check Codes squirrel and Zeruel, although different files were involved in your respective BSODs, they were both Bug Check Code 7A which means it may be a problem with the paging file.

 

I recommend you both disable paging and let's try to pinpoint the problem.

 

Remember when reporting BSOD you have to report the Bug Check Code, file involved, or provide a small memory dump.

While going through my morning routine today, I got my first BSOD in a while (comparatively, it's been maybe 5 days). I noticed the Bug Check Code of F4, not 7A like the others have posted. I had to leave for work soon afterward so I haven't had the machine powered back on to get more details from the dump.

For reference: The CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION bug check has a value of 0x000000F4. This indicates that a process or thread ******** [nice brand filter, how about...critical instead?] to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated.

It also had a few unique features compared to the others I've experienced. First, no "spinny blue wheel of thought" for my mouse cursor, just the standard pointer...but all running programs were still unresponsive to inputs. Second, no solid HDD LED on the chassis, it was dark for the whole event this time. It lasted maybe 20 seconds, then things VERY briefly unlocked, but then my screen tore and went to black. Following seconds after that was the BSOD.

UPDATE:

Now after I Enabled the: HOT PLUG option for my Corsair Force 3 Series 240GB and disabled all other Boot Devices in EFI BIOS I can report that I so far haven't experienced any more "Soft locks" as the OP named it or seen any more iaStor0 error in the Event Log.

Even instructed my GF to use my computer for her daily tasks/routines from home while I've been working since she has vacation right now. She haven't noticed any "Soft locks" at all.

So I hope this can help for someone in the problemsolving.

Note: I AM running IRST right now, it takes like 30sec or so after startup to change from "Not running" to showing all is OK. But no problems so far.

I will update more if anything changes, or confirm my solution after 1-2 weeks.

I am having this same problem with my Corsair Force 3 Series 240GB s/n 1124xxxxx. I am using mine with an Asus Maximus IV Extreme on the Intel SATA III controller.

Motherboard has the newest BIOS (0210) and I've tried all the things listed here to no avail.

My computer will run fine for sometimes more than 24 hours. However, almost guaranteed, the computer will restart and/or blue screen later on. Then when it does restart and/or BSOD. During the next BIOS post it does not list the Corsair Force 3, and following the BIOS post it says there is no boot device. So I then have to unplug my computer and reset the power, just so the SSD can be recognized again.

This happened even before I tried all the "fixes" listed here. It happened with the old BIOS installed. It happened with the Intel RST installed and after it was uninstalled. It just keeps happening!

My 1TB WD Black works perfectly when I plug it in and remove Corsair SSD. AND it never, ever causes a BSOD!

I'm just frustrated, nothing fixes this issue. The suggestions here did help extend the time in between each crash though, TY for that!

-Mike

Latest BIOS is 1409 mate.

There is a beta bios (1850) but I am running fine with 1409.

Latest BIOS is 1409 mate.

There is a beta bios (1850) but I am running fine with 1409.

It this directed toward my post?

I have a Maximus IV Extreme-Z, the newest BIOS is 0210 which came out on 6/24/2011.

Are you referring to the firmware for the SSD?

It this directed toward my post?

 

I have a Maximus IV Extreme-Z, the newest BIOS is 0210 which came out on 6/24/2011.

 

Are you referring to the firmware for the SSD?

Yes your first post said Maximus IV Extreme not the Z version. Ignore me then :)

Cowtipper, what Firmware version are you running?

I'm currently running Firmware version 1.2 according to CrystalDisk. I read somewhere in these forums that some people with the Corsair Force 3 240GB have Firmware version 2.0.

Does anyone know where to find the Firmware version 2.0 update? I looked, and I can't find it.

Please help....

Cowtipper, what Firmware version are you running?

 

I'm currently running Firmware version 1.2 according to CrystalDisk. I read somewhere in these forums that some people with the Corsair Force 3 240GB have Firmware version 2.0.

 

Does anyone know where to find the Firmware version 2.0 update? I looked, and I can't find it.

 

Please help....