New x256 SSD drive disappears

[Wired]

Mac mini (Mid 2007) - Technical Specifications - 1.83GHz Mac mini (MB138LL/A) | 2.0GHz Mac mini (MB139LL/A)

Mac mini (Early 2009) - Technical Specifications - 120GB Mac mini (MB463LL/A) | 320GB Mac mini (MB464LL/A)

 

Hopefully this will help in figuring out the problem.

[steve1199]

after having strong problems to get this drive working, I tried an utility which shows me the smart status and the drives status fails... so I mention the drive is ready for replacing?

 

http://s12b.directupload.net/images/090906/temp/j6ntmi86.jpg

 

it would be nice if corsair support could have a look at the values

 

thanks.

[RAM GUY]

Can you give me the Lot code off and drive part number off of the failing drive please? Or if you can post a clean pic of the label that would really help we are checking them now?

I will have our SSD Apps person look at the error list you posted.

[steve1199]

sorry I took the drive to the local retailer for replacement

 

is there something new about the smart status values?

[FEAR6655]

A great load of those SMART values don't even apply to SSD's. I don't think SMART poses any usefulness with SSD's, and doesn't appear to work correctly (drive probably not reporting anything/random values).

[Seldom]

Hi,

 

I had the same problem. Tried to clone my primary hard disk and it freezes all the time. Then I just formatted, copied my game on it and started gaming. After a while my PC freezed, I had to reboot. After that my drive disappeared completely and it is neither found by BIOS nor by Windows.

 

I will have to return my drive and all data are gone.

 

Does anybody know in the meantime what is wrong with that series?

 

Seldom

 

P.S.: Working with Vista and Abit IN9 32x motherboard.

 

P.P.S.: my drive is from the same lot that seems to have issues with the others as well: 09320108

[german]

Had the same issue with abort of writing large amount of data. 1st got write errors, later ended with the drive disappering from the OS.

 

But after disconneting the SSD, it shoiws again. Working with small files and not much Gigabites at a time it seems to stay fine.

 

But this is not the reason to spend 500 EUROs for a Drive.

 

I´m looking forward to see an answer from Corsair on this issue.

 

Happens with a Lenovo T400, WinXP32 and in either the MAIN HDD and Ultrabay.

http://www.poolmedia.de/ebay/DSCN6628.JPG

 

bye Wolfgang

[mmx1337]

I recently ordered 8 (yes eight) of these drives. After heavy I/O, 5 of these drives failed and are no longer showing up in the BIOS. I have tried to use different cables and SATA ports (different computers even), but the drives still do not show up in the BIOS (or the OS).

 

All of the drives were from the same lot #09320108.

 

I hope there is a firmware update that will fix the problem. If not, the drives are most definitely, albeit very light, paperweights.

[RAM GUY]

Let's get them replaced, please use the On Line RMA Request Form and we will be happy to replace them.

[steve1199]

I am glad to see that more people are getting problematic drives and corsair's statement is fault that this problem only affect a few users. The threads are increasing and I am still waiting for an official statement why this drives are problematic?

 

The only thing I here from RAM_GUY is "....lets get them replaced...we will happy to replace them". You can replace them but I want to know whats wrong with this drives?

[RAM GUY]

We need to get the drives back before we can determine what caused them to fail. We are looking into this and will know more in the coming week or so.

[spacecadet610]

RAM Guy,

 

It seems the drives are all from the same lot, and given the number of similar problems it is a drive issue itself rather than a system or cable issue.

 

Are there actually other lots besides the one everyone is complaining about (#09320108)? Or have all the drives produced from the same lot?

 

If that's the only lot, then it's not helpful. If there are a bunch of different lots, but this is the 1 bad one then i'd have more confidence in trying out another drive.

[RAM GUY]

I don't have the information as to how many lots there were as far as I know this last production was all one lot and it was in the thousands of drives so with that in mind while there are more than one persons having a problem it is still a low number compared to what we have sold. So I have to assume that it may just be failures of an acceptable percentage. But we are looking at the problem seriously and checking every possible cause; from what I have seen there seems to be less that 10 cases about 8 that I know of, but we need to get these drives back so we can Analyze them to see what the failure really is.

 

Also from what I have seen the majority are using X58 MB's or Apple Systems and we are working with other manufacturers to isolate the cause.

Many have sent the drive back to the reseller for their Convenience and while I understand it does take a bit longer for us to get the failing drive back here to test. So please be patient and we will post anything that needs to be posted ASAP.

[spacecadet610]

i have a feeling that it's a lot more than 10 cases. People just don't know about this forum.

 

Another one bites the dust: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=138534

[RAM GUY]

OK But that is only one person and who knows if that is not one of the people posting on this forum?

[bigloudjeff]

I just purchased 2 x256 drives to put in a Dell Vostro 1700. I had 2 7200RPM drives in there before that were working just fine but I wanted more speed.

 

So I replaced both drives with 2 new Corsair X256 drives and did a clean Windows 7 x64 install.

 

I have been copying over data from old drives and reinstalling apps. One of the drives is working just fine. Luckily that happened to end up being the system drive. However, the other drive, primarily usd for storing data stops working under load. It just simply disappears from the system. Disk management can't see, the device manager can't see it, it is just gone.

 

If I reboot the machine, the drive comes back and works for a while. It seems to last about 10 minutes with a lot of data being copied to it before it disappears.

 

Here are the serial numbers for the 2 drives...

 

09320108-10045981

09320108-10046082 (Bad)

 

I have tried swapping the drives around between the SATA connectors on my laptop but that didn't seem to make a difference.

 

I am going to try to open an RMA abd hope to have it replaced. But if anyone has any questions/suggestions in the mean time, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff

[spacecadet610]

I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong with my drive.

 

As you can see in the rest of the forum, there is a bad batch of SSD drives going around.

 

Corsair unfortunately doesn't have any answers at this point and the only thing you can do is return it or RMA it.

 

I know, I'm not much help.

 

 

 

 

 

I just purchased 2 x256 drives to put in a Dell Vostro 1700. I had 2 7200RPM drives in there before that were working just fine but I wanted more speed.

 

So I replaced both drives with 2 new Corsair X256 drives and did a clean Windows 7 x64 install.

 

I have been copying over data from old drives and reinstalling apps. One of the drives is working just fine. Luckily that happened to end up being the system drive. However, the other drive, primarily usd for storing data stops working under load. It just simply disappears from the system. Disk management can't see, the device manager can't see it, it is just gone.

 

If I reboot the machine, the drive comes back and works for a while. It seems to last about 10 minutes with a lot of data being copied to it before it disappears.

 

Here are the serial numbers for the 2 drives...

 

09320108-10045981

09320108-10046082 (Bad)

 

I have tried swapping the drives around between the SATA connectors on my laptop but that didn't seem to make a difference.

 

I am going to try to open an RMA abd hope to have it replaced. But if anyone has any questions/suggestions in the mean time, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff

[RAM GUY]

I would try another power connection on the drive that is dropping out to be sure its not a power issue, but if not I would suggest we replace that drive..

Let's get it replaced, please use the On Line RMA Request Form and we will be happy to replace it.

[spacecadet610]

Ram Guy,

 

Any update at all as to what the problem might be? Have the engineers said anything? Have they been able to duplicate the issue?

 

It's been almost 3 weeks since i originally posted about this problem.

 

It seems a day doesn't go by without a new person posting about a bad x256 drive.

[RAM GUY]

We still have not got any of the failing drives back here most of you have chosen to go through your reseller and not that we mind that it just takes a bit longer to get the drives back from resellers. However we have been looking at the problem and something I would encourage you all to try is this:

 

Disconnect the drive then on the drive there is a place for a jumper install that jumper on the drive and then connect the drive and see if it is detected.

I hope to have some failing drives later today to verify and I will post anything as soon as I have it.

[Seldom]

Here is my RMA: 1124664

 

Please - if you are going to replace that drive, can you make sure that I get one from another lot with the latest firmware installed?

 

There seems to be an issue with that lot and it would be interesting to know how many drives were part of that lot. Talked to my dealer where I bought the drive a couple of days ago and he stated that he can hardly believe that already thousands of drives have been sold (I am talking about the X256 series). It is not so easily available and relatively new and is of high price.

 

Would be good to get a statement what went wrong here - otherwise this might even affect business, because dealers won't recommend such drives to their customers where they know about issues.

 

Regards,

Seldom

[spacecadet610]

My understanding from what RAM guy stated is that there is only 1 lot that was produced, which includes the latest firmware.

 

I can't believe either that thousands have been sold. Maybe thousands have been sold to resellers, but end-users maybe several hundred i would guess.

 

Of those receiving multiple drive shipments in this thread, 5 of 8 were bad for 1 person, whereas 1 of 2 were bad for another. Based on these numbers (with n =10), one would estimate that 60% of these drives are bad.

 

New failures are being reported everyday, and I expect more reports as the days go on.

 

I'm disappointed that Corsair hasn't acted more quickly on this. These are expensive drives and one would expect a working product.

 

 

 

Here is my RMA: 1124664

 

Please - if you are going to replace that drive, can you make sure that I get one from another lot with the latest firmware installed?

 

There seems to be an issue with that lot and it would be interesting to know how many drives were part of that lot. Talked to my dealer where I bought the drive a couple of days ago and he stated that he can hardly believe that already thousands of drives have been sold (I am talking about the X256 series). It is not so easily available and relatively new and is of high price.

 

Would be good to get a statement what went wrong here - otherwise this might even affect business, because dealers won't recommend such drives to their customers where they know about issues.

 

Regards,

Seldom

[RAM GUY]

Seldom,

Thanks for the information I have asked our RMA to keep an eye out for the drive and send the drive to the proper person ASAP.

 

 

spacecadet610,

I did not state that the latest Lot of drives were all the same lot only that everyone who had posted so far were the same lot number???

 

And as soon as this was reported we started testing drives to try and duplicate the problem. These types of issues can happen and sometimes may be hard to find at first. We are getting the failing drives back now and testing is underway and as soon as I have any information I will post it.

If you have one of these drives and have not sent it back don't send it just yet

And I would try the steps I posted on another thread to see if the drive can be detected in utility mode by unplugging the drive and then install the jumper on the drive then connect it and see if it is detected.

I would expect that we will have a solution pretty quick for this but I don't have any information other than that ATM. Sorry!

[spacecadet610]

Sorry if i misunderstood.

 

You previously stated that "as far as I know this last production was all one lot and it was in the thousands of drives" which is why I assumed there was only one lot produced.

 

spacecadet610,

I did not state that the latest Lot of drives were all the same lot only that everyone who had posted so far were the same lot number???

 

And as soon as this was reported we started testing drives to try and duplicate the problem. These types of issues can happen and sometimes may be hard to find at first. We are getting the failing drives back now and testing is underway and as soon as I have any information I will post it.

If you have one of these drives and have not sent it back don't send it just yet

And I would try the steps I posted on another thread to see if the drive can be detected in utility mode by unplugging the drive and then install the jumper on the drive then connect it and see if it is detected.

I would expect that we will have a solution pretty quick for this but I don't have any information other than that ATM. Sorry!

[RAM GUY]

I am sorry I confused you but the lot information is not important in this case only that all of the drives that we have so far that have failed and I have only gotten 2 drives and the drives reported here have been the same lot number.

And for the record the two drives I have were both failing drives so I do not have any information to support this as being anything other than a failure at this point.