Yellowbeard Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 We are making a firmware update available on this forum for owners of Corsair X-Series SSDs. This update will enable the TRIM command within Windows 7 for drives with early firmware versions that do not currently support it. Before proceeding with this update, there are some EXTREMELY IMPORTANT items you need to be aware of. Please read the following CAREFULLY: 1. THIS UPDATE TOOL IS PRELIMINARY. It is unable to pass our standard acceptance testing for customer use. It is being released due to strong customer demand ONLY. Use of this tool is supported by Corsair, but is NOT RECOMMENDED. 2. THIS UPDATE TOOL WILL NOT WORK WITH ALL SYSTEMS. Failures have been experienced during testing on various systems. If your system is unable to update the firmware on the drive, you can send the drive to Corsair to have it updated, as described below. 3. RUNNING THIS UPDATE MAY CAUSE PROBLEMS WITH YOUR DRIVE. We have observed instances on other vendors’ sites where firmware update has caused the drive to no longer be recognized by the system. In such cases, Corsair will update the drive, as described below. 4. CORSAIR WILL REPAIR OR REPLACE ANY DRIVES WHICH ARE NOT UPDATED SUCCESSFULLY. Any drives which are not updated successfully can be sent to Corsair for update. Note that in all circumstances this will result in COMPLETE ERASURE of the drive and a turnaround time of two to four weeks, including shipping. Details can be found here. 5. X-256 Owners: Firmware 1.1 ON X-256 DRIVES SUPPORTS TRIM AND DOES NOT NEED TO BE UPDATED TO HAVE TRIM SUPPORT! X-256 firmware 1.1 is the same as the 2.0 firmware on X128, X64, and X32. The 2.0 update adds no additional functionality or performance to the X-256 and therefore the drive should NOT be updated using this update. The update files for the X-256 have been removed. Please continue reading below for information on determining if the firmware currently on your drive already supports TRIM, and instructions on how to update your drive should you choose to do so. BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE Steps to update your X-Series Firmware 1. Run CrystalDiskInfo, available HERE. NOTE: If you see "2.0" as the current firmware, YOU DO NOT NEED TO RUN THIS FIRMWARE UPDATE AND ALREADY HAVE THE MOST RECENT FIRMWARE. 2. Determine if your drive has an upper case or lower case part number, as shown in this image. http://www2.corsair.com/appslab/xseries/lowerupper.png 3. Download the appropriate firmware for your drive below. UPPER CASE 256GB UPPER CASE 128GB UPPER CASE 64GB UPPER CASE 32GB lower case 256GB lower case 128GB lower case 64GB lower case 32GB 4. Extract the .EXE file and copy it onto a bootable USB drive. 5. Reboot your computer and boot to the USB drive. a. Some motherboards have boot selection screens you can access by hitting a key on boot, check your motherboard manual to see if your board can do this. b. Otherwise, changing the boot order in the BIOS temporarily might be required. 6. The system should boot to a command prompt, like below: http://www2.corsair.com/appslab/xseries/image01.jpg 7. Run the appropriate .EXE file by typing its name and hitting enter, ex: C:\>upper64.exe 8. The system will ask you to search for the drive. Hit the Y key for yes. http://www2.corsair.com/appslab/xseries/image02.jpg 9. Once the system finds the drive, you’ll see a screen like this: http://www2.corsair.com/appslab/xseries/image03.jpg 10. Hit the appropriate number of the drive you wish to update, then hit enter. The drive should be flashed at this point. http://www2.corsair.com/appslab/xseries/image04.jpg 11. At this point, your drive should be flashed after a reboot. ADDITIONAL TIPS POSTED BY RAM GUY Reading through the posts and from my own experience these seem to be the keys to success. But no guarantee OK just what I noticed and some other observations and what I used in the lab that worked. 1. If you have them in a RAID you should to break the RAID and I would suggest using Parted Magic or G-Parted to secure erase the drives. 2. Make sure no TSR's are loaded when you boot to the USB Drive IE memory managers like himem.sys or EMM386.exe. And that you are using Windows 98 Second Edition to make the boot drive you can get these files from http://www.bootdisk.com. 3. If the drive is not detected try hot plugging the drive and another USB Port. This was what worked for me and many others who had successs. This is also mentioned when running the Secure erase software as the MB BIOS will sometimes lock the drive and hot plugging or moving to another port will unlock the MB BIOS. 4. If it fails on the MB or system you have it on try another system even if its an older system that only supports S-ATA1 it may work. 5. MB BIOS's are all different and some MB makers have better written BIOS than others and that can effect the outcome of this utility. Now please dont miss-understand I am not suggesting that one MB maker is better than another but I have seen MB's with different model numbers even from the same MB maker have better written BIOS than another model. A good clue to well written BIOS from a MB maker is not many BIOS updates and not many complaints about BIOS related issues, this requires some research on the MB or MB's in question. FYI! And in all fairness this utility is not what we would 100% stable as mentioned previously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted February 25, 2010 Author Share Posted February 25, 2010 If you have firmware revision 2.0 or firmware revision 1.1 on X-256 installed, please disregard this post. If you have problems flashing the drive and get errors like "Firmware flash failed" or "invalid drive" or something similar and you wish to send the drive to Corsair to have us flash it, please take note of the serial number on your drive. PLEASE NOTE TO TAKE THE SERIAL NUMBER FROM THE STICKER, AND NOT FROM SOFTWARE http://www2.corsair.com/appslab/xseries/serialnumber.jpg Once you have this serial number, please go to our TSX program, located here: http://www.corsair.com/support/helpdesk/ Follow the on-screen guide to get your RMA return number. BEFORE SENDING YOUR DRIVE TO CORSAIR, PLEASE BACK UP ANY VALUABLE DATA AND THEN ERASE THE DRIVE All drives sent to Corsair will be wiped before the firmware is flashed, and returned to you with no data on them. For RMAs, anywhere in the world, use the link given in this thread. Once you complete the RMA form, it will direct you to the closest shipping point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted February 26, 2010 Corsair Employee Share Posted February 26, 2010 For better tracking and to keep this post clean; all posts in this thread have been moved to this thread Report Your Success or Failure - X-Series Firmware Update, please post in that thread or start a new thread in this section with your results or questions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted February 27, 2010 Author Share Posted February 27, 2010 5. X-256 Owners: Firmware 1.1 ON X-256 DRIVES SUPPORTS TRIM AND DOES NOT NEED TO BE UPDATED TO HAVE TRIM SUPPORT! X-256 firmware 1.1 is the same as the 2.0 firmware on X128, X64, and X32. The 2.0 update adds no additional functionality or performance to the X-256 and therefore the drive should NOT be updated using this update. The update files for the X-256 have been removed. I updated the info in the first post. One of our engineers passed this on to me yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yodarama Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Yellowbeard, My system reports Firmware 2.1 for the X256 series drives...is this correct?? V/r Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted March 8, 2010 Corsair Employee Share Posted March 8, 2010 Yes Versions 1.1 or 2.1 is the same as 1.0 or 2.0 version just a slightly different BOM or Build. But the firmware version is the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted March 8, 2010 Corsair Employee Share Posted March 8, 2010 I stated incorrectly, 1.1 and 2.0 and 2.1 are all based on the reference firmware 1819 from Indilinx and all have TRIM support and do not need to be updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 Also in the first post it says you "shouldn't" need it with the 256 but it can't hurt to update it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tetard Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Actually, the post says: "The 2.0 update adds no additional functionality or performance to the X-256 and therefore the drive should NOT be updated using this update. The update files for the X-256 have been removed." (in fact they are still available) It clearly says "should NOT be updated" :) Ok, I'll give it a try - after all, it says TRIM is not supported, and that would be nice under Lion. I hope you understand my confusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 Yeah, sorry about that. We have not updated the post to reflect any MAC info or recent MAC based changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblegut Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 My drive has a firmware of 0.1. Does it need updating? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommo1626863747 Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Hi, I have two X64 drives, both purchased together at the same time, one has version 1.0 and the other has version 2.0 firmware and sods law I have Win7 loaded onto the one which doesn't support TRIM and the performance is beginning to stutter. I am also considering putting these drives into RAID0 and so you can see the need for the updated firmware. I've just downloaded the Bootable Flash Drive tool which works perfectly, thanks Yellowbeard. I used it to boot to the command line so I could flash version 2.0 firmware onto one of my X64's. All was going well until I got to the bit where it asked if I wanted it to search for the drives at which point the keyboard failed to respond and wouldn't let me enter a value. Is that a known issue and is there a fix? Anyway, a few attempts and some varied frantic hitting of keys I managed to get the flash utility to work on three or four occasions and accept the drive I wanted to update only for it to then tell me that the download failed 'Bye'. I know this is an old thread and drive technology has moved on and I have read the thread but I may be missing something so could you please tell me if there is something else I can try to flash version 2.0 firmware onto this drive or whether I'm doing something wrong? Can I flash the firmware using another computer by plugging my drive into a spare port, if so can you instruct me? Thanks in advance for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anth Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 could you please tell me if there is something else I can try to flash version 2.0 firmware onto this drive or whether I'm doing something wrong? Flashing my corsair drive has literally been the biggest pain the backside in my entire computing usuage history. You need to try on different SATA ports. And if you have tried all the ports then on another PC. Its the only thing you can do. I tried mine on three separate PCs and none worked. I then sent it back to my retailer as they said they would try flashing it. They tried it on 10 separate PCs and multiple of SATA ports before they gave up and replaced my drive with a brand new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommo1626863747 Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Thanks for the reply Anth, I know a lot of people have had trouble with this particular issue and I was hoping I would never have to do it but its getting to the point that I either update the firmware or buy a new drive. If I continue to fail I wonder if Corsair would still replace the drive if they failed to update it?? Hmmmm Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aristocrat74 Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I have a corsair CMFssd-128 D1 lower case http://imageshack.us/a/img441/7461/snapg.jpg I have a problem ... when The system ask me to search for the drive, I Hit the Y key for yes but it does not find the drive :confused: http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/4391/20130314170459.jpg my configuration is: core i7 920 and asus p6td deluxe in ahci mode . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toasted Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 If the drive is working fine, i'd avoid the firmware update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Araldwenn Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Copy/paste from the first topic : "If the drive is not detected try hot plugging the drive and another USB Port. This was what worked for me and many others who had successs. This is also mentioned when running the Secure erase software as the MB BIOS will sometimes lock the drive and hot plugging or moving to another port will unlock the MB BIOS." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.