My refurb F120 died after only 10 months of use

[neelrocker]

Hello,

 

So one day I was gaming and suddenly the game freezed. Curiously I could still hear my teammates on vocal (mumble).

I tried to alt-tab: didn't work.

Ctrl-alt-del: didn't work.

All I could do was hardware powering-off the computer.

 

Then I tried to restart the computer and the nightmare began: I was only getting blue screens after blue screens.

 

After several attempts I finally managed to start an old win xp partition that was located on HDD instead of SDD.

 

There, I could see the F120 SSD but as soon I was trying to explore it I was getting a blue screen again.

 

I've tried everything to get the F120 work again, tried all available recovery tools from Ultimate Boot CD including Secure Erase, nothing worked. I even tried a firmware upgrade but the corsair tool does not find the SSD. This SSD neither works anymore when plugging it to another computer, and if I plug my brother's F120 in my computer, it works.

 

Undoubtely, my F120 is dead. So, what now Corsair ? :mad:

[Toasted]

What's the BSOD error code?

Have you tried a different SATA data cable and port?

[neelrocker]

Yes of course I've tried another cable (and as said with the same cable my brother's ssd works) and other ports, which means I've also tried with both SATA controllers my motherboard is equipped with.

 

In any case BIOS won't detect the SSD anymore. And the only way I found to have it detected by the OS (win XP and linux only, doesn't work with 7) is to connect/disconnect the SSD power cable several time (with OS running ofc).

 

Though despite it is detected by the OS doing this it is not detected by corsair firmware tool and I cannot do a secure erase under linux.

[Toasted]

There isn't much you can do as the drive is a refurbished unit.

[neelrocker]

Still no official answer more than a week after I posted ?

 

Can I have an official answer form Corsair support team please... I wouldn't want to have to realize I would have sent 120 euros in the trash bin by buying this Corsair product....

[RAM GUY]

I'm afraid there's not much option at this point. You may want to try secure erasing it through different system and see if it can be detected for secure erase.

[neelrocker]

As already said, secure erase cannot be performed.

 

I have spent several hours again today to retry this, with disk erasing tool from parted magic (5.2.3 ultimate boot CD) and no way. I can see the drive detected as Corsair F120 but the serial number isn't displayed and the utility says the disk is frozen. I have tried any possible way to unfreeze it and it did not work.

 

I have also tried all other parted magic utilities, from:

 

- partition manager (drive is seen as without any partition and partition cannot be created -> partition table creation fails)

 

- cloning -> only read errors

 

- recovery (photorec) -> only read errors

 

- mounting drive -> read error

 

I have also tried the same with another computer, with completely different hardware, with both main SATA controller & additionnal SATA controller as I did on my own computer, and same result: everything fails.

 

There is no doubt this drive as gone faulty and this after ONLY 10 MONTHS of use !

 

So what I'm expecting is a green flag for RMA because this is not normal a SSD dies after 10 months, refurb or not (refurbished means "made as new", right ? After Corsair has made it pass several tests to ensure nothing was wrong with the unit).

 

This unit was powered by a seasonic S500, which is a renown power supply (a company Corsair is / has been working with for its own power supplies, right ?), in a cool PC case, so I don't see what else than an defective SSD unit (or flawed design) could have been the cause of it stopping working after only 10 months or regular personal use (gaming, web browsing etc.). Not to say that I'm far from being the only one to encounter this issue, just looking through this forum I could link many threads dealing with the exact same issue that happened to my drive.

[Nec_V20]

neelrocker,

 

if your drive is not being seen in the BIOS there is not really a lot that anything else can do.

 

The only suggestion I could add which might even REMOTELY be of any help is to look in the BIOS and see if you have S.M.A.R.T (Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology) activated.

 

There does not seem to be a standard for S.M.A.R.T. for SSDs and it is a VERY REMOTE possibility that the drive is reporting itself mistakenly as defective in the BIOS and thus being ignored if S.M.A.R.T is active.

 

Otherwise I have to say that your SSD has gone from living silicon to being a rock.

 

And let's be honest you bought it as a "Refurbished" product at a price which was a lot cheaper than new, so it was a chance you were taking.

 

It does state very clearly that:

Corsair offers a 30-day, replacement-only warranty for refurbished or factory reconditioned Memory, SSD and USB parts.

 

Ten months is well outside that period.

 

Personally I would say, if I were someone who could decide within Corsair, "Ah to hell with it, it was the guy's own fault but let's cut him a break", because it would turn you from being a cheesed off ex-customer to being a very happy camper recommending Corsair products to everyone you know or talk to.

[neelrocker]

Smart is activated, I can read it for all my HHD drives but not the F120 SSD.

 

And no, this SSD was not "a lot cheaper". It was a bit cheaper and that's precisely why I accepted to buy it refurb.

 

Come on, stop talking about those refurb SSD as if it was units sold close to their end of life. Who would buy a SSD like that ? The only reason people are buying refurb SSD is precisely because they are "almost new units". Drives that were just used for a few weeks (months at worst !). And even if we were talking about a few months old unit, Corsair claims this F120 to be "Reliable — Over 1,000,000 hours mean time between failures".

 

Given the price they are sold, customers can only consider F120 refurbs as being "almost as new". The only reason there is a small discount is: "because a previous customer pulled it out of its box (and possibly used it for a short period of time), it cannot be sold the same price as a true new unit anymore".

 

We are not talking about years old used drives, at all. We are talking about units with low use (if even used once at all) AND that *should* have passed manufacturer tests to ensure it has no defect.

 

 

Now Corsair official answers only, please.

 

.

[Nec_V20]

look neelrocker, have you actually thought about DISABLING S.M.A.R.T. and then seeing if your SSD would be recognised instead of going off on a rant towards someone (myself), who has bugger all to do with Corsair, trying to give you some effing help which you didn't have before?

 

Not Allowed there is no reason for that!

[neelrocker]

I'm not ranting I'm answering to your "let's be honest you bought it as a "Refurbished" product".

[Nec_V20]

Well don't frigging well make accusations as if I were a representative of Corsair.

 

I am a computer techie but I have no affiliation to Corsair whatsoever.

 

And the next time you answer me I would ask that you keep a civil tongue in your head.

 

I was on your side if you had actually read my post.

[neelrocker]

Let not go childish, I have not accused you in any way in my answer. If your only concern was to offer some help then why not sticking to the S.M.A.R.T. advice ? If you chose to go further like discussing about refurb then accept what you say is being answered ;)

 

Beside this I have tried disabling S.M.A.R.T. and it doesn't help with bios detection, with neither of the SATA controllers of my MB. When BIOS tries to detect the SSD it hangs for a bunch of seconds before claiming nothing is detected (if I unplug the SSD power during the bios detection hang it makes the hang immediatly stop, which further indicates this SSD is defect, imho).

[Nec_V20]

So I was wrong with regard to the only advice I could give you that would even REMOTELY solve your problem - that's all you needed to say in the first place.

 

The rest was not actually directed towards you but rather to representatives of Corsair who might be looking at the exchange and agree with:

 

Personally I would say, if I were someone who could decide within Corsair, "Ah to hell with it, it was the guy's own fault but let's cut him a break", because it would turn you from being a cheesed off ex-customer to being a very happy camper recommending Corsair products to everyone you know or talk to.

 

But no, you managed to alienate me.

[neelrocker]

I'm sure you know as me that forum are filled with this typical answer consisting in saying "hey man, you've bought a refurb, so...".

 

I've read this so often that I couldn't ignore the rest of your post, because I don't want to let propagate the idea those refurb Corsair's SSD should be considered being closer to an almost EOL used unit bought on ebay than to a fresh new unit.

 

That may not have been the idea you had in mind but writing what you wrote was promoting the above, from my point of view. So better discussing it, so at least people reading this post will be encouraged to wonder about what refurb is and can then make their own opinion about it (which has nothing to do with the fact you are or not my side by suggesting Corsair's best move would be to accept to RMA this drive).

[Nec_V20]

neelrocker,

 

I am not a typical "answerer" and I did not give you any "typical answerer" advice.

 

So please don't lump me in with any (l)users you might have had to speak to before.

 

I am not a "Computer User, Non-Technical" (there is an acronym in there somewhere - you work it out).

[Wired]

Nec_V20: please don't use the term (l)users. You sound like the fictional BOFH.

 

 

neelrocker: I can't see them approving an RMA. You (assumedly) knew the warranty terms and conditions when you purchased it. I can't see any company approving an RMA a year after a warranty term expired (or 12 times the length of the original warranty).

[Nec_V20]

Nec_V20: please don't use the term (l)users. You sound like the fictional BOFH.

 

No I am inspired by Microsoft who in a networked environment on their server OS refer to the person Al Lusers. Like to meet Al someday.

 

And BOFH is a superhero, I am but a humble techie :evil:

[neelrocker]

neelrocker: I can't see them approving an RMA. You (assumedly) knew the warranty terms and conditions when you purchased it.

30 days is the contractual warranty. Such a short contractual warranty is not illegal but in my country we have a law to protect customers from short contractual warranty like this. This law extends the warranty to 2 years for defects that were not visible with naked eye which clearly is the case here (and this even for refurb products). So if Corsair refuses to RMA this unit I will go the lawsuit way. It's obvious RMA is the most advisable path for both Corsair and me, hence why I'm here to check Corsair's answer first, but if it was a refusal then I would not hesitate to go the legal path.

[vandey]

Good luck with that...

 

Hopefully that will teach you to buy refurb units... I doubt that law really will help, probably only applies to companies in your country. Otherwise I'm sure there would be a crap ton of lawsuits in whatever country you live in, and at 10 months I'm sure you'd have no case, it would cost you more to take them to court than what your drive is even worth.

[Wired]

30 days is the contractual warranty. Such a short contractual warranty is not illegal but in my country we have a law to protect customers from short contractual warranty like this. This law extends the warranty to 2 years for defects that were not visible with naked eye which clearly is the case here (and this even for refurb products).

The warranty page (http://www.corsair.com/support/warranty/) also states (I'm paraphrasing here) that local laws can override the warranty policy in certain situations.

 

Don't expect them to know every single law in every single country. Just politely point out the local laws in your area (with proof of course). Having said that, most exception laws that I've heard of like that only hold the store responsible for minimum warranty lengths, not the manufacturer, so you may have to talk to the store.

[neelrocker]

The warranty page (http://www.corsair.com/support/warranty/) also states [...]

 

that:

 

A - The warranty period will vary by specific product, as identified in your user documentation, on the product package, or as listed in the attached listing of Corsair Warranty Periods. In the event any of these warranty periods differ, the longest specified warranty period will apply.

 

and below this phrase, in an "attached listing of Corsair Warranty Periods":

 

C - Corsair offers a 30-day, replacement-only warranty for refurbished or factory reconditioned Memory, SSD and USB parts.

 

B - In the European Union, the minimum warranty period for Corsair products is two years.

 

Can you post the pre- December 31, 2012 version of this Corsair Warranty webpage ?

 

edit: May 10, 2012 snapshot of this Corsair Warranty webpage -> http://web.archive.org/web/20120510205514/http://www.corsair.com/support/warranty/ that contains the exact same wording as the ones quoted right above (A,B,C). This previous version of Corsair's warranty specifies that "this version of the warranty was published on September 1, 2011, and is applicable for products purchased on or after that date.".

[RAM GUY]

I would suggest contacting the reseller as this would be something that the reseller would have to deal with. If they will not or cannot help you then I would suggest calling our customer service by phone once you have created an RMA request. And explain the issues of your country's warranty I do not know if that is something we can work with or not but our customer service would be the right people to speak with. You can call the toll free number using SKYPE for free and our hours are sat the top of this forum.