My OCZ Agility 2 Has died :C

[Shmee]

Well, it was great while it lasted. Never had any real trouble with it I can think of. I had the 240 GB version.

The other day had just resumed my comp from sleep, opened my email, and then, BSOD saying something about KERNEL_INPAGE_ERROR or something. I had seen it once before, a about a week earlier while running a virus scan.

So, I restarted, and the comp took forever to post. After entering BIOS, it is not detected. Took out the SSD, and it posts fine. Put it in my laptop, same symptoms. Even booted into windows, on the laptop, it wasnt detected in there either.

So, now I get to RMA it I do believe. OCZ site says it has a 3 year warranty, but is EOL. Does this mean that I will possibly get an upgrade, such as an agility 3 or something? Or do they generally have extra stock for RMA purposes?

Also, what is the best way to go about the RMA process, and should I do anything specific such as ask for a specific model or something? Advice is appreciated.

On a side note, I was thinking of getting an M4 or something, but its too expensive for me right now, so I figured I would just use the laptops adata 64 Gig sandforce SSD in while waiting for a replacement.

 

[bryanW1995]

That sucks man. From your lack of freak-out-edness, I assume that you didn't have anything mission critical on the ssd at least.

Last time I RMA'd something to OCZ it was a 3x2g set of ram. The set they sent me back was also bad.

 

[Shmee]

Well, that sucks. Hopefully my support experience will be better. and ya, nothing on there I couldn't reinstall. Are the newer SF drives better now in general? I know there have been many firmware updates, just wanted to make sure they were considered "Fixed" now, in case they send me one.

 

[Puffnstuff]

My agility 2 120gb died Friday without any warning. Having already experienced this with another sf2 ssd I'd backed up my drive before hand to another ssd just in case. I'm still waiting to hear back from ocz on my rma request. I'm looking hard at the intel 510 and samsung ssd's now because of this. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I have no confidence in the sf2 drives even with the fw updates. I was running fw 1.35 on the agility.

 

[Burner27]

Well, that sucks. Hopefully my support experience will be better. and ya, nothing on there I couldn't reinstall. Are the newer SF drives better now in general? I know there have been many firmware updates, just wanted to make sure they were considered "Fixed" now, in case they send me one.

That sucks man. I hope they shoot you an upgrade. I personally have not had any OCZ products in a few years, but I had the same experience as bryanW1995. Sent in bad memory and received bad memory back. Threw it away and never bought anything from them again. The Intel 510 is good, but I think it is overpriced. You can do better with a Crucial M4.

 

[KingFatty]

My RMA experience with OCZ was good, but I believe it was in-part because I received a "red carpet" type of blessing from one of the OCZ employees/mods on the OCZ forum.

So maybe go on their forum and see if you can get that kind of feedback. My RMA was for a power supply, and I asked a specific question about how to identify the current loads/fan speeds to see any change in fan RPM (the fan appeared to operate at max speed all the time, instead of adjusting for load). Instead of answering the question, the mod/employee gave me a special code to include with the RMA request, and that fast-tracked the RMA and resulted in very good service with a new version of the power supply.

Unfortunately, the SSD issue with their drives may be different so maybe it's not possible to get special RMA treatment. But at least try posting on the OCZ forums where appropriate and perhaps pose a succinct question that highlights your issue to see if a mod will bite.

 

[groberts101]

Hi Shmee... too bad about your troubles there bud. Couple of quick points based on a few questions so far.

Go to the forum and start the RMA process here. Be sure to specify that you would like an alternative using the SF-2281 drive since they do not have the same sleep related issues and recovery/consistency is much improved with that newer controller.
http://www.ocztechnology.com/support/warranty/

Then go to the forum and PM Ryder or Praz with that RMA number to get further advice and possibly even some light handholding along the process. Throwing your credentials around lightly will also possibly help your level of support given "the powers of suggestion" that you have at your disposal on such a visable forum such as AT has. Just good PR to take care of a mod here is really all I'm getting at.

OCZ RMA is considered to be excellent by most who have needed to use it and even those who come to the forum saying far worse than anyone here has so farwill often take 180 turns in attitude with much thanks given after the fact. All mfgrs drop the ball on ocassion and I've read about RMA complaints from ALL of them at some point or another. That's just big business unfortunately.. but I do know for a fact that the squeeky wheel often gets the most grease the quickest. Biggest trick is to squeek without shearing off completely. lol

Good luck with it all

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

That's scary to hear, and I'm sorry bout your SSD drive failure. I went through that on a Vertex 100G LE. I'm on it's replacement but I regularly backup whatever is pertinent on it.

Good Luck

 

[groberts101]

I was given the opportunity to beta test for OCZ based on my willingness to help others and extreme testing(and knowledge gained from it) of the first gen SF drives so I will post this in an attempt to help others avoid future issues with these types of drives.

DO NOT SLEEP THESE CONTROLLERS ON A REGULAR BASIS.

DO NOT LET YOU LAPTOPS COMPLETELY DRAIN THE BATTERIES POWER WHILE SLEEPING.

othrwise.. be prepared to jump through the RMA hoops that will be necessary to get another replacement when it panic locks and becomes inaccessible to the end user. If sleeping is that important(regardless of the fact that you should not have to walk on eggshells to use the SF 1xxx series drives).. then move to another controller altogether. Just sayin, is all.

 

[Coup27]

Sleep just seems to cause far more problems than its worth. With a modern SSD based system booting in next to no time, I really cannot understand why people use it.

 

[Burner27]

Sleep just seems to cause far more problems than its worth. With a modern SSD based system booting in next to no time, I really cannot understand why people use it.

If I could remove my internal 1TB HDD from my machine and run strictly SSDs......... I wouldn't bother with sleep mode either.

 

[Coup27]

If I could remove my internal 1TB HDD from my machine and run strictly SSDs......... I wouldn't bother with sleep mode either.

Sorry but I don't understand what you mean?

 

[Burner27]

Sorry but I don't understand what you mean?

Yeah, I wasn't very clear and I don't even think my reasoning for making the statement was logical either.

 

[Shmee]

Hmm, Ty very much for the advice on dealing on the OCZ forums, Groberts. With that said, I usually do not drain my laptop battery, or put it to sleep, as I mainly use it plugged in at friends' houses for gaming with them. My main is a desktop X58 system (rig in sig) and I will keep that in mind about the first gen SF controllers. I will shoot for getting a new controller, probably the new SF, though I do hear some good things about the Octane. That uses a new Indilinx controller, everest, correct? How are thoughts on that as comparing to a vertex 3 or agility 3?

 

[erikvanvelzen]

My Vertrx 2 died today. For the second time.

I've also RMA'd some OCZ memory last year.

I won't buy OCZ again in the near future.

 

[N4g4rok]

Well, now i'm a little nervous. My vertex 2 has been going fine for 9 months. Still backing it up by having windows create an image for it. Will that be enough when it finally goes out?

 

[F1shF4t]

Sleep just seems to cause far more problems than its worth. With a modern SSD based system booting in next to no time, I really cannot understand why people use it.

It's great to have the system up and running in 2 seconds and to be able to leave stuff open. When travelling I usually go on my laptop for a couple of mins to check something and put it back to sleep. (Yes I could use hibernate but its still slower)

Only problems I had was with sandforce. My (now dead) corsair F115 would BSOD in every laptop I've tried and only worked in the desktop. I've used sleep on Samsung RBB, Indilinx, Intel G1 & G2 and now Crucial M4 SSDs without a single issue. (BTW the corsair f115 died in a usb enclosure not due to using sleep)

 

[groberts101]

I do hear some good things about the Octane. That uses a new Indilinx controller, everest, correct? How are thoughts on that as comparing to a vertex 3 or agility 3?

I have a 128GB for testing and it actually sin't that much slower than the Sandforce drives like I thought it would be at first glance of the smaller random performance.

The latency is also quite good and seems to make up for any weaknesses it may have over other more "benchmark happy" models out there. As you know there is more to do with overall SSD performance perception in an OS environment than just synthetics.

Only thing I don't care for with mine is the lower than competitors(at least for the 128 capacity point) write speeds. I use dedicated raidcard storage(8 drives) and even my smaller backup raids(2 drive setups) are able to exceed this smaller points write speeds. But on the other hand.. you'd be getting a comparable 256GB model to replace your 240 and writes would be even stronger without incompressible data speed losses associated with any Sandforce models. Even then.. a Sandforce 2281 drive would probably still be sligthly faster overall.

Can't speak to any testing issues or possible later firmware improvements that may be brewing.. but may be worth the consideration as I can't say much negative at all so far in use or testing. Not that I could say anything.. even if there was. lol

 

[Shmee]

Hey, so a short update. I have made a post on the OCZ forums, though I haven't gotten much of a reply yet. A staff member told me to see a post with steps to try to troubleshoot, which I did, still didn't detect.

Strangely, I visit the topic now and it says there are zero replies. They were also having issues with their forums, they were down for a day or two.

Anyways, I just submitted an RMA ticket on their site.

You can find my topic here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?98140-My-OCZ-Agility-2-Has-died-C

 

[groberts101]

should have your new replacment drive in 2 weeks or less.

Did you ask for another model in the RMA ticket?

 

[Shmee]

ah good to hear. I actually just told them a problem, and I just got an email saying it was approved and it was sent to their RMA team and they would contact me shortly. Good news is I might be able to do a in person swap, as I live pretty close to San Jose.

 

[nanaki333]

this just in. ocz drive fails and loses user's data. news at 11!


anyway, yeah. ocz is really quick and good about getting you replacements in a timely manner. much faster than any other manufacturer i've dealt with. they may even give you a free upgrade. who knows.

 

[Shmee]

ya that would certainly be nice Hoping for an octane or agility 3, either sounds great.

 

[nanaki333]

i had to send my vertex 1 in twice and after the second time, they send me a vertex 3 as a replacement

 

[Shmee]

hmm, no new news yet, probably due to holiday weekend. Hopefully I get an update tomorrow.