SandForce controllers and BSOD's

[JimmiG]

-Built Core i3 system w/MSI Z77A-G43 mobo and OCZ Agility 3
-BSODs
-Replaced OCZ Agility 3 w/ Samsung SSD - no BSODs
-Installed OCZ Agility 3 in AMD system - no BSODs
-OCZ Agility 3 + Z77 = BSODs

So I built a new system for a family member. I went with the MSI Z77A-G43 mobo, a Core i3 3.1 GHz CPU, 8GB DDR3, Windows 7 Home Premium x64..

For storage, I went with the OCZ Agility 3 120GB. Everything went fine, however, at the end of the Win7 installation, I got some strange error message and had to do the final step again (user account, enter product key).

I didn't think much about it, so I proceeded to start installing applications and drivers when *bang* - BSOD with the error "0xF4: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION" which apparently mean the OS thinks the drive has been disconnected. This kept happening every 10 - 30 minutes.

I Googled for the problem and found countless threads about issues with the SandForce controller and the OCZ Agility 3 (but also other SSD's that use the same controller). I secure-erased and re-installed Windows several times, updated the BIOS, the SSD firmware and tried about 5 different Intel RST drivers (including a hacked Enterprise RST driver), disabled power saving etc., but nothing worked. I obviously also tried different SATA ports and cables.

So I popped in an old 250GB mechanical drive I had laying around and re-installed Windows. It worked flawlessly. Convinced that it was the SSD, I went and bought a Samsung 120GB SSD and yet again installed Windows. This time it worked perfectly right away.

I took the Agility 3 home and installed it in my own AMD system. It only supports SATA 3Gb/s and uses the notorious SB600 southbridge, but the drive is working perfectly. That is not surprising, since I was already using the OCZ Synapse Cache 64GB drive with my system, which is basically an Agility 3 with the added complexity of caching software.

I don't know whether it's the MSI board in particular, the Z77 chipset in general, or some odd combination of memory, CPU and motherboard, but clearly, these controllers should be avoided if you want to avoid problems. Can't really blame OCZ for that - they made a poor choice with the controller. I'm surprised they haven't recalled the whole series, though. It seems instead they release new firmware every couple of months that they claim fixes the issues.

 

[dma0991]

I never had a BSOD that is caused by my Corsair Force GT 120GB. It has worked flawlessly since day 1.

 

[F1shF4t]

While I was against Sandforce to begin with, the fact that the sf-2281 SSDs are much cheaper I did end up getting some.

Got 6 of them in total now (3 Intel, 2 Sandisk and 1 Kindmax) and not a single issue so far. I would go as far as picking the Intel 520/Sandisk Extreme over the M4 or Samsung 830. (M4 cause its slower and Samsung, well I'm not entirely sure if they do or do not use file-system aware garbage collection. If they do I would not touch the SSD with a ten foot pole)

Corsair performance pro is still the best tho :thumbsup:

 

[Emulex]

the old SF was never fixed. if you don't sleep/hibernate/leave it on all the time they don't tend to freak out. the next chipset isn't plagued like the old and written off.

 

[Charlie98]

After about 4 months my Agility3 60GB started to random BSOD... I ran ckdsk and all is well, now. Besides that little hiccup, I've found my Agility3 to be very stable.

I'm looking to upgrade my SSD to a 256GB unit, sadly the Agility3 256GB isn't on the short list, even given it's value pricing as of late. You don't hear so much about OCZ/SF issues like you were back in December, but they are still there and I'm not going to risk it.

 

[JimmiG]

the old SF was never fixed. if you don't sleep/hibernate/leave it on all the time they don't tend to freak out. the next chipset isn't plagued like the old and written off.

I'm thinking it must be a hardware issue at its core. OCZ and others have released countless firmware updates over the past year, claiming that the next release will be the one that fixes all issues. A properly functioning controller shouldn't need 20 firmware updates to make it stable.

 

[bryanW1995]

That's why the 520 series was so late to the game, it's the sandforce controller with proper firmware/validation backing it up. Most of the other players in the game didn't have the luxury of making sure the bugs were ironed out before launch, so they did the best they could, often with disastrous results for consumers.