• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

When SSDs go bad

Elixer

Elixer

Lifer
This is annoying as heck.
Samsung 830 works great for a year or so, then acts up, and finally dies.
RMA it.
They send back a refurbished 830.
It also works great for a period of time, then it acts up.
You do a secure erase, and clone the OS over. It works again for awhile, but, it acts up again.
Yet another secure erase / clone process.. and it works again for awhile.. rinse & repeat, until it finally dies.

Vertex II worked great for awhile.. then the dreaded lockup.
RMA it, works fine again for awhile... and the lockup happens again.
RMA it yet again, and so far, has been working OK.

Toshiba Q series, worked great for awhile, then started to act up.
RMA it and... well, still waiting for the RMA.

By act up, I mean device errors, and windows locking up for extended periods of time, while it keeps trying to access the device.

System is prime/occt stable for 48 hours straight, memtest86+ stable for 48hours straight as well.

There are no other issues with the system, except for the SSDs.

Anyone else have had such bad luck with SSDs ?
 
Huh that sucks :S Sorry man, that's why I'm sticking to Intel/Crucial for my SSD stuff. Intel 330 180GB happy 2~ years of use, and I'm eyeing the new Crucial drives for some builds for friends and my own.
 
A friend bought a Sammy 830 a couple years ago, complains about it now.

He was using it with XP and VISTA 32 configurations. I don't think he was getting "TRIM."

I've had similar problems with a 60GB Patriot Pyro. I'm wondering whether failure to implement TRIM will severely shorten the life of an SSD, or if a little maintenance would bring it back to life.

So far, we've had an Intel Elm Crest, a Sammy 840 Pro and an EVO, and Mushkin Chronos in addition to the Patriot. No problems so far, but what do you look for to catch trouble early and avoid lots of extra trouble?
 
Same thing happened to my 840Pro... didn't last a year. Sure, I got a refurb... but how can I trust it? I put it in my daughter's old laptop (a $200 drive in a 7-year old Dell...) but just recently installed it in my new backup desktop build.

Oddly enough, my OCZ Agility3 continues to soldier on in HTPC duty... never a problem in over 2.5 years.

Been happy with my Plextor, recently installed an Intel 530 (it's a ROCK! ) and a Crucial M500 (in my daughter's laptop to replace the 840Pro I stole back.) I won't buy OCZ again (unless Toshiba does something really miraculous with it) and I'm having a hard time trusting Samsung.
 
I haven't lost an SSD yet. 2 Vertex 2's, 2 Vertex 3's, 6 Vertex 4's and 2 Samsung 830s all soldier on in some capacity.
 
Last edited:
I lost my one in my sig but that's only because my PSU killed itself and then went on a deadly zombie rampage and killed my mobo and SSD.
 
Are the manufacturer warranties only for a year? I've had my Samsung 830 for almost a year now, my crucial for a little over a year , and I just picked up a Kingston refurbished 128gb two weeks ago from Microcenter that seems to run fine with osx on it.
 
AFAICT, there isn't really much you can do to determine failures, besides waiting for the symptoms to show up.
SMART on all devices have never showed *any* issue at all.

The refurb 830 had only 1970 hours on it
The Vertex 2 currently has 5453.
The Toshiba had .. I forgot, but I still have the SMART data from that someplace.

I think SSDs should have more SMART attributes to monitor more things, perhaps then, we can get early indications of when things are going bad, instead of having things pop up out of the blue.
 
Some manufacturers (Samsung included) say that Sleep should be disabled with SSD's or you end up with issues, some people don't have any issues but I guess it could be down to the individual motherboard's implementation of sleep. Do you put your computer to sleep often?
 
Deders said:
Some manufacturers (Samsung included) say that Sleep should be disabled with SSD's or you end up with issues, some people don't have any issues but I guess it could be down to the individual motherboard's implementation of sleep. Do you put your computer to sleep often?
Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons I think my OCZ never gave me problems... I NEVER put it to sleep, nor do I put any of my SSDs asleep.


AFAICT, there isn't really much you can do to determine failures, besides waiting for the symptoms to show up.
SMART on all devices have never showed *any* issue at all.
Click to expand...

The day my 840Pro died, I had run a SMART check and used Magician to check it. One minute I was working on it... the next it locked up and never recovered.
 
It sounds like you used the same OS install on all of the SSDs? Occam's Razor here, seems to be a common element. You're even using different brands and models of SSD but they're all having the same problem. Did you ever try a clean just all from a WI does disc to one of the SSDs? You never mentioned if you did or not.
 
Could also be power supply or issues, or maybe the storage controller on the mainboard acting up. Or bad SATA cabling 😀

Given the high frequency of issues with different SSDs, a common cause is looking ever more likely.
 
Sadly, SMART is not a magic bullet and was designed for parameters of spinners to attempt to predict imminent failure. For that purpose I have found it invaluable. Flash drives are just scary man, SSD or thumb drive variety. They are the only storage media that will just crap out with no explanation. Personally I'd look at a different power supply unless you've tried one already.
 
PliotronX said:
Sadly, SMART is not a magic bullet and was designed for parameters of spinners to attempt to predict imminent failure. For that purpose I have found it invaluable. Flash drives are just scary man, SSD or thumb drive variety. They are the only storage media that will just crap out with no explanation. Personally I'd look at a different power supply unless you've tried one already.
Click to expand...

Oh come on, this is the 21st century, SMART is plenty smart enough for SSDs, and returns a ton of useful data on their status, including NAND cell errors, estimated lifetime based on rated writes, thermal properties (that may be particularly useful here) and much more. I'd suggest you pull the SMART data on an SSD and look for yourself.
 
_Rick_ said:
Could also be power supply or issues, or maybe the storage controller on the mainboard acting up. Or bad SATA cabling 😀

Given the high frequency of issues with different SSDs, a common cause is looking ever more likely.
Click to expand...

I want to second this notion.

You may have power supply issues, if your system keeps breaking the SSDs that you install in it.

No matter which SSD you choose, if your power supply is outputting faulty/spiky power that is unreliable, your hard drive or SSD will pay the price.

It just seems to be very unlikely to have this much bad luck at the same time. I don't know the specific numbers, but you seem to be up into the "win the lottery" odds at having so many SSDs go bad in your system, consistently, which suggests that you aren't really a lottery winner, but instead have a problem with your PSU (or maybe your house has faulty/unreliable wiring, or something in your house like an air conditioner or big-amp thing is causing mini-brown-outs inside your house and punishing your computer).
 
KingFatty said:
I want to second this notion.

You may have power supply issues, if your system keeps breaking the SSDs that you install in it.

No matter which SSD you choose, if your power supply is outputting faulty/spiky power that is unreliable, your hard drive or SSD will pay the price.

It just seems to be very unlikely to have this much bad luck at the same time. I don't know the specific numbers, but you seem to be up into the "win the lottery" odds at having so many SSDs go bad in your system, consistently, which suggests that you aren't really a lottery winner, but instead have a problem with your PSU (or maybe your house has faulty/unreliable wiring, or something in your house like an air conditioner or big-amp thing is causing mini-brown-outs inside your house and punishing your computer).
Click to expand...
Rails are solid, both during torture testing, and everyday use, even had a meter hooked up while trying to troubleshoot things, and, I am using a line conditioner, so, no, that wouldn't be the issue.
Already changed SATA cables, in fact, I tend to do this with any new HD or SSD.
For the Sammy, it actually had 4 different OSs installed on it, 3 were clean installs (2 windows, 1 linux), and the final was a clone. Stopped using that for OS, and now is a data drive, so I can better monitor things via doing CRC checks of files.
Toshiba had fresh install of win 8.1.
Vertex 2 had linux, vista, vista, linux, vista, and finally linux again.

When the SSDs were in the RMA process, and HDs took their places, had no issues at all.

It would be nice to know exactly why the SSDs went bad, but, companies don't communicate that information back.
I assume it has something to do with NAND, since, a secure erase does fix the problem for awhile.
 
I'm slowly adding to my SSD collection... my first was an 120GB Intel 320 series, been in my iMac for a few years now with no issues. Since Intel, I've moved to Crucial M4s and M500s now. Recently one of the M4s (made in Singapore) was exhibiting signs of failure in my MacBook - wouldn't boot, had trouble re-installing OS X, etc. - but the M4 made in China is still chugging along.
 
npaladin-2000 said:
Oh come on, this is the 21st century, SMART is plenty smart enough for SSDs, and returns a ton of useful data on their status, including NAND cell errors, estimated lifetime based on rated writes, thermal properties (that may be particularly useful here) and much more. I'd suggest you pull the SMART data on an SSD and look for yourself.
Click to expand...
Do tell.

Sam840cdi.png


None of those are going to tell me this thing wouldn't work tomorrow save for reallocated sector count which will swing more violently than an aged DeathStar, meaning it is best suited for predicting failure with mechanical drives. Like I said, SSD is the only medium that will die without rhyme or reason.
 
Last edited:
PliotronX said:
Do tell.

Sam840cdi.png


None of those are going to tell me this thing wouldn't work tomorrow save for reallocated sector count which will swing more violently than an aged DeathStar, meaning it is best suited for predicting failure with mechanical drives. Like I said, SSD is the only medium that will die without rhyme or reason.
Click to expand...

So all those fail counts are useless, temperature is useless, number of writes is useless, none of these might indicate a possible issue with the drive if the numbers are too high? Maybe you should gain a better understanding of said technology.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top