[seven9st surfer]

I got a Crucial M4 128gb in September, it's worked like a champ since then. Until yesterday. When I woke up, my comp was stuck on the BIOS screen (my computer stays on at night). I just thought it was weird and restarted it. Since then, it's been freezing a lot. Upon restart, it takes a long time searching for drives, then says "no bootable disk" or something like that. When I manually choose the boot drive, it lists my 2tb HDD, but doesn't list my SSD. I've unplugged and replugged it a few times, changed SATA ports on my mobo, and even switched the SATA cord, Strangely enough, it seems to work after I mess with the cord, but then freezes up again after it's been in Windows for an hour or so. This requires a reboot, and the cycle begins again.

So, does it sound like the SSD is going bad, or do I have something else going on? This really sucks because I'm going on deployment in like a week, and leaving this computer home with my wife (who has no clue about this kind of thing) for 6 months. Any suggestions?

EDIT: forgot to mention, the power did blink a few days ago. Would this cause my issues? I've got a surge protector and the power has blinked before without causeing this issue, but I just thought I'd mention it

 

[Volp]

Have you ever checked the firmware, and updated it to the latest version?

Google firmware 0009.

Some M4 SSD's were causing BSOD's after 5000+ hours of use. Since you purchased your SSD in September, maybe you're firmware is older? Crucial has a fix for this.

 

[seven9st surfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volp

Have you ever checked the firmware, and updated it to the latest version?
Google firmware 0009.
Some M4 SSD's were causing BSOD's after 5000+ hours of use. Since you purchased your SSD in September, maybe you're firmware is older? Crucial has a fix for this.

looking into it now. Thanks, you're awesome.

 

[Volp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by seven9st surfer

looking into it now. Thanks, you're awesome.

I'm just looking into my first SSD

It may actually be firmware 000f that could fix the problem (if this is it). Otherwise, whatever firmware is the newest.

And from what I read, you may need to use a SATA 3GB/s port to update instead of the 6GB/s port. Can't remember the exact reason.

 

[seven9st surfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volp

I'm just looking into my first SSD

It may actually be firmware 000f that could fix the problem (if this is it). Otherwise, whatever firmware is the newest.
And from what I read, you may need to use a SATA 3GB/s port to update instead of the 6GB/s port. Can't remember the exact reason.

Yeah, looks like that firmware was released last month, so I definitely don't have the most current. and my mobo doesn't even have SATA3, so that won't be a problem. Only thing I'm worried about is that I'm not really getting BSODs, just random occurrences where it doesn't look like the SSD is being recognized. Anyways, I'm gonna try it if I can actually boot up.

 

[Boyd]

Yeh probably what you might want to do is update the firmware, and if the problem still exists i would reinstall the OS to make sure its no hardware failure. if the problem still exists after the new OS then its def a hardware issue. good luck, i hope that was helpful info

 

[seven9st surfer]

Well of course now that I have a possible fix, I can't even boot. No matter how many times I try, BIOS simply won't recognize the drive. Not sure how I'm going to update the firmware now... It's a longshot, but I'm trying a powercycle to see if that works. From what I read, it's 20 mins on with only power connected, no SATA, then off for 20 seconds, on for 20 min, then try it with the SATA plugged in.

 

[mrinnocent]

found this on your drive:
Revision Firmware 0309 is now available. This firmware resolves the issue where a m4 SSD required restarts after approximately 5,000 hours of actual "on time" use.

If you are using a SAS Expander please do not download this Firmware. We are working on a Firmware Update that will work in these applications. We do not have a ETA for this right now.

Release Date: 01/13/2012
Change Log:

Changes made in version 0002 (m4 can be updated to revision 0309 directly from either revision 0001, 0002, or 0009)
Correct a condition where an incorrect response to a SMART counter will cause the m4 drive to become unresponsive after 5184 hours of Power-on time. The drive will recover after a power cycle, however, this failure will repeat once per hour after reaching this point. The condition will allow the end user to successfully update firmware, and poses no risk to user or system data stored on the drive.

This firmware update is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED for drives in the field. Although the failure mode due to the SMART Power On Hours counter poses no risk to saved user data, the failure mode can become repetitive, and pose a nuisance to the end user. If the end user has not yet observed this failure mode, this update is required to prevent it from happening.

If you are using a SAS Expander please do not download this Firmware. As soon as we have a Firmware Update that will work in these applications we will release it.

also it appears your mb has 3 diff sata controllers for your 6 sata ports, so you may want to try every port to find one that it maybe still likes

 

[mrhiab]

Your SSD should be on your 1st SATA port on your motherboard. SATA0
Also you mentioned the power blinked...I'd also check to make sure your still in AHCI mode in BIOS.
and 000f is the most recent Firmware

 

[mrinnocent]

also to power cycle it, disconnect from sata and unplug power for 30 sec....60 to be sure

 

[seven9st surfer]

EDIT: finally got it updated! now we'll see if it fixed my problem. Thanks to everyone for the help, it's really appreciated

 

[mrinnocent]