Corsair SSD simultaneous failure

[time]

My PC with a Corsair Force 60GB SSD screwed up today; first with internet access problems, then losing the plot while restarting Windows - so it currently can't start Windows, even in Safe Mode.

And then I got a call from a client with a Force 120GB SSD: with the same problem of going out to lunch while trying to start Windows. On the same day. WTF?

A quick glance at the Corsair forums doesn't show anything YET ... but I refuse to believe this is a coincidence. I'll be looking at both in the morning (evening in North America), but am hoping this event is not confined to my tiny part of the world.

 

[LunarMist]

I have a couple of the old Force 60 drives. I just decommissioned them over the weekend, and was testing one in the Lenovo last nightmare . Other than some reallocated sectors they are just fine.

 

[ddrueding]

I know I have at least a couple of the 120s in workstations around here (no idea which ones), and haven't had any complaints.

Of course, it could be firmware specific...

 

[time]

Never mind, I'm getting senile. Been under a lot of stress lately and making some pretty stupid mistakes.

The SSDs appear to be fine: don't know what's wrong with the 60GB PC yet but the 120GB turned out to be the Intel Cougar Point fault - nearly two years down the track! Intel steadfastly maintained that only 5-15% of boards would be affected, and that the consequences would be just a drop in performance. Must be one of the biggest whoppers they've ever told, and that's saying something.

 

[Stereodude]

My CougarPoint board failed in months.

 

[LunarMist]

I remember when the Pentium had that corporation error. Everything had to be recalculated - lord of overtime.

 

[time]

Just for the record, the 60GB Corsair Force *has* failed. It disappears when you you try to access data on it, requiring a complete power off/on cycle before you can see it again. Sounds awfully like the same type of problem as the last Corsair Force that failed on me. I am unimpressed.

 

[LunarMist]

Just for the record, the 60GB Corsair Force *has* failed. It disappears when you you try to access data on it, requiring a complete power off/on cycle before you can see it again. Sounds awfully like the same type of problem as the last Corsair Force that failed on me. I am unimpressed.

My two Corsair Force F60 drives were purchased in ~July 2010. Considering the age, I'll not be reusing them in anything else. There is no firmware that I can see.
Meanwhile the nearly 4-year old X25E just keeps on going. I wonder how many write cycles that old-school 50nm SLC flash memory can handle.

 

[Mercutio]

Since this is the thread for talking about crapped-out Corsair drives: I have a 240GB Force GT that shits itself every time it's connected to a SATA controller in AHCI mode. No problems if the controller is doing IDE emulation, but I'm pretty sure that's not working as intended.

It took me all freaking day and three different test machines to figure that out.

 

[ddrueding]

That is a wacky failure mode if I've ever heard one. What ever happened to Intel's story of drives simply entering read-only mode when the cells can't be written to? I've yet to hear of one that failed that cleanly.

 

[Mercutio]

I've seen that one.
But yeah, I have a drive that works fine if I leave it in IDE mode, but disconnects from the host if addressed using AHCI. Verified on Intel and AMD native controllers and on a JMicron controller.

IIRC all the special SSD-only features of the drive are only accessible in AHCI mode, so that's kind of a big deal.

 

[LunarMist]

How do you know if it is in the ACHI, or that only a BIOS thing?

 

[LunarMist]

Broad is eating my posts. I don't know how to determine if my SSD is in ACHI mode, but my boot drives are always on the Intel ports.

 

[Mercutio]

It's a BIOS setting.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't see any setting. Maybe Lendovo does not want you changing it.

 

[timwhit]

Broad is eating my posts. I don't know how to determine if my SSD is in ACHI mode, but my boot drives are always on the Intel ports.

I moved your other post from where you ended up posting it.