Boot up issues with a SSD. Who all is affected?

Makes sense to me. The notebooks you guys are purchasing have been qualified with specific drives and are sold with them. You can opt to save money and buy the same brand/controller drives from a third party. It would be nice if AWs worked with every brand of ssd but I doubt they have the resources to waste troubleshooting other vendors equipment. Instead those ssd makers should have AW systems for testingto make sure the drives are fully compatible.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

 

What I'm sayin...

 

i got the issue, mushkin ssd chronos sata3.

 

I was able to replicate this issue with my m14x.

I have a Corsair Force 3 120gb.

Boots to windows in about 10-12 sec, however i have been able to constantly get it to hang while booting with a sata 3 usb hub or external sata 3 hdd plugged into the usb 3 ports (2 on right hand side of laptop)

It does eventually log in but takes what seems like forever

If i plug them in post windows 7 logo i have no drama. dont know if you guys have stuff plugged in on boot?

Edit:
Bit more info on my system to help out.
Running windows 7 enterprise
do not have intel rapid storage installed.
All other drivers installed from dell site except nvidia gcard
i have 2 user profiles, one is on my works domain the other is a local account
Intel® Core™ i7-2860QM 2.5GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Corsair Force 3 120GB
3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M
900p display

 

Hah, you think you're the first tech that I've ever talked to about this problem? Just because you are actually trying and the other 20 or so tech's that I have been through, doesn't invoke a lot of faith in Dell's customer support. Don't think that I am not thankful, but it's a little too late to wow me.

I understand the third party hardware support, but face it. It's a hard drive. There are issues with Intel drives, crucial drives, OCZ drives, Samsung 830 drives, Corsair drives, and Seagate SATA III mechanical drives... If your computer doesn't work with any brand/type of hard drive, it's your computer. I'm not asking you to make some obscure plotter, smartcard, or wireless card to work. Just a hard drive.

And don't give me stuff about qualification process. So you threw in the same SATA II SSD that you offer (and have been offering) in every other laptop, and it happens to work. I'm less than impressed. My M17x was a fantastic machine that worked with "aftermarket" hard drives. I'm a mechanical engineer and also do systems engineering. I know all about qualification testing, if we made a product that was incompatible with the other military equipment, we would be screwed...

 

Bottom line, Alienware has lost it since they got bought by Dell.

In the past Alienware machines we're top of the line, tested and very performing, right now all those issues are left unanswered from dell. Sorry to say this but my next laptop, i won't get an alienware.

Going to the fourth generations of SSD's i dont understand why it's so hard to make them compatible. Give us a full BIOS with the options to switch between gpu's, between sata speeds, and not a locked down BIOS which we can't do .

 

It may not be soley a dell issue though, we have no collated evidence that it is. It could very well be a third party manufacturers problem or a combination fo the 2 that cause issues.

Unless we can get some conclusive evidence we cant really say with any certainty where the issues lie.

Please help me by posting details in http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/633652-survey-m14x-owners-ssds-forum-needs-you.html

I am attempting to find some trends so we can, as a community, work through the problems to benefit everyone.

 

How is it not a dell issue? There have been documented issues with corsair, ocz drives that use sanforce controllers. There have been issues with Crucial and Intel drives that use the marvel controller. There are issues with samsung 830s with a samsung controller. There is even an issue with a person running a sata III mechanical seagate harddrive.

My crucials worked in my M17x, my buddy's m18x, my asus g73jh, and in my desktop... I also replaced the motherboard in my M14x because my first one wouldn't boot up but maybe 5% of the time.

 

Source: OCZ forum

People please check post no. 28. and 41. Really lol

I copied it here.


Question:

I hope OCZ will come with a solution for the booting problems with vertex 3 (fw 2.15) on laptop alienware M14X soon. I read they have a testmachine... so still waiting for answers. Will there come a good solution? Speeds with fw 2.15 when reached Windows Login Window are super. Booting is an disaster.
im thinking its the bios here not the drive.

Answer by OCZ rep:

usually the bios looks for specific vendor ID's on HDD, if its not there you can see issues...maybe this is the cause. Also I seem to remember altering the HDD detection delay can cure issues also on these platforms. flashing back to 2.13 to cure a boot up issue is not going to help you as you are injecting other issues into the system. Believe me we are working on this, its looking more like an bios issue though the more we look and we will be talking to Dell/Alienware about it.

It sounds like the old detection issue we saw way back on a few Dell laptops, the cure then was to increase HDD detection time, not sure if it will help now but i will ask as we do have a machine we can test.

In the mean time, old FW builds have been withdrawn as they were shown to be buggy, we have to ensure all customers are pushing in the same direction, leaving old buggy builds would just add to support problems with people flashing backwards and forwards (which happens now) and we want everyone on 2.15.

Something I used to do on a system that had a similar issue was to boot and hit the bootmenu key, if I did this and chose the boot device manually it never gave me an issue...not sure if any of you guys have tried this also?

We are working on it...trust me though you do not want to be flashing older FW just because it booted properly...it had more issues than fixes remember

Support Question I need to flash to 2.13. Is it possible? [Alienware M14X r01 start-up issue on 2.15] - Page 2

BTMFW: OCZ latest 2.15 firmware is the shizznit for most (non-alienware) systems (no more BSODs during use). It includes Sandforce's fix for BSODs.

 

Well said. Dell let me down and doubt I will buy another alienware laptops in the next few years after multiple repairs since summer and this attitude towards the SSD issue.

I would rather believe it is Dell's way to rob customers - like Sony released unique shaped memory card for playstation vita and charge 3x more than micro SD card's price. While Dell cannot create a unique shaped HDD, they created this problem to screw up people like us who dare to buy parts from anywhere other than Dell.com.

 

Do you really think Dell is conspiring to make money off HDD sales by limiting compatible drives? Come on man, put the tin foil hat down.

 

The machine is released for 8 months already, and these drives are on sale for more than a year. That is more than enough time to correct any known software problems with the machine. We are not talking about a few HDDs are not compatible with hte machine, it is nearly every single reputable mainstream SSD causing problems in the machine.

I would believe it is either Dell's conspiracy, or Dell is too incompetence to develop ultimate gaming laptops. Seriously, when people spending £1000-3000 on a laptop, would you really expect them to run a £50 harddrive?

 

It's just dell being dumb and designing a poor product.

 

Now this is a funny thread.
But to be on the serious side of things....Going to have to say it's the board. I had the same issues with my M18x. I took the drives out of raid 0 and put it into my desktop benching rig. No problems and ran fine. I just got my new M18x replacement rig and just dropped my drives back in....guess what....they stay running at 6gb all the time and no bsod. I even flash 4 different bios version to be certain that it was not the bios. Guess what....it still works.

Now before this i couldn't even get windows re-installed good without error upon error happening.
The problem is when the sata controller tries to down clock to sata 2 speeds the data gets corrupted. And depending on where this happens...give you the bsod and hard cold and warm boot errors.(speculation of course) It happen with or without rst drivers. I even upgrade the raid bios from 10.0 to 11.0 which isn't even out yet. It still didn't work.


So...it's has to be the controller chip on the motherboard. Some get lucky while others have major issues. No matter what brand of ssd you used.
Im using (2)ocz vertex 3 max iops (120gb) in raid 0 with firmware 2.15. And it's rock solid for a change.

 

It seems to be an issue with the interaction between the Sandforce controller SSD & MB IMHO. One Dell sells you, one they do not. Sure in a perfect world everything will work with everything out the door but there are way too many manufacturers out there to make every part plug and play.

Dell may not be jumping to a solution as fast as you would like, but really why do they have to? They sold you the laptop, the one you ordered worked, then you changed a part and it doesnt now you want them to fix it? Not the way it works.

I'm sure there will be a solution on the horizon probably with R2 of the 14x (my assumption) but really after even just reading the "happy, kind, completely unparanoid and patient attitudes" protrayed here I dont see why they arent just jumping at the opportunity to please you!

 

a Samsung 830 SSD is the answer, runs faultlessly in my M14x at SATAIII speeds.

 

LMAO, give me a break. 1 it's not only with sanforce controllers. 2 it also happens with mechanical hard drives. 3 PC components are supposed to work with one another, dell is the only manufacturer with these issues that I've heard of. 4 it's a hard drive.

You must not believe in customer service. I believe if something doesn't work then it should be fixed. Now you're going to tell me that my PC isn't compatible with PC based hardware that works in every other PC but mine? To me, an incompatible range of hard drives is as bad as my PC not working with a wireless mouse.

All I know is if I designed a product as an engineer (which I am), and it had blatant issues with other military hardware to which it had to interface to, I would be out of a job.

There have still been reports of startup/hibernation issues with the 830.

 

@custom90gt... Sure take a break, take all the time you need...

I am also a P.E. but I guess I am not just as arrogant... I know that in technology each manufacturer does things there own way. Yes PC parts should all work with one another, but thats just not the case and not only with Dell.

For the record I'm not happy about the issues either, nor do I appriciate the time its taking to fix them, however I acknowledge that for Dell there is no easy fast fix to please everyone, and a bad or bandaid fix would only people off more.

Perhaps if they had an engineer as bright as you we wouldnt even need to have this discussion! Maybe you can just tell them the fix so we can all move on...

I'm done...

 

Support Question Vertex3 MI I/O error

 

You don't have to get all upset. To me, having a computer that is incompatible with a hard drive is as bad as apple's slip up with the iphone 4 and not being able to touch the phone with your hand. I haven't seen any other products that do not boot with hard drive like the m14x.

And where did I say I was perfect? I'm just saying that I attempt to produce a product that is compatible with current hardware by interfacing them together and playing around.

I know you're trying to cut dell and their engineers some slack, but if we keep doing that, they will take your kindness for weakness. And sorry I came off as a , but I don't want this to be downplayed like all the other major issues I see out there.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

 

Really. The M18x does the same thing on some of it's boards. So it's not just the M14x... And it has to do with the Sata 0 port for us.(99 Percent of the time)

 

@Custom90

I completely understand what your saying and sorry for the 'tude.

Yeah I'm a little nice to the Dell guys but they catch heat all day for just about anything.

I await a solution like everyone else. Although I think I might grab the Samsung 830 and give that a shot... Seems less problematic.

Merry Christmas

 

Guys I am really sorry for posting on an old topic, but this is exactly my problem.

With my Samsung 830 256gb SSD ( Factory Installed by DELL, not aftermarket), %50 of my restarts and boot ups freeze on the windows login screen. Did you guys find any solutions? Please assist me.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ison-bios-enabled-disabled-discussion-40.html

Check post no. 392. However, this is a workaround, but I was also tired of this issue. This should solve it 100% and adds benefits. Please note I had 8 Gigs memory.

 

I would call Dell for that since they claim is certified to work.

 

Thanks for answer mate. But the problem is I am already on bios 08. Should I maybe flash it again?

 

I have the same SSD 100% success boot up and really great with A8 (installed myself). I did a clean install with the Alienware Windows 7 DVD (no intel RST drivers). Maybe you can try that although it takes half a day to get back everything to normal with installs and things like that. Reflashing takes 2 mins so why not give it a try first

 

I flashed the bios again, but nothing changed still freeezes. I guess I will do a fresh install after my finals. To do a fresh install to a ssd, do you just put in the DVD that alienware gave to me and let it do the job? Or should I format the ssd first with another program etc?

 

Just press F12 when alienware logo pops up when booting and select boot from cd/dvd with the dvd in. than when windows loads files there will be a menu that let's you format the ssd. use these guides to set up after install : The SSD Optimization Guide - The SSD Review and http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ook-feel-after-clean-install-windows-7-a.html and make sure you download all the drivers from support.dell.com into a usb stick before reinstalling for faster setup

 

Thank you for the rep.

Sorry I did not know that you already use A08. I would ask for M14X R2 as replacement. SDD straight from DELL lol + A08 (should not be needed) = you have a strong case.

 

Replacement really takes long I dont think I can survive without a computer for 2+weeks. And the struggle to explain what is the problem to customer service is really overwhelming.

 

But R2 you know ... And keeping faulty R1 till it arrives lol

 

Thanks for the help guys, a fresh install of W7 solved my all problems. System is super stable now.

 

so does the m14x r2 fix this issue?