Expensive lesson - buggy Vertex 3 Max IOPS on m14x

Just upgraded the firmware of V3MI to latest. The process is full of pain already.

Anyway, windows installation was full of freezes and black screens. I was lucky to be able to install at the third attempt. But as soon as I installed chipset driver and rebooted, my m14x stuck at 'Starting Windows' for over 30 mins.

Is there anyone having similar issue with normal Vertex 3? Guess I may just sacrifice the performance and go for intel 510 this time

 

I had the same exact experience with the agility 3 drive. When I plugged it into my desktop to run some diagnostics on the drive the temp the drive was reading was 128C. I exchanged it for another one and I will post up when the new one shows up.

 

Unistall Intel RST Driver.

 

It has nothing to do with any driver. Freezed after windows firstly copied 100% files without initiating any personal account password etc

People say to do F6 trick prior to installation to load RST driver. Really that is not what I would like to do with $300 drive. I cannot risk any data, the documents worth way more than $300

Just ordered another V3MI as well as intel elmcrest to have another go

 

Update : received replacement today - it is all the same!

I am running m14x bios A03 with V3MI firmware 2.06

When windows firstly copied 100% files it just freeze at 'Starting Windows' forever at first start up. Not yet reached the step to type my desired name and password

Will swap to intel 510 elmcrest and report back.

 

I was having issues as well with the Vertex 3 until I reflashed back to A01

 

Nothing new here Alienware laptops and SSDs not getting along or having poor performance.

 

Not really. My old X25-M G2 160GB has been fab all the way.

Recently been too busy at work, glad it is all done now I want to reward myself something to play with. Unfortunately I went for Vertex3 MI in the first place, intel 510 elmcrest is brilliant without any problem.

RST recognise it at 6GB/s and atto easily reached 450mb/s read

Now just need to order a caddy to have 510 + X25-m

 

Dude I'm having same if not similar problem with Vertex 3 as well. During the installation of windows 7 is fine, but after I installed windows 7 the restart for the first use took forever to load and during this time the fan was going berserk. So I decided to turn the power off and load it again. Same problem, then again this time it took a shorter time to load and I got in windows. However, the next restart after I installed a driver the same problem happened again, and I can never get back in windows now, always stuck.

Should I contact OCZ about this problem? Can anyone give me some advice? Thanks

Here's my specs:
Alienware M14x: Core i7 2720QM, 8GB 1600Mhz, GT 555M 3GB, 750GB HDD (trying to use 120gb Vertex 3 but very disappointed at the moment)

 

Try the LPM fix on the port the SSD is installed. Might work might not.

 

With this Unlocked Bios setting my SSD works perfect.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/612902-unlocked-bios-05-impressing-4.html#post7996018

Please note that only OCZ firmware 2.13 works ok for me. I had huge Win7 start up issues on (the latest) 2.15. Win7 would freeze at logo.

This is how to flash in case you need it hoping 2.13 is still flashable:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ison-bios-enabled-disabled-discussion-34.html

Let me know if I can help any further. It took me 3 months to make my SSD working SATA 6Gbps and I still have 20% unsuccessful startups. On 2.15 the ratio was 98% so I had to keep my laptop at sleep.

 

Thanks for the recommendations, but before i do those I'm planning to update the firmware to 2.15 first. Seems like it'll fix blue screens and various problems. What do you think?

 

Well try it you can always reflash.

 

Keep telling yourself its not the Intel RST software.

I had the same problem as you, and I resolved it by removing the Intel RST component. Same freezing on startup, same everything.

I eventually found the setting in the registry that resolves the issue. It has been discussed many times in other threads.

You should follow this guide for SSD optimization:

http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

 

Wow, surprised to see my thread bumped up

Well, I am getting disappointed with my M14x. Dell has no intention to fix the SATA III problem, they told me if I buy any aftermarket drive then it is my own problem. Intel told me to speak to Dell because they didn't build the laptop. It just don't feel very nice when both companies act in these ways when I spent £1,000 to Dell and £220 to intel for the SSD.

Putting a secondary SSD in the optical port seems permanently damaged the port. Now I get random disconnection for whatever plugged in the optical drive port, and start up/ shut down sometimes stuck for minutes. The laptop is already sent to service center. If they cannot fully fix the laptop I may just get a new machine in exchange because it has been repaired a few times already

 

I don't understand why people buy OCZ ssd's with the sandforce controller. A little reseach will tell you the sandforce controller is really unreliable. And no, the new firmware doesn't help, people are still having a lot of defects all over the world.

 

So does it mean you still have 20% start up problems c69k? If you (with so much knowledge) still can't fix this problem entirely, then I'll really think about selling it and switching it to Momentus or something. Because I'm really disappointed. Thanks for the tips guys

Are you implying there are SSDs that works perfect (plug and play) with m14x? Please let me know what brand or model, thanks

 

only heard good things about the crucial m4 in the m17x forums. Doesn't seem like anybody has posted about having a problem with one of those either It could still have the issue though.

 

My Intel 320 120GB works perfect plug and play.

 

My Intel X25-m works great! Plug and play but only Sata II speeds, still I believe in real life instances you wont see a huge performance increase to Sata III.

 

+1 to X25-M G2. Effectively intel 320 is just X25-M G3 in disguise so they should all work perfectly.

You guys are right, I have tried a number of popular SATA III SSDs, V3MI, intel 510, Corsair Force3 (they recalled and refunded the drive for me) none work properly without tweaks.

 

Well, the knowledge ... it sounds terrible man!!! lol Imagine, I was not supposed EVER to run SATA 6 gbps based on Dell M14X manual. Now, I have desktop (ssd stability) speeds but 2 times out of 10 I have to restart after an unsuccessful Win7 start. So that is like 20 seconds. This does not bother me. OCZ is ok in my books, they refund you or exchange without any extra questions. And they are the pioneers in SSD industry haha even though they first test on geeks like me lol

 

Maybe I will give intel 320 or x25 a try before I look into Momentus, what about intel 510? Is this compatible with m14x?

 

Wabi, your SSD should be working ok after the tweaks I posted. Maybe try them, if I can help, next 4 hours I am here.

 

I appreciate that you're trying to help and I tried to follow your links to other pages to tweak it, but as you probably know, I'm a noob and I don't understand how to do half of the stuff that was there. To be honest if I do follow your recommended pages and fix the problem, with 20% booting error I'm still not satisfied. To you it might be ok to have that error coz it doesnt bother you but I just want something that works. Anyway thanks for your help, appreciate it.

 

510 looks OK when you install and boot the machine first time. But there is about 30% chance when powering up the machine before you see the Windows symbol, it crashes and tell you drive I/O error. Reboot several times it will be gone and it works fine in SATA III speed (w/o rst)

Only problem annoyed me is there is 5% chance Windows may decide to revert itself to last restoration point, it is only possible to cancel the process if you hit esc fast enough. I was screwed once when I powered the machine and went to restroom, after come back - windows updates and vmware workstation are gone because the restore!

 

OCZ thinks its M14X Bios problem causing Win7 start-up problems. I contacted Dell about it, and ... you guess right. As your SSD is 3rd party ... fakuuf.

 

So what you've posted about using the unlocked A03 bios is the most stable for you? Where can I download that? I will try it, Thanks in advance

Unlocked A05 bios I mean

C1ro you had many bad experience with SSDs, what makes you wanna stay using SSD but not Momentus? I feel your pain man.... Maybe SSD is not for noobs like me

 

I didnt realize this was an issue with all SSDs on the M14x because I have the same issue with my M4 128GB. Its about a 5-10% chance during boot up that my computer will freeze at the windows logo.

I am running A05 and my M4 has the latest firmware, 0009.

I am curious if you hear a pop from the woofer during boot up at the windows logo. The only time my laptop freezes is if I dont hear the little pop...

 

Originally Posted by Wabisabi
So what you've posted about using the unlocked A03 bios is the most stable for you? Where can I download that? I will try it, Thanks in advance

I use Bios A03 only because of the higher fan speeds when under load. Gives me extra 5c down. And A03, A04, A05 already includes Samsung dedicated Graphics Memory Code update (A01 does not). I did not see any diff between A05 and A03 except A03 is louder and of course cooler under load.

A05 Bios Download:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/612902-unlocked-bios-05-impressing.html

 

I'm having this startup issue too on my m14x with ocz agility 3 firmware v2.13.

 

SSD is still far superior than momentus XT, and these days the hdd prices are funny. Last night I was hunting a 500GB momentus XT for my PS3 and shocked to see the price tags are close to £200!

Currently I am using a 160GB X25-M G2, completely trouble free and very reliable. Because it is a dated product, chances are you may find it incredibly cheap in some stores, may be a lot more reasonable than hdds at current prices.

I am temporarily using the 510 as paperweights. Will build a hardcore desktop with sandy bridge-E and X79 mobos, I am sure 510 will do me good in that system

 

I'm currently trying to sort out with OCZ support regarding my win7 booting problem, but also hunting for intel SSD that you all mentioned before. SATA 2 SSDs seems like the way to go. SATA 3 is just too much trouble generally for m14x.

 

Do you turn your laptop off, or you use sleep / hibernate? With sleep / hibernate you would have no start up issues. I know you know all this. But V3MI performs very well.

Please take look at this.

 

I pretty much get the same result (if i can boot in windows). Just that it seems like cold start ups are the worse. At least 4 attempts before i can get in windows.

I prefer to shutdown my laptop.

 

Yes, I turn it off too. When my computer is 'warm' it starts ok. But after being turned off for say 12 hours, then I have problems.

OCZ have an alienware laptop (2 months already) and are testing it lol but so far no results. I mean they don't answer lol

I believe OCZ next firmware will fix it. But I will only try it if I get confirmed, that 2.13 is back-flashable at the moment of release, because for me it is the ONLY stable firmware with good speeds and ok startups.

Anyway, consider yourself lucky (me too) that it works as it works. You have no guaranty that another SSD won't give you some REAL headaches, like 'stable but no speed', or 'unstable with Intel RST', and basically every day a new problem plus continuous re-installs of Win7.

I went through this 3 months since purchase of my SSD. Now for me this is not perfect, but the speeds are awesome, no BSODs, not even one.

btw + rep for patience

 

Yeah.... i mean besides the startup problem there's nothing wrong with vertex 3 i didn't get any BSOD as well, it is fast and all. Some people might prefer speed so they don't mind compromising with reliability. I rather have reliability and lose some speed. I should have done some research before i purchase it, i think if OCZ support can't help me i will just sell it and get an intel 320 or X25 SSD which is more reliable.

 

I have the Intel 320 SSD and it was simply plug in and play with 0 issues what so ever.

 

was using intel 320ssd before upgrade to ocz agility 3
And i been having the cold boot issue with ocz agility 3

currently using fw 2.13 without intel rst driver.

any solution yet for this?

 

when i got more than 4-5 unsuccessful boot, i will go bios to change to ATA instead of AHCI then boot just to get BSOD and restart to go bios again to change it back to AHCI. This actually creates a higher chance of successful boot (to me it is).

This kind of makes me feel that the bios and vertex 3 does not like each other. Like c69k said, i hope OCZ will release firmware to fix this issue.

 

Yes, exactly this was answer from OCZ regarding Dell Bios. On the other hand I think (hope) new Intel 520 SSD will be Sandforce based, so it will have to get solved one way or another.

 

Anyway, if what you said about OCZ have an alienware laptop for months now and testing, then i will probably wait for the new firmware. I'll probably use it for a little longer with this problem or switch back to my old hdd until they release new firmware, lets hope it doesn't take too long

 

Probably not. intel told me speak to Dell, Dell told me gtfo to intel who made the drive.

As soon as money is out of your pocket and return period expire, no one cares

 

I have a Vertex III MI SSD, and it's running with no problems at SATA II speeds. Given that this is my first ever SSD, IMO it's fast enough for practical use. I guess it's kind of a waste that I have a SATA III device running at II speeds, but then again it's good to have that extra insurance if/when OCZ decides to release a fix, right?

 

How come yours runs at SATA II speed? did you have RST installed? I have Vertex 3 (without RST) and is really unreliable and even with RST installed restricting it to SATA II speed its still unreliable, i rather have the reliability and lose a bit of speed. How did you get it run smoothly?

 

My Vertex MI after installing RST ran with the same startup issues as on MSAHCI. The difference was only in speed, 3Gbps vs 6Gbps.

 

Hmm, that's interesting. I have firmware version 2.11 with bios A05, and yes I do have Intel Rapid Storage Technology installed.

FYI though: I've only had this laptop for a few days (traded via NBR marketplace ) and with just one exception it's been doing well. The one exception was when it crashed on me yesterday after a few hours of use, complaining about finding no bootable devices. I just rebooted after that and it's been doing fine so far.

 

Yeah exact same problem, have been looking for solution in forums and other places, but no luck. SATA II SSD is probably the way to go for reliability.

 

even with sata 2 speed m14x still having the hang at starting windows issue

 

This is a good ground to speak to Dell about their next Bios A07 which (if this thread goes on) might be looked into by their engineers. Please tell me what SSD you have? (I am secretly waiting for someone with SATA II Samsung SSD which can be ordered from Dell M14X configuration page having startup issues).