M4 in XPS 17 L702X = blue screen

I tried to install a Crucial M4 512 GB into my new XPS 17 L702X. While plugged(on AC power) in it runs great, on battery it blue screens within 2 minutes. There are other reported problem specific to the M4 drive, in all drive capacities.

Windows experience score for the drive is 7.9, you cannot ask for any better than that (6.9 overall).

Using the same drive image on a Crucial C300 does not produce any problems. The same goes for the original Seagate platter based drive. I contacted the Crucial forums about the problem, since there have not been any reply to the Crucial help line. A few replies with questions were entered, to which I gladly replied.

I posted the problem in the Crucial forum. I also tried to post a review at New Egg, where I purchased the drive and the price has gone up $150.00 since yesterday, and my review of my experience does not appear.

In my opinion the M4 with revision 1 firmware is not ready for use in a laptop. After reading numerous posts, it appears to be related to the low power state signalling with the drive.

HD Tune reports with the Crucial C300 (firmware 6) that the drive is connected as a SATA 2 drive UDMA mode 5 Ultra ATA. The C300 is a SATA 3 drive, and I do not know if the XPS failed recognize that.
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Update: for details see my post on 5-25-2011. The problem was solved by replacing the m4, with a replacement m4 through RMA.

 

No problems here...

 

It is possible that I just have a bad drive. I will RMA it.

Zippoman which processor, memory, optical drive do you have? Do you know what revision of M4 firmware that you have? Have you checked which mode it is communicating in?

Thanks in advance.

 

Been using my C400 for 6 weeks now and it works perfectly. Had to do the registry thing for LPM and RST to prevent stuttering, but that goes for any new drive. I've tried suspend, hibernate, sleep, etc., and have have no problems. I have yet to do any firmware updates to mine, mainly because there's no need to at the moment.

I wouldn't rma it just yet. If the C300 is recognized as a sata II drive, something is already wrong there.

 

Same here. This one, right? http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-S...eze-ups-in-Windows-7-solved-for-me/td-p/38766. I'm still using Intel RST drivers, the registry fix alone seemed to fix it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Parameters\Port0]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Parameters\Port1]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Parameters\Port2]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Parameters\Port3]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Parameters\Port4]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Parameters\Port5]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000

 

Yep, that one. Didn't mess with LPM or RST. Just did the quick fix and no stuttering since. I'm still using RST as well. I'm not so sure exactly how the LPM works, but I changed my power settings to never turn off the hard drive, mainly because of the known delayed trim/garbage collection. Not sure if it makes a big difference or not, but after 140GB of stuff on here, my ATTO speeds are still 460/275.

 

Have M4 128GB. No problems here.I'm using Microsoft AHCI driver, not Intel's and I did not need to do any registry changes.

 

I'd rather do registry fix + intel RST drivers. The MS AHCI drivers are older and not as geared for performance.

 

Thanks for all of the help!

I am still waiting for my RMA replacement.

Just a thought. Why do you have to give up power savings for the sake of a hard drive? Couldn't Crucial just design their drive to meet published specifications like everyone else that manufactures hard drives?

This is not a problem with a desktop computer, and I did not have any problems as long as my laptop is plugged in. So in order to use the M4 I have to sacrifice battery life, a precious commodity in a laptop.

If you do not meet the published specifications, then say so. I probably would not have purchased an M4 for my application. I did pay an extraordinary premium for a 512GB SSD. Why does the consumer have to scour the internet to find a solution that should have been revealed in the manufacturers website and literature.

Crucial has earned a black eye by not being transparent in the uses of the M4. Being happy that you had to become a software engineer in order to use an otherwise simple product is inexcusable. The C300 operates perfectly in my laptop, why not the M4? Because it was not designed to, and the manufacturer knew this before releasing it. It is doubtful that any firmware update will fix what appears to be a hardware problem.

My bet is that the Intel drive will not have the same problem.

 

An RMA replacement M4 drive arrived today courtesy of New Egg, where it was purchased from.
The M4 drive was cloned from the operating C300 installed in the laptop. The replacement drive does not exhibit any of the problems with the original M4 drive.
Benchmarks reveal that it is operating at the rated capacity. I am testing the LPM by operating on battery, the original source of the problem. There have not been any registry changes for the LPM parameters. The Intel RST driver was replaced after the original M4 was removed. The Intel RST driver did list BSOD problems in the rev notes and could have been a contributing factor. The new version of RST installed was 10.1.2.1004, A01
I have had several hours of runtime, and at least an hour and a half on battery. I have not experienced any failures, or problems.

The replacement drive displays Rev 0001 firmware like the original.

 

Any updates on this issue since May?

 

Firmware 0002 was released this week which addressed the LPM issue. Registry fix is no longer needed, and it appears to be working well for most people (MAC people still having occasional issues on the Crucial forums). I got mine yesterday, so I just immediately flashed it (came on FW 0001) and then proceeded to install. No issues thus far, even with Intel RST installed (A01 on Dell, may not be most recent, but it works it seems).

Edit: it seems people in this thread are having issues only on battery. I shall have to test that out then, I was mostly on AC last night. I'll just do the *facepalm* now if I missed something along the road and the issues I have seen elsewhere were also only on battery...

 

I ran a bunch on battery the other night with FW 0002 on mine. No issues at all.

 

I have been running on battery without any problems since the original fix a month ago. Usually I get about 5 hours on wireless, and MS Office (amazing!!). Recently I did update to the 00002 firmware, but have not seen any difference.

I do get a huge boost in performance if I use the drive with write caching enabled. The Intel implementation may be the key.

For the XPS owners, I did have a problem with the face recognition software, that Dell support could not fix. They did mail me the install CD, and it re-installed without error. However when "checking for updates" at the Fast Access site, the update would not load. To load, change the name of the destination directory to be different from the default. Then delete the original directory after it is working in the new one. The updated software is much better and very easy to use.

I tried Battlefield Bad Company 2 at full resolution, and it is very fast. the laptop fans are also very loud, but it is not a problem for me. I wish I could find someone who could disassemble and apply new thermal paste to the graphics chip. It is supposed to run 20 degrees cooler, hence faster, since the Nvidia chip seems to get hot and reduce speed to continue.

The L702X is the best computer I have ever owned, and it is personal computer purchase number 31. I also have a SLI Sandy Bridge desktop with a C300, but this laptop processor is on par with it. My first personal computer purchase was in 1977.