L512 not compatible with OCZ Agility SSD

I recently bought a Thinkpad (L512) and decided to replace the HDD with spare OCZ Agility 64 gb Sata II SSD that I had.

OCZ Agility
OCZ Agility Series SATA II 2.5" SSD *EOL OCZ Technology

I was able to install 64bit Windows 7 (using AHCI as the sata setting) and the computer worked fine for a few hours. Suddenly, the computer froze and would not boot windows anymore. Furthermore, it would not even allow me to acces the bios.

I proceeded to swap back the original HDD and the computer worked normally. I changed the bios sata setting to 'compatability' mode, and reinstalled the SSD; it still would not boot. Furthermore, now I cant access the SSD, even when I put it into another laptop and try to reinstall windows on it.

I contacted Lenovo, and they only suggested that I should try to update the firmware of the SSD and update the bios of the thinkpad; I could not update the firmware since I could not access the drive, and haven't bothered to update the bios yet.

I contacted OCZ and they told me that their SSD's are not compatible with lenovo products. Can this be true? My understanding is that as long as the HDD or SSD has the appropriate connection (e.g. Sata vs IDE) it should install without a "hitch".

Here are the Thinkpad L512 specs:

Chipset: Intel HM55
Drive Form Factor: 2.5"
Drive Interface: SATA
Maximum Memory: 8192MB
Slots: 2 (2 banks of 1)
Standard Memory: 2048MB removable
USB Support: 2.x Compliant

Lastly, I did some more googling and found a Crucial SSD that is actually compatible with the L512.

64GB RealSSD C300 2.5"
64GB, 2.5-inch Solid State Drive, upgrades for Lenovo ThinkPad L512 Laptop/Notebook, CT1267186 from Crucial.com

I am unsure of the difference between the two, but if someone could why explain why the Crucial would work over the OCZ, that would be awesome.


Thanks,

 

How can a SATA drive, be not compatible with a SATA slot? It's a standard, that's all, unless Lenovo messed up with power consumption somehow...

More than that, you've been able to boot once, then it should work...

Seems to me it's a faulty drive... have you tried to connect it as an external drive?

 

It's a faulty drive, no question. Of the scant few failures of these devices, your symptoms are the most common.


<-- Owner of an OCZ Vertex 2 Extended 120Gb, a part of my Y460 for the last 45 days.

 

I did and my desktop would not recognize it. It would be detected, but would not show up in m computer. Furthermore, when I would try to determine what version firmware it had, using a USB boot method (see link below) drive would not show up; I've tried just about everything on that thread by the way.

Guide Agility/Vertex/Turbo and also EX 1.5 FW Update

That is what I am beginning to think.

On a side note, can the actual bios be modified such that it would not allow compatibility with this brand of SSD devices. Reason that I am asking is because I have a seen a few threads discussing a bios hack to allow one to install a SSD on certain thinkpad models.

 

The fact your desktop also didn't recognise the SSD as well indicates the drive may be faulty. I don't see a particular reason why this drive shouldn't work on your ThinkPad though certain SSDs can be quite fickle. I would do a RMA and try to get a replacement, you may be just unlucky obtaining a bad drive.