My SSD stopped posting :(

Hey all, just a quick question please.

I bought a sager 8150 May 2011. I got it from the good people at xoticpc and I have been loving it!

i got the SSD 320 (300gb) hard drive, but it recently crashed... wont post or or boot up or anything. It actually crashed mid march, but I am overseas so I thought oh well.

as far as i know its a broken hard drive.

I have had the entire machine less than one year. is it covered in some way? I did not buy any extended warranty other than the basic one that comes with. Can i send the hard drive back to xoticpc or sager and get it replaced (with the genuine windows install/setup of the machine)?

Thanks!

edit: oh yea i emailed xotic also, but its the weekend so I dont expect a resopnse for a few days, but I happen to be traveling to the USA today for only a couple of days (I live across the pond) so I didn't want to miss out the chance to send it and maybe get a replacement, so I am expediting by also posting here (gotta love the online community )

 

Not sure if there's anything you can do at the moment, but is it possible for you to update to the latest firmware if it isn't already?

 

SSD's are not hard drives. There is a very big difference. SSD's cannot break in the way mechanical hard drives do, because they have no moving parts. Try to get into BIOS and if that doesn't work, it's not your SSD. If you get in, you could try re-installing your OS. Also, what were you doing when it crashed, and what did the crash look like? If it's not the SSD, my first guess would be damage from overheating.

 

In a way, SSD failures are a lot more abrupt. Other than a head crash, most HDD's will noticeably deteriorate as they start to fail (bad sectors, corrupt data, etc). SSD's on the other hand have two major ways they fail- 1) the flash memory has been exhausted and can no longer do read/writes or 2) the controller flat out dies. The first problem is usually transparent to the user because SSD's are overprovisioned by 5-10% or more and they can shuffle data around as the cells start to die. Not only that, but most consumers aren't going to hit the read/write limit before they scrap/replace it anyway. The second problem is the one that I've seen more commonly. The controller board that handles all the operations for the drive just up and dies, which means that although your data isn't touched- the drive is now as good as a doorstop anyway.

OP: Can you try the drive in another machine? Is it accessible from a Linux liveCD? If neither of these work, then it's entirely possible that you've had the controller on the drive fail.

 

Hey all thank youfor the replies.

Thanks for the info on how SSD's are different, I had no idea.

firmware:
regaring the firmware update, how would I do that if I can't access the HD on the machine?

what I was doing and what I have tried:
I was just using the machine as normal (playing a game I think at the time) when the machine itself just turned off (it was plugged in so it wasn't that it ran out of battery or anything).

It would not boot up at that point, since then, I took the ssd out and tried it in another machine and it still didn't work.

I grabbed another ssd from another laptop and plugged it into my machine and it has been working fine since, but now I am wondering if I can get a replacement ssd.

I also tried taing the 'broken' ssd and putting it in another laptop and the ssd is not recognized in the bios/doesnt post.

current conclusion:
so.. I think it is the SSD drive that is the issue and I am now sorta hoping it is the controller thing mentioned. Anyway i emailed the xoticpc service and waiting for their reply now.

 

I'd have to agree that at this point, I think your controller failed on the SSD. Hopefully you kept backups of your important data so nothing was lost. Your retailer may even be able to cross ship you a new drive so you don't have to send the whole machine back in for it to be replaced. (They send you a new drive, you send your dead drive back)

 

Hey all,

Just an update on this issue. I am a little upset about the result so far, but I think it is important to share the info for others to be aware.

The vendor came back and said I am out of warranty, so I would need to pay for a new hard drive.

If I am out of warranty then that makes sense and so be it. My question is when does the warranty start? (to be honest I never read the fine print...)

I ordered the machine on April 14th, and the machine was shipped to me on May 12th.

I reported the issue on April 23rd.

I always assumed the warranty began when the machine was shipped... I mean... what if I pre-ordered a machine and it takes two months to reach me?

so what does everyone think about this issue? Should the warranty start when you order the machine or when the machine is shipped?

EDIT: the vendor responded saying that the warranty starts when shipped. gonna see if I can still get the hard drive under warranty as I started the discussion back then even though the RMA is being done now.... note the reason there was no RMA earlier was due to a miscommunication between myself and the vendor but it is documented (in email and this thread I guess) that I was trying to replace the hard drive while still under warranty.

EDIT 2: the vendor has taken the initiative on my behalf to talk to Sager about this situation to see if there is a happy medium. As a consumer, I felt the let down at first, but this attention does go a long way to making me feel like they are trying to find a way to help that is within their influence. I do hope for my ideal ending, but this particular step taken by the vendor on their own does go a long way to making me understand their position while feeling that they heard and empathized with mine.

 

That is a good question that I hope Sager resellers, XoticPC especially hopefully can answer since you ordered from them.

Sager's warranty states:

" SAGER WARRANTS this Sager hardware Product against defects in merchandise and workmanship for a period of ONE (1) YEAR from the Date of Original Retail Purchase."

But "Date of Original Retail Purchase" to me would at worse be date of shipment or better, date of receipt. Like you said, why should you be held liable if it takes them two months to build and ship your computer.

Also, one more reason to buy your own SSD or hard drive since those typically come with at least a 3 year warranty and are usually cheaper than what the OEM offers.

 

Ok,

So, I told the vendor I did not want to pay and the vendor said they will contact Sager to see about a happy medium.

While they didn't really answer the question on when the warranty starts (from ordering time or from shipping) they got back to me the next day and gave me an RMA number saying that Sager is going to try to get me a replacement drive. From this, I am assuming there is no cost associated with the process.

So far, I am feeling good about this! I hope to post one more time with the final result on this story, but it will probably be in two months because I have the RMA returning to a USA address and I wont be back until mid July time frame.

 

Ok so the tale ends today!

Sorry to rez this old thread but I finally got the result and wanted to close this out in case anyone was wondering/looking.

Basically, the vendor contacted Sager and they agreed to accept my drive even though it was now just past the warranty date (apparently the warranty starts when you order the part, not when you receive it).

anyway, since the warranty just expired, the vendor convinced sager to accept my SSD under warranty for their work. i went ahead and sent it out to them in mid may, and they sent back a new drive at the end of may. They dont have many details other than the drive was dead on arrival and since this is a new drive it seems maybe something more than the controller was the issue. Regardless I got a new drive!

I did not respond until now because I was out of country and just got back and found my brand new SSD. I am very pleased with the service I received from the vendor and from Sager in this regards.

this issue is now closed!

 

Good to know Btw what was the ssd brand?