Upgrade Nightmares

Jac · Dec 10, 2011, 11:44 AM

So I just treated my PC to an OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD drive

Sounds like a happy story doesn't it!

As a veteran of the PC user experience I remember the dark days before plug and play and user orietntated componenets when any upgrade would mean hours and hours of *"!*'in about before your system would be back running again. PCs were delicate contraptions that needed to be poked and prodded in exactly the right way before they would respond.

Those days are over I thought. Put in my new SSD. Installed Windows 7 and then the Windows 8 DP. Everything seemed fine. I started to copy stuff to my old system drive for storage. Then the old drive starts to make little sqeaky noises. I restarted. Ran disk checks when all of a sudden I start getting SMART errors on bootup. Windows can no longer see my old system drive. I start shuffling drives around to see if I can get it to re-initialise. Then the SSD stops booting. NTFS cannot load. Again I start shuffling drives around. Then the system stops powering altogether. No idea why, only choice is to put my cheap old PSU in to see if it works. It does - my beloved Coolermaster PRO has died, 6 days out of warranty

Had to re-install Windows 7 which thankfully worked but all my data has been lost from the original system drive. Plugged in my old drive and managed to get Windows to see it, it then spent 6 hours running a disk check

I am today finally back up running but less a PSU.

I now feel like I'm walking on thin ice. Any error message or squeak from the system and it could all collapse again

Judas · Dec 10, 2011, 03:43 PM

erg..... funny how the last straw can break the camels back hey?

**MIG-31** · Dec 10, 2011, 03:59 PM

Just a quick question as you have a ocz agility 3... what firmware is the drive currently using..

Anything before 2.09 had issues.

Because there is a chance its not running the current firmware of 2.15..

OCZ Technology

With the OCZ drives its best to set the OCZ as a secondary drive and update the firmware before windows is installed...

But it will NOT UPDATE if you are running windows off the ssd.

Jac · Dec 10, 2011, 04:11 PM

Thanks for the tip.

Just checked and I am on 2.15

**MIG-31** · Dec 10, 2011, 04:22 PM

I were just asking as i have a 120gb Agility 3 that came with the 2.09 firmware..

I also had a few issues getting my current (at the time) windows to pick the drive up through disk management.I can't remember how i fixed the issue...

However it is still possible to update the (Future) firmware updates if you have the time and a spare drive...It just takes me an hour to make a basic windows install on a seperate drive and a little swapping around for a short time... Never had issues with the last update.

Quite why ocz has opted for the Non-Windows partion for updates i don't know.. My corsair F40 updates without issue.

Jac · Dec 11, 2011, 06:41 PM

So I'm still having a few teething troubles.

I believe all of my 4 SATA drives now work as they should, however they don't seem to wanna play nice with each other. I have 6 SATA ports on my mobo. 4 standard ones and 2 GSATA Gigabyte ports for setting up RAID arrays and such. I am not using the GSATA ones at the moment because I'm not running RAID and would rather not have to install the extra drivers.

It seems the various drives all work seperately but are choosy about which port they go into and in which combination. My old HDs have a jumper on the back to set either 1.5 or 3gbps modes. Thing is I cant tell if there is a jumper on them or not. There appears to be a different coloured bit of plastic but it doesn't appear to be a jumper

The SSD is running at 3gbps.

Has anyone experienced issues with running SSDs with older hard disks?

Judas · Dec 11, 2011, 09:24 PM

fuck.... i was just finishing typing up a post about how the 2.15 firmware on the ocz drives still hasn't solved any of the BSODs and crap i've been having which are totally random .. and reguardless of the machine i install the drive on .. doesn't appear to reduce or increase the number of occurances... When just as i was hitting the post bottom... BSOD...

I'm about ready to return/rma the drive very very soon.... but i don't know if OCZ will just replace it with a new one or claim nothing is wrong..

I don't know.. but there is no reason i should tolerate frequent and corrupting BSODs.. yes files have corrupted due to it's frequency and nature..

The drive will bsod.. and quite often the motherboard won't even see the drive is there until i completely shut down... and start up again. Which would suggest that the controller is completely hardlocked as long as it still has power and isn't resetting/recycling.

Damn sandforce to hell. Why OCZ keeps using these shitty controllers is beyond me...

i'm debating in picking up the Corsair/Patriot SSD as a replacement.... But i would love to get my hands on some intel SSDs... they seem to report being relatively flawless.

WxMan1 · Dec 14, 2011, 05:55 AM

I'm watching this thread Jac; I'm not stepping in the same doo-doo you did.

I could tell you about the Elsa eRazor Geforce 256 I bought for $500; I'd have obtained more satisfaction watching $500 worth of crumpled $1 bills in a pile burning. That's something completely different I have absolutely no interest in discussing whatsoever. Forget I ever mentioned it. Doesn't sound like that's relevent here in any case; just forget I ever brought it up.

What's amazing: I'm still using the very same GeForce2 GTS 64 MB "enhanced" LeadTech video card I obtained as its replacement. Despite having modded the BIOS to enable F/W & side-banding simultaneously, and downclocking the default GPU/DDR

I can't wait until I can afford a decent iCore-2 Duo-thingy, mobo having one of those multiple gfx card capabilities, some respectable DDR RAM of quantity (a PCI 64 slot would be nice too).

Until then: my TUV4X running PIII 1400-S @ 143 FSB is just going to have to cut the mustard running BOINC on Win2003 R2 platform. Since my recent upgrade from 18" Trinitron Micron monitor to Synchmaster 2253LW, my existing analog video card won't cut the mustard anymore flying my Falcon4 F-16, F1 2002, Decent3, or UT. Works fine to play Sub Command, WinSPMBT & CivIII though.

Works good, last long time to run VS2008 too.

Judas · Dec 14, 2011, 08:35 AM

i still want to get a kyro 2..... i miss the fully pure deferred rendering at the hardware level first system..

ony intel seems to use it while the other manufacturers are STILL using a good amount of brute force to do equivilent performance.

Jac · Dec 24, 2011, 11:10 AM

Update for anyone having similar issues. Seems the problem was caused by faulty SATA cables.

Well not the PSU obviously - that I can only put down to failing due to being power-cycled when messing around. Good news is it had a 5 year warranty so I got a new one from Coolermaster.

I was using the crappy cables that came with my Gigabyte mobo. I always thought the design was terrible. The cables were stiff and hard to route to the drives. The connector never seemed to seat with any kind of hold. I had 6 of them and everyone of them failed by either just failing to work or by the metal clip on the end snapping off. For the last week or so I have been reduced to one 60GB SSD!

Just got some new cables today so everything appears back to normal.

Dec 10, 2011, 11:44 AM	#1
Jac HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: England Posts: 761 Rep Power: 51 System Specs	Upgrade Nightmares - SATA Cable Poor Design So I just treated my PC to an OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD drive Sounds like a happy story doesn't it! As a veteran of the PC user experience I remember the dark days before plug and play and user orietntated componenets when any upgrade would mean hours and hours of "!'in about before your system would be back running again. PCs were delicate contraptions that needed to be poked and prodded in exactly the right way before they would respond. Those days are over I thought. Put in my new SSD. Installed Windows 7 and then the Windows 8 DP. Everything seemed fine. I started to copy stuff to my old system drive for storage. Then the old drive starts to make little sqeaky noises. I restarted. Ran disk checks when all of a sudden I start getting SMART errors on bootup. Windows can no longer see my old system drive. I start shuffling drives around to see if I can get it to re-initialise. Then the SSD stops booting. NTFS cannot load. Again I start shuffling drives around. Then the system stops powering altogether. No idea why, only choice is to put my cheap old PSU in to see if it works. It does - my beloved Coolermaster PRO has died, 6 days out of warranty Had to re-install Windows 7 which thankfully worked but all my data has been lost from the original system drive. Plugged in my old drive and managed to get Windows to see it, it then spent 6 hours running a disk check I am today finally back up running but less a PSU. I now feel like I'm walking on thin ice. Any error message or squeak from the system and it could all collapse again Last edited by Jac; Dec 24, 2011 at 11:11 AM. Reason: updated

Dec 10, 2011, 03:59 PM	#3
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 56,821 Rep Power: 471 System Specs	Re: Upgrade Nightmares Just a quick question as you have a ocz agility 3... what firmware is the drive currently using.. Anything before 2.09 had issues. Because there is a chance its not running the current firmware of 2.15.. OCZ Technology With the OCZ drives its best to set the OCZ as a secondary drive and update the firmware before windows is installed... But it will NOT UPDATE if you are running windows off the ssd. __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here Last edited by MIG-31; Dec 10, 2011 at 04:13 PM. Reason: forgot to spellcheck

Dec 10, 2011, 04:11 PM	Thread Starter #4
Jac HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: England Posts: 761 Rep Power: 51 System Specs	Re: Upgrade Nightmares Thanks for the tip. Just checked and I am on 2.15

Dec 10, 2011, 04:22 PM	#5
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 56,821 Rep Power: 471 System Specs	Re: Upgrade Nightmares I were just asking as i have a 120gb Agility 3 that came with the 2.09 firmware.. I also had a few issues getting my current (at the time) windows to pick the drive up through disk management.I can't remember how i fixed the issue... However it is still possible to update the (Future) firmware updates if you have the time and a spare drive...It just takes me an hour to make a basic windows install on a seperate drive and a little swapping around for a short time... Never had issues with the last update. Quite why ocz has opted for the Non-Windows partion for updates i don't know.. My corsair F40 updates without issue. __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here

Dec 11, 2011, 06:41 PM	Thread Starter #6
Jac HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: England Posts: 761 Rep Power: 51 System Specs	Re: Upgrade Nightmares So I'm still having a few teething troubles. I believe all of my 4 SATA drives now work as they should, however they don't seem to wanna play nice with each other. I have 6 SATA ports on my mobo. 4 standard ones and 2 GSATA Gigabyte ports for setting up RAID arrays and such. I am not using the GSATA ones at the moment because I'm not running RAID and would rather not have to install the extra drivers. It seems the various drives all work seperately but are choosy about which port they go into and in which combination. My old HDs have a jumper on the back to set either 1.5 or 3gbps modes. Thing is I cant tell if there is a jumper on them or not. There appears to be a different coloured bit of plastic but it doesn't appear to be a jumper The SSD is running at 3gbps. Has anyone experienced issues with running SSDs with older hard disks?

Dec 14, 2011, 05:55 AM	#8
WxMan1 HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 221 Rep Power: 40	Re: Upgrade Nightmares I'm watching this thread Jac; I'm not stepping in the same doo-doo you did. I could tell you about the Elsa eRazor Geforce 256 I bought for $500; I'd have obtained more satisfaction watching $500 worth of crumpled $1 bills in a pile burning. That's something completely different I have absolutely no interest in discussing whatsoever. Forget I ever mentioned it. Doesn't sound like that's relevent here in any case; just forget I ever brought it up. What's amazing: I'm still using the very same GeForce2 GTS 64 MB "enhanced" LeadTech video card I obtained as its replacement. Despite having modded the BIOS to enable F/W & side-banding simultaneously, and downclocking the default GPU/DDR I can't wait until I can afford a decent iCore-2 Duo-thingy, mobo having one of those multiple gfx card capabilities, some respectable DDR RAM of quantity (a PCI 64 slot would be nice too). Until then: my TUV4X running PIII 1400-S @ 143 FSB is just going to have to cut the mustard running BOINC on Win2003 R2 platform. Since my recent upgrade from 18" Trinitron Micron monitor to Synchmaster 2253LW, my existing analog video card won't cut the mustard anymore flying my Falcon4 F-16, F1 2002, Decent3, or UT. Works fine to play Sub Command, WinSPMBT & CivIII though. Works good, last long time to run VS2008 too. Last edited by WxMan1; Dec 14, 2011 at 06:01 AM.

Dec 24, 2011, 11:10 AM	Thread Starter #10
Jac HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: England Posts: 761 Rep Power: 51 System Specs	Re: Upgrade Nightmares Update for anyone having similar issues. Seems the problem was caused by faulty SATA cables. Well not the PSU obviously - that I can only put down to failing due to being power-cycled when messing around. Good news is it had a 5 year warranty so I got a new one from Coolermaster. I was using the crappy cables that came with my Gigabyte mobo. I always thought the design was terrible. The cables were stiff and hard to route to the drives. The connector never seemed to seat with any kind of hold. I had 6 of them and everyone of them failed by either just failing to work or by the metal clip on the end snapping off. For the last week or so I have been reduced to one 60GB SSD! Just got some new cables today so everything appears back to normal.