back to article OCZ fails to kill off Blue Screen Of Death issue

Despite firmware upgrades, some OCZ Agility and Vertex SSD users are still suffering Blue Screen of Death episodes. We came across Vertex BSOD episodes in June and have been told by Gym Ratz, our poster, that he is still BSOD'd but that a replacement Crucial SSD is working perfectly. To get my PC back in action and prove it …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Luxemberg is in the EU...

    ...so surely the Distance Selling Regulations would apply given that this is an EU directive. It actually gives you more protection that the UK laws would provide in some circumstances, such as the two years warrenty.

  2. Doozerboy
    FAIL

    I'll hold off then...

    Very nearly bought myself a vertex 2 yesterday, glad i didn't.

    INtel seem to be the best in terms of low failure rates, bate also pretty expensive too. Be interested to know other peoples thoughts on SSD's

    1. lIsRT
      Thumb Up

      Phew.

      Ordered a vertex from Amazon, fortunately it hadn't shipped, just cancelled it right now.

    2. Jamie Kitson

      Re: I'll hold off then...

      I think this only applies to Vertex 3, Vertex 2 are relatively mature, I've been running one happily for about 6 months.

      1. .thalamus

        Vertex 2e

        Had a Vertex 2e on Win 7 x64 for about a month now, no issues at all.

        It seems that these issues apply to the Vertex 3 only.

        The only way that you can benefit from the Vertex 3 over the Vertex 2e is if you have a SATA3 capable mainboard.

        If you have a SATA2, get the Vertex 2e, as you won't get the benefit of the Vertex 3's speed boost without SATA3.

    3. AdamWill

      Intel/Marvell

      Intel's 510 SSDs use a Marvell controller not an Intel one like previous gens, it's worth noting. I replaced my Corsair Force 3 drive (which had the same problem as OCZ, though it seems to have been better handled, with a hardware recall as well as firmware updates) with a Crucial C300, which also uses a Marvell controller but seems to benchmark better than the Intel drives in the most important categories (random reads/writes).

  3. Arnold Lieberman
    FAIL

    I did the same

    After having no joy with several vertex 2 drives I jumped ship and got a C300 which hasn't put a foot wrong (so far). The attitudes of both OCZ and the supplier I bought the drive through are disgraceful - I was refused a refund because, they claim, it is an incompatibility with my laptop and not due to faulty goods, and I should have found that out before purchasing the drive!

    Also, I made sure the replacement drive I chose does not use a Sandforce controller.

  4. Nigel 11
    Linux

    Use Linux

    Use Linux - at least for stress-testing these drives to get to the bottom of the problem. Unlike Windows, you'll get some meaningful diagnostic information!

    (And if, as I rather hope, they don't actually fail, then you can point the finger back at Microsoft-quality code designed for hard drives not SSDs).

    1. AdamWill

      nope

      the problematic drives do fail on Linux. And on OS X. The trace didn't tell me anything particularly valuable, but then I'm not a kernel engineer *or* an SSD expert. =)

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Et tu, Intel?

    My brand new Intel 320 SSD died this week.

    This may not be that surprising:

    http://communities.intel.com/thread/22227?tstart=0

    Register, could you light some fire under Intels ass, too?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    intel x-25 80GB

    I bought my intel on clearance rather than spend a bit more on the 320 series. The larger die size was the deciding factor, since it should hold up better over time. I had considered Crucial and OCZ, but with the latter's attitude about bad hardware and not finding a cheaper alternative I ended up with the intel. I haven't had any problems with the unit and it's far faster than any HDD that I've owned. As much as I like the new stuff, I can't really afford it and usually have to make some compromises. I really wish I'd sunk the money on the SSD earlier, since the speed increases on some applications that I use cut down my processing time by quite a bit when I batch jobs.

    From my stand point, intel has the support, reliability and performance that fit the price. I'd feel comfortable buying a Crucial for myself also. Now my mom's next build will allow me to spend a bit less and probably buy a generic SSD drive, because the speed aspect won't be as big a deal and paired with a Llano, it should cut down on the power usage.

    Really is a shame OCZ isn't putting more effort into dealing with this problem because I really don't feel like jumping through hoops to get something fixed that I had to pay a bit more for. The perfomance is up there, but it's not worth the risk given the failure rate and the manufacturer's attitude.

  8. The Serpent

    Crucially, no problems here

    Conducted my first experiment with SSD the other day - only a Crucial m4 64GB but I'm really pleased with it

  9. farizzle

    OSX

    Anyone having these problems with a Vertex 2 or 3 running OSX Snow Leopard?

  10. OCZ2004
    Megaphone

    Positive or negative, we appreciate all the feedback

    Hello everyone, as my first post in this thread let me identify myself as an OCZ employee. I’d like to thank everyone for their comments. Positive or negative, we appreciate all the feedback and take it very seriously throughout the organization. We have made addressing this a high priority, and encourage any customers that have this or any issues to contact our customer service team. We have and will continue to work closely with SandForce and our platform partners for a final fix, and have spearheaded this effort among all manufacturers that utilize a SF solution. As mentioned in our previous public statement, we are also working on optimizations to the base code to minimize any performance delta associated with the temporary 2.09 workaround which is recommended only for the small percentage of customers that have experienced the issue. Thank everyone again for your support and feedback, and we will continue to work diligently on providing both premium performing and reliable SSDs to all our valued customers. We are willing to go above and beyond to make our customers happy; for anyone that is having this issue please contact our dedicated support rep at drego @ ocz dot com

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not ready for prime time

    In my experience, despite the claims, consumer based SSDs are not ready for prime time unless you can afford data loss and BSODs. Hopefully in a couple more year consumer grade SSD's will actually be reliable. I'll wait because I can't deal with the current hassles.

  12. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    No problem here

    I ordered my first 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 at the end of last April - it never worked. OCZ replaced it immediately and the replacement has been working flawlessly since.

    Based on that experience, I just bought another one. The performance boost in Windows is nothing short of impressive - but that is, of course, SSD, not OCZ.

    Nonetheless, I count myself as a happy OCZ customer - for the moment.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Trust OCZ?

    @ OCZ, if you're so worried about going above and beyond during this whole fiasco, why weren't the drives recalled right at the beginning of this sorry tale. Whilst I appreciate the issue is mainly driven by Sandforce, Corsair pulled the plug pretty much immediately.

    In the immediate aftermath, I read plenty of people receiving terrible service both from retailers + OCZ claiming it was a compatibility issue as listed above. Could you also confirm whether you also use inferior memory components as some websites have listed compared to other vendors?

    I'll be going with Intel or the Crucial SSD if I choose to upgrade my 160GB Intel G2. I hope you can restore your reputation as you were initially setting the benchmark before the whole reliability thing kicked in :(

  14. carpbell

    No problem either, good experience with OCz

    I do a lot of audio/video editing and previously had a positive experience with the Vertex 2 so I upgraded to a Vertex 3 when stepping up to SATA III. I initially had trouble setting up my system so I called customer service at OCZ and had a good experience. Ultimately it turned out to be a problem with another one of my components but I only discovered this after I RMA'd what turned out to be a perfectly good drive.

    I've been rendoring vids with the OCZ Vertex 3 and like Pascal I'm finding the difference in performance is very noticable. I'm now running two Vertex 3s in a RAID config and have become a big fan of SSDs in general. I run a 320 in my laptop and the same is true there, the drives pay for themselves every time they boot up, its really hard to go back to a HDD.

  15. Caustix
    Go

    No probs at all, plenty of confidence in OCZ

    I had a Vertex 1 for 9 months, no probs at all, blindingly fast. I Ebayed it to put towards a Vertex 2 and have used this in both a SATA 2 mobo and now currently in a SATA 1 laptop, and again, no problems at all. Would definitely buy from OCZ again.

    That poll on the OCZ site saying 33% have problems, be careful how you interpret that; you only visit that site if you have a problem. I'm sure there is a silent majority of people who, like me, have no problems at all, and simply have no need to go to that forum!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vertex 3 seems to be the problem child

    Vertex 3 seems to be the primary problem but how OCZ has handled the issue leaves a lot to be desired IMO. Corsair didn't do a great job either with their drive issues but at least they haulted sales to try and rectify the issue. OCZ and Corsair are not the same companies they once were as they expand into new market segments so people need to perform due diligence before purchasing products based solely on brand. Even Intel has had some issues with their SSDs.

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