Should I replace my SSD at this point? Help ! Please read my story

[cswann821]

This is whats been happening the past couple of days and what I have been doing to try and isolate what is causing my fresh win7 install to have so many issues running. IMO, i've narrowed it down to be an issue with my SSD, and not my RAM. Please read, and advise.

So I changed out my p8z68 MB and ivy bridge CPU for a new maximus VII hero and Devils Canyon Haswell cpu. After installing windows I noticed it was running sluggish and would not install updates successfully or without crashing.Over 3 attempts of reinstalling win7 64bit. The build kept crashing, failed to fix windows startup, MBR error 01 or getting the BSOD. I firt tested my RAM... I ran memtest86 with 100% pass and found and isolated that 1 of the 4 x4gb of my Black Vengeance Corsair ram had errors on it (ram is 3 years old in use). I ended up taking those out and replacing with brand new 2 x 4gb Gskill sniper sticks I had still in packaging. I re-ran Memtest86 on the new RAM just to be sure and ....no errors. I want to emphasise that by now I've reinstalled window 3 times on this build upgrade....noticing a lot of lag, in windows after fresh install . Especially when opening programs like windows update windows as well as other things like, device manager or even a Web browser. If I have more than one window open. The SSD's LED on my front panel, lights up as it's busy, browser and programs freeze or I get a program "not responding" error, on top until I wait it out...then it disapears..eventually giving me time to close some programs or windows.

Finally I did another OS install..this time and after much research, I made sure to run a Secure Clean All, on my Crucial M4 SSD (it too has been used for the past 3 year). I had already updated its firmware to the latest 070H rev. a long time ago. I also made sure I had the most current Intel, SATA, VGA, LAN, and sound drivers downloaded. Durring Windows update it reached 140 of 149 updates before receiving a BSOD again even with the new ram! After Reboot... I went in and this time before running Windows update...again, I made sure all my services were closed this time and did a "CLEAN" Boot to windows. Doing this finally made my system able to dowload all the updates successfuly.

Ok so now that Win7 is fully updated, I got my antivirus ..norton on. More updates, with less issue. But I still notice while my SSD is working the program / software/ game i am installing freezes, until it has a chance to "Catch up" , Or the install just fails, an error pops up or for instance dowloading patches, updated to games..they have been failing. Just now for the second time...SKYPE which i just installed has disconnected itself giving me an I/O error.

So these are all my symptoms and what I've tried to solve them. To my knowlege the M4 SSD model doesnt have any kind of utility software to help aid in determining its health . And is why I am here now typing to you all .

Is it time to get a new SSD?? What else can I try?

Thanks,

Christopher.

 

[dejo]

have you flashed the M4 to the newer bios. I am guessing that is is way old and hasnt been done

 

[caddi daddi]

are you installing windoze with more that just your boot drive installed????

 

[cswann821]

The current SSD firmware is the latest revision ... I edited the main post to say that just now. And yes the SSD is the only drive connected. I found that I had less issues durring the install of the OS this way. If I remember the SSD didn't like booting up with my storage HHD connected durring the OS update and install and all the rebooting.

 

[caddi daddi]

never install windoze with more than your boot drive attached, it's a lazy, slob and will even install stuff on your storage drive without telling you.

just a week or two ago I was having an issue with an asus board install, I had my ssd in the wrong sata port, look in the bios and see if you are in the sata port you think you are in.

 

[cswann821]

Yea.. I found that out in my searches.. the only things connected other than my SSD , is my dvdrom.

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have you flashed the M4 to the newer bios. I am guessing that is is way old and hasnt been done

Yes the current 070H firmware on my SSD is still the latest. When it was released it fixed a lot of issues people where having.

 

[cswann821]

just a week or two ago I was having an issue with an asus board install, I had my ssd in the wrong sata port, look in the bios and see if you are in the sata port you think you are in.

My new MB, a maximus VII hero, has 8 x sata 6gb. They are all the same. And early on I did switch the cable to a different SATA port. In the bios the SSD/SATA Is was set to AHCI and hotswap as a default setting. All my SATA ports are. I checked this before installing the OS.

 

[caddi daddi]

they are not all the same, the 2 lowest are asmedia, do not use them for boot.

 

[RGone]

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[cswann821]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they are not all the same, the 2 lowest are asmedia, do not use them for boot.

GOD DANG IT YOU ARE RIGHT! I know I had the SSD pluged in the top SATA, and early in my trouble shooting I changed the cable over to...what it turned out to be the bottom port just so I could say...its not that port, but not knowing or understanding that although they are all SATA 6gbs, the bottom too are ASMEDIA. The manual doesnt really define what ASMEDIA is, and all the ports are listed for Hardrives. Looking back I was wondering why the Maximus MB BIOS integrated secure clean program, wasnt detecting my M4 SSD.

I just now plugged in my SSD and my HDD (why not at this point) , into the top two ports and see a huge speed and stability improvement. I'm going to continue installing some games and such to see if my perceptions are correct. OR would you recommend I do another Windows re-install. (Please say no).

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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So, If my crucial M4 SSD ended up or ends up being no good/bad, I was going to get a Samsung 850 evo or pro. or maybe M.2??? (I dont know anything about M.2)

Do you think I would see a big difference between my Crucial M4 SSD 250 and a Samsung 850 EVO 500gb? My rig is primarily used for gaming but I do dabble in video/movie editing, and am looking into a 3D printer. So I will eventually be running some CAD type software.

If changing over to the Samsung SSD would show a performance upgrade, I could give the crucial i am using now to my son. (The old MB and CPU I swapped out, I am using to build a rig for him...11 year old mincraft gaming rig)

I want to get this all done before and running before the release of Win10. I figure, I'd get my fresh win7 installed and updated, upgrade to win10 ..and then install all my software. This way I avoid any issues with win10 removing anything it may not like during the upgrade.

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Finally

THANK YOU AGAIN! AND THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE time, to read my very long initial post.

 

[caddi daddi]

I don't think you're going to "see" or "feel" anything with another brand of ssd and I really don't see any use of M2 sata, it looks like it's just more heat in the case.
the Samsung ssd, buy it because it will last longer than most and is one of the most trusted, not any greater speed, unless you are benchmarking for fun.

 

[caddi daddi]

OH! lest I forget, thank Rgone, he's the one that caught my boo boo and got me on the right track.