Big problems with Corsair Performance 3 128GB SSD

[SBB]

Hi all

I posted this over at the Corsair forum but thought i'd put it here to see if you guys have any ideas

System specs:
Intel Core i7 2600k @ 4.9ghz 1.36v 24/7
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
ASUS P8P67 PRO
HIS 6950 w/ 6970 BIOS @ 910/1450
Lian Li PC-A70 + Custom window + Top rad mount
######## TruePower New Modular 550w
Heatkiller 3.0 Cu + Thermochill PA120.3 + Liang D5
Corsair P3-128GB SSD + 1TB Samsung F3
Asus Xonar D2X, LG Blu-Ray/DVD-RW Drive

I installed it on the 6gbps intel ports (I have no devices using the faulty 3gbps ports) before anyone asks!

The problem is that my drive appears to be "stalling" and going very very slow and/or not responding (it's hard to tell which). Here's how it went:

1. I installed windows and it was fine for a few weeks, performance was great but not quite as good as expected (low 4K speeds...)

2. One day I booted up, and after a few hours of use the system totally "froze" up with a solid HDD light ... I restarted but the system would not boot, something about corrupted files?!

3. I used DBAN to completely wipe the drive and reinstalled windows.

4. The same "freeze" problem reoccured a few days later. I restored system to stock clock speeds, ran memtest, ran DBAN again, replaced the SATA cable and reinstalled windows. I used completely up to date drivers, updated the mobo BIOS and made sure everything was in order.

5. The same problem is happening again ....

Anyone have any ideas? Or is it time to RMA?

[Anvil]

Which storage drivers are you using?

Are you sure about DBAN being suitable for SSDs?
DBAN looks more like an app where you scrambe the drive with random values?, Secure Erase for SSDs is something completely different

Try giving us an AS SSD screenshot, it sort of reveals a bit of driver info and the state of the drive.

[dinos22]

have you used a different drive, is that why you are certain its the SSD playing up?

[SBB]

have you used a different drive, is that why you are certain its the SSD playing up?

that's a good point ... I just assumed it was because reformatting fixed it (seems likely?)

I'll put a spare hard disk in tomorrow and see if it keeps working, then I can test the SSD properly without having the OS installed on it. I have read though that memory problems can cause weird hard disk/SSD issues but i've run memtest for a few hours and it didnt come up with anything

As for DBAN, I didnt realise there was a difference between clearing a HDD and SSD ... i'll have a look at that Secure Erase tool

[SBB]

Which storage drivers are you using?

Are you sure about DBAN being suitable for SSDs?
DBAN looks more like an app where you scrambe the drive with random values?, Secure Erase for SSDs is something completely different

Try giving us an AS SSD screenshot, it sort of reveals a bit of driver info and the state of the drive.

Drivers are the latest p67 SATA ones from the Intel site, controller in AHCI mode

Read seems the same as I got it but write is degraded, here's a screenshot from new:

[Planet]

Reads and Writes will be slower when you have the OS loaded onto the drive. Make sure you only use Secure Erase as other tools may damage the drive.

[Oats]

I'm pretty sure DBAN is bad for SSDs. You can't erase a regular HDD, only overwrite the data that is on it. DBAN overwrites the entire drive multiple times so no original data can be recovered.

SSDs can be erased, and the cells have to be erased before they can be written to again. Which is why SSD write speed slows down over time, because it has to first erase then write. Trim and GC erase parts that are no longer used when idle so that they can be written to without having to erase at the time of writing. So DBAN writing to the entire drive will slow it down until Trim and GC have enough time to erase the unused parts. Secure Erase will erase the entire SSD, making the write speed perform like when it was brand new.

I think that is how it works anyway.

[Anvil]

What OS are you running? (doesn't look like W7 and you need W7/2008R2 for TRIM support)

Anyways, these new drives are supposed to have a very active GC (background garbage collection) and so leaving it idle for some time might be wortwhile.

edit:
Apparently there are no firmware updates yet, being a new controller I expect there will be one pretty soon.

[Wendy]

In order to use "Internal" secure erase on Asus P67 motherboards, you will have to do the following.

1, Enter the UEFI by pressing DEL when starting the PC.
2, Goto the advanced settings.
3, Select the SATA options, and enable "Hot plugging" on the port where you have your SSD connected. This is required as the UEFI locks the drive.
4, Download the live distro of Parted Magic and install it to a USB pendrive.
5, Unplug the SATA power from your SSD.
6, Boot to Parted Magic.
7, Connect the SATA power to the SSD and wait a few seconds.
8, Select "erase disk" from programs menu
9, Select internal secure erase
10, Select the SSD from the menu
11, You will get a popup saying the password is "NULL" This is fine, select OK.
12, You'll get a popup asking if you wish to use "advanced secure erase" Select NO.

Your done, give it a while to erase the drive.

[Razmatazz]

When I first got my G2, I had some problems after installing a disk image. I also ended up needing to hot plug the SSD in order for the erase program to work. It actually worked quite quickly and I haven't had a problem since. Not a fan of having to hot plug the SSD though. It would be nice if Asus boards wouldn't be so difficult in this area.

[SBB]

In order to use "Internal" secure erase on Asus P67 motherboards, you will have to do the following.

1, Enter the UEFI by pressing DEL when starting the PC.
2, Goto the advanced settings.
3, Select the SATA options, and enable "Hot plugging" on the port where you have your SSD connected. This is required as the UEFI locks the drive.
4, Download the live distro of Parted Magic and install it to a USB pendrive.
5, Unplug the SATA power from your SSD.
6, Boot to Parted Magic.
7, Connect the SATA power to the SSD and wait a few seconds.
8, Select "erase disk" from programs menu
9, Select internal secure erase
10, Select the SSD from the menu
11, You will get a popup saying the password is "NULL" This is fine, select OK.
12, You'll get a popup asking if you wish to use "advanced secure erase" Select NO.

Your done, give it a while to erase the drive.

Thanks a lot for the info, I'll give it a shot when I get in from work, night shift tonight

[SBB]

I followed the instructions above, it worked perfectly, thanks for that! The erase didn't take long at all, I was expective it to take ages but it only took 5 or 6 mins, but it's definitely worked, performance on the drive is way up!

I copied my drive image back onto the SSD and ran a few tests. HD Tune Pro error scan used to keep stalling and crash at the end, but I managed a smooth run though! AS SSD is giving the same result I got when the drive was new.

Hopefully it was a one off problem ... if it happens again though i'm going to have to return it as I can't be doing this every few weeks

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[Wendy]

I'm glad to hear that internal secure erase fixed the problem.
Regarding the time taken to erase the drive. From that time I would conclude that the NAND was in a very dirty state, as I have a review sample of an SSD with that same controller (256GB capacity) and it only takes around 1 minute 30 to erase that drive.
Some drives, with different controllers can do it much faster as they can just apply a high voltage across the substrate and all NAND is wiped in an instant.

Regarding GC.
What a lot of people don't realise is. GC requires some clean NAND to work with. If there is no clean NAND available to do its magic, then it becomes totally ineffective, IMO.
I would guess that running DBAN rendered your SSD into a state that GC alone would never be able to recover the performance, and only an internal secure erase would restore the performance.

As Anvil stated, that drive has quite aggressive GC, and its pretty effective when the drive is used in a normal usage pattern, so hopefully this won't be a problem that reappears for you.

[SBB]

The exact same problem re-occurred again on Monday ... it's going back