Not impressed with Crucial M4 512 GB

K

Kongar

Gawd
Joined
Oct 25, 2004
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753
First drive died after about a week, second replacement drive after about 3 days. Crucial forums suggest that the "power cycle" procedure fixes the drives when they disappear from the bios. Tried the power cycle thing on both drives to no avail. Waiting for drive 3 to show up.

Crap luck? Crap product? Is there an SSD no-no that I could be doing unaware?

Feeling bummed - new pc, awesome in every way but these drives. Probably should have gotten the Samsung 830 :(

Kongar
 
When one drive (especially when it's one of the two most heralded SSD's out right now) dies I'd say 'meh, you just got a bad one'...

...when two do I tend to look for problems with the system it's being put into.

In order for anyone... ANYONE... to be able to help you, you're going to have to post details on the system you're putting it into. Motherboard model number, Power supply make and model, etc....
 
That's what I thought right away as well. Having two originally working drives dying while in use within a week of hooking them up is improbable. Your computer is eating SSDs.
 
While mine had a weird hiccup yesterday (apparently due to a "time bomb" glitch that doesn't affect your data) I've otherwise been super happy with mine.
It's fast, it wasn't THAT expensive, and I love the fact that I can keep all of my data on the same drive if I want.
 
Has to be your motherboard. Try resetting the BIOS to default values, try a different SATA cable, chances of two M4's being bad? Far less than 1%
 
Well, if the drives are being truly fried by your machine it is much more likely to be a power problem than a motherboard problem. When you said they died, did you actually try the drive in another machine after the fact and verify it was faulty? How did it manifest itself, not showing in the BIOS for example?
 
I agree and that's what I'm worried about, I'm afraid my new pc is eating drives. But how thats even possible is what boggles my mind. Its not like theres much to it - two cables and we're gtg. Also, none of the other components (including sata dvdrom drive, and non ssd hdd) are failing.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm unlucky. And that it's not a) a new systematic crucial problem, or b) I'm eating drives.

My 3rd drive shows up tomorrow, I'll keep you all posted. If I eats that one - crap, I'll probably need some help :( I'll update my sig with my hardware in the meantime.

Kongar
 
Ya drive dead in otherr pcs. Manifested itself both times by not being recognized by the bios upon powerup. 3750k on a z77p8 asus mobo. Tried different cables, sata ports, etc. only common thread is the corsair hx850 power supply. If I eat a third drive, I'll probably try replacing the power supply.
 
I've ordered about 20 different M4 drives. Using a 512 and a 256 in my desktop, a 256 in my laptop, a bunch of 128's all in different workstations at work.

I've had one bad 128gb from the get-go.. I'm not sure if you got a bad bunch or what but hopefully you can get a working drive or figure out if another component is the issue.
 
Yah we have several Crucial m4 drives here including two 512s, everything is fine. They aren't chart-toppers across the board anymore, but they are still awesome. If the 3rd one dies, then somehow someway, the system is either electrically frying them, or sending a logical command that is permanently wedging them, destroying block map, something.
 
I think the best value for a 512GB SSD right now is the Plextor M3 for $370 at newegg. The best 512GB SSD, although more expensive, is the Plextor M5P for $450 at newegg.

I think the 512GB Crucial m4s have a higher chance of having problems than the lower capacity m4 models. I'm not sure why, but the newegg reviews for the 512GB m4s look significantly worse.
 
I have 2 x 512 M4s in Raid0 for my boot and a few games.

Works great and on (but not active) near 24/7 for about 4 months so far.

I agree with another poster above. They aren't chart toppers anymore, but mine seem blinding fast. And I run them in SATA 3.0gbs!
 
Blue Falcon said:
In order for anyone... ANYONE... to be able to help you, you're going to have to post details on the system you're putting it into. Motherboard model number, Power supply make and model, etc....
Click to expand...
OP, you still haven't answered this question.

For all we know you are installing these into one of the recalled P67 chipset motherboards with the bad SATA controller. People can speculate all day what is causing it, but YOU need to answer these questions first so we can determine if and what hardware is killing your drive. Software killing the drive is highly unlikely.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
OP, you still haven't answered this question.

For all we know you are installing these into one of the recalled P67 chipset motherboards with the bad SATA controller. People can speculate all day what is causing it, but YOU need to answer these questions first so we can determine if and what hardware is killing your drive. Software killing the drive is highly unlikely.
Click to expand...

You must have missed where he said:

Kongar said:
Ya drive dead in otherr pcs. Manifested itself both times by not being recognized by the bios upon powerup. 3750k on a z77p8 asus mobo. Tried different cables, sata ports, etc. only common thread is the corsair hx850 power supply. If I eat a third drive, I'll probably try replacing the power supply.
Click to expand...
 
Kongar said:
First drive died after about a week, second replacement drive after about 3 days. Crucial forums suggest that the "power cycle" procedure fixes the drives when they disappear from the bios. Tried the power cycle thing on both drives to no avail. Waiting for drive 3 to show up.

Crap luck? Crap product? Is there an SSD no-no that I could be doing unaware?

Feeling bummed - new pc, awesome in every way but these drives. Probably should have gotten the Samsung 830 :(

Kongar
Click to expand...

I've owned a 512 GB drive for 8 months (IIRC) in a laptop with heavy use. No problems so far. I also own 128 GB, and 256 GB versions. No problems either. The only issues I've heard, reported from friends, is the issue with crashing about once an hour, which is remedied with a firmware update. A friend had to repeatedly power cycle for the board to appear in the BIOS.

Another friend also had to update his drive this week. Crucial posted an update on 9/25 that my friend was able to use. He was unable to use the previous version despite enabling IDE mode. It became a pain in the ass not being to update the drive, but the 9/25 update worked.

This hasn't totally soured my opinion of Crucial drives, but price willing, I'd choose a Samsung or Plextor drive next.
 
KENNYB said:
I've owned a 512 GB drive for 8 months (IIRC) in a laptop with heavy use. No problems so far. I also own 128 GB, and 256 GB versions. No problems either. The only issues I've heard, reported from friends, is the issue with crashing about once an hour, which is remedied with a firmware update. A friend had to repeatedly power cycle for the board to appear in the BIOS.

Another friend also had to update his drive this week. Crucial posted an update on 9/25 that my friend was able to use. He was unable to use the previous version despite enabling IDE mode. It became a pain in the ass not being to update the drive, but the 9/25 update worked.

This hasn't totally soured my opinion of Crucial drives, but price willing, I'd choose a Samsung or Plextor drive next.
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Thanks, didnt know there was an update. Just did mine, though I have had no problems yet.
 
No issue with my m4 120gb drive with 2 fw updates along the way.

speed is a lackluster today after 300mb/s its just not noticeable.
m4 is the best drive IMO out there.
works with older MB and newer ones.
 
Well the 3rd drive is in, loaded up, and working atm. If this one pops - then it has to be my rig. If it doesn't... well either I'm really unlucky, or there's something going on with the lot I bought from =\
 
Hagrid said:
Thanks, didnt know there was an update. Just did mine, though I have had no problems yet.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did mine the night before last too...

I've got two 256GB M4's in a RAID0 on a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3. The windows based updater didn't work (predictably) since they are in RAID, but amazingly enough the linux based USB stick version DID.... without me having to disable the Intel RAID. Pretty damned cool.

And it's a non-destructive update too which is always bueno.
 
Kongar said:
Well the 3rd drive is in, loaded up, and working atm. If this one pops - then it has to be my rig. If it doesn't... well either I'm really unlucky, or there's something going on with the lot I bought from =\
Click to expand...
I had to RMA 3 Intel G2 drives before I got 2 good ones.

I now run three Crucial 256GB C300s and have never had a problem.

Even the most well respected companies can screw-up. :)
 
So i figured I'd necro this thread for an update. The third drive is still functioning after a week and a half and appears to be doing well. I suppose it is possible I did actually get two bum drives? I have not altered anything in my rig, so...

I did however notice one thing, and I'm wondering if this could be an outstanding issue. In hardware monitor - in the voltages section - I'll notice that the min voltages for all volts will eventually display a really low number (like 0.05 on the 12VDC for example). I've never actually caught it dipping - I watch it for a long time and the voltage is rock solid. But I eventually turn my attention away to a game, or a webpage, or walk away from the computer, and I'll look back and the min will be showing low numbers. Is this some known bug? If not, what the heck?

I'm wondering if this is causing the drive failures. I don't have screenshots - but I can certainly get them and post them if this is confusing. Everything else appears rock solid.

Thanks,
Kongar
 
Voltage monitoring apps can show scary momentary readings occasionally. There's no way to know without attaching a real direct measuring device. It's probably buggy if it shows 0.05 on 12V ... but ... that's not much comfort!
 
Kongar said:
I'll notice that the min voltages for all volts will eventually display a really low number (like 0.05 on the 12VDC for example). I've never actually caught it dipping - I watch it for a long time and the voltage is rock solid. But I eventually turn my attention away to a game, or a webpage, or walk away from the computer, and I'll look back and the min will be showing low numbers. Is this some known bug? If not, what the heck?
Click to expand...

I agree with xorbe here, if your 12v rail dropped down below 10v or so, you'd be having other system issues. This has to be a software glitch.
 
About the voltage thing...

Never, NEVER, NEVER observe software voltage readings expecting even a moderately accurate reading. Especially the main PSU voltages (+12V, +5V, etc). Put quite simply I don't know of a motherboard ever created that monitored them even remotely accurately.

If you're worried about your PSU putting out accurate voltages get a cheap multimeter (although no self-respecting geek should be without a decent one anyway) and monitor the PSU directly while it's under load. Black lead to the chassis (or a black wire), red lead to a yellow wire to measure +12V, red lead to an orange wire to measure +5V. Your typical 4-pin molex connector off the PSU is perfect for measuring voltages - most multimeter leads will fit right in the connector holes.
 
Never, NEVER, NEVER observe software voltage readings expecting even a moderately accurate reading. Especially the main PSU voltages (+12V, +5V, etc). Put quite simply I don't know of a motherboard ever created that monitored them even remotely accurately.
Click to expand...

Fully agreed. Besides being cheap sensors they need to be calibrated and the software needs to know the calibration.

Just the other day I looked at the BIOS hardware sensors for an old dual processor opteron server board. +5V read 4.14V so I took out my fluke meter to verify and the actual voltage was 4.98V.
 
I am having the same issue of the disappearing ssd from the bios. Seeing as my 512GB Crucial M4 is my only drive on the machine, it kind of kills the newly minted machine :-(. I have pasted below the supposed "fix" that Crucial chat support gave me and I am currently in the "6-8 hour" step of. I'll report back tonight on whether it worked or not. I may also try to flash back to 000F firmware (from 010G) since the crucial support forums seemed to think that helped the situation as well.

The behavior you are describing is consistent with deleted cells not being cleaned from your drive. This can result in reduced performance or even complete lack of response from the SSD.

There is a feature built into our SSDs called Active Garbage Collection. Letting Active Garbage Collection run on the drive for an extended period will clean these cells and restore the SSD to a healthy state.

To do this on your PC or Laptop, you will need to let the SSD idle for 6 to 8 hours.

In a PC, simply disconnect the SATA cable from your SSD and only leave the power cable connected. After switching your PC on, the SSD will be in an idle state but still have power so Garbage Collection can function. Leave the PC powered for the 6-8 hours.

In a laptop, power on with the SSD installed and enter your system BIOS (please refer to your system manufacturer’s documentation on how to access the BIOS.) Leave the laptop in the BIOS menu for the 6-8 hours.

Following this process, your drives functionality and performance should be restored.

To prevent the SSD performance degrading again, you can make adjustments to your power settings:

- Go to Control Panel
- Go to Hardware and Sound
- Go to Power Options
- Select Change Plan Settings
- Select Change Advanced Settings
- Make sure the 'hard disk' field is set to ‘never’ (Laptop users select 'battery and power adapter').
 
Supposedly firmware "H" is on the way that fixes "sata cable disappear at power on" and "corruption on power off"
 
my M4 shipped with 010G but I had the issue where it wouldn't show up at post like 1/2 the time so I rolled it back to 000F which has been working great (two weeks - knocks on wood) and shows to be faster across the board on benches... I think I will be sticking with this fw. :)
 
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