PC has periodic solid state drive disconnections (update: Bad SSD, as expected)

Synthesis

What the title says; I have a relatively new PC (less than a year old) with an ASUS Z97-A ATX motherboard, with Windows Pro 8.1 installed. I have four drives installed, all via SATA--two Crucial SSDs, and two WD Caviar Black 1 TB drives (I also have a run-of-the-mill BR drive, also SATA connected).

Every few months, I've found that the Crucial SSD with my OS installed on it suffers a spontaneous "disconnection"--not from anything physical, and if it happens when my PC is on, I get a BSOD and a restart. Either way, I get the BIOS error message warning that my installation of Windows "needs to be repaired" because the boot configuration can't be detected. Of course, it's not "damaged", it's just that my PC stopped being able to detect that particular drive.

The solution is easy: unplug everything but the drive with my OS installed, let the PC boot up again (upon which it detects it), restart and reconnect the three other drives. It seems to always work, but aside from the inconvenience, this time it happened just a few days apart, instead of a few months, which is pretty damn worrying. Checking the event log at 4:48, when I'm fairly certain it happens, it doesn't seem very useful, sourced as Kernal-Power:

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Anyone have any idea of the causes? I reseated all the SATA connections, but I wonder if I just happen to have a faulty SSD (it happens more often than with platter drives, in my own experience) that occasionally bugs out.

SeñorAmor

First thing I'd do is swap your SATA cables around and see if the issue follows the cable or the port.

Draygo

What is the specific BSOD error and error code?

Synthesis

Draygo wrote: »

What is the specific BSOD error and error code?

I actually didn't have time to jot it down (or memorize it) before my PC restarted--I basically just saw that it was a BSOD, and the symptoms that followed told me what caused it. I wonder if you can look that up in the event log.

SeñorAmor wrote: »

First thing I'd do is swap your SATA cables around and see if the issue follows the cable or the port.

I ended up doing that, in a sense, just by unplugging and replugging everything except for my optical drive. Who knows, I may not have the problem again (I haven't had it since, at least).

Draygo

Try this:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

If it managed to log the bluescreen this utility will find it.
If it does not turn off automatic restart on system failure so when it happens again you can get the specific error code.

Taranis

Have you tried updating your SSD's firmware? I had a simialr problem a few years back with my Crucial SSD and all it needed was a firmware update.

Synthesis

Taranis wrote: »

Have you tried updating your SSD's firmware? I had a simialr problem a few years back with my Crucial SSD and all it needed was a firmware update.

No kidding? Stupid me, I never realized this was a thing--I own two Crucial SSDs (an M4 and an MX-something, at work so I can't check), and I think I've had this issue with both.

Figures--can't imagine having to do this with a conventional hard disc. Oh well, this could be an easy solution, I'll definitely check it out, thank you.

Draygo wrote: »

Try this:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

If it managed to log the bluescreen this utility will find it.
If it does not turn off automatic restart on system failure so when it happens again you can get the specific error code.

This could be handy too. As it stands, my new NCIX-built (mostly) setup is rock-solid, with the exception of this particular thing that causes blue screes under the right circumstances. Thanks.

Taranis

My system drive having the problem was a Crucial M4. It had pretty much the same problem as yours up until it hit 5184 hours of operation, at which point it would only work for an hour between restarts. However you said your computer is somewhat new and if that drive is as well then it might be something else.

Here's an article on the problem.

Synthesis

Taranis wrote: »

My system drive having the problem was a Crucial M4. It had pretty much the same problem as yours up until it hit 5184 hours of operation, at which point it would only work for an hour between restarts. However you said your computer is somewhat new and if that drive is as well then it might be something else.

Here's an article on the problem.

I looked into this, and found that I COULD update my primary, newer drive with the firmware very easily, my other drive, an MX550, needs some sort of draconian, boot disk that apparently cannot be a DVD (and the USB option didn't work either). PC master race indeed.

However, since I started the thread, I haven't had a single repeat of the incident. That could be just because I switched my cables around or any other thing, and I could be dealing with this again in six months, but at least it's an improvement.

Synthesis

So, it happened again--about a month later. This is very worrying, but at least I can almost certainly rule out firmware issues.

I swapped around my cables, but it's possible I have multiple bad cables (even though I've never seen another one of my drives disconnect). It's possible I have a faulty SSD (let's face it, it's not unheard of), or worse, a problem with my motherboard. In the meantime, I may end up buying more a new batch of SATA cables, even though I'm pretty certain that's not the issue.

Synthesis

Had another crash on Sunday, so yes, less than two weeks now. So, having seen this same problem between two different PCs (one that used my M4 drive as a boot drive, the other that did not), I'm pretty much completely certain that I simply got a bad SSD Drive (which was extremely common, by hard drive standards, back when I bought it).

Unfortunately, it's also two months out of the limited warranty from Crucial. Awesome.

Only option is to replace it, and see what I can get for the "bugged" drive. Well, SSDs weren't known for their reliability back then, that's what I get for being an early adopter I suppose. At least I can rule out the motherboard or the SATA cables.

nexuscrawler

eh can't hurt to call Crucial and see if they'll replace it. They might if you ask nice

Synthesis

Tried, twice.

And you're right, it never hurts to ask, but they were a lot more interested in selling me a new 500 GB (since the M4 came out, they went from 512 GB to 500 GB in their space allocation) then anything else.

Lesson learned about solid state drives, I suppose. I'm beginning the process of replacing it, looking up what the warranty on a Samsung 850 of the same size is. Or I might get that 4 TB regular drive I've needed for a while for my video library.

f3rret

Hm, I was just considering buying a Crucial SSD. Sounds like lots of problems with them? Should I stay away?

Synthesis

f3rret wrote: »

Hm, I was just considering buying a Crucial SSD. Sounds like lots of problems with them? Should I stay away?

Hmm, probably not. I mean, in the end of the day, any large SSDs at any price point aren't going to be as reliable as the best Western Digital platter drives. My Samsung 850 Pro could cause the same problems, or worse, I just have to hope they don't within the warranty period. Crucial's reliability, at least by word-of-mouth, doesn't really put them behind their competitors.

Really, the only thing you can do I think is look up your drive on SSD Benchmarks and see how it compares to alternatives in different categories. It's anecdotal, but at least its based on hundreds or thousands of anecdotes.

Personally, I'm not going to buy another Crucial solid-state drive short of an amazing deal (the kind of which SSDs don't get, incidentally), and I wouldn't buy a used SSD either unless I planned to write it off in six months. I'm still using the newer M4 (and it hasn't crapped out yet) I got from them as a secondary drive. The fact that Crucial's going for 250 and 500 rather than 256 and 512 GB sizes is just a cherry on the top of the irritating sundae.

f3rret

Thanks for that site! The other SSD that I was considering is actually the top-rated one, so I guess I'll go with that.