Don't forget to give Vertex 3 one egg if you bought it

[stepit]

I like how Newegg keeps saying that Vertex 3 is perfectly fine when everyone and their grandma knows that Vertex 3/Agility 3/Solid 3 with firmware 2.06+ have a BSOD issue. If OCZ were a serious company like Intel or Corsair, they would have recalled their faulty drives. But instead they are beta testing on their customers giving some insane impossible 16 step instructions (which, by the way, don't work) and trying to make it look like it's the buyers who don't know how to use their computers.


So if you have one of these fail drives, go to Newegg now and leave 1 egg so Newegg knows what's up and hopefully stop selling this crap and/or start giving refunds.

 

[Wamphryi]

I had an issue with a Vertex 2 that was resolved with a firmware update but it cost me a lot of time reinstalling after numerous crashes. I went for the Crucial M4 because of this and there has been no problems.

 

[burtman88]

I update vertex 3 max iops from 2.06 because i was having random freezes for 10 secs couple times a day. since 2.08 no problems and i am on my 24/7 for work.

 

[stepit]

I updated to 2.08 and got a blue screen 3 hours later. Sometimes there's no freezes for 48 hours, sometimes you get one after another.

 

[burtman88]

that sucks man sorry to hear that RMA it

 

[groberts101]

my 240GB V3 runs perfectly as well. While it would boil down to the firmware needing to work around the other issues at play here?.. it is down to a bios, driver, and platform issue more than anything else. Some get the installs right from the get-go and have no issues. Others chase ghosts and hope that simple driver swaps will ease their pain. It's far from that easy with secure erases and firmware flashes often required to get back to the proper baseline.

Sandforce is trying to work around some of the mish-mash of incompatibilities as we speak(they write the code) and new firmware will be on its way in a short amount of time.

 

[metawin]

I 2nd that, RMA it and try again, it sounds like you just got a bad drive, as happens with all drives, it sucks.

You do know you have a 3 year manufacturers warranty with it right? Don't be afraid to use it.

At least you did not get a Force 3 and have to wait while they changed out the PCB.

I guess that is the risk you take by being an early adopter like us.

I am glad my Vertex 3 has given me no issues, I am on an AMD board and from what I hear the problems were mostly on Intel chipset boards.

Keep us updated and good luck.

 

[blackhawk1928]

So are you blaming OCZ or Newegg or Both? Newegg is just a retailer trying to make profit, OCZ is the one you should be blaming I think.

 

[compulsivebuilder]

I have a Vertex 3 240GB, and it is working flawlessly. I've heard nothing about any problems with them. Perhaps you could provide a link to a description of the problem?

 

[hicsy]

Okay here goes...

@CompulsiveBuilder:
Vertex 3's have an issue with random BSOD's after varying amounts of use (usually 3hrs-48hrs). Many forums are hinting that all SF2xxx based SSD's have the issue, but I noticed OWC is defending that they have never had a BSOD (not necessarilly a good representation seen as their brand focus is "MacSales" though... OCZ has said quietly (but not publicly) that about 1% of their drives have this issue. PPL are stirring saying the problem may be much worse.
Essentially the problem rears it's head randomly (not a heat issue or power configuration issue) and Windows BSOD's. When the system (soft) reboots, it cannot identify the SSD in question. After a hard-reset (turn power off + on) the SSD is back to chirping along like normal. This has been happening in all sorts of configurations.

For new readers, SandForce makes the SSD controller that most brands are slapping on their 500MBps SSD's... SF2000/SF2100 is the name of the controller in question (though this is not the first time OCZ has been under fire).

Some users are performing the firmware update and say the problem is fixed, others (VERY FEW) are RMA'ing upto 3 times and eventually get a working drive. Most complaints (even more than previous firmware) are that even the new Firmware does nothing to fix this problem.
The worst part is that OCZ is dragging those users across the coals suggesting that their BIOS is set up wrong, or windows power options are disconnecting it, or making users follow a 16-step (not entirely possible) process of changing various settings which wont do anything.

so yes, of course OP is having a dig at OCZ, but also NewEgg (being one of their biggest resellers) and their users need to be made aware that this 4-star rated product is actually having serious issues, that would have clearly been noticed in Beta testing (confirmed 1% possibly more) and OCZ is turning a blind-eye (or even actively shusshing - see below).

I was about to buy a Vertex 3, and just before laying down the cash I was deciding about the MAX IOPS version, and just happened to notice a bunch of responses to Anand's latest V3MI review... mostly talking about the BSOD issue. Now, this is where the hurt of many users like the OP comes from, as all we (the lowly customer) are hearing in reviews is raving mad positive reports about the performance of the Vertex 3's... but no reviewer has the balls to mention the uneasy stirring in the enthusiast crowd about the reliability of these drives!
So there I am, just about to lay down quite a lot of early-adopter cash... only to discover that my investment might actually be blown cash. I wouldnt have discovered this due to lack of reports about the issues, but since STUMBLING across it, I am now realising its quite an issue... while looking throught the OCZ support forum, one thread with users going over all the possibilities got deleted before my eyes (not MOVED, but REMOVED!)
I then have the position of: "well, do I take a 1% gamble, and if its bad one... exchange/RMA?" and only now that OP has pointed me to NewEgg, im seeing signs of ppl who had no issue before, and since firmware update, now have the irreversible BSOD issue!! This basically confirms that you could potentially have a drive that bricks itself maybe even outside of warranty.

 

[groberts101]

couldn't disagree with some of that even if I wanted to.

Although, I will say that too much speculation, assumption, and conspiracy theory just fuels the flames for the OCZ pyromainiacs out there(many of which have not actually ever owned a Sandforce controlled drive).

The OP is a previously banned member over there(OCZ forums) and has a pretty big chip on his shoulder, lies about personal Sandforce ownership/experience with these drives(still won't be bothered to give links to all the slanderous and blatently concocted theories he's made over at Anandtech Forums or provide benchmarks or screens as proof that he even has first hand experience/he says he has 4 or 5 of them.. lol).

He's here not to help anyone at all and simply to vent some strange obsession/vendetta.

And you guys need to revisit OCZ's forums as the newest firmware is killing the BSOD issue for almost all who try it. The OP will be quick to talk about additional throttling(I'm sure he will be back to ramble abstractly about it) being implemeted to circumvent the issue and he would even be partially correct. But MOST are seeing similar speeds in benchmarks and speed and it's a non issue. Mine runs at almost exact speeds as were previously available from every firmware release prior(beta or public).

There are far too many underlying issues at play here and just blaming the new controller on its own will leave you without a great performing drive. All 7 of my Sandforce drives are great and have never had issue(aside from a brief post W7/SP1 sleep resume issue) and I've tried all but 1 other controller on the market so far.

If you have hardware that easily gets along with a Sandforce controller or have the intestinal fortitude to implement some known workarounds for a few issues that remain?.. they are on top of the SSD food chain.

 

[compulsivebuilder]

The machine I built with the Vertex 3 in it works fine. I play Crysis 2 on it for some hours (so it gets warm - I'm using a GTX580, and playing at 2560x1600). Then I leave it for a while and it goes to sleep. I wake it and play some more. I haven't had the machine very long (three or four weeks), but it has worked flawlessly.

Not my first SSD, though. I've used three or four OCZ Vertex 2 SSDs, a Patriot Inferno (an early 200GB one), a GSkill Phoenix Pro, and a Kingston. I haven't beaten any of them to death yet. The oldest ones I have are over a year old.

The Kingston is being used as a staging drive in my Photoshop machine; I download gigabytes of RAW photos from CF cards to the Kingston, retouch them, then transfer them to magnetic storage on a couple of NAS boxes. The fact that the Kingston is slower doesn't matter too much when I'm using it that way. I don't think I'd use a Kingston as a boot drive, though.

Maybe I've been lucky