Intermitent boot fail with ssd, switching sata ports fixes for one day

[sunsetblonde]

This is a very strange problem:
The computer will boot fine, but then some time later when i start my computer, like the next day. The ssd is not recognised. But when i switch it to a different sata port on the mobo it will boot. I have the latest bios, i did install the W7 64-bit in IDE mode not ACHI if that is a factor.
Also when it does boot, and I turn it off then back on straight away it boots fine.
I doubt the problem is dirty connections or lack of power.

motherboard: asus p7p55 lx
processor: intel i5 650
ssd: kingston v series 64GB (boot)
2nd hard drive: Western Digital sata 320GB
dvd drive: asus pata
psu: corsair 400cx
graphics: HD 5750

please help, i dont even know whether it is mobo issues or ssd issues. Both components are brand new.

 

[Shadow703793]

Clear CMOS. Then re-set the boot order and see.

 

[sunsetblonde]

Still no luck with clearing the cmos.
I think that because this is such a strange problem, like it makes no sense. It could be a hardware issue. But is it the ssd or the mobo. The second hard drive is always detected.

 

[Slayer616]

I had the exact same issue with my Corsair P128, the drive would vanish from the BIOS as if it failed. I originally copied my files to the SSD from a backup. Don't it's a bad idea to do for SSD's (without going into all the technical details) I ended up doing a reformat with the drive in AHCI mode and never had a problem since then. Same thing happened to my friend.

 

[sunsetblonde]

Thanks for the post Slayer616. How do you reformat the drive in AHCI mode? Do you have to reinstall windows again, or is there a windows utility? Would you recommend running both hard drives in AHCI mode? It didn't like it when I booted up the drives in AHCI mode after I installed windows in IDE mode.

 

[o1die]

Depends on the brand of ssd. I did a drive to drive copy, and had no problems with a kingston 64 gb using windows xp. Always use ACHI mode in the bios.

 

[sunsetblonde]

Ok here is the latest news on my problem.
I replaced the motherboard, updated bios and am running the harddrives in AHCI but still have a problem.

The 320GB hard drive is fine but the 64GB ssd is being annoying.

These are some of my bios settings that may or may not be part of the problem.
Configure sata as: AHCI
Hard drive write protect: disable
IDE detect time out: 15s
boot from: the ssd drive (when it is recognised)
sata port 1 (the ssd one): auto
smart monitoring: enabled
quick boot: enabled:
addon ROM display mode: force bios
suspend mode: auto
ACPI 2.0 support: enabled
ACPI APIC support: enabled

I don't think any of these setting are the issue, listen here.

When i got it booting properly twice in a row i wiggled the sata cable and power cable to to ssd and boot failed.

I have checked the power is delivering 12V, 5V and 3.3V thru the sata power cable and both the sata cable and sata power cable are properly attached. I have tried 4 different sata cabled too.

Please help.

My guess now is that the ssd is faulty.

thanks

 

[o1die]

I had a motherboard fail when trying to do a drive to drive copy with a patriot ssd. So when I bought another replacement board (the same model as the failed board), I tried something different. I hooked up the ssd while windows was running and used the windows device manager to detect it. You click on the "disk drives" category to highlight it and then click on "action" and select "scan for hardware changes". Windows then detects the new ssd. Then I run maxblast 5 to set up the ssd as the new boot device and use the utilities to make a drive to drive copy. Then I disconnected the ssd again before rebooting to make sure that maxblast 5 was running off the old sata drive. Then it got tricky. When the system rebooted, I had to quickly attatch the sata cables while windows loaded so maxblast would see it. Otherwise, if you have both the sata and ssd drive hooked up when rebooting, windows may try to reboot to the empty ssd and the maxblast program won't run to finish making the drive to drive copy. I had no such problems with a kingston value ssd. It was flawless and the drive to drive copy was simple. But not with the patriot ssd. I disconnected my old sata drive when finished to save energy. But if you need it for storage, then you may want to set it up as a secondary drive with maxblast while windows is running off the ssd in case you have any more boot up problems. Once you set up the sata drive as secondary, then your boot problems should go away assuming your ssd isn't defective. But you may have to format the sata drive to do it, so backup your files first on a dvd if possible. Windows 7 has this option, or you can use other software.

 

[sunsetblonde]

Thank you all for your posts.
I have replaced the ssd. Although the fist kingston ssd was screwed, kingston support was helpful and the replacement works fine.