OCZ Agility 3 BSOD, Freezes, Crashes. Have only had for 3 days.

[mortagon]

I've had my OCZ Agility 3 for three days now. After I initially received it I installed it, set it as my boot drive, and set my WD terabyte IDE drive I was previously using as my boot drive as another storage device. I installed Windows but had not set it to AHCI. I immediately started having crashes and was unable to even run AS SSD Benchmark without freezing. I decided to just reformat after setting my bios to AHCI and reinstalled Windows 7.

In the past 24 hours my computer has crashed 4-5 times. Sometimes I'll get a BSOD, others not. I've checked my event viewer and notice that I get an event 41, kernel-power error at the time where it freezes, but prior to that only BTHUSB errors that my bluetooth keyboard isn't responding to commands. After my computer freezes I am unable to restart immediately since my bios will not recognize that my SSD is installed. I have to unplug the power, wait a minute, and then my computer will be able to start up as normally. Crashing has occurred when playing a game, running an antivirus, when installing Direct X, transferring some files between my terabyte and SSD, and running AS SSD benchmarks.

My OCZ Agility 3 is on the newest firmware. I had daemon tools installed and removed it after reading that can cause BSODs. I'm running out of ideas and am on the verge of returning the drive and buying a more expensive more reliable one instead. If anyone can help it'd be much appreciated.

I've also noticed that under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers in device manager there are 5 ATA Channel devices listed. I'm not sure if this is abnormal or not. The only SATA devices I have installed are my terabyte and my SSD

http://s7.postimage.org/5hfsfelff/img_0014.jpg
http://s18.postimage.org/udzyl7hqh/IMG_0013.jpg

 

[smorizio]

may not be the drive but is a part that is causing the system to stress and fail. first off what the mb that the ssd is connected to and it chipset. with a ssd becuase it so fast you must make sure you have the newest chipset drivers..your links show standard chipset drivers. if you have an intel mb download the newest chipset drivers and ssd drivers from intel. on the blue screens..i would run memtest to see if you have a stick of bad ram. becuase ssd are so fast your system going to be hit hard on the ram part. if the ram not bad or the speed is set wrong it could lock up and bsod.

 

[Wisecracker]

Did you F6 the AHCI inf prior to your installation of Windows, with the drive setup in the BIOS set to AHCI?

 

[mortagon]

My system info is:

Mobo: ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution
BIOS: 0702
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz
RAM: 6.00 GB
Vid: 2x ATI Radeon 4890s
PSU: Corsair TX 650W
HDD: OCZ Agility 3
OS: Windows 7 64 bit

My North Bridge chipset is Intel X58 and my South Bridge chipset is Intel ICH10R / Nvidia nForce200. I have not installed any drivers for either. The only drivers I installed were sound drivers, my ATI Radeon drivers, and for my network card, the rest were just from Windows Update. I just went to the Intel site and used the automatically identify and find drivers option. It found a new driver for Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility (Chipset INF) that I am installing now. Is there anything else that I should get?

My SSD is only taking advantage of SATA 2. I'll be sure to do a memtest soon as well, and am planning on doing an overnight chkdsk tonight.

Prior to installing Windows I did set my BIOS to AHCI though I did not F6 the AHCI inf. What would this do?

 

[mortagon]

I just ran OCZ Toolbox and got:

http://s16.postimage.org/ii0cuma6t/OCZ_Toolbox.jpg

Is this drive a goner or is there anything I can do? Just backed up everything. Should I just exchange it?

 

[Dereck47]

Quote from Sourceforge.net:

The Attribute table printed out by smartctl also shows the "TYPE" of the Attribute. Attributes are one of two possible types: Pre-failure or Old age. Pre-failure Attributes are ones which, if less than or equal to their threshold values, indicate pending disk failure. Old age, or usage Attributes, are ones which indicate end-of-product life from old-age or normal aging and wearout, if the Attribute value is less than or equal to the threshold. Please note: the fact that an Attribute is of type 'Pre-fail' does not mean that your disk is about to fail! It only has this meaning if the Attribute's current Normalized value is less than or equal to the threshold value.

Full link: http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/man/smartctl.8.html


Go to OCZ Support Forums and see if your drive is about to fail.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?254-Vertex3-Agility3-Solid3-support-and-discussion-forum

 

[mortagon]

Ah I see, good to know. Could this possibly be that my mobo is failing? I have no other mobo to install to see if that is the problem. Or, could this be that insufficient power is being supplied to my system? I am using 650W currently

 

[Dereck47]

No, I don't think your motherboard's failing but update the BIOS to the latest version 0905.

If you still have your O/S installed on your WD HDD then after you update your BIOS you should boot to your HDD, download the OCZ Toolbox on it, and Secure Erase your Agility 3 to restore it to fresh-out-of-the-box condition.

Then do a fresh Windows install on the Agility 3 (with the HDD disconnected until after install is complete).

 

[mortagon]

I just did a fresh install after Secure Erase and updating bios and the freezing persists. I think it might be due to insufficient power. I did a PSU estimate based on my components using a NewEgg calculator and my recommended power is 850W, I've been using 650W for three years.

 

[Dereck47]

Those two 4890's must suck up a lot of juice.