Corrected: Intel Halts Shipments of 34nm SSDs
Online retail outlets including Newegg have pulled Intel's brand-spanking-new 34nm X25-M G2 "Postville" SSDs from their websites just days after becoming publicly available, according to a blog from OEM system builder Puget Systems. The company said that removal of the SSDs stem from a firmware defect discovered in the first batch shipped last week.
Unfortunately, consumers who already purchased the new 34nm SSDs may experience data corruption when adding, deleting, or modifying the drive's password in the system BIOS. "Initially we were told this might require a complete reworking of the drives, and that those we had gotten in were effectively unusable, but Intel was able to work out a firmware fix for the problem," the said Puget's William George. "That won’t be available immediately, but should be showing up in about two weeks."
Currently Intel has halted shipments of the Postville SSDs until the problem is resolved. However, for consumers who have already purchased the drive with no plans to use a BIOS password on the drive, there ultimately should be no problems. Still, Intel advises consumers not to alter, delete, or create BIOS passwords until the drive is flashed with the update firmware.
"It made sense to pause shipments and implement the changes ourselves and via customers versus asking consumers to do so," Intel told Tom's in an email earlier today. "Keep in mind the fix has been identified and validation is undergoing completion this week."
The firmware can be downloaded here when it eventually goes live.
[Update: Fixed 32nm to 34nm. Our apologies for the typo. Thanks for the head's up guys.]
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I can't remember, do these drives require a wipe before doing a firmware upgrade?
great to see that intel have been proactive on this one!
Not to nitpick, but aren't these SSD's 34nm and not 32nm? Thought the 32nm fab was reserved for Intel's upcoming CPU's.
Well they should be quick about releasing firmware fix consider those drives aren't cheap.
The real story here - how long will it take for Tom's to realize that these drives are 34nm, not 32nm?
i would figure that this article will never be changed and kevin will never get an editor/proper editor
nevermind. thank you kevin for listening
i would figure that this article will never be changed and kevin will never get an editor/proper editor
I am just as tired of seeing comments like this as I am of seeing typos.
Actually more so.
ROLFMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't realize these things were actually shipping and hitting shelves already. At least they caught it pretty quickly. Better to be cutting edge than bleeding edge...
Mike
http://solidstatedrivehome.com/forums/
The real story here - how long will it take for Tom's to realize that other sites have already reviewed these drives. Where is the review?
At least they were more proactive with stopping distribution to figure out the problem rather than almost ignoring it, not like others.
* I just live my Seagate drives.
How many people BIOS password their drives?
How many people BIOS password their drives?
Nobody.
How many people BIOS password their drives?
Nobody.
My company puts BIOS passwords on the drives for every laptop we distribute.
My company puts BIOS passwords on the drives for every laptop we distribute.
Would you distribute laptops with $300 SSDs?
Cool, they're out! (Atleast were, and will be back again soon.)
Would it be worth it to be able to load games and the OS in only a fraction of the time? Maybe.
wow... compared to seagates. 7200.11 firmware screwup this is quick and very responsive action from intel... they have convinced me to buy a drive from them...
wow... compared to seagates. 7200.11 firmware screwup this is quick and very responsive action from intel... they have convinced me to buy a drive from them...
Yeh Intel are flashing the returned drives themselves. Seagate are like "problem... what problem??"