Personally I still think you have a problem as, you’ve rightly pointed out yourself, you usually only have to set the ‘HDD Delay’ when the MB is having problems engaging numerous conventional drives during post (or a slow spin up). It may be that it will function fine from now on, with the delay, but it does rather fly-in-the-face of the appeal of an SSD.
My gut feels that it’s the drive at fault but there’s still a chance it could be the Sata controller on the MB.
However, either 'maybe' a flash, firmware or driver update away from being corrected (i stress maybe.) - as past similar SSD problems have been solved with updates (but usually with the firmware update).
Will do, having done a quick google, this issue doesnt seem uncommon with AHCI and OCZ drives, I found reference to an Asus mobo with issues.
And with the results of your above search these 'updates' may be sooner rather than later as it appears not to be an isolated incident. It depends whether you’re prepared to wait a little longer for a possible fix or force the issue with an rma.
Corsair, for instance, have requested SSDs be rma’ed with a similar problems to yours (just googled their forums) –
link.
If I was in your position I would contact OCZ and ask for their take on the situation – bulleting all the steps you’ve taken to get this drive active. It maybe that they have a similar ethos to that of Corsair and will swap the drive on the evidence you provide.
I would also consider informing the retailer, you bought the drive from, just so you keep that channel of communication open in case OCZ suggest you return it directly to the retailer (if they advise you to return it all.).
