New Intel SSD Firmware available

Broken Hope · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:32

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18363

This firmware revision fixes enumeration and slow-boot issues on SATA 6Gb/s
controllers, adds improvements to S.M.A.R.T. attributes for more accurate
reporting of drive health, improves NCQ capability, and fixes possible drive
hangs when reading S.M.A.R.T. self-test log.

twist3d0n3 · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:47

does doing this wipe your ssd?

DIABLO · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:54

No it doe'snt but there is always the chance something could go wrong. And cheers OP.

twist3d0n3 · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:56

interesting, might give this a spin (after a back up)

cheers

Broken Hope · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:56

I've updated mine and it seems okay so far.

My results from having the drive for about 8 months.

These are my results from September.

Writes seem to be slightly down from then, but reads are a fair bit higher.

Mr-White · 28 Jan 2011 at 17:10

did you do before and after speeds tests ?

MW

Broken Hope · 28 Jan 2011 at 17:18

Mr-White said:
did you do before and after speeds tests ?

MW

Those screenshots are pretty much before and after speed tests, My Intel drive hasn't ever really slowed down and I've never had high queue depth reads of over 170MB/s before the firmware update.

Sylver123 · 28 Jan 2011 at 17:22

Well I have just updated my laptop Intel 80GB SSD to this latest firmware update and the update went without any problems.

I am now just doing a diskpart secure erase with my Windows 7 DVD before restoring my Windows 7 install backup back on.

DarrenM343 · 29 Jan 2011 at 11:45

Just done my laptop and desktop pc (80gb and 160gb respectively). Dont use benchmark tools often and admit I didn't do any before benchmarks. However,the orgingal AS SSD benchmarks done only a few months ago were 350(80gb old laptop) and 407 (i5). The laptop is now at 320 and the dektop 325. Think I have run ASSD a few times on the dekstop in the past at it's ranged from 410 to 390.
One thing to note when upgrading the firmware on Win 7 machines is that after you boot back into windows, Windows installs something and then prompts you to reboot the machine. Not sure what's been installed. AS SSD still reports iaStor.

Broken Hope · 29 Jan 2011 at 11:46

DarrenM343 said:
Just done my laptop and desktop pc (80gb and 160gb respectively). Dont use benchmark tools often and admit I didn't do any before benchmarks. However,the orgingal AS SSD benchmarks done only a few months ago were 350(80gb old laptop) and 407 (i5). The laptop is now at 320 and the dektop 325. Think I have run ASSD a few times on the dekstop in the past at it's ranged from 410 to 390.
One thing to note when upgrading the firmware on Win 7 machines is that after you boot back into windows, Windows installs something and then prompts you to reboot the machine. Not sure what's been installed. AS SSD still reports iaStor.

Windows will reinstall the SSD since the firmware has changed, it looks like a new device to Windows.

DarrenM343 · 29 Jan 2011 at 12:18

Oh of course, that would be why.

Worth noting also that a new version of the Rapid Storage drivers are on the intel website, dated december 2010 (version 10.1.0.1008). Installed these and just out of interest ran the benchmark again and it returned 353 on my desktop, howeverthis might have been because the wind was blowing in a different direction

Mr-White · 29 Jan 2011 at 17:57

Broken Hope said:
Those screenshots are pretty much before and after speed tests, My Intel drive hasn't ever really slowed down and I've never had high queue depth reads of over 170MB/s before the firmware update.

That's weird, I swear there was only one image there when I first looked :confused:

MW

Cesar67 · 29 Jan 2011 at 19:38

Thanks for the heads up

jbloggs · 29 Jan 2011 at 20:11

Did both of my X25-M G2's and it gave a small performance increase in the writes...

mick4545 · 5 Feb 2011 at 14:25

Trying to update my X25. After the ISO loads I get the Message:

'Veryfying Pool Data...................
FreeDOS'.

Then nothing happens. The cursor will not accept any input. What am I doing wrong? I am using AHCI.

Ziggy4 · 6 Feb 2011 at 12:42

Thanks for the heads up! Wasn't expecting this at all. Update was painless. Nothing in the release notes to say as much but looks like they may have made a few tweaks to the performance? Some before and after shots...

dbmzk1 · 6 Feb 2011 at 15:26

Just flashed my 80gb and write speeds have gone up ~10mb/s and reads up 5mb/s

Love it

GJ02 · 6 Feb 2011 at 15:49

any ideas why

it cant detect any intel ssd ?

Sylver123 · 6 Feb 2011 at 19:06

mick4545 said:
Trying to update my X25. After the ISO loads I get the Message:

'Veryfying Pool Data...................
FreeDOS'.

Then nothing happens. The cursor will not accept any input. What am I doing wrong? I am using AHCI.

GJ02 said:
any ideas why

it cant detect any intel ssd ?

If you haven`t already tried this, Intel recommend turning RAID off in the bios if you have it enabled and try and set you hard drive controller in the bios to IDE/Legacy or IDE/Compatibility mode.

Baldrick1001 · 6 Feb 2011 at 23:10

is this really worth doing? Or should I leave it well alone?