SSD broken?

greedy123 · 30 Mar 2014 at 23:01

Hi

I've been having issues with my windows 7 desktop for a week, constant system hangs, increasing boot times etc.

I've just done a complete fresh install of windows and i'm still getting 3+ min boot times. The SSD i'm using is a OCZ 240GB Vertex 2 drive. It's about 3.5 years old now (had no problems until now).

I've run crystal disk info:

Does it appear like it needs replacing? If not I have no clue what the problem is!

Thanks.

KIA · 31 Mar 2014 at 10:23

SSDLife?

wazza300 · 31 Mar 2014 at 11:08

theres known issues with early sandforce on z87 chipset,freezing ect

idk what board you have?

greedy123 · 31 Mar 2014 at 13:15

It's an Asus P8Z68-V PRO. So would a new SSD resolve the issue?

wazza300 · 31 Mar 2014 at 14:51

nah it should run fine on that board,its only z87 theres a few issues

are you sure its down to the ssd? or could it be oc or ram related,i have the same board (non pro) but diff ssd and no issues

greedy123 · 31 Mar 2014 at 15:13

I'm not sure what it's down to. I assumed it is the SSD due to the fact that it all still works, just very slowly, and when formatting I got a couple of errors (can't recall what they said). Will try and re-format it again later and see what it says.

Nothing on the machine is overclocked. Once windows boots it runs at normal speeds, applications open quickly. Not tested it enough since the reformat to see if the hang issue is still happening though.

Other than an issue with the motherboard I can't think of anything other than a failing hd that would contribute to such slow booting times given it works fine once running. If it was a cpu or ram issue you'd surely see other symptoms.

wazza300 · 31 Mar 2014 at 15:16

makesure your in ahci mode for the sata ports in the bios,unplug any usb devices just to see if any are slowing up the boot process

might be worth doing a secure erase on the ssd,that will restore any lost performance

run latest fw also,if its still playing up then it could be the drive idk

greedy123 · 31 Mar 2014 at 15:20

First thing I checked was the AHCI and it is. Will try disconnecting USB devices.

How do you do a secure erase on the boot drive? Do you have to do it in BIOS?

wazza300 · 31 Mar 2014 at 15:22

you burn gparted to a cd and boot from it then secure erase

http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-securely-erase-an-ssd-drive/

parted magic will work also

greedy123 · 31 Mar 2014 at 15:31

OK thanks, just burning GParted to disk and will give it a go tonight.

greedy123 · 1 Apr 2014 at 08:21

GParted wouldn't work on the drive, kept getting errors. I used the OCZ toolkit instead and performed a secure erase and firmware update. Took so long to do that I didn't have time to test it once windows was installed. Will continue testing tonight though boot speed still seemed slow.

SSDlife said the drive was healthy.

greedy123 · 1 Apr 2014 at 19:54

OK so I've run some tests using HDtune:

No bad sectors picked up but the drive speed seems to be far lower than advertised. The Vertex 2 drives are supposedly supposed to run at 275MB/s and it's currently running at 202MB/s, a 27% decrease.

Even taking this into account, I shouldn't be getting 1.5 min boot times! Any ideas? My only other idea is it's the motherboard.

wazza300 · 1 Apr 2014 at 19:56

tried different sata cables? and updated rst software?

tried without any usb devices plugged in just to see if any are slowing up the boot times

try clearing the boards cmos and re enter your bios settings (make a note of any oc/bios settings beforehand)