Vertex 3 Dying?

Soldato
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I use a 128gb Vertex x 3 as an OS drive. Originally it was installed on a P67A MSI board and to start with no issues but......

It started not being seen by the motherboard upon boot - way round it was to switch on at plug but not to press the start button, leave for 30 seconds or so and then press start - the drive would be seen , no problem.

Obviously having to wait defeated the point of the ssd drive so decided that I would upgrade from P67 to Z68 (had always fancied a play with one:) )and this I recently did purchasing an Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 board and completed the build last week. Everything appeared to be working fine when....

A little earlier today when using the internet , the screen went black and the screen blue power light was now flashing also the speakers were emitting a clicking noise. - Checked things over and realised that the motherboard led 'red' warning light was now 'on'.

Tried re-booting - nothing ; not even into the bios. (n.b. all fans ,lights etc were on).

Switched off - gave it a few seconds and tried again . This time it booted into the bios - got the warning that the overclock had failed (odd as am not yet running an overclock!) and found , when I checked the boot devices found that the ocz was not there. Re-started after a few sec wait and this time it , again, went to bios screen but was able to find the ocz but it ,now, was down as the second boot device. Changed it to 1st, re-booted and this time it did try to boot - quick screen flash(a flash!) ; indeterminate what it said before it was back to 'nothing'.

Decided to dismantle and re-fit the drive and to change the sata cable.

Did - and am now using.

BUT is it just getting ready to fail ; permanently?

Would I be best to buy a new ssd & clone the vertex to the new drive? (I really do not want to have to re-install everything to a new drive because the vertex fails !!)

Thoughts appreciated
 
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Just Died - again.

Strange in that I cannot get it to boot into bios ??

Will give it a try without the vertex connected - it should at least boot into the bios -unless faulty board?
 
Booted into Bios - no problem (when the vertex is not connected!)

Re-connected and tried again - drive found and has booted from it.

Thoughts now are either overheating drive ?
or bad connection - will do a bit of jiggling.
or bad board - would be surprised as although it was built some time ago (came with Nov 2011 Bios) it's only been running for a week and it appeared stable.

Will report back
 
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Running normal - tried jiggling - nothing.

Just stood after the jiggling -watching it - there was the slightest of noises (a small click) and it falls over- screen to black etc.

Am now convinced that it is the Drive - Agreed?

Assuming that it is I will not be wasting my money on any OCZ products in the near future - most expensive drive I've ever bought (£150+) and it's failed in less than a year. Sickening.
 
Am now VERY confused.

I changed the ssd to a Samsung 830 (cloned etc)

Ran ok for about 3hrs before - without any preamble/warning :-

1. Screen goes blank/black
2. Monitor on light changes from constant blue to on/off/on/off etc
3. Speakers are emitting a sound as if someone is turning something on and off over and over again.
4. Motherboard led boot hard drive is red again.
5. Mouse and keyboard will not always work - Appear to be ok until booted into windows.

Only thing I can think now is that it's the bl..... 'new' motherboard - had it for less than 3weeks... or possibly the new tracer crucial ram ?

Anyone got any ideas??
 
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I have a OCZ drive and it had similar problems you had - had to RMA it and the new one was fine. However the new one now has problems. It seems these drives are very fragile compared to my crucial ssds. I will RMa again but will never buy a drive from them again.
 
To me it seems the drive encounters a problem freezes and then the mb can no longer see it. After a few reboots it will see it again but you encounter data problems etc
 
See, i've used a few vertex 3 120gb drives and they've all been perfect. Vertex 2's and Agility 2's are another story and have had to RMA one of each.
I still stand by the Vertex 3 though, love the performance.

Whether its your mobo or SSD, you are covered by warranty.
 
Having changed both drives and boards ; the problem still occurs:( - it's not that I'm at a total loss more of the view that 'diagnosis' is the problem not the parts:eek:

I believe that what was/is happening is that the new power settings and the monitor (DGM 27") do not get on and where I thought I had problems with ssd/motherboard/ram it was probably the power settings that were causing the monitor not to switch off but rather get into an unusual mode.

I have amended the settings so that the monitor is always on and hopefully ......

Just frustrating to spend so much time and expense (new ssd) when such was not needed.

At least I've now got a better motherboard (Asus Sabertooth Z77) and , I think, a better ssd (Samsung 830 ) but we shall see
 
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