SSD Failures - Why ???

[Malam]

Over the past six months, I've had two SSD failures in my system - both used for my Operating System. Both failures are of the same brand and were replaced under warranty. The second SSD was the replacement for the first one that failed. I now have a third SSD from the same manufacturer and I am concerned. Are the failures just Quality Control issues or do I have a problem with my build ? On the positive side, I had bought a different brand that is part of my system for longer than the failed ones with no problems. But all the same I wanted to make sure I don't have a problem with my Power Supply or something like that. Any ideas please ?? Thanks.

[AkG]

Solid State Drives are more susceptible to voltage ripple / "dirty power" and this could explain what killed them...then again with only a sample size of two...its hard to tell. What is your brand of PSU and SSD?

[SugarJ]

Go ahead and name names. Whose brand failed, and what model?

[maverick_brent]

Would like to also know, I've had 3 ssd's between myself and what was purchased for a friend, had only one die, (which i totally blame on sh!thouse luck...)...heck my first one bought 4 years ago is still kicking hard.

[Malam]

Originally Posted by AkG

Solid State Drives are more susceptible to voltage ripple / "dirty power" and this could explain what killed them...then again with only a sample size of two...its hard to tell. What is your brand of PSU and SSD?

I have a Corsair HX620 that I've been running since 2009. The SSDs are OCZ Vertex 2 and Vertex 3. I've had no problems with the PSU, but I have been wondering if my system is a bit underpowered. I don't want to blame this on the brand of SSD if the problem is due to my failure to get an appropriate level of power or if I was doing something to cause the failures. I am willing to upgrade my PSU if I know this would prevent another SSD failure. Is there a test that could indicate if its the power supply ??

Thanks.

[Soultribunal]

I would lean away from bad PSU, but you never know. Even quality PSU's (Corsair is quality) can be bad, and start killing things.
Sometimes it happens with the oddest things, where you have one weak rail (I've seen bad PSU's only kill DVD drives and leave everything else sound).

You also could have just had bad luck on otherwise decent SSD's.

There are PSU testers out there, but they are not going to tell you if your ripple and such are in spec. Just that the rail has power in the correct levels as per its specifications.

I say let the lastest one go in, keep all your stuff backed up and see if it dies.
If it does one more time, replace the PSU.

Or , you could take the off chance it is your PSU and upgrade to something of a newer platform.

-ST

[geokilla]

Originally Posted by Malam

I have a Corsair HX620 that I've been running since 2009. The SSDs are OCZ Vertex 2 and Vertex 3. I've had no problems with the PSU, but I have been wondering if my system is a bit underpowered. I don't want to blame this on the brand of SSD if the problem is due to my failure to get an appropriate level of power or if I was doing something to cause the failures. I am willing to upgrade my PSU if I know this would prevent another SSD failure. Is there a test that could indicate if its the power supply ??

Thanks.

Nuff said.

[stoanee]

Seems to me you can stress your psu using OCCT and look at results such as ripple on a graph.

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by stoanee

Seems to me you can stress your psu using OCCT and look at results such as ripple on a graph.

That is the furtherest thing from accurate though stoanee. Its not worth trying to use software to access a PSU. Good thought though,

-ST

[Galcobar]

Sandforce controllers have a poor reputation for reliability, with good reason. Both the SF-1200 (controller in the Vertex 2) and SF-2281 (Vertex 3) have much-documented histories of failures.

Sometimes, it's just the drive does not work with your system. It has nothing to do with brand (OCZ is the biggest seller of Sandforce parts but one of many) of the components, or the specific models -- it seems one system will regularly see Sandforce drives fail and another, identical on paper, will have no issues. I returned my Vertex 2 three times over eleven months, and finally asked for and received a refund from OCZ.

The SF-2281 has a different set of issues, though from the end user perspective the failure and resulting downtime look the same. A recent firmware update corrected a lot of the SF-2281 problems, but not all.

Either way, reliability's exactly the reason why drives with Intel or Marvell controllers tend to get the recommendations on this site, particularly the Crucial M4 and Micron C400. Intel just came out with a Sandforce drive, but given Intel spent the last year working out bugs to ensure reliability via proprietary firmware while every other Sandforce customer was selling drives the experience with Intel's Sandforce drives should be quite different.