SSD Failure

It is a bit late now to find out my SSD is infact fine according to SMART tests as I have already ordered a new one, but I was having issues with windows 10 and freezing. This meant I was not able to do anything and had to shut down the PC using the power button. I preferred just replacing it anyway.

When I was first getting the freezing issues, I searched around and have done a handful of things that were possible fixes, and one site suggested to check out hard drives.

These are the results of my SSD - OCZ Agility 3: http://imgur.com/a/S2X9Q

The freezing happened at such random times it is hard to tell if the 'fix' has actually done anything... until it freezes again, So currently I am using my PC and just waiting. If someone could check through the screenshots I have linked above, there are 3-4 different programs checking SMART data, some saying its fine, the other saying its not.

Either way I have a new SSD on order, IF the OCZ does infact look fine and its stupid for me to replace it, I will still be able to use it in a spare PC.

Hopefully someone can take a look :)

I'm not seeing anything wrong with those numbers.

Last time I checked my own 240GB Agility3 with Crystal Disk Info it had 16k hours, around 11TB of writes and 99% of its estimated life left. Yours is showing very similar numbers.

If it is indeed bad NAND or some other SSD issue, you simply had bad luck because that drive is nowhere near worn.

Thanks for taking a look. So even if the SMART data looks ok, there could still possibly be issues with the ssd that may be causing me problems?

I had a seagate hard drive die out of nowhere a few months ago, so any signs of another drive playing up now I just don't want to risk leaving it.

SMART data is only an indication, it doesn't tell the whole story.

Based on your description of the problems, I see 2 possibilities : either the SSD chokes from time to time, for instance because there's an issue with the built-in Sandforce controller, or you have a slightly wonky Windows 10 install.
I'm tempted to rule out the first option, but with hardware you never really know without having hands-on experience with the item in question.

It's too bad that I don't have any free SATA3 ports on my motherboard, otherwise I'd take the Agility3 out of my netbook , format it and let that do a bunch of tests so we can compare the numbers.

If I were in your shoes, I would back up my data and install another OS on that SSD. Vista, Win7, Win8.1, doesn't matter really. I wouldn't even bother activating Windows if it's just for a few days of testing.
Just give it a workout on anything other than Win10 and see if the problem persists.

On the OCZ's it was the gimpy little controller that failed. They were also plagued by less than stellar NAND. So it was bound to happen. Go samsung or intel next time

That was the Vertex2 and Agility2, and those would just brick completely. The 3 were pretty reliable.

I do agree on the less than stellar NAND, the performance graphs aren't pretty. Still, it's not so bad that one would notice it during normal use.

I commend OCZ for being the first to really bring SSD's to the consumer market but man oh man did they have issues.

1 Like

I Bricked a 60GB Vertex2 and a 240GB Revodrive X2 myself (on the same day actually), so I know what you mean.
That being said, my own Agility3 and the pair of Vertex4s that I used to run in RAID 0 haven't missed a beat during their entire active career. I now mainly use them as really fast USB sticks or to test an OS without having to wipe my main one.

But yeah, I did switch to Samsung ... straight to the 840 EVO (facepalm)

LOL the 840 EVO was great after the first 10000. If the first 10k got a firmware update they would be fine to. In fact I have an 840 EVO from the first 10k batch with the latest firmware that never missed a beat

I ordered a samsung 850 pro. Im not sure I will test out my OCZ drive on this PC, I might try it on my spare pc one day with windows 7.

Still deciding if I want to stay with win10 or go back to windows 7 for new ssd.


Too add I also run HD Tune Pro Benchmark, its almost like the same positions every time I get "Read Error test aborted"

and shortly after in another test I got the freezing again so hopefully that is pointing towards a ssd fault. New one coming on Tuesday hopefully anyway. Thank you for your replies!

Did you try switching the cable? You shouldn't rule out the possibility that it's just a faulty SATA cable.

Have you used the OCZ SSD Guru (SSD Management Tool)?
http://ocz.com/consumer/download

good call, but the problem is sometimes the freezing can happen multiple times a day, and others it may not happen for 2-3 days, for example last time it froze was early morning 5th December, and it didn't freeze again until last night 7th December. My new SSD is coming on the 8th.

Once I have the SSD out of my main rig I will run some tests on a spare PC, luckily I have a handful of SATA cables, some brand new still in their plastic.

I did not even know about this program. Unsure sure why OCZ don't list it on their main download section for the Agility 3, I had to go to a separate page to download it. Will try it now!

(sorry for double post, not sure if I can quote multiple people in one reply)

--

Even though it doesn't say the Agility 3 is support it still picks up the SSD, and says its 100% fine. I am going to double check HD Tune Pro test I ran last night and see if it give an error at the same position in to the scan. Another test last night also caused my PC to freeze.


Run HD Tune test error scan again, it got to the same point as it did yesterday and freezes my PC. Similar too the screenshot I took 2 days ago, where I was able to actually complete the scan and see the 'damaged blocks' http://i.imgur.com/RZKovXE.png. Just now it gets to about 8 rows of blocks and freezes, along with my whole pc.