SSD Bricked I Assume

[criss_glitch666]

I was having problems with my system as usual.

1. Windows would freeze constantly for a few seconds at a time to an entire lock up. On top of that, after about a day of it doing the freezing, whenever the AMD drivers would load, my screen went blue with very thin vertical lines. As if the other problem wasn't enough, now I have a dying video card.


2. This card(MSI HD 6970) was purchased off of Drdeath(Jim) so I don't know if the warranty applies to me. I hope to god I can do an RMA.

Anyway, I did some research off my netbook to find out what could be causing this and found multiple factors. After examining my system I also noticed that the northbridge heatsink was burning to the touch.


3. I decided to remove it and apply some new thermal tape. When I took the heatsink off I just froze. The tape/paste that ASUS had put on was ROCK SOLID. By that I mean even using a small scraper the damn stuff wouldn't come off! Not only that, but it is all caked on the northbridge itself. I did manage to scrape it off both the heatsink and northbridge, which only consumed a few hours.

I went on the Kingston site and looked up my drive. I saw that it said there was a firmware update for drives that don't have a certain number. I copied the windows 98 dos files to the USB and booted into the Kingston firmware updater. Everything worked fine, the drive was properly detected, every step went fine up until the last. I forget exactly what it said it was doing, but something about formatting. After about a minute of it displaying the formatting process, it stops and tells me the firmware update had failed.


4. Now the drive is detected as "Generic FCR SATA Loader Loader Device ATA Device". If I go to run the firmware updater again, it tells me that there is no Kingston drive detected. So for the love of god, now I assume the drive is bricked and I have to send it back to Kingston??



I honestly don't understand what I ever did wrong to deserve all of the most defective computer parts ever manufactured.

[Deton]

windows freezes with video artifacts has nothing to do with the hard drive, the symptoms indicating graphic card is failing.
next time use a heat gun or hair blow dryer to heat up the old paste for a couple minutes then use a razor blade to scrap it off, then use alcohol to clean up old residues. The whole process take less than 10 minutes.

if there's nothing wrong with the ssd why you do firmware updates?

[criss_glitch666]

windows freezes with video artifacts has nothing to do with the hard drive, the symptoms indicating graphic card is failing.
next time use a heat gun or hair blow dryer to heat up the old paste for a couple minutes then use a razor blade to scrap it off, then use alcohol to clean up old residues. The whole process take less than 10 minutes.

if there's nothing wrong with the ssd why you do firmware updates?

Thanks for the info, I will do that next time!

As for the SSD, Windows was laggy by itself before the card failed. I even tested it with a different card and had the same problem. I read on the Kingston site that they recommend a firmware update.

"Kingston strongly recommends that a firmware update be applied to all SV100S2 drives to prevent possible failure."

Due to the circumstances I figured if anything it would be good.

[Deton]

do you use any SSD utilities software to check its health?

flashing firmware can be dangerous, if you use wrong version or get interrupted then it will kill your hardware.

[Doctor_Death]

Chris, the warranty would not be transfered to you, however if you talk to someone from MSI and explain the problem, they may help you out. You knew that Jim overclocked the crap out of his systems, so you should have known that you were taking a chance when you bought the card from him.
Try contacting MSI ASAP and seeif they can help you out with a replacement.

[criss_glitch666]

Chris, the warranty would not be transfered to you, however if you talk to someone from MSI and explain the problem, they may help you out. You knew that Jim overclocked the crap out of his systems, so you should have known that you were taking a chance when you bought the card from him.
Try contacting MSI ASAP and seeif they can help you out with a replacement.

Thanks, Stan! Already did! As for the card.. my brother originally bought it off of him, then I bought it off of my brother! It worked great for my brother, I get it and I guess I just have bad luck.

[Deton]

then go kill your brother....lol.
I don't know about MSI but Asus never ask for receipt, they ask for SN. The can tell how much time left on the warranty by checking the SN. I have RMA mobos and vid cards too many times and never have to provide any invoice. This is one of the reason I love Asus products, 3yrs warranty and no hassle.

[criss_glitch666]

then go kill your brother....lol.
I don't know about MSI but Asus never ask for receipt, they ask for SN. The can tell how much time left on the warranty by checking the SN. I have RMA mobos and vid cards too many times and never have to provide any invoice. This is one of the reason I love Asus products, 3yrs warranty and no hassle.

I love my bro too much to kill him. After I messaged MSI, I requested an RMA and it was approved.

[Deton]

that's a good news, now what are you going to do with the SSD?

[realneil]

Question,............

Is your power supply ~KNOWN~ good?
A bad PSU can do this kind of shtuff to you,.......

Glad you got the RMA on the video card too.

[SamCR3]

Good news on the card. Hope you get the SSD sorted out. Sorry Criss, you have had a run of bad luck. It will get better.

[criss_glitch666]

Question,............

Is your power supply ~KNOWN~ good?
A bad PSU can do this kind of shtuff to you,.......

Glad you got the RMA on the video card too.

Thank you, good sir! Ever since I swapped my OCZ for this Thermaltake, everything was running better...... up until now. I just think that the video card died because as Stan said, Jim was a crazy overclocker.

that's a good news, now what are you going to do with the SSD?

I think whether or not I bricked it, having the problem I did, I would just end up doing an RMA.




So is there no way to unbrick an SSD?

[SamCR3]

So is there no way to unbrick an SSD?

Have you tried to secure erase the drive? This is how: How to: Secure Erase your Solid State Drive (SSD) with Parted Magic

[criss_glitch666]

Have you tried to secure erase the drive? This is how: How to: Secure Erase your Solid State Drive (SSD) with Parted Magic

Thanks, but the drive is no longer detected as a Kingston so I assume the firmware is entirely wiped from the drive.

[Doctor_Death]

Criss, if Jim sold you the sample that Jake gave him, and MSI finds out that the S/N goes to that sample, I very much doubt that they will send you a replacement. So lets hope Jim sold you the 6970 that he bought on line.

[criss_glitch666]

Criss, if Jim sold you the sample that Jake gave him, and MSI finds out that the S/N goes to that sample, I very much doubt that they will send you a replacement. So lets hope Jim sold you the 6970 that he bought on line.

Ah! Even better news! Is there any way you can tell if it is a sample?

**MSI has already set the status to the RMA as approved so I hope I'm in the clear. Thanks again everyone! You are the best!