Intel pulls SSD Toolbox for killing drives under Windows 7
By Nilay Patel 
posted Oct 27th 2009 4:01PM
posted Oct 27th 2009 4:01PM
Update: Intel just gave us its official statement on the matter:
[Thanks, Joseph and Ty]Yes, we have been contacted by users with issues with the firmware upgrade for our 34nm SSDs and we are investigating. We take all sightings and issues seriously and are working toward resolution. We have temporarily taken down the firmware link while we investigate.
Read - Former SSD Toolbox download page
Read - Intel support forum page
Happened to me :(
Same here. Now I don't know if I should RMA the drive or wait for a firmware update.
Using the Intel SSD Toobox, I now get the following error:
ID: B8
Desription: End to End Error Detection Count
RAW: 50340
Normalized: 1
Threshold: 99
Recommended Action: Contact your reseller or local Intel representative for assistance.
they look like magnets
I updated and TRIM'd yesterday, no problems.
This is why after any windows update you have to wait a while until all the bugs are worked out. For Vista it was well over a year, but I think it will be better with W7 (cant be worse anyway).
Except that it's an issue with Intel's firmware as opposed to with Windows. Good try though.
This is a Solid State Drive firmware release, what does it have to do with Windows Update? Fail troll is fail.
Yes, what I mean't is that it is accepted fact that new Windows OS's rarely "play nice" with externals, either due to the Vendor (here Intel) or MS (example: no LifeCam driver for Vista even many months after release).
When I do my W7 install in the next few days, I know well enough to leave pretty much as many peripherals as possible (printer, iPhone, external HDDs, etc.) disconnected until the myriad of issues is worked out. I will cautiously connect them over the next few months.
I learned well from Vista that compatibility is not Windows' forte!
That's where you're wrong, DigDug. Hardware compatibility >is< Window's forte. Try getting a graphics card or a web cam or any semi-exotic piece of hardware to work with MacOS or Linux and in many cases you're just out of luck. This same Intel SSD may not even work at all in either of those OSes. (Don't know; haven't tried.) The point is: it would be a fair and accurate statement to say that no other operating system in the world supports the sheer breadth of hardware that Windows does.
Not to say Windows is perfect; far from it. Like many companies, Microsoft has a dirty history when it comes to faithfully fulfilling standards. But they do put an extraordinary amount of effort into making their OS compatible with as much out there as possible. If hardware compatibility isn't Window's forte, they it probably isn't anyone else's forte either.
"When I do my W7 install in the next few days, I know well enough to leave pretty much as many peripherals as possible (printer, iPhone, external HDDs, etc.) disconnected until the myriad of issues is worked out. I will cautiously connect them over the next few months."
You're joking, right? I have never, ever heard of someone "cautiously plugging in their peripherals" over the span of a few months. Either you are really bad at trolling or you have no clue what you're doing.
@Anthop
Don't turn into a zealot yourself. 64-bit flavors of Windows can't even be coaxed to work with some very common hardware.
I bought an Abit PCI-E wireless-G card because it specifically had 64-bit support listed as a feature. I turns out the driver included wasn't signed and couldn't be installed. The driver on the website simple extracted and did nothing, not een telling me where it extracted to. I was somehow able to determine that the files extracte directly to C:\WINDOWS\System32\, but I still had to go into Device Manager and click through the same poorly-designed dialogs we've dealt with since Win95 (with only minor changes) and point it to the right place.
Now I've been trying that with Windows 7 since the public beta, through release candidate and final retail version...and I always get stuck with an endless rebooting BSoD until I go through Startup Repair and let it waste hours of my time only to tell me that I have to use System Restore, which it wouldn't present as an option before that.
A lot of devices worked in XP 32-bit with unsigned drivers and still work fine in 32-bit Vista and Win7...and many were never updated with signed drivers. Try using those in Vista/Win7 64-bit...good luck!
If you want to have halfway decent hardware support in Windows at this point in time, you need a 32-bit OS and may as well forget about having more than 3GB memory capacity.
Win7's Virtual XP mode was supposed to fix this, and application virtualization was supposed to make it seamless.
Here's my big test case...
Jabra BT8010 Bluetooth headset has compatibility issue with iPhone (all versions). The caller ID display won't show anything when the number is associated with a contact on the iPhone. There is a firmware update that might fix the issue (turns out it did not, but I needed to update to the latest FW anyway to find out). Jabra's website is clearly neglecting this older product. Links to the download page (on another domain/server) are broken. The sort of error makes me wonder if it might work from another computer/network connection...so I try it at work the next day. Even when the page error is bypassed and the correct download page is found using Google, the link to the latest-version firmware file is broken. Download links still work for all of the other files...such as the software application. I have to find the firmware file by obtaining the actual file name from the cryptic failed URL and consulting Google. Someone has graciously posted a link in a recent messageboard posting.
The Rapidshare link immediately forwards to a hardcore porn site on my work computer in a crowded call center work environment (and any computer running Internet Explorer). There's no way to get it to stay on the page using IE. Back at home, IE still fails and Firefox works fine (possibly because AdBlock is installed). The 60-second timer counds down and I'm presented with a Captcha, which allows me to download the file for free as an unregistered user of Rapidshare.
Tried to install in Win7 64-bit. There was an unsigned driver and the application could not detect the device without the driver installed. I have modified my installation to accept unsigned drivers (beyond what most people could have done), but it still doesn't work.
Tried WinVista Ultimate x64...fail.
"Awesome! Now I get to put Win7's Virtual WinXP mode to the test!"
Boot into Virtual XP and install the software, plug in the headset with USB, click the "USB" drop-down list and pick the device to pair with the Virtual machine...heard the USB removal sound from host OS...detected by virtual machine...install the driver...Device Manager reports that the device is "working properly" ...
...Everything fine so far...
...The application still can't detect that the headset is connected!
Tried Vista 32-bit and everything went swimmingly.
Microsoft always seems to approach compatibility in a completely backward way. Here's how it should have worked:
Instead of picking a *device* from the "USB" drop-down in my Virtual XP window, I should have been able to associate my VM with a USB *CONTROLLER*. This would allow the virtual machine to receive whatever little exchanges happen when the device is FIRST connected.
The reason Microsoft didn't do it the right way is because they have been building on top of other things that don't make sense.
Because of what I do (tech support), I frequently have to view the Device Manager with View > "Devices by connection." It would be a GODSEND if I could note a USB controller as "Front Ports", "Back ports", etc. It would KICK ASS if I could re-name a USB composite device. Seriously, my two external AVC-3610 dual-tuners (4 tuners) each have an IR receiver for a Media Center remote control, the PC has an integrated receiver that can hardly sense anything, but I use a USB receiver that is located where it can actually receive a signal from my remote. That's FOUR infrared receivers, and I have to identify/disable 3 specific ones in the Device Manager to keep them from interfering with each other. I have to disable all but one. It's DAMN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to figure out which is which in the Device Manager.
I also have multple different input devices. Even my Bluetooth receiver appears to Windows as a composite device with an HID-compliant USB keyboard / mouse (so I can control the BIOS and other menus with a Bluetooth keyboard even before Bluetooth drivers are loaded/initialized). Some devices have hubs built into them. I'd like to be able to tell which "USB Composite Device" represents my G15 keyboard with integrated USB hub.
If Microsoft did it right, "My Computer" would replace both the Device Manager and the "Devices and Printers"
Ugh, can there be at least one post where someone doesn't bring up Apple or MS when it is completely irrelevant? You sound like a douche.
Plus anyways, why would Apple make a commercial about SSDs bricking under Windows 7? The target for Apple commercials are not tech savy people, they're for the average consumer who has no clue what a SSD even is.
Oops. Better correct myself before the elites roast me over a '
*Waits
I'm actually a Mac user. I'm just sick of their marketing dept. Sue me.
This is a problem in firmware for Intel's SSD, not Windows 7.
If I'm crossing the street when my light is green and I get hit by a car, how's it my fault again?
There was probably just a bug in the update utility itself. Intel's fault, not MS'. Not to mention that Mac's use Intel hardware, too.
No, I don't think we should say much about it except that it sucks for the users. It's one of those minor issues that happens for some customers... just like Snow Leopard was released early and caused 3rd party companies to have issues. Nothing you can blame on the OS.
@N900: its your fault for not looking out for crazy drivers. :)
I completely understand that this isnt a MS issue. I'm just poking fun at the fact that Apple exploits every issue that occurs while using Windows as a Microsoft fault.
If you guys are missing the pun... you should turn on your TV some more.
AND this is why you're supposed to back up your data before playing with firmware. Am I right folks?
Well it is always best to keep a backup as general practice, but ESPECIALLY with a new and unproven OS that may not play nice with peripherals.
DigDug, you're either a very persistent troll, or an extremely uneducated tool.
Either way, you're an idiot!
That's how the lawyers will spin it =\
Never, ever install this sort of thing on the first day. Unless it's on a scratch system, always give the eager bleeding edge people a week to find the inevitable console/pc/hard drive bricking bugs first. And yes, I was seriously tempted.
I know ... the brain says wait ... everything else screams go, go, go!
It seems like intel ssd's have a lot of problems
A lot != 1
The failure is VERY common, maybe a 1 in 3 chance your drive will end up bricked. So far nothing has been seen to trigger it; it happens on everybody running windows 7, with both 80 and 160g drives, flashed in both AHCI and IDE.
Luckily I dodged the bullet personally. So far, anyway. But obviously I'm watching it very closely.
Fast, Cheap, or Reliable: Pick ̶t̶w̶o̶ one
Fast, Cheap, or Reliable: Pick ̶t̶w̶o̶ one
The 40% improvement speed is only for the 160GB drives right?? correct me if I am wrong
That is correct because the 160GB has twice the number of NAND devices onboard.
Apple seems to have mind control embedded in their devices to turn their vulnerable users into iDouches.
Thankfully, I haven't seen an IRL iDouche.
Installed it fine in my Dell Latitude E6500 with Windows 7 x64.
DigDug you don't know how to use a computer thats the cold hard facts buddy. Windows Update has nothing to do with this, it was a firmware update you had to manually download from Intel's website.
Windows works perfectly fine with the majority of hardware, there are other 'computers' from California out there which simply have trouble using the latest video cards, printers or 3rd party products and tend to use decade old tech and those other 'computers' are probably what you should be using since you have no idea how to use a real computer. Think different.
I installed it on my 160 w/ a very recent install of Win 7 x64 Pro. I'm currently writing this on the computer w/ the drive. So my question is for the folks who have had this issue, is has it been instantaneous in all cases or does it involve a slow death for anyone?
Nobody knows if the bricking is caused by Win7 or the X25M yet (remember after the FW=02HA update, Win7 detects a new hardware and install some mysterious drivers). At least I updated my X25M on my Mac under OS X 10.6.1, the whole thing went smoothly and it did not brick my X25M.
Maybe Apple is right not to support TRIM in Snow Leopard, until all bugs are ironed out.
From what I've seen in various threads, it almost always fails in the first hour.
Why do you morons keep bringing up Operating Systems when this is a >>>>HARDWARE FLAW
It is indeed a hardware flaw, but so far it ONLY occurs on windows 7.
Because only Windows 7 supports TRIM
It's an hardware fault, cause by the TRIM function issued from Win 7. Has Win 7 issued an invalid command, and causing the SSD to crash?? We don't know yet!
Maybe so, maybe not. Only about a third of the drives get corrupted. Nobody knows why windows7 and this firmware update don't play nicely together. We're waiting on intel to tell us.
Damn, and I was going to replace my corsair to this one
Seems like I was one of those that managed to brick my drive even though I followed the steps precisely. Thanks Intel for screwing my Borderlands gaming night!
Who says only Windows 7 supports TRIM ??? Linux supported that feature even before Windows 7 was released!!!!
I flashed it in IDE mode. Everything works fine. When I first booted windows 7 said my copy wasnt genuine. When I said ignore and booted in anyway its gone away permanently.
Everything works fine now.
The problem is with the technology intel used to make an SSD, they tried to make it where it would last longer (which hasn't been a problem for normal SSD drives) but in return it caused extra firmware problems.
Such a shame for a drive so expensive