Intel has retracted the recently released 02HA Firmware Update for its X25-M solid state drives, in view of the firmware causing the drive to malfunction on systems with Windows 7. Reports suggest that a bug in the firmware causes the drives to stop working. To investigate the issue further, and possibly release a corrective firmware, Intel retracted the software from its website. This is not the first time such a thing has happened. Soon after its release in July, the X25-M Gen 2 54 nm SSDs were diagnosed with a problematic firmware, to which the company had to release corrective firmware two weeks later.

Intel's formidable enterprise-grade solid state drive (SSD) lineup has received an important feature update, which includes a new firmware that adds support for the "Trim" feature on Windows 7, which enhances the drive's stability and extends its service life. This is the second major update for the company's breakthrough 34 nm NAND based X25M Gen.2 SSDs. The first one corrected a major stability issue. These stress the importance for users to keep the drive's firmware up to date. Not only do they correct major issues, but also add to the feature-set. The new firmware update promises an up to 40% increase in sequential write speeds, which will now top 100 MB/s.

For users of older versions of Windows, Intel is providing the SSD Toolbox and SSD Optimizer software, which intend to provide similar levels of reliability, as Windows 7 Trim brings about. The new firmware, with relevant information can be found here, while the SSD Toolbox, and SSD Optimizer can be found here.

Intel's recently announced X25-M G2 series solid state drives (SSDs) gave the company some good PR for being the industry's first 34 nm NAND-flash based SSD, which intends to lower power consumptions, increase data density, and lower prices along the way. Barely a week into its introduction, it has been diagnosed with a severe firmware-related bug. While this bug does not affect the drive's performance or stability in normal operation, it potentially renders it inoperable under some disturbingly common circumstances.

Intel's SSDs are meant for workstations, servers, portable workstations, and other high-end machines. In an enterprise environment, it's common for administrators or power-users to set a password for the HDD BIOS, and change it periodically as part of security practice. The X25-M G2 apparently doesn't respond well to this change, and is rendered inoperable. For the X25-M G2, if you have set a BIOS HDD password, you're advised not to change or disable it. If you don't have one in place, do not set one. Intel is correcting the issue in firmware and will be posting a firmware update shortly.

Trying to squeeze the maximum from its products, Super Talent today said that it is now shipping its award winning UltraDrive SSDs with Firmware version 1370 which enables improved performance when used with Microsoft Windows 7. Super Talent has made a firmware upgrade tool available to allow existing owners to improve the performance of their UltraDrive SSDs. SuperTalent has also developed an "UltraDrive Performance Refresh Tool" which users can run to refresh their performance, should they experience performance degradation associated with all SSDs when files become fragmented and data becomes stale. With the new firmware Super Talent has increased the maximum sequential read speed of both the UltraDrive ME and UltraDrive LE to 260 MB/sec max and the sequential write performance of the UltraDrive ME to 200 MB/sec max and the UltraDrive LE to 210 MB/sec max, delivering the world's fastest SATA 3 Gb/s SSDs in a small 2.5" form factor.

Intel has released a new firmware for its high-performance X18-M and X25-M solid-state drives. The new update brings the firmware up to version 1.1 and aims to further improve the performance of the solid-state drives. Last but not least this update fixes the severe performance degradation of these drives after extended periods of use. Download the update and learn more about the update procedure from here.

QNAP Security today announces the new firmware version 2.8 for the entire VioStor NVR series (VioStor-101/ 201/ 5020) to support the world's first innovative multi-server monitoring. By the firmware update, the VioStor NVR is turned to be a high expansibility network surveillance system which is capable of monitoring up to 120 channels simultaneously.

"We are more than excited to unveil the new firmware for our VioStor NVR series. The multi-server monitoring function is a significant technology breakthrough in the network surveillance industry. By upgrading the firmware on one single VioStor NVR, our users can add other QNAP NVR servers regardless of their physical locations and monitor the channels. There is no need to install any other software and no complicated configuration is required," remarked by Jacky Cheng, Senior Product Manager from QNAP. "More importantly, a maximum of 120 IP-based cameras can be monitored on a standalone server with this embedded feature. The scale of the network surveillance is boundlessly expanded by grouping the multiple NVR servers together for simultaneous monitoring."

Earlier this week, reports emerged of a simple firmware update going wrong for Seagate, rendering some batches of the company's Barracuda 7200.11 hard-drives useless. The flaw in the said firmware update (version SD1A) locked the drive's microcode, preventing the system BIOS from even detecting the drive, in case the user wanted to restore a drive damaged from the update. SD1A was released to fix stuttering problems caused as a result of a bad implementation of the drives' SATA micro-controllers, the earliest diagnosis of the problem the drives were facing. An employee of Seagate working in its engineering, attempted to explain the SD1A firmware debacle, from the perspective of someone who doesn't work with the company's public-relations.

The SD1A firmware, according to the employee, wasn't given out as a singular release, but rather in several revisions to individual customers on a support-customer level, rather than an all-out public download. That was to address customers quickly, when the issue first surfaced as a flaw with the firmware. The problem actually existed where errors during drive operation was written to the drive's firmware to build on a log. When that log reached 320 entries, it would cause errors during initialization of the drive, when it is powered on, when the drive's firmware micro-code is read by the system BIOS. Errors in that process would cause the drive not to be detected / improperly initialized by the system. In a Tom's Hardware report, the employee explains that normally, a customer would go through the usual process of contacting tech-support for the preventative update and "this firmware had to go through five different checks to make sure it applies to the specific conditions to qualify sending to a customer, before now. 5 chances for us to go 'your drive needs the other (or none) firmware update'." However, management, in order to quell the possibility of liability for drive failures, pushed a general public release of the firmware. "Suddenly, it's down to one check, and even that was more designed for a contingency just in case the wrong firmware was sent out." The SD1A firmware mostly affected 500 GB versions of the Barracuda 7200.11 series, after it was released last week. Seagate pulled back the SD1A firmware after the issue of the firmware damaging hard-drives became chronic. The company later released a newer firmware update that can be found here.

You might want to think again before flashing your Seagate hard drive with whatever firmware the company provides as a 'fix' to pending firmware issues with some of its Barracuda 7200.11 series hard drives. The latest firmware by the company, version SD1A turned many hard drives to paperweights. After flashing the drives with the new firmware, users reported receiving disk failure messages, and systems not being able to access - let alone boot from - the drives. Users claimed to have lost data and backups stored on the hard drive, since the drive is rendered inaccessible from any machine.

Following these reports, the company removed the firmware update pending validation. It is not known at this point as to how the company plans to address its disgruntled customers, whether it creates a window for hard drives failed as a result of upgrading to this firmware to be replaced under the company warranty or free of charge. The SD1A firmware update was released by the company to address stability issues certain models of the Barracuda 7200.11 series were diagnosed with.

Playstation 3 Firmware 2.60 Released, Adds Photo Gallery and DivX 3.11 Support

News of the latest update to Sony's Playstation 3 console emerged yesterday on the official Playstation Blog and according to Engadget, the update is around 140MB. The update also adds guest store access, to allow users who do not have a Playstation Network account, to browse through the online store. A video walkthrough of the new features in the update can be found here. An extract from the blog follows:

The PS3 firmware update (v2.60) is designed primarily to enhance the system's media capabilities. The key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured. You can also create slideshows set to music and build photo playlists with an easy-to-use interface. The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3's firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button.

Seagate has issued an official statement today, acknowledging all recent problems with some Barracuda 7200.11 drives. Based on the information posted in the company's forums here, select Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB 3.5-inch hard drives made in Thailand, suffer from a firmware issue that bricks the HDDs after a short period of time. After three to five months of normal operation these defective hard drives will suddenly lock-up as a protective measure and prevent the system from recognizing the drive from then onwards. In most cases the information won't be lost, but the drive will be completely useless, changing the drive's electronics won't help much either. This problem occurs not only to the 1TB Barracuda models, but to Seagate 1.5TB, 640GB, 500GB, 320GB and 160GB Barracuda 7200.11 drives, along with some Maxtor and ES.2 models. That's pretty disturbing, but now Seagate will provide its customers with an updated firmware if their drive is problematic.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today unveils the new firmware version 2.1.0 for the high performance TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS to support iSCSI target service and a number of security solutions, e.g. AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, automatic policy-based IP blocking, instant SMS alert, and the powerful Surveillance Station for live video monitoring and recording of up to 4 network cameras.

The new firmware of the TS-509 Pro has brought a number of benefits to the business users, specifically cost-effective and flexible storage expansion as well as secure data protection. The built-in iSCSI target service with Thin Provisioning on the NAS enables the server administrator to create up to 8 iSCSI devices for expanding the storage capacity of the existing application servers on the network, e.g. database server, mail server, or configuring the NAS as the backup destination of these servers. To meet the demand for high security data protection of the business users, the TS-509 Pro now supports AES 256-bit volume-based encryption. The encrypted disk volumes of the NAS must be unlocked by the encryption password to be accessed, which eliminates the fear of confidential data leakage if the hard drives or the NAS were stolen.

Just wanted to give everyone a head's up that Razer has just released new updates for both the Lachesis and the Deathadder gaming mices. Deathadder owners may now download the new v1.9 drivers while Lachesis owners, me included, will be offered to download both the new Lachesis Driver v1.10 and firmware 1.91. The latest firmware for Lachesis improves the tracking performance and response time of the mouse. Also, if you're among the little that still experience jump issues with Lachesis, this firmware will help you. I'm starting to update my Lachesis right now. Finally, all bugs that plagued Razer's Lachesis are now fixed.

As part of its frequent updates, Sony announced today that new firmware versions for its PLAYSTATION3 and PSP (PlayStation Portable) consoles will very soon be available to their owners. Let's start with the v5.00 update for PSP. In this version, you'll notice the addition of the PlayStation Network icon on the XMB. You can now sign up for PlayStation Network, manage your account and access PlayStation Store directly from your PSP - meaning you can download games, demos and trailers directly to your PSP while you are on-the-go. Update v5.00 also adds a sleep timer option that can be used while you are playing music on your PSP. In addition, v5.00 adds a full screen keyboard option for text entry and redesigned background of the XMB. You'll be able to find all of the information on Firmware v5.00 here once it goes live. The PLAYSTATION3 firmware version 2.50 includes a ton of new enhancements. To see each one of them, you'll need to go past the "Read full story" marker.

The Sony Playstation 3 console firmware update 2.40 rendered several units dysfunctional, forcing users to either try 'DIY homebrew remedies' (and possibly voiding warranties in the process) or seeking professional technical assistance which could cost the user anywhere up to US $150. With several users in distress continuing to express disgust on the official Playstation 3 forums, Sony has decided to work closely with users whose consoles have damaged solely due to the 2.40 firmware update. After it is determined that 2.40 firmware update is the sole cause of damage, the console would be either repaired or replaced free of cost.

After last week's fiasco involving the 2.40 firmware update, Sony has launched the 2.41 update. No added features, just that issues brought up with the previous update are said to be fixed.

Sony is positive that all bugs with the previous update have been fixed. In a statement, they say: "As many of you know, we released PS3 firmware update v2.40 last week, but had to take it offline temporarily because, for a limited number of users, the XMB wouldn't display after the update was installed," said Eric Lempel, Sony's PlayStation Network Operations Director. "We've been able to fix the problem, and I'm happy to report that firmware update v2.41 will be released shortly. We want to extend our apologies to the PlayStation community for any inconvenience."

For details on how to update, please visit this page.

Good Luck.

After Sony recently pulled off its long awaited XMB PS3 2.40 firmware, many customers were left with empty hands. Moreover, little of them knew what exactly happened and why the update was removed. Now Sony is reported to be working on firmware version 2.41, which should be clear of all errors and will make all PLAYSTATION 3 owners happy again very soon. Although Sony is yet to make an official announcement to confirm this information, various sources already claim that the update will be out by the end of this week.