Intel Acknowledges SSD 320 Series ''8 MB Bug''

[btarunr]

Intel's 320 Series SSD is the silicon giant's big push of SSD technology into homes and offices. The SATA 3 Gb/s compatible 2.5" SSDs offer generally good price per gigabyte by SSD standards, and is even backed by a 5 year warranty after some customers were skeptical about the low NAND flash rewrite cycle capacity of the new 25 nm MLC NAND flash chips. Off late, several customers have been noting a bug in its firmware that drops capacity down to 8 MB, making data occupied on the rest of the capacity inaccessible. This bug came to be popularly known as the "8 MB bug".

Intel's Support Community boards have been piling up with complaints about this bug by users of 320 series. Then earlier this week, Intel's Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group acknowledged this bug. It asked customers to contactIntel representatives or Intel customer support, and said that it will provide an update when it has more information. In all likelihood, this is yet another case of buggy firmware by Intel, which haunted it through the 34 nm X25-M and some older SSDs.



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[laszlo]

i assume every product before reach market is intensively tested in order to avoid situations like this;so somebody at intel just decided to jump over the "intensive" part and with a pen decided that this product is perfect.

 

[eidairaman1]

no company is perfect, this bites cuz Intel has to acknowledge and admit issues with products to stay out of the fire, if they deny it then its really bad business practice n can have a even more negative image impact on them

 

[Chaitanya]

Atleast Intel has guts to acknowledge the problems with their products.

 

[eidairaman1]

Atleast Intel has guts to acknowledge the problems with their products.

What im saying is if they didnt their rep would go down the drain so quick its not even funny.

 

[Mussels]

What im saying is if they didnt their rep would go down the drain so quick its not even funny.

at least they man up and admit their flaws and fix them, unlike some other companies *looks at apple hiding in the corner*

 

[RejZoR]

Good thing i picked Corsair Force 3 120GB. I wonder what problem i'll get with the drive lol

 

[entropy13]

at least they man up and admit their flaws and fix them, unlike some other companies *looks at apple hiding in the corner*

It's the user's fault obviously, not the company.

 

[RejZoR]

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

 

[Steevo]

You all know that it another company did this they would be strung up and beaten figuratively.

 

[eidairaman1]

at least they man up and admit their flaws and fix them, unlike some other companies *looks at apple hiding in the corner*

Never was a Fan of Apple, horrible over priced garbage, they are probably more susceptible to attacks that windows is nowadays

 

[DeerSteak]

What im saying is if they didnt their rep would go down the drain so quick its not even funny.

Same as everybody else. It's not specific to Intel.

And, more to the point, it's * precisely* why I refuse to buy OCZ drives. They denied Vertex 3/Agility 3 bugs after other companies were fixing the same issues in firmware. It took them until June to make a firmware update and even then it didn't fix it. They've had 4 firmware releases in the last month and they still can't get it right.

I'm just going to hope this "8MB bug" doesn't show up in my SSD 320 120GB before a firmware update comes.

Also, Apple stepped up to the plate with the nVidia GPU failure issue. They covered Macbook Pros for failed GeForce 8600M GT failures longer than HP, Dell, or anyone else did - an extra 2 years, so if you bought Apple Care, you got 5 years of free replacement for that particular bug.

 

[dogchainx]

Same as everybody else. It's not specific to Intel.

And, more to the point, it's * precisely* why I refuse to buy OCZ drives. They denied Vertex 3/Agility 3 bugs after other companies were fixing the same issues in firmware. It took them until June to make a firmware update and even then it didn't fix it. They've had 4 firmware releases in the last month and they still can't get it right.

I'm just going to hope this "8MB bug" doesn't show up in my SSD 320 120GB before a firmware update comes.

Also, Apple stepped up to the plate with the nVidia GPU failure issue. They covered Macbook Pros for failed GeForce 8600M GT failures longer than HP, Dell, or anyone else did - an extra 2 years, so if you bought Apple Care, you got 5 years of free replacement for that particular bug.

+1

Better that you buy a possible bugged Intel drive than crap a OCZ drive. OCZ deletes your posts/threads on their forum to cover their asses. Its WHEN, and NOT IF, your OCZ SSD goes on the fritz...


I've had the Vertex 1 and 2 drives. Both of them were problematic at best.

 

[DeerSteak]

First post on this page seems to imply that you can secure erase to resurrect it.

http://communities.intel.com/thread/22227?start=60&tstart=0

 

[Damn_Smooth]

I see absolutely no reason that Intel should be applauded or condemned for this.

This is far from a perfect industry and mistakes happen. Owning up to those mistakes is part of the business.

The only thing that could cause condemnation would be if they had not owned up, or made excuses for their mistake.

And that is why it is perfectly acceptable to condemn Apple.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Nothing wrong with this Intel 320; user just using it wrong ;-)

***

10/10 for Intel manning up to this. But that doesnt help the person who (ma) have lost important data AND will suffer remedy time and expense

***

SSD's are getting faster, but also more problematic. This isnt good. Following Moores law, I would rather have a 120GB SSD for $50 at the "original SSD speeds but with 100% reliability" that 120GB for $600 at "new ultra 1000000MB/s speeds but with 50% reliability". THE CONSUMER IS NOT GETTING the benefit of Moores law IMO

 

[XoR]

Intel is on the rampage this year

at least they don't make faulty CPU's*

*) and should they have any nested bugs Intel have enough cohones to tell us about it

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

I've seen people on the forums mention this exact issue on the G2 which uses the same controller.

Link

People are over reacting, I highly doubt this is a major issue.

 

[btarunr]

People are over reacting, I highly doubt this is a major issue.

Yeah, not being able to access data isn't a major issue.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Yeah, not being able to access data isn't a major issue.

What percentage of 320 users does this effect? Other SSDs don't fail? Is there a higher chance of having this issue pop up than having another ssd fail, which I have had happen?

At the end of the day there is a chance for and drive to fail and back ups are important.

 

[Zubasa]

What percentage of 320 users does this effect? Other SSDs don't fail? Is there a higher chance of having this issue pop up than having another ssd fail, which I have had happen?

At the end of the day there is a chance for and drive to fail and back ups are important.

You seem unable to understand the difference here.

An SSD failing due to hardware aging is normal and acceptable and at the end of the day, unavoidable.
An SSD failing due to crappy firmware is not.

At the end of the day a user should not have to face such problem because Intel is fucked up with their software department.
Back up or not have nothing to do with this.
When you buy a product from a company like Intel you expect such product is properly tested for avoidable problems like this.

 

[micropage7]

thats why i prefer wait for ssd

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

You seem unable to understand the difference here.

An SSD failing due to hardware aging is normal and acceptable and at the end of the day, unavoidable.
An SSD failing due to crappy firmware is not.

At the end of the day a user should not have to face such problem because Intel is fucked up with their software department.
Back up or not have nothing to do with this.

1) I've seen people mention this or at least a very similar issue on the G2, which people have always widely considered among the most reliable ssds on the market.
Google is your friend if you don't believe me.

2) You would have to be ignorant to think that this is the only ssd with some sort of firmware issue.

When you buy a product from a company like Intel you expect such product is properly tested for avoidable problems like this.

Got any evidence to support those claims? You seem to be jumping to conclusions there.

 

[timta2]

they are probably more susceptible to attacks that windows is nowadays

Now some moron is going to parrot what you said as if it were fact, and the cycle continues.

 

[eidairaman1]

Now some moron is going to parrot what you said as if it were fact, and the cycle continues.

reason those who use mac say that its more secure is cause they are not so popular, which in reality they are not that secure.