How-To Geek

Been having some problems with my desktop lately and was hoping someone here have seen it/ know what's up:

I use a SSD (M4 Crucial) to boot up window 7 and install the most used programs on it, while keeping space intensive stuff on another standard drive. I also keep an additional usb drive plugged in at all times.

This all started when my computer would not boot up, getting stuck in an empty black screen with a blinking _

Pulling out the USB drive before booting solved thise. I checked the bios setting and there's nothing wrong with the boot priority (SSD -> DVDrom), but it looks like it's trying to boot from my USB drive somehow??

After I got pass this issue I immediately ran into another bigger problem:

What's happening is my computer would automatically restart or full mouse freeze after 15-30 or so minutes after boot up. Once restarted my rig won't boot up as no boot drive can be detected per message on screen. Basically my SSD goes off grid after awhile and I have to turn the rig off for awhile before the motherboard can detect the SSD for boot again. Immediate restart after it tells me that no boot device is detected results in the same message.

I ran virus scans ...etc and did sfc scan along with physical connection checks, everything is 100% fine. It's looking like this is an internal hardware issue with my SSD but it's a strange one, since usually when my drive die, they die instead of this odd behavior I'm seeing. It's driving me up the walls not being sure if this is a sign of my SSD dying, or if my it's my motherboard or if it's something on the software side.

Also the rig has been running for half a year no problem. I did not run any new programs in any recent time interval of this problem coming up, except for Steam installed warlock - master of the arcane.

Any ideas? @.@ I can provide more details if that would help.

The fact that the problem goes away after it sits shut off for a while would suggest a heat problem - either with the SSD controller or the mobo. That will be hard to diagnose.

Maybe you should move the OS temporarily to the HDD and see what happens. If that works fine, then you have a SSD problem.

Found what is most likely the problem, figure it best to leave a track here in case someone else gets the same thing:

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/So.....695#M28827

Hmmm, updating the firmware fixed it.

But you're right, I've only had it for half a year... Which means the ssd I bough may very well be 2nd handed *sigh* Oh well as long as it works @.@

Thanks for the tips!

I installed a crucial M4 SSd several months ago and there was an "Important notice" letter I/S the box informing me to update the firmware to the latest version. Did your drive come in a retail box or an OEM package? If an OEM package the notice might have been omitted.