Thinkpads Forum

Hi!

I have a serious problem.
Got a 45N7958 256GB SSD drive and installed it in the Ultrabay (with MikroSata to Sata adapter).
(AFAIK this drive don't have TRIM support) Firmware: VBM8LL1Q Does anyb if it has firmware update available?

Since then the computer is totally unstable. I get errors in the System event log: Iastor, time out, error 9.
The drive is brand new.

Does anybody had the same problem?
I cannot even run the Crystal Disk benchmark, any copying stops after 200mb.

It seems that the drive is disconnecting - the power on counter is above 700 in an hour!!!!!
Now I try to update the T400s - drivers, bios, applications.

Pdudas

Sounds like some sort of hardware problem, looks like need Lenovo repair team to look into this.

I have a T410 (2522-RE3), an Ultrabay SATA hard drive adapter, SSD, and have no problem transferring data onto the SSD in the Ultrabay SATA hard drive adapter.

Another funny thing:
I've put the 256 into the HDD slot and put the 128GB from the slot to the Ultrabay.

The system does not even recognize the SSD which was working fine in the HDD slot for 6 months.
The bios says: no ultrabay device.
Normal 2.5" hdd works fine in ultrabay.

I'll try to replace the ultrabay caddy.

pdudas, are you saying that you have *both* your 128 GB HDD, AND ALSO your 256 GB SSD have the same version of Windows installed onto both drives (both from your same Product Recovery set)?

If both drives have the same Win7 on it, one in the internal drive slot, one in the Ultrabay SATA adapter, then your computer should ignore the Ultrabay HDD (or SSD, whatever you put into it), and only boot from internal drive slot.

fyi, my T410 internal drive slot, one in the Ultrabay SATA adapter HDD + SSD both had the same Win7 on it, and it would only boot up from the internal hard drive.

w0qj wrote:pdudas, are you saying that you have *both* your 128 GB HDD, AND ALSO your 256 GB SSD have the same version of Windows installed onto both drives (both from your same Product Recovery set)?

If both drives have the same Win7 on it, one in the internal drive slot, one in the Ultrabay SATA adapter, then your computer should ignore the Ultrabay HDD (or SSD, whatever you put into it), and only boot from internal drive slot.

fyi, my T410 internal drive slot, one in the Ultrabay SATA adapter HDD + SSD both had the same Win7 on it, and it would only boot up from the internal hard drive.

No, the 128 does not contain the W7 now.

...before the boot the bios (hard drive test) does not see the 128gb drive in the ultrabay (which worked fine for 6 months).
256 is in the hard drive bay. I wanted to use 2 SSD in the T400s, no luck.
I also deleted the drive from mounted devices (via regedit).

Then I tried them in my Macbook Pro - it does not even recognize them.
It looks I'm cursed...

The 256 does not support Trim - the 128 too small now...

I'll try to find an esata case for the 256gb.

Hi,

I have the same disk P/N 45N7958 alias FRU 45N7959 256GB SSD Samsung w/ firmware VBM8LL1Q and I use it with an X301. The malfunction pdudas describes seems to be the same I experienced in summer 2010 when I bought the drive.

In short, the malfunction I observed is that writing a large amount of data to the drive at some point obviously causes communication error between mainboard and SSD. As a consequence, the SSD appears "lost" to the OS, no matter whether using Win7, Vista, Ubuntu or Knoppix.

Reason for the malfunction is NOT the SSD itself, but a combination of the mainboard and large SSD. Solution was to have the mainboard replaced by Lenovo. That was in fall 2010. Malfunction never occurred again.

I believe the error is caused as follows (based on several experiments described further below): Peak current drawn by large SSD is very high and occurs abruptly specifically when writing. Writing requires considerable internal administrative effort (wear leveling) as opposed to reading. Motherboard's design must be prepared with sufficient margin (buffer capacitors, wiring, board layout). For some specimen margin obviously is not sufficient and few people discover a problem because few people order large expensive SSDs.

Here is what I did for testing: I used 4 disks and a variable temperature environment (fridge vs. hot room). 64GB SSD that came with the X301 never caused any error. Also a "classic" 250GB HDD I purchased was working fine. Then I ordered a 256GB SSD FRU 45N8207 Toshiba and the trouble began. Test case was how long can I write to the SSD continuously until malfunction occurred (using "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/[SOMEPARTITION] bs=10M" from a knoppix cd). It was in the order of seconds that the device stalled. Talking to Lenovo they immediately sent a replacement which became the above Samsung 256GB SSD. Unfortunately malfunction persisted, so it cannot be the disk, can it? But then, the X301 works fine with to two other disks! In case someone's asking: All SSDs I used are officially supported for my X301.

Interestingly, I could now write many more blocks until the device stalled (e.g. like a minute, yet varying). Comparing electrical specs of the three SSDs I found that their peak current is as follows: 256 GB Toshiba (1,6 A) > 256 GB Samsung (0,69 A) > 64 GB Samsung (0,32 A). Obviously higher peak power consumption makes communication error more likely. Then I tried cooling the notebook together with the tested SSD in the fridge (CAUTION: this is risky because of humidity drawn when back in warm environment). Result: Cool hardware causes communication error to appear later. A clear sign of electrical parameters being at some limit.

Hope this helps
Erwin95