Camera Labs

As some of you may have seen in another thread I recently built a new system. As part of that I went for the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD as main system drive. I had the odd crash or BSOD, and initially I put it down to mild overclocking or other tweaking, so I continually backed off, but still the crashes happen. The usual stability tests never showed up anything and it was quite puzzling me.

In a chance observation I saw a comment elsewhere the Vertex 3 and other OCZ SSDs were giving some users instability like I was seeing. I just read through this 18 page thread on their forums detailing observations on the erm... phenomenon if I can borrow the Canon wordage. A firmware update was released on Friday which I installed Saturday but a moment ago I had another crash. The frequency I'm getting is about one in several days on average with 24/7 running. Rather annoying. Previously they never reproduced it, but now they say they have, and a new firmware is in progress.

While of course it is annoying for the flaw causing crashing to be present in the first place, it is nice to know they are aware of it, have reproduced it and are in the process of finding a fix for it. It doesn't affect everyone, but it isn't no one either. So if you're thinking of getting a SSD, while the Vertex 3 is up there in the performance stakes, personally I'd be willing to trade that for stability. Maybe I should have gone Crucial m4 after all, but I'm not doing another reinstall at this stage!

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

The firmware update to version 2.09 is up. I had a BSOD earlier so that was a good time to power down and put the new firmware on, which I have done now. No crashes yet, but I'd want at least one week without incident before I consider it possibly resolved.

What is conspicuous by its absence is the lack of feedback from OCZ/sandforce about what it is they're fixing.

If I get another BSOD I think I'll be getting another SSD drive that doesn't use sandforce chipset. Again this reminds me why I said in the past I don't want to live on the cutting edge any more.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi popo,

It's probably just a coincidence but in the early days of SSDs I bought an OCZ one which kept corrupting Vista's files forcing me to reinstall the OS. After the third crash I sent it back for a full refund but I only got that after persuading OCZ to instruct my retailer that the device was faulty.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Sorry to hear about that popo... My Vertex 2 recently passed 6 months of pretty constant usage with no problems...

About 36 hours in and so far no further crashes.

For potentially affected models, I think it might only be the "3" series. At least that is where it is discussed in their forums. I haven't checked similarly for the older generations since I don't have them.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Still no BSODs

There's also a write up of the issue on anandtech here, as well as reviewing the even faster version OCZ recently bought out.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

A minor update here. It's been about a month, and I've not had any of the BSOD issues I had before 2.09 firmware. Problem fixed! BUT - the fix was apparently to slow down various timings, which has resulted in a loss in performance. I can't quantify it exactly as I didn't do detailed before/after benchmarks, but it is a bit lower than other references on older firmwares.

I notice a few days ago they released 2.11 firmware.



All sounds good doesn't it? The staff on the forums are strongly recommending everyone go to 2.11, but what's holding me back is that there seems to be people who say they had problems return with 2.11 that were fixed in 2.09. It's not a flood, but it isn't none either.

I guess I'll play safe, it is ain't broke, don't fix it. 2.09 is working stably for me, and I'm not in the mood for another round of possible issues and fiddling around with another firmware update.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi popo,

In case you haven't seen it bit-tech.net did some comparative tests of the OCZ Vertex 3 240GB (SandForce 2281 with firmware 2.02 and 2.09 as part of their Patriot Wildfire 120GB review.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Thanks Bob, haven't seen that before. Give or take some coarse rounding and averaging, let's say I'm losing potentially 10% of the drive performance from sticking with 2.09. Assuming 2.11 behaves like 2.02 that is. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'd take "works reliably" over "works fastest" these days...

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.