Vertex 3 with Asus P8P67 Pro (B3) locks up

And by 'locks up' I mean completely locks up. Even the numlock light won't toggle.

This happens at completely random times.

I have updated the BIOS of the MoBo and the firmware of the SSD numerous times, because it used to hang for a few minutes and then just continue what it was doing, but now it just hangs, so this is not an improvement.

I now run BIOS 1850, firmware 2.11 and Intel RST 10.6, all the latest at time of writing. OS is Win7 x64

I honestly don't know how to make this easier to answer, so please comment and I'll edit accordingly.

Update 18th Oct 2011

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4973/sandforce-identifies-firmware-bug-causing-bsod-issue-fix-available-today

"After months of end user complaints, SandForce has finally duplicated, verified and provided a fix for the infamous BSOD/disconnect issue that affected SF-2200 based SSDs"

So long as this is true, applying the latest firmware (2.15 on wards) should solve the issue.

Original Answer:

Sadly this is a known issue, the OCZ Vertex 3, and a few other SSDs models, OCZ and SandForce are working on it...

The solution is partly for now to wait it out, or keep trying an ever growing list of short term fixes that may make the issue less frequent. I actually have this SSD myself and am experiencing the issue too.

You may not be getting the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) yourself, or just have a lock up the problem occurs as either depending on your specific hardware configuration, I have seen stories of Mac OS machines with the Vertex 3 locking up too, requiring a hard reset.

A quick search will show you a lot of discussion out there about the issue.

Details as of October 2011

• http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?92465-Where-we-are-with-Vertex3-Agility3-Solid3-drives

I hope this has helped you see where we are, as I get more I can tell I will, for now we seriously are doing our best to get this nailed down for those of you FW2.11 did not help.

Check out the OCZ Forums for the discussion / newer measures to attempt to resolve the issue: - http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com

Blogs/News Stories:

• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/22/ocz_vertex_flash_bsod/

OCZ is working diligently with our customers and SandForce to quickly resolve the outstanding firmware issues and we will be releasing a firmware update that addresses the bluescreen issue as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime we encourage any customers that are experiencing any bluescreen issues to contact our customer service team for immediate support.

• http://www.anandtech.com/show/4341/ocz-vertex-3-max-iops-patriot-wildfire-ssds-reviewed
• http://www.anandtech.com/show/4604/the-sandforce-roundup-corsair-patriot-ocz-owc-memoright-ssds-compared/2

The problem primarily manifests itself as regular BSODs under Windows 7 although OCZ tells me that the issue is cross platform and has been seen on a MacBook Pro running OS X as well.

Options:

• Attempt to get it refunded under warranty / place of purchase (check with manufacturer)
• Attempt to qualify for a replacement (check with manufacturer)
• Use a shorter SATA cable (not applicable for laptops)
• Use a higher quality / newer SATA cable (not applicable for laptops)
• Update BIOS on your motherboard
• Wait for newer firmware updates (at time of writing this answer a 2.13 update is coming soon)
• Disable paging file on Windows on the SSD itself (may cause other issues)
• Disable hibernate
• Wait for OCZ and SandForce to fix it.