Replacement for a Crucial M4

[johnno]

My M4 has been acting up recently and I question it's reliability. I have had it nearly two years and was wondering what improvements have been made with SSD's in that time? What are the key things to be looking out for between manufactures?

Cheers.

 

[john3850]

I went with a few 830s and a 840 non pro for games.
I would suggest a 256gb 840 pro or if money is tight get non pro.
A 256gb 840 would have twice the write speed compared to a 840 128gb and more useful as boot drive.

 

[lehtv]

My M4 has been acting up recently and I question it's reliability. I have had it nearly two years

That means it's still within the 3 year warranty. Get it replaced and worry about an upgrade if/when your replacement SSD starts to fail. Or if sell the return on eBay and get a Samsung 840, 840 Pro, Corsair Neutron, Plextor M5S, M5P or Crucial M500. Or just whatever's cheap... most SSD's work just fine for the average user.

In general, M4 are very reliable. Have you updated the firmware on your drive?

 

[tweakboy]

Can you please download crystaldiskinfo "free small app" It will tell you the exact health status..... SSD starts with 100 percent,, then wears down.

If you have bunch of issues and like 96 percent,, then think about upgrading ,, grab a 512GB ssd , you will be glad you did. gl

 

[johnno]

Thanks!
I'm not too worried as I have a good backup regime. I was wondering if technology had move forward much. Yes it is on the latest firmware and all my games are on the hhd.
With the M4 I had to do the power cycle thing a couple of times and a secure erase once. It seems ok at the moment though.

 

[saad_ahmed]

if it is in warranty, my suggestion would be "Don't waste time and replace it as soon as possible" and yes Lehtv is right you should be worry about upgrade

 

[Zorander]

With the M4 I had to do the power cycle thing a couple of times and a secure erase once. It seems ok at the moment though.

That sounds suspiciously like the 5200 hours bug.

 

[F1shF4t]

That sounds suspiciously like the 5200 hours bug.

I think he's referring to this http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-...-not-recognize-crucail-m4-SSD-64GB/td-p/63835 (Second Post)

I've had my 512 M4 lockup once as well. I used less steps but essentially it was the same. Leave the power plugged in for a few mins, then plug in the SATA cable.

Firmware was 040H during lock up, I downgraded to 000F until 070H came out. The drives works fine, but it makes me skeptical of its reliability.

 

[john3850]

I think he's referring to this http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-...-not-recognize-crucail-m4-SSD-64GB/td-p/63835 (Second Post)

I've had my 512 M4 lockup once as well. I used less steps but essentially it was the same. Leave the power plugged in for a few mins, then plug in the SATA cable.

Firmware was 040H during lock up, I downgraded to 000F until 070H came out. The drives works fine, but it makes me skeptical of its reliability.

F1shF4t thanks for posting 070H fm info I just tried it out on my old i7-930.

Shortly after the hours read 4600 on my m4 fm 0309 I also updated to the 000F and 010g both of which would hang only after any windows 7 updates.
I would then set it to ide restart then go back to ahci mode.
The first few times I was forced to do a power cycle it took a minute or less the last time it took 10 tries so went back 0309 fm till now.

 

[JellyRoll]

Did you update the FW?

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I'm not sure the m4's reputation for reliability is backed up by facts. It seems to me that it's had quite a few firmware bugs and other issues compared to other brands of drives. After all, the drive originally shipped with broken firmware. But somewhere along the line (perhaps on the back of Crucial's generally good rep and the track record of the C300), people started talking about how reliable the m4 is, and it stuck.

On the other hand, Sandforce, and particularly everyone's favourite whipping boy OCZ, also had some early firmware bugs and continue to have a nasty reputation, despite the fact that OCZ at least has come out with some reliable drives since the Vertex 3.

As it so happens, I've currently got an m4 that needs to be exchanged because there's something loose inside the case (?!), and a Vertex 2 that just kicked the bucket during a firmware update. The RMA process with OCZ was painless, but Crucial's Canadian RMA service is non-existent (pay extra to ship the drive to US, then pay duty/tax on the replacement), so I'm in limbo on that RMA waiting for the retailer to facilitate the exchange.

 

[MrX8503]

I'm not sure the m4's reputation for reliability is backed up by facts. It seems to me that it's had quite a few firmware bugs and other issues compared to other brands of drives. After all, the drive originally shipped with broken firmware. But somewhere along the line (perhaps on the back of Crucial's generally good rep and the track record of the C300), people started talking about how reliable the m4 is, and it stuck.

On the other hand, Sandforce, and particularly everyone's favourite whipping boy OCZ, also had some early firmware bugs and continue to have a nasty reputation, despite the fact that OCZ at least has come out with some reliable drives since the Vertex 3.

Crucial fixes their drives and in some cases, before there is a widespread problem. They've even updated the M4 firmware to increase speed for free.

While in the OCZ camp, they apply fixes AFTER there's widespread outrage. It also took OCZ a very long time to create reliable SSDs. There's a good reason why OCZ is going out of business.

 

[johny12]

I'm not sure the m4's reputation for reliability is backed up by facts. It seems to me that it's had quite a few firmware bugs and other issues compared to other brands of drives. After all, the drive originally shipped with broken firmware. But somewhere along the line (perhaps on the back of Crucial's generally good rep and the track record of the C300), people started talking about how reliable the m4 is, and it stuck.

On the other hand, Sandforce, and particularly everyone's favourite whipping boy OCZ, also had some early firmware bugs and continue to have a nasty reputation, despite the fact that OCZ at least has come out with some reliable drives since the Vertex 3.

As it so happens, I've currently got an m4 that needs to be exchanged because there's something loose inside the case (?!), and a Vertex 2 that just kicked the bucket during a firmware update. The RMA process with OCZ was painless, but Crucial's Canadian RMA service is non-existent (pay extra to ship the drive to US, then pay duty/tax on the replacement), so I'm in limbo on that RMA waiting for the retailer to facilitate the exchange.

Agree, OCZ vector series are a good choice! Just because SF based drives had a few performance based issues, one cannot target the controllers. there are different parameters involved during a SSD design & there could be some undisclosed SF compatibility issues with the hardware manufacturers. for your note Sandforce 3rd Generation not yet released.