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Level 1

85 points

Recently installed SSD, random freezes

I just got my Kingston HyperX SSD today and installed it... so far things are alright, but I'm getting random freezes and hangs. It never did this with my other hard drive, so it has to be the SSD. It seems to happen more often when the machine is indexing or while installing things.

When I first started installing Lion on it, it did so pretty slowly compared to how I expected it to since it's an SSD. It took about a couple minutes before anything happened, then it would install and the bar move about a twentieth of the way then it would stop for about 3 minutes and then continue. I didn't think anything of this and thought it to be normal.

After stuff was installed, I opened up Activity manager to see what's up, and on the disk activity tab, I'd notice that whenever it froze up, there would be no read/write activity at all, which points the finger at the SSD. I could sit here and type this and never have it freeze up, but for instance when I open up System Preferences and click on a preference, it would freeze up for about 30 seconds to a minute.

I checked Kingston's website for any firmware updates and there are none as of yet, and I can't find anything with Google for my SSD.

Any thoughts?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 15" 2011 8 GB RAM 500 GB MomentusXT

Posted on Aug 15, 2011 1:04 PM

37 replies

Jul 27, 2012 7:17 PM in response to bb426

Is this yours

Revision:

332ABBF0

bb426 Author

Level 1

85 points

Jul 27, 2012 7:26 PM in response to asterisco

That isn't the most recent revision, but it is the revision that fixed the freezing issues I experienced.

Jul 27, 2012 7:35 PM in response to bb426

This means I still don't know how to upgrade firmware....
:/

Did you use this process? http://www.kingston.com/us/support/technical/downloads?product=SH100S3&filename= SH100S3fw501

because it says upgrade complete... but nothing changes.

bb426 Author

Level 1

85 points

Jul 27, 2012 7:41 PM in response to asterisco

If you enabled AHCI in windows, it should work. What do you mean nothing changes? Just the revision number? Have you restarted?

psedog

Level 1

9 points

Jul 27, 2012 7:44 PM in response to bb426

Did you enable Trim Support? You can check it by going to System Information.

Trim support in OSX with a non-apple SSD is a little flakey. You will get those random freezes.　supposedly you don't need it with Sanforce based drives like the HyperX. I still do it though. I just don't keep it enabled.

On my mac's that intel SSD's I will enable Trim then reboot the computer and let it sit for a few hours overnight. Then I'll disable it in the morning. I have 3 computers with Intel SSD's and haven't had any stuttering issues yet.

http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/03/enable-trim-all-ssd-mac-os-x-lion/

Jul 27, 2012 7:51 PM in response to psedog

You can also enabled TRIM by using the excellent TRIM Enabler.

I've been using it on my Crucial m4 512GB SSD for quite awhile. After a major OS upgrade, though, you have to enable it again.

Clinton

bb426 Author

Level 1

85 points

Jul 27, 2012 7:54 PM in response to psedog

Enabling trim is not going to make anything better or worse, and shouldn't cause any noticeable lag (if you see that, I don't think that is the reason). Since hyperx has Sandforce, you don't really need trim because it already has that feature built into the firmware (garbage collection... While not necessarily the same exact thing, it does the same thing essentially).

Psedog, if I were you I would either leave trim on or off, I wouldn't keep turning it on or off since there is no real benefit to doing so especially with OS X.

In any case, turning trim on or off is not the reason for the freezing on the hyperx, it's the outdated firmware, and I stand by that claim entirely since I know this subject like the back of my hand. :)

Jul 27, 2012 7:55 PM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

No. I did not enable TRIM.

bb426, I restarted but the firmware revision number do not change. I'll have another try now.
How do I certify that the AHCI is now working on bootcamp?

bb426 Author

Level 1

85 points

Jul 27, 2012 8:02 PM in response to asterisco

If you are able to open boot camp options in the Control Panel, AHCI is not enabled.

Jul 27, 2012 8:04 PM in response to bb426

ooops... I've just entered on BootCamp option in control panel!

what went wrong!? I made the hole tutorial !!

bb426 Author

Level 1

85 points

Jul 27, 2012 8:08 PM in response to asterisco

Did you use the one on the OCZ website? Try it again, do it step by step and follow it carefully. Use a bare USB drive with the file they provide you. You can't make any typos because otherwise it won't work.

Jul 27, 2012 8:11 PM in response to asterisco

The fact that I have bootcamp on my hard drive instead of my ssd has something to do with this?

I changed the values on:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci >> this

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Iastor >>> this one was missing.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV >> and this.

bb426, please help!.

Jul 27, 2012 8:15 PM in response to asterisco

oh! I get it.. After reboot windows tryed to install the drivers, but could not install.. Showed an error.
Is there any way to install AHCI drivers manually? Or how do I make windows look for those drivers again?

bb426 Author

Level 1

85 points

Jul 27, 2012 8:59 PM in response to asterisco

You need to set those values to 0 (I think), restart your Mac (with the Snow leopard DVD in the drive and the file on the clean USB drive connected to USB), and boot into the DVD (do not boot into windows yet), and follow the instructions to modify the partition in terminal.

Jul 27, 2012 9:19 PM in response to bb426

bb426, Importante question here. Do I need to change the MBR of the SSD drive or to the partition where Windows 7 and bootcamp is intalled???

Recently installed SSD, random freezes