Asus G75VW with potential SSD hard drive issue

[bignadad]

I purchased my G75VW about 5 months ago. I needed more than the stock 256gb SSD it came with. So i purchased a Curcial M4 SSD 512gb and put a clean copy of Windows 8 on it. Everything worked great to start with but then i started noticing a few issues.

- Occasionally the computer would lock up. Not too often but when im in the middle of a project its very frustrating. All i could do to fix was hold power button until it cuts off.

- The other odd then is that when i turned the laptop on from a power off state it would just show a blank screen after the ROG logo. I gave it 20 minutes one day and it did nothing. So i had to power down by holding power button until it cut off. Then when i powered back on it worked fine. (one thing that might have caused that was some registry changes i made that i found on this forum to enable num lock on startup)

- About 3 weeks ago i went to turn on my laptop and it would not boot. when into boot menu and did not show the drive. I read some forums and figured out i had to power cycle the ssd. After that it worked fine.

- Then about every other time that im working on the laptop at night (after working on it most of the day in the office) it will freeze for about 15 seconds then screen blacks out and comes back on saying the nvidia drive stopped and was restarted. I have the latest drivers from nvidia.


So after last night with it locking up on my in the middle of a report i was working on i had enough. I did some research on the Crucial M4 ssd i purchased and found out that its a 3year old series. Wish i would have researched a bit more. btw i updated to the latest firmware for the ssd after the power cycle i had to do.


So has anyone experienced anything like this? Im thinking i need to get a new drive but i'm not sure if curcial will warranty this one bc it is technically "working" and i would be out $400. But i have to get this fixed i absolutely love this laptop and have to get it back to optimal performance.

Ive been looking at the Samsung 840 and the Crucial M500. those are later drives and seem to be well reviewed. If i do get a new SSD can i just clone this old drive to it or will i have to do a fresh install of windows 8. I remember doing the fresh install with the m4 and it was a pain in the ass due to having to use the rog version or what not. but im pretty sure i still have my stuff from the first time so maybe won't be so bad if i have to do a fresh install.


So is there something i can do with the current drive? Should i but a new drive? please help.

[rewben]

sorry m4 is an old drive so i didn't try it out. perhaps you should try upgrade its firmware first. make sure you do a proper backup before doing that.

i have no issue whatsoever for ssd's that i own (samsung 830, samsung 840 pro, plextor m5m msata, plextor m5pro extreme, ocz vertex 4, and intel 520).

[bignadad]

Thanks rewben. I did update the firmware after that power cycle happened.

Last night it locked up again. I also notice sometimes that the drive feels to vibrate more than the other. its right there at my wrist when typing and just seems like its all wrong.

I went ahead and ordered the samsung 840 today and plan on trying to send this back and at least get it replaced then sell it on ebay.

Is it wise to clone this ssd to new ssd? they are the same size.
OR should i do a clean install of windows?

[Clintlgm]

Bignadad, Clean Install is always better less chance of something getting screwed up. You can always back up you data and transfer it back to your new SSD.
Clean install with a USB Chip is very fast just follow Rewbens guides in Upgrade Notes thread
As to your SSD Vibrating there are no moving parts in a SSD!

[rewben]

the last time i checked m4 had some issues and got fixed with a newer firmware; and like @Clintlgm pointed out, there shouldn't be any vibration from the ssd, as it has no moving parts.

cloning should be fine, although i still prefer a clean install with minimal set of drivers and apps.

[bignadad]

Thanks for the advice guys.

got my Samsung 840 SSD in today and installed a fresh copy of windows with no issues.

Seems to be running much better, but ill know for sure after a few days