Windows 7 Freezing after Installing SSD

[Woody89]

Hello,

A few weeks ago I got my hands on a 60 GB Kingston SSD, which I promptly changed to my primary drive and installed Windows (and other software) to. For about two weeks, everything was fine. Whilst playing a computer game (Marathon 2) my PC froze. Mouse, keyboard were unresponsive, sound stopped was the 'stuttering' sound like when one experiences a BSOD. I however got no BSOD. Reset button did nothing. I had to hold down the power button to force the system to reboot.

As with all problems, I ignored it the first time hoping it would go away but alas, it didn't. The freeze has happened at varying moments: once, whilst playing Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn. Another whilst my computer had just booted up and I was making coffee. Another when my computer was idle after a few hours use. There is no pattern and no error logs anywhere (event viewer displays nothing but the usual "Windows did not shut down properly" warning.)

So I began to debug (as best as I could) what might be the problem. To diagnose that the SSD is giving me issues, I have done the following, in thisorder:

- Reinstalled Windows twice. Still freezes.
- Removed the old Hard Drive (now being used as storage). Still freezes.
- Reinstalled Windows with just the SSD attached and used without the old Hard Drive attached. Still freezes.
- Ran the following 'patch' to the registry to fix the so-called SSD issues: Fixing an SSD Freezing on Windows 7 | IT Hacks
- I have ran MemTest as part of an unrelated issue that detected errors with a Memory Stick. Ran MemTest on the current two sticks with no errors. Unfortunately, I just got another freeze with the 'okay' Memory sticks.

The old hard drive provided years of stable service and since I didn't have it attached and still had freezing with just the SSD, I feel it safe to say it's the SSD. I have not yet tried running without the SSD in on my old Hard Drive. Considering I successfully did that for five years prior to installing the SSD and only have gotten these problems since installing the SSD, it's safe to say it is indeed the SSD.

I have read about a lot of SSD problems and Windows 7 on the internet, but none of the popular 'fixes' seem to work. I am also finding it very hard to upgrade the Firmware for my SSD as I am not running Windows in AHCI mode.

My specifications are in my profile.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Since upgrading to an SSD I struggle to imagine life with my old load times again!

Edit: Windows was installed to the SSD using IDE controller in the BIOS incase this is relevant.

 

[essenbe]

Hi Woody, I'm not sure what your problem really is, but I would suggest you follow this guide to enable AHCI mode. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

Make sure your SSD is plugged into port 0 or 1, these are the main ports controlled by you chipset drivers.
Next I would make sure I was running the latest firmware.

After that open an elevated command prompt ( click start, type cmd in the search box, right click on the cmd entry and select run as administrator) in the black box that opens, copy/paste sfc /scannow. If you decide to type it, notice the space between the sfc and the /. It is a system file checker which will scan your system files and attempt to correct any missing or corrupt files. What we want are the results to say windows found no integrity violations. If it says files were found but could not be repaired, close the box, reboot and run it again, after opening the administrative command prompt. You may have to reboot and run it three times for it to repair all system files. If it can't repair them after 3 reboots, let us know.

See if that helps any at all.

 

[Woody89]

Hello Essenbe, thanks again for your help.

Unfortunately, it seems my current Mobo's Chipset doesn't support AHCI. The options in the BIOS are IDE and NVidia RAID. I'm running the latest BIOS version. One person on a forum implies that AHCI support is under RAID mode, but of all my searchings, he was the only person to suggest such a thing, albeit from 'past experience' using this Mobo.

Alas, I cannot upgrade the Firmware because Kingston explicitly states that Windows needs to be in AHCI mode to do so. Chicken and the egg...

System Scan says no integrity violations were found. I ran it twice just to be sure and got the Okay both times.

One thing that I have done since posting this, is stumble upon a myriad of proposed issues using the NVidia Chipset IDE drivers on a Solid State Drive. Many, many sources suggest I disable this and use Microsoft's default IDE driver. Given the volume of people reporting that fixed their SSD issues (including somebody using my same Mobo and people who had an identical issue), I've given it a try. With much luck it might fix it.

 

[essenbe]

If you will look at the bottom of the link I gave you, it suggests

Just to put in here for nForce users, nForce boards do not support AHCI (with the exception of nForce boards that include onboard graphic cards), and also don't send the TRIM command for SSDs. It can do NCQ through its controller though. The JMicron SATA ports do support AHCI, but you'd get worse performance running a HDD through these, than on the normal SATA ports.

You can uninstall the Nvidia controller though in Device Manager and install Microsoft's IDE Controller, which can send TRIM commands for SSDs.

Head to Device Manager (Open Start menu, type Device Manager), and click "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers", and you will see 3 Nvidia Serial ATA Controllers. Right click one of them and click "Properties" and go to the "Driver" tab. Click "Update Driver". Click "Browse my Computer", and then "Let me pick". You will see the option to choose "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller". Click this and click "Next" and let it install.

Do the same for the other two Nvidia Controllers in Device Manager and restart your system. After the controllers have installed, you will be asked to reboot again.

SSDs will now have a slight performance boost with the TRIM command, and also regular HDDs also have a slight increase as well.

That is most likely what you are referring to.

 

[Woody89]

Indeed, that was one of the Threads I found and followed the advice of. The one individual claiming it does is here:

Lack of AHCI on MOBO - Hardware Hangout - MSFN Forum

However, on the word of one person over the word of many (likely equally or more so) experienced people, I will not be reformating just to try that. I think that ASUS would have stated somewhere if this is the case.

 

[essenbe]

Also, id you have another computer, or a friend who does and running in AHCI, you can connect your drive to their computer and update your firmware. You won't have to boot into your drive, but the firmware should install on your drive, even booted into their OS.

 

[essenbe]

You don't have to reformat to follow those directions. Just follow those instructions and it should work fine. You are not changing sata modes, just changing IDE drivers.

 

[Woody89]

Oh, I meant in the thread I linked. Somebody who used to have this Motherboard says that enabling RAID on one of the Drivers will allow me to then enable AHCI in that driver's administration in the BIOS. I can indeed setup RAID on just the SSD like he says but in order to see if AHCI is then available I'd need to reformat.

I am using the IDE drivers now (I wasn't before when posting the OP) after reading through that thread. I suppose now it's the waiting game to see if it stops the freezing; fingers crossed.

I will also try and find another PC in the house (we have several) that is running in AHCI mode to update the Firmware, although this is likely to format or wipe the SSD, correct?

 

[essenbe]

That depends on the firmware upgrade. I have never had it do that to any of mine, but the firmware instructions should tell you if it is a destructive firmware upgrade. It is always best to back up your personal files, just in case. But, you should be doing that anyway. Even if it is not a destructive firmware upgrade they will tell you to do that anyway, just as a precaution. With computers, anything can happen.

 

[Woody89]

Unfortunately I just had another Freeze, so it seems that using the default IDE driver did not fix the issue.

 

[essenbe]

Are you overclocking? If so, set everything back to default levels.

 

[Woody89]

An update on this: I was able to get the Firmware Updater working on my brother's PC (running in AHCI), but the Firmware version on the SSD is higher than the one provided on Kingston's site, so no update took place. I'm still not convinced that everything was correct there, as it seems mystifying that my SSD would ship with a Firmware version higher than provided on their site for updates. The SSD itself is using a Sandforce controller, and Googling issues with said controller does return an awful lot of hits. As for the previous link I provided where somebody claimed the RAID controller on my mobo has AHCI support, that's just not true. It doesn't come as a surprise but I thought I'd mention it for anyone else reading the thread with my Mobo. I'm holding on to the SSD for now in the hopes I can figure out what causes the freezing issue.

 

[essenbe]

Yes, Sandforce started out with a lot of problems. I don't use SSDs with Sandforce controllers. But, I have heard that they corrected the problems, but I can't say for sure. So, be sure to look at the dates of those articles you are reading.