PC crashes

[ppppenguin]

Crashed this morning after less than a minute so back to where we were before the snafu. I can't be certain but at the one complete switch off I did before installing the Windows updates, the PC didn't crash.

Loads of the updates failed.

[Nick]

Back where we were a while ago. Maybe the SSD is faulty. Maybe not.

However, it does look like you have some deeper issue - Where did your Windows 7 distribution come from?

Look at the Firmware on the SSD - download WindowSMART 2015 from http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/Downloads.html, select the trial option on first running it and snapshot the screen. Lets just check that your SSD is running decent F/W and is healthy... Some of the earlier Crucial SSDs had problems with early versions of firmware.1

[ppppenguin]

My W7 was downlaoded from Digital River. I believe no longer available via that route.

An odd bit of evidence. I can't quite be 100% certain of this but if I just press the off button and reboot (say) an hour later there is no problem but if I also turn off at the mains then I get a problem.

[Nick]

Digital RIver is no more (for MS downloads).

Use https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology...nload-tool to locate the correct ISO.

Did you check the disk with the SMART tool?

[ppppenguin]

I downloaded my W7 before Digital River closed. I keep a copy of the ISO on various HDDs and have burned it to DVD for ease of use.

The tests show that my disks are healthy as you can see from the attached screencap. Though the pre-fail results seem a little worrying.

[ppppenguin]

Whoops. Got the wrong disk. Here's the SSD results which look pretty good.

PS: Now I'm confused. Just done the health status and got the result int he 2nd screencap.

[Nick]

The latest firmware for the drive is MU02 - you can download the Crucial Storage Executive for the MX100 from http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-ssd-firmware.

This is a REALLY good tool that will allow you to update the firmware on your disk and check its health - it's also written by Micron (who own Crucial - Crucial is just the retail arm of Micron who are one of the world's largest chip manufacturers).

If you look at the release notes for MU02, there are things there that may help your cause. I'd just get that out of the way now. Do it.

Forget the second screen of the previous app - just use the Crucial one.

[ppppenguin]

I've downloaded the ISO for MU02. Presumably I just burn it to a CD and boot from it.

It seems self evident (to me!) that you can't update the firmware on your system disk while running the OS. Hence the need to do it from outside the OS.

There's also the Crucial Storage Executive which seems to be another way of dong the update. Which route should I use?

Firmware Update Instruction

s
for
Crucial
®
Client SSD
s
Overview
By using this guide, a
user can perform
a firmware update on
Crucial
®
Client SSDs installed in a personal
computing environment
, referred to in this
document as the host system
.
There are
two
methods to
perform
the
update described in this guide
, ranked
in order of ease
:
Method 1: Online update thro
ugh
Crucial
®
Storage Executive s
oftware (preferred)
When
Storage Executive
is running
, it
check
s
for firmware updates online and
notifies
the user
if
an update is available
.
The user can view the firmware change list and
choose
to perform the
update
within
the S
torage
E
xecutive
user interface
.
Method
2
: Bootable ISO image provided by
Crucial
Crucial
provides a bootable ISO file that can perform the update without installing Storage
Executive on the host machine. This method requires the user to load the provided image on a
piece of bootable media such as a CD
-
R or USB flash drive. The user will then
s
tart
the
system
with the bootable media to perform the update.
In each method, the final steps of the update are performed inside a secured boot environment on the
host machine
,
which re
-
checks the applicability and integrity of the update materials before and during
the download.
Additionally, the update is performed on every applicable SSD in the ho
s
t system
.
It is highly recommended to use
a stable power source and perform a f
ull system backup prior to
updating the firmware with any method. Alt
hough drive loss or corruption caused by an interrupted
update is exceedingly rare, the update is performed at the user
’
s own risk.

[Nick]

You don;t need the ISO - Just do it from the Crucial Storage Executive under the "Firmware Updates" section...

[ppppenguin]

Done that successfully.

I'll turn off the PC - shutdown, then off at the switch - for a few minutes and see what happens when I restart.