Several companies have launched their latest SandForce units over the last few weeks. Corsair and OCZ are two of the most prominent, but the former is in som trouble. Users in the public forum have reported serious problems with SandForce 2-based SSD units, which has forced Corsair to retract the Force 3 series.
Corsair has released a statement to the media that has Force 3 series and offered a concrete explanation to why it has stopped selling its SandForce SF-2281 SSDs. It identifies the popular 120GB model in the statement and if this is because the 256GB model isn’t shipping yet or because it isn’t affected was not revealed.
It at least admits that the Corsair CSSD-F120GB3-BK SSD is not working as it should and it apologizes for missing this bug that causes freezes and BSODs. It has found the solution through a new firmware and changes to the hardware.
All consumers that have purchased a Force 3 unit can turn to Corsair’s forum for more information on how to exchange the drive free of charge.
Corsair’s complete statement can be found below;
Over the past several days, we have analyzed issues associated with the stability of our recently released 120GB Force Series 3 SSD (Corsair part number CSSD-F120GB3-BK). Our review has identified that a significant percentage of these drive do not operate to specification. The solution will require changes to both the SSD firmware and the hardware components of the SSD itself.
We’ve worked closely with our partners to determine a root cause but there is no single issue at fault. I’m sure you’ll have questions about how this could happen but we can only say that our production test did not catch this combination of issues and we have implemented multiple corrective actions, involving both firmware and hardware, and are confident we have resolved all currently known issues.
This is our fault, our production tests didn’t catch the issue before the drives were shipped to the consumer and we take full responsibility for our products, which is why we’re asking for them to be returned and will be picking up return shipping.
Consumers should be directed to the following link in our forums for instructions on returning their drives.
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=95825
OCZ Technology in turn claims that through its custom design it doesn’t have the bug reported from other companies, but around 1% of its customers have reported problems with their Vertex 3 SSDs. The problem can be solved through a simple firmware upgrade. When and how this upgrade will be done was not mentioned.
OCZ Official Statement regarding hardware issues reported by other manufacturers
OCZ is aware of firmware issues that have been reported in the field that are potentially causing bluescreens on all SF2000 based drives, this issue affects a very small percentage of Vertex 3 and Agility 3 SSDs, and currently less than 1% of all our customers are affected. This hard to replicate issue is a completely different issue than what some other drive manufacturers are experiencing, which may have similar symptoms but is caused by a hardware issue. Unlike other brands OCZ does not use a reference design, and we design and manufacture our SSDs in-house, and are NOT affected by the hardware problems which are unique to other drive vendors.OCZ is working diligently with our customers and SandForce to quickly resolve the outstanding firmware issues and we will be releasing a firmware update that addresses the bluescreen issue as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime we encourage any customers that are experiencing any bluescreen issues to contact our customer service team for immediate support.
