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Orlandoech

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 2, 2011
3,341
887
FYI For the Crucial M4 Users:

About a week or two ago Crucial released a new firmware update for the Crucial M4 SSDs, the firmware update is 010G. Last week I updated my M4 towards that firmware as I was still running the old firmware that could crash at 5000 used hours of the SSD ( a known and fixed problem). If it ain't broke, then don't try to fix it, however with that 4000 or 5000 something used hours bug in mind I figured, it is time to update the firmware. With a backup in place I re-flashed the SSD, all data was still there which made it a lovely silent upgrade. But ...

Once I posted about the firmware there was word in our forums that some Guru3D users had the problem that after a reboot or a certain while the SSD was missing from the system and BIOS.

Hunting down the issue I learned that it actually is a massive problem. The Crucial forums are invested with users complaining about this. The root of the issue is that the new firmware has a problem with UEFI based BIOSes (the new flashy GUI based BIOSes). If you have a motherboard with UEFI in combo with the 010G Firmware chances are pretty good that at random after a reboot your SSD is missing -- non detectable in the BIOS. So the secondary scenario would be at power loss or a system crash, this could drop the SSD from your system and it will not be recognized in the BIOS anymore.

Today after running this firmware upgrade for over a week it was my turn, I had a system crash and after a hardware reset, the SSD was gone rogue, missing while not detectable in the BIOS.

There are steps you try to recover the SSD. Windows desktop users follow these steps.

Connect the SSD towards power only. Once you have the drive connected and sitting idle, simply power on the computer and wait for 20 minutes. We recommend that you don't use the computer during this process.
Power the computer down and disconnect the drive for 30 seconds.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 one more time.
Reconnect the drive normally, and boot the computer to your operating system.
This method so far has worked for some and not for others, me personally still trying to revive the SSD. If you are able to revive the SSD and thus are using a EUFI BIOS based motherboard, then drop down towards firmware 000F which I made available at that link.

We are clueless as to why Crucial is still serving this Firmware actively at their website.


Courtesy of: GURU3D.com
 

FuNGi

macrumors 65816
Feb 26, 2010
1,122
33
California
Scary. Glad I didn't do this update. Downloaded it, second guessed it, and then just passed. What's the fix for OSX users?
 

JGO

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2009
62
0
After the latest firmware update my m4 dropped off and could no longer be detected. I then downgraded to the previous firmware version and no longer have any problems.
 

NutFlush920

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2011
280
34
No issues here either.

256gb M4
2012 MacBook Pro
Latest OS X
Bootcamp with Windows 7 64bit Home Premium
 

daneoni

macrumors G4
Mar 24, 2006
11,611
1,158
Ditto. No issues with ANY of the firmware updates released thus far throughout my 16months of ownership.
 

spoonie1972

macrumors 6502a
Aug 17, 2012
573
153
i didnt have any issues with 000F (yet), so didnt bother with the update. Looks like I dodged a bullet.

does the 512gig version of this drive suffer from this 4000-5000hour bug?
 

Orlandoech

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 2, 2011
3,341
887
i didnt have any issues with 000F (yet), so didnt bother with the update. Looks like I dodged a bullet.

does the 512gig version of this drive suffer from this 4000-5000hour bug?

I believe all M4 have the 4000hr bug. I guess the "geniuses" at Crucial didnt think people would keep an SSD longer than 166 operating days.
 

daneoni

macrumors G4
Mar 24, 2006
11,611
1,158
That bug has already been fixed for a while now.
 

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nigelbb

macrumors 65816
Dec 22, 2012
1,140
264
The latest firmware for the Crucial m4 is 040H released on 4th December 2012. Features include:-

Version 040H includes the following changes:
Improved robustness in the event of an unexpected power loss. Significantly reduces the incidence of long reboot times after an unexpected power loss.
Corrected minor status reporting error during SMART Drive Self Test execution (does not affect SMART attribute data).
Streamlined firmware update command for smoother operation in Windows 8.
Improved wear leveling algorithms to improve data throughput when foreground wear leveling is required.

http://edge.crucial.com/firmware/m4/040H/Crucial_m4_Firmware_Update_040H.pdf

http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx
 

jon08

macrumors 68000
Nov 14, 2008
1,885
104
No issues here.

late-2011 15" MBP with 10.8.2
512GB M4
010G

I'm still debating whether or not to upgrade to 040H though.

So how do I know if my motherboard is UEFI?
 
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