(Late 2009) Mac Mini Freezing (OWC SSD Installed)

[THENIZZZEIL]

He guys, just wanted to update. I got the drive last night and went thru the whole process of setting up OSX and all my programs on a fresh install in hopes of a better experience.

I did a photoshoot today and when I got home I was transfering files to Lightroom and the computer froze. I thought maybe a glitch in the card reader would be the problem, so I went ahead and restarted and continued on with the process.

I had got all my files in Lightrooom and as I was culling and flagging my files, sure enough it froze again. I was frustrated as I was trying to get work done. I restarted a 3rd time and no luck. It seems that I am unable to find success with the SSD experience on my mini. I'm sure there are alot of people that are having great success, but I can't have this reliability issue in the long run. I switched back to my stock hard drive that had everythign on it still and tried the process out and it worked fine, albeit not as 'snappy'

I contacted OWC, in hopes I could get a refund...
What do you guys think, should I put my money on 8gb of ram and perhaps a 7200rpm hard drive? anything to maximize my workflow without reliability issues.

Thanks for those who are following this thread.

 

[cosmos]

Suggestion

From what you describe, I would first go with the memory upgrade as it is the easiest and least expensive to do.

Only after working with your system after the upgrade would I then consider replacing the hard drive if you are still not getting the performance you need.

Maybe you could try defragmenting the existing drive before going through the trouble of replacing the drive in the Mini?

 

[THENIZZZEIL]

From what you describe, I would first go with the memory upgrade as it is the easiest and least expensive to do.

Only after working with your system after the upgrade would I then consider replacing the hard drive if you are still not getting the performance you need.

Maybe you could try defragmenting the existing drive before going through the trouble of replacing the drive in the Mini?

ive opened up the mini enough times to where i can pretty much do it with my eyes closed. changing the hard drive isn't too bad...its just irritating to have these problems when you just want stuff to 'work.' but that goes with trying to upgrade 3rd party.

While the ram seems to be the next option. should i expect better results when using lightroom/ps cs4. what would the integration of a 7200rpm drive offer in terms of processing speed for programs like that..? or is it more of the ram that will be helping me out? thanks for your insight btw.

ps: as far as defragging, i dont think thats appropriate for ssd's i did format and 'write zeros' if thats what your relating to?

 

[Jezthomp]

stangrunner would it be worth me doing the firmware update too?

I've got a new 120gb Mercury Extreme ssd and having the problems in this thread...

Could i bootcamp Windows XP and upgrade it?

Once its on it stays on and me erasing to put back Mac OS will not effect it?

How do i check the drives current FW, if its the same surely no point?

Cheers

 

[stangrunner]

Upgrading the firmware.....

Jezthomp,

You check the firmware by going to the Apple menu at the very top left corner and doing a "about this mac". Then click on "more info" and choose "Serial-ATA" along the left column and it should give you your firmware version for the OWC SSD.

I upgraded the firmware by creating a new "bootcamp" partition while in the existing Mac OS X installation by following the directions here. Once I had Windows XP installed and running, I grabbed a copy of OWC's firmware update tool and applied the firmware upgrade. I then rebooted as instructed back into Mac OS X and discovered the issue was resolved. Satisfied that the fix worked, I reclaimed my "lost" capacity and removed the bootcamp partition (and Windows XP) and so far, no issues. Let me know if you need further help. Good Luck and Happy Holidays to you.

 

[Jezthomp]

Jezthomp,

You check the firmware by going to the Apple menu at the very top left corner and doing a "about this mac". Then click on "more info" and choose "Serial-ATA" along the left column and it should give you your firmware version for the OWC SSD.

I upgraded the firmware by creating a new "bootcamp" partition while in the existing Mac OS X installation and following the directions here and once I had Windows XP installed and running. I grabbed a copy of OWC's firmware update tool and applied the firmware upgrade. I then rebooted as instructed back into Mac OS X and discovered the issue was resolved. Satisfied that the fix worked, I reclaimed my "lost" capacity and removed the bootcamp partition (and Windows XP) and so far, no issues. Let me know if you need further help. Good Luck and Happy Holidays to you.

Thanks stang..

What version of the FW do you have?

Was this on a Macbook Pro or MacMini...?

 

[stangrunner]

Firmware version.

My SSD is now at: 343A13F0 and it is installed into a late 2009 Macbook Pro 13inch.

 

[Jezthomp]

My SSD is now at: 343A13F0 and it is installed into a late 2009 Macbook Pro 13inch.

Thanks stang

See i find that odd so mine being on 340A13F0 is out of date, even though i ordered on the 30th of November....

Also when i've spoken to OWC technical support they said that 340A13F0 is the most up to date version of the firmware

 

[bvp663]

I recently installed an OWC 240GB SSD (340A13F0 firmware) in my Late 2008 Unibody MacbookPro and was having similar issues. The computer would not wake from trackpad press (had to use the spacebar or enter key) and when it did wake, the wifi icon in the menu bar would freak out and search for for home wifi network but not find anything. Any applications clicked would not launch and hitting the Apple icon in the menubar did nothing.

Unchecking the "Put the hard disk to sleep" mode has seemed to resolve the problem for me. Obviously this works because the hard drive never shuts off and thus the computer never goes into hibernation mode. Like others here, I'd like a better solution but this seems to do the trick.

System Preferences > Energy Saver > Uncheck "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible".

 

[THENIZZZEIL]

I recently installed an OWC 240GB SSD (340A13F0 firmware) in my Late 2008 Unibody MacbookPro and was having similar issues. The computer would not wake from trackpad press (had to use the spacebar or enter key) and when it did wake, the wifi icon in the menu bar would freak out and search for for home wifi network but not find anything. Any applications clicked would not launch and hitting the Apple icon in the menubar did nothing.

Unchecking the "Put the hard disk to sleep" mode has seemed to resolve the problem for me. Obviously this works because the hard drive never shuts off and thus the computer never goes into hibernation mode. Like others here, I'd like a better solution but this seems to do the trick.

System Preferences > Energy Saver > Uncheck "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible".

while that may solve the issue, how does this affect the life of the SSD, i'm sure its not as harmful as having a platter spin 24/7 - but i'm just curious about having the drive be "on" too much thus leading to probably drive failure again.

Also..is anyone else having these problems with other SSD's like INtel's Corsair etc?

 

[Sensamic]

Ive had an OWC Mercury SSD 240GB in an on-the-go enclosure using it as boot drive since April and no issues at all in any aspect. Everything works perfectly, more fast and smooth than with the internal HD of the iMac 27.

I love the OWC SSD.

 

[THENIZZZEIL]

Ive had an OWC Mercury SSD 240GB in an on-the-go enclosure using it as boot drive since April and no issues at all in any aspect. Everything works perfectly, more fast and smooth than with the internal HD of the iMac 27.

I love the OWC SSD.

Is the on-the-go enclosure a firewire800 connection? With this method, did you lose any speed vs being hooked up internally?

 

[Sensamic]

It has USB 2.0, FW400, FW800 and there is an option for eSata. Using the SSD as main boot drive via FW800 is faster than using the internal HD of the imac. The imac boots faster, apps open faster, etc.

I havent tried the SSD inside the imac. I didnt want to open it, so thats way I bought the SSD in an external firewire enclosure. The SSD is one of the fastest on the market, so in the future I may install it inside another computer.

 

[THENIZZZEIL]

It has USB 2.0, FW400, FW800 and there is an option for eSata. Using the SSD as main boot drive via FW800 is faster than using the internal HD of the imac. The imac boots faster, apps open faster, etc.

I havent tried the SSD inside the imac. I didnt want to open it, so thats way I bought the SSD in an external firewire enclosure. The SSD is one of the fastest on the market, so in the future I may install it inside another computer.

oh okay, thanks for that clarifaction.

So as a boot drive, you still have it as your main installation of programs and stuff right? If i were to do that, will it be like running the hard drive internally, but externally? Do you use the internal drive then as your storage drive for saved files/etc

thanks

 

[cuorekid]

i just bought 120GB Intel 520 for my Mac Mini late (2009) , i do CCC clone from my old hdd (10.7.4) and found intermittent freezing the mouse cursor show something loading but i only just browsing using Firefox is not happen with my stock HDD, and i try fresh install (10.6.8) still same than i try upgrade to 10.7.4 and enable trim support still same issue