Maximum PC

All of a sudden my computer is crashing. The first time, it was as if my system was corrupt, just a ton of random errors in random components of Windows 7. Now it's happening pretty regularly, only they are hard lockups.

Oddly, when I reboot the computer get's stuck on my RAID config and says failed. If I power off, it comes back normal, though I have to reselect the array as my boot device.

I'm running two SATA 3 SSD's, 64GB each striped in RAID 0.

I'm not getting any logging, and don't have any real indicators that anything is wrong, until it happens.

Specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium
Core i7 2600k
ASUS P8z68 Pro
16gb RAM
2x64gb SATA 3 6gbps drives, RAID 0
a couple of two tb drives on the side.

I do have full backups via my WHS2011.

Any ideas of what might be causing the issues?

EDIT: I've just started monitoring temps. This isn't happening under a heavy-load or anything, just browsing. My CPU's running at 42c, so I'll keep an eye on that. Could be better, but that's not really a concern..I do have a Coolermaster Hyper212 that I haven't gotten around to installing that would no-doubt bring that down.

What brand of SSDs do you have in your RAID configuration? Are there firmware updates available for them?

They are Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) . Good suggestion, I'll check on the firmware updates. Everything's been fine for about 8 months since I built it so I'd be surprised if that was it, but it's good practice anyway!

I just found this review on NewEgg which describes my problem well. I suspect mine is slightly different as they are striped as Im not seeing the BSODs. Guess I"m not alone.

Cons: After 9 months, it would appear the drive is failing. Constant BSODs at least every 2 hours, which are followed up by the BIOS not recognizing it. Cutting power to PC fixes this long enough to do it all again 1-2 hours later. I tried Crucial's suggested "power cycling" method, changed SATA cables, and tried a SATA II port. I will probably send it back vs scrapping it all together, since Crucial appears to have the most reliable SSDs.

Just remember that Trim doesn't work in raid and your drives are full of garbage from reading and writing to them, if the drives are new enough they may have on-board trim in each drive....whether or not that it works in raid I don't know. Plus you should have shut off defrag, that will deteriorate the drives even faster.

Nasty

I wasn't aware of the TRIM issue. It looks like it's expected to be available in the near future for RAID 0, though I didn't read anything conclusive. Fortunately I have my OS and selected applications on the SSD's and keep all of my profiles and data different drives. So there is less writing and deleting going on on the SSD's than "normal". Still, perhaps I"m starting to see the effects of this issue. Thanks for the info!

Defrag has never run on my SSDs, fortunately...oddly I went in to double-check and it had never run on my primary data drive either..doh! Only 8% fragmented, but still - running that now

Correct a condition where an incorrect response to a SMART counter will cause the m4 drive to become unresponsive after 5184 hours of Power-on time. The drive will recover after a power cycle, however, this failure will repeat once per hour after reaching this point. The condition will allow the end user to successfully update firmware, and poses no risk to user or system data stored on the drive.

@ PCStudent - firmware update looks like it might be the trick. I did the math and this drive has been in use for almost exactly 5184 hours to the day..what a bizarre issue. I'm about to update the firmware, that may very well be the ticket..so strange.