Solid State Drives (SSD)

[BrandAlien]

First Heres my computer:

Alienware MX-17 R3

i7 2.0 GHZ (turbo to 2.8)

8GB DDR3 RAM

Nvidia GeForce 460M 1.5 GB

Stock - HDD 500GB 7200 RPM

New Addition - M4 SSD 128GB

Ok, I have flashed the firmware to V.009 and switched to AHCI instead of RAID. The Win7 install runs smooth and fast. I boot into windows and begin to install my drivers from my dell resource CD OR just the network and chipset drivers and download the updated ones from dell (theres a few).  I have tried this multiple times to no avail. I have installed the drivers in just about any order I can think of. Either I get a BSOD at one of the drivers, or I get most of them installed and I get the BSOD during the installation of windows updates. So far I have reinstalled windows about 8 times and used system restore about the same. I am not an **bleep** at computers, but I am new to SSD. I thought I followed all of the online forum advice to a "T", but maybe I am missing something. I continue to browse the forums here for insight, but I think I need my own thread here. Any help you may be able to provide would be much appreciated.

[CarWiz]

The only way to find out what's causing the BSOD is to look at the dump file(s). But, since it seems you may not have a stable software configuration, only the last few dumps might be of any value. The dump files should be located in the C:\Windows\Minidump folder if you have the dump option set. Check to see if there's any stored then we'll figure out how/where you can download them so we can look at them. Or to set the necessary options to capture a dump. This forum is geared toward support for Crucial SSDs and as such, few options are available for debugging Windows. (uploading dumps)

[BrandAlien]

I returned my last SSD to crucial and have received my new (refurbed) one. The same problem continues. When I tried to flash the bios to 9 it says that it cannot because it already is V.9, but on written on the drive is .002? So im assuming that it is actually V.009 as the installer reads. I am set to AHCI currently.  Once I begin to install drivers it blue screens and I must system restore and eventually just reinstall windows cause I cant get anywhere. Is there anything I should be doing before installing windows? Certain settings? Or settings BEFORE I start the drivers installation?

Installing this driver order:

chipset

video

network

audio

misc (free fall sensor, alienware OSD, etc)

I also kept my HDD out of the computer until I can get this SSD up and running. I did take a picture of a blue screen and wrote down everything in the "check for solution" window when I boot in safe mode after a blue screen.

Any help much appreciated!

[BrandAlien]

Please keep in mind that I have also tried just about every driver order install possible

[m0fus]

do not install the free fall, etc. stuff. that stuff may be mostly bloatware. you have an ssd, it doesn't 'need' the free fall thing, and for an AV, try the MS free one first, if you must have one.

[targetbsp]

I'd also be suspiscious of the misc stuff.  The rest of the drivers are likely to be commonly used by other people.  As m0fus says, try with everything but them.

If no luck then I think you'd have to take things slower to determine which driver is actually giving you the problem.  Install just one of them, reboot, use the system long enough to prove it's OK, then repeat for the next driver.

[BrandAlien]

Ok I wont install the free fall, makes sense.  What do you mean by "AV"?   sorry

[BrandAlien]

I have tried to install one at a time and reboot after each one. It will blue screen at different Drivers, or, once I update windows AFTER the driver install was actually successful

[targetbsp]

AV = anti virus.

[BrandAlien]

To update this case:  I spoke with crucial 2nd level support for 4 hours today. He was just as stumped as i was. We did many things all with the same end result = BSOD. In the end he told me to contact Dell Support to see if they knew anything and if they could help. He also told me to try cloning from my HDD that works fine on the same laptop. I used the free XXclone and it seems to be working. I tried to change to AHCI but it BSOD'd on me, so I had to change it back to RAID. I am about to throw my formatted HDD back in as the original configuration I wanted. How much speed am i going to lose not being on AHCI?  If you could recommend a few SSD benchmark programs I would gladly run them and post the results here. I wouldnt know if the numbers were good or bad, but perhaps you could help?

And AV - I didnt think you would be talking about an antivrus as thats the last possible thing I would ever install - post backup as well. I have run years without one and have never had a virus on any of my computers. I do not download very often. 

Thank you again for your assistance.