MX300 525GB - Is my M.2 SSD broken?

[byblo]

On finding new bad block, the testing speed gets really sloweredAfter testing with HD tune, the reallocated sectors increased from 5 to 9 I guess rememberCuriously, the benchmark show a lot of slow occasional transfert rate.As comparing purpose, here is my other SSD drive, no problem from transfert rate (0 reallocated bad sectors btw, no visible here)After the HD tune's transfert rate test, the bad sectors count increased dramatically to reach 34 in total! (previously 9)After the transfert test, and now forever, the test will systematically report this error...Installed the Crucial's toolAbout to upgrade the firmware to M0CR060Firmware upgrade doneStill failing the testThe Windows's System logs shows 12548 count of that type of logged disk read error in total.Reallocated sector count even increased more! 60 now!According another topic on Crucial's forum (http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/SSD-M-2-MX300-275BG-IS-DYING/m-p/182280), gonna try to 'Sanitize' the SSD in the hope to fix the problemsDespite my attempts, including removing manually the partition and putting the SSD in offline mode using the Windows tool, the Crucial tool does not want to show anything else...After a search on google, found this screenshot, which is the one that was supposed to show when ready to Sanitize the SSD, for whatever 'Sanitize' means...Despite the marked blocks are defective, the HD tune's test will always fail reached this point...Another test when SSD in offline mode, and New bad sectors found! The only good thing is that the scan was much faster since previous bad blocks were already marked I guess? (33 minutes against 44mins)Curiously, and despite new bad sectors found on HD Tune's test, the 'Current Pending Sectors' SMART shows 0! And no other Reallocated Sector Count added to the previously 60! Reached this point, I feel this SSD is hopeless and untrustworthy as possible... I gave up here with this SSD. Seems to be totally broken or bugged.

So, is it time to ask for a RMA number or is there anything else I can try before it? (I have only one pc with M.2 port, so cannot try on another pc)

After 20 years of computers, this is the very first drive (SSD or HDD) that is failing at me like that :s

[bogdan]

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@byblo wrote:

So, is it time to ask for a RMA number or is there anything else I can try before it? (I have only one pc with M.2 port, so cannot try on another pc)

 After 20 years of computers, this is the very first drive (SSD or HDD) that is failing at me like that :s

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It is unpleasant experience for sure. 

As you have done I would probably try firmware update and drive sanitize (or ATA secure erase). You can also check if all motherboard/chipset drivers are installed. Beyond that it looks like the drive is failing for some reason, I am afraid. It shouldn't be giving you this kind of problems.

[HWTech]

As bogdan mentions  you should perform a Sanitize/Secure Erase on the SSD as that will erase the SSD and reset it.    I had several MX300 SSDs  with similar issues and all were using the pre-M0CR60 firmware.   After updating the firmware & then performing a Sanitize/Secure Erase, the SSD began working normally again.   In my case the SSD encountered some bad blocks, but could not automatically reallocate them so the Uncorrectable Error Count was in the thousands.   The Secure Erase allowed the blocks to be reallocated which stopped the Uncorrectable Error count from increasing further.  They've been working fine for several months now without any further issues or SMART errors.

 If you continue to encounter performance issues and your motherboard/chipset drivers are up to date, then I would RMA it.   You should keep an eye on it to make sure you don't start seeing a lot of errors in a short amount of time.

[byblo]

Sanitize does not work since the tool getting stuck, only proposing to put disk offline first (see my comments below picture)

[HWTech]

You may want to try Parted Magic to eliminate a Windows issue keeping the SSD online.  Keep in mind Parted Magic is not free and it may not work with all systems.   I've never personally used it.   If you are familar with Linux then it can be done for free from the command line.   

[bogdan]

The last free version is still available - Parted Magic. If you will be able to boot your system with that compilation then it will work for ATA secure erase the same way as the newest one. Video guide is available here.

[byblo]

I think the crucial's tool that is instead bugged. Thus, on the windows manager, i can correctly remove the partition and set the ssd to offline status. But i give up. I should not mess around like that just to make a ssd working. Gonna ask for rma and hope for a fixed item.

[squall_leonhart]

its dead jim

[ari2asem]

RMA is the best choice for you. rigth now i am having troubles with my mx300 2050gb, relocating nand sector is increasing with the minute. first it was 1024 sectors relocating, now 1900.

i am also asking RMA by amazon where i bougth it

[byblo]

Little update: RMA was accepted and crucial got the item already. They sending another item in exchange. It should arrive this week. This time, I will test the SSD deeply to ensure it will work properly, before using it. [quote]RMA is the best choice for you. rigth now i am having troubles with my mx300 2050gb, relocating nand sector is increasing with the minute. first it was 1024 sectors relocating, now 1900.[/quote]Yes seems something is definitively broken/buggy on some of these SSD