Gaming 7 motherboard, loses settings and 2 new SSD's have died

[Lomax]

I brought a MSI Gaming 7 motherboard just under two weeks ago, at the same time I brought a new PSU, SSD (Vertex 460), memory (Corsair 2400 OC) etc.

Putting it all together I straight away had problems with it recognising the SSD, the motherboard would sometimes see it being there, and sometimes not.  I tried setting the ram from its default 1333Mhz to the XMP profile but after a while I just could not see the hard drive at all consistently, I tried it on another computer and it did appear dead, so I sent it off (the retailer verified it was dead and swiftly sent a replacement).

I then tried to use this but had the same intermittent ability to use it (sometimes it would go through the install and the SSD disappear part way through).  Looking on this forum a 1600Mhz profile that was recommended here so I put it in and things seemed to work well, however one point it crashed, reset and could no longer see the SSD.  I also noticed that the BIOS settings for the ram etc I had put in were gone too.

Right now I'm probably going to have to just return it as the retailer has a policy of not taking faulty components back, instead they want me to send it direct to the manufacturer, while MSI has a policy of not taking faulty components back - they tell me to send it to the retailer   So my only safe option is to send it back under the distance selling act as it appears incompatible with my hardware.

However, does this fault sound like a faulty motherboard?  The way it is losing its settings appears to leave me with no other explanation (I did check the PSU with a multimeter and all voltages are correct.

 

[Lomax]

Forgot to add, the second Vertex 460 is definitely dead (cannot see it in the motherboard BIOS, or on another PC), it seems very unlikely that two in a row would die on me like that (and a vertex 4 I used had the same problem with it sometimes not being seen, fortunately I did not connect it for long though).

 

[Lomax]

Just to end the story.

I ended up sending the motherboard back via the distance seller regulations as the retailer would not accept faulty returns (they told me to contact MSI, MSI's policy is for all faulty components to be returned to point of sale - definitely not impressed, to be fair the retailer was in the wrong here as I believe it is UK law that the retailer takes responsibility for faulty goods).

The same motherboard worked mostly fine though with mechanical drives, it sometimes had boot problems and it did lose all its motherboard settings, but otherwise I could install and use it.

The next motherboard I went for was a different make (and from a different retailer!) and worked fine, no problems detecting SSD's and my current SSD hasn't broken, so it appears the motherboard was doing something bad.  What exactly I do not know, but it did break two SSD's as the drives could no longer be detected by any motherboard (Vertex 4's brought through Ebuyer, who quickly confirmed they were dead and replaced and then refunded them, a much better experience!). 

 

[JLio01]

What's the boot issue of your newer motherboard? I know there's a BIOS released on the website to fix the losing BIOS settings issue but..which motherboard do you use now exactly?

 

[Lomax]

There is no boot issue with the newer motherboard, I was referring before that the board that seemed to have problems with the SSD's worked okay with mechanical drives, at least most of the time (apart from losing its memory!).

I did update the BIOS to the latest with the gaming 7 board and it made no difference (I didn't see any issues on the bios fix list that looked like they would help, but the process was surprisingly easy).  Swapped to a Asrock extreme 6, but whatever the real problem was that damaged both SSD's (it seems too unlikely they both just happened to die) is a mystery.

I did change though to a Samsung pro SSD for the third attempt just in case....

 

[darkhawk]

OCZ drives have been suspect for a while. I've personally avoided them for a long while due to problems originally with their drives, and due to the company's instability financially.
As much as I hate saying it, it could have very well just been that both of those drives were actually just bad. It honestly wouldn't surprise me.

The samsung drive is a good choice though. It should be much better in comparison to the OCZ drives.