TR Forums

Hey guys.
I just got a brand new system.

ASUS P8Z77-V LK motherboard
OCZ Agility 3 60gb SSD

I'm trying to do a fresh install of windows onto the SSD and it is not recognizing or even acknowledging the SSD anywhere in the bios.
It's set to AHCI and all of that and the DVD and HDD are both not connected to not further complicate things.
Suggestions please? I can't find help anywhere.

Try a different SATA port? A different cable? Check the connections?

It should see the drive unless the UEFI is set to ignore that port- and it may still see the drive. The controller might be turned off.

If you've exhausted the physical checks, do a 'reset to default' in the UEFI. If that doesn't work, you have a bad drive, assuming the ports/cables work with the DVD drive.

I've tried all different ports and cables and still nothing happens.
The cables and ports do work for the DVD drive and HDD though.
And I've reset the bios and made sure I had the latest firmware and all of that.
I guess my only other option is RMA?

Sounds dead.
I've had a more-than-50% failure rate with sandforce drives from three different vendors ordered in the last two months (5/9), they've been dead on arrival. I wonder if something is up with Sandforce at the moment?

Chrispy_ wrote:

Sounds dead.
I've had a more-than-50% failure rate with sandforce drives from three different vendors ordered in the last two months (5/9), they've been dead on arrival. I wonder if something is up with Sandforce at the moment?

I would say that your case is an outlier. I've had no problems with sandforce drives from OCZ and Corsair. And judging by recent newegg reviews on sandforce drives, many other people haven't had problems either.

To the OP: Stupid questions: try a different SATA power plug? Make sure its in an Intel SATA port? If its just not being recognized and it sounds like you've tried all viable solutions, you may need to just RMA it. Faulty drives from the get-go are rare from any vendor, but it does happen. If you RMA and the next drive doesn't work, I can pretty much guarantee that the problem is somewhere else...probably the motherboard then.

DPete27 wrote:

I would say that your case is an outlier.

You're most likely right, but I buy about a dozen SSD's a quarter now and I've had to return more DOA drives in the last two months than the entirety of last year.

I'll put it down to relatively small sample size and a run of bad luck, but I just wondered if it was more than chance, and perhaps had something to do with the amazing SSD price cuts we've been seeing in the last 6 months.

Well, the Vertex2 drives were awful, many claim that OCZ never actually got them working right. The Vertex3s (and associated Sandforce2 drives) are definitely better, and many are claiming no issues with current firmware revisions.

On another note, I just got my 180GB Vertex2 replaced through RMA, so we'll see just how good they've gotten them running!

Selectt wrote:

I've tried all different ports and cables and still nothing happens.
The cables and ports do work for the DVD drive and HDD though.
And I've reset the bios and made sure I had the latest firmware and all of that.
I guess my only other option is RMA?

See if it shows up with everything set to IDE. And do make sure the power is connected to it like DPete27 said.
If it does, disconnect everything but the SSD and DVD set the board back to AHCI and go through the install process for Windows.