New firmware released for the Crucial M4 drives. Windows 7/8 updater Manual ISO file Firmware homepage
Be careful with this one guys. There is a warning about using this with UEFI which honestly could be in larger text or bold on the website. My SSD has been perfect for over a year and 3 different firmwares.. I load this one and I had freezing within 20 minutes on AHCI with Intel RST on logon screen and while I was watching a movie. I am trying using MSAHCI and if it persists I am going back to 000F which was fine as was 0309, 0009, 0003, etc.
Good call. I totally missed the warning. They should bold that text, so no one steps in poo. -scheherazade
:stewpid: that's a myth, just switch back ROM settings to "Legacy" then return it to EFI after the update. Is yours already on Legacy? No need to touch anything :nerd:
So you're saying that the 'updater software' is not UEFI compatible, but the 'firmware' is UEFI compatible. That could be clearer... -scheherazade
It turns out that's true, but don't call me out for being "stupid" for believing something that was not otherwise clarified in any way. Here is the post from Crucial forums tonight:
I cannot install this new firmware on my m4 even though I no problems with the previous three updates. When I run the Windows 7 installer it reports that there are no SSDs to update and although I'm given the option to Continue I'm reluctant to do so in case this leads to a corrupted or incorrectly installed firmware since it isn't recognising my drive at all. And, no, I do not have a UEFI BIOS as my motherboard is almost four years old. Several other people on the Crucial forum have the same issue but Crucial have yet to respond or update the installer.
man....sure thing - my bad. Putting it simply: some software still struggles with all UEFI brought along. The ROM, which I was talkin' about, allows to execute fw update and such - not yet ready for EFI ROM mode. Why? Let's consider you have two HDDs/SSDs (using entire capacity - 1 volume): respectively install Win7 with Legacy ROM mode and EFI ROM mode THEN check their MBR, you'll see that the twos GUID differ....
Link here: http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx I'm going to run some quick before and after benchmarks to see if there are any major changes. Before (000F), drive is 98% after a year and mostly full: Sequential Read : 492.573 MB/s Sequential Write : 103.648 MB/s Random Read 512KB : 412.096 MB/s Random Write 512KB : 102.631 MB/s Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 26.576 MB/s [ 6488.3 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 58.293 MB/s [ 14231.7 IOPS] Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 145.166 MB/s [ 35440.9 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 85.753 MB/s [ 20935.8 IOPS] Test : 50 MB [C: 69.3% (41.2/59.5 GB)] (x2) Date : 2012/09/29 9:22:16 OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64) After (010G): Sequential Read : 477.969 MB/s Sequential Write : 104.793 MB/s Random Read 512KB : 397.531 MB/s Random Write 512KB : 103.648 MB/s Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 25.888 MB/s [ 6320.3 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 55.604 MB/s [ 13575.1 IOPS] Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 136.077 MB/s [ 33222.0 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 82.591 MB/s [ 20163.9 IOPS] Test : 50 MB [C: 69.3% (41.3/59.5 GB)] (x2) Date : 2012/09/29 9:37:27 OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64) Looks like the new firmware is a tad slower across the board, I'll give it another bench in a day or so and see if the same score holds up.
Think I may sit this one out and see things look over the next few weeks, the M4 is in my work laptop so I’m a little reluctant to upgrade since its working perfect :3eyes:
OK, here is another run after a full day of the system running with the new firmware: Sequential Read : 495.513 MB/s Sequential Write : 104.077 MB/s Random Read 512KB : 401.018 MB/s Random Write 512KB : 104.146 MB/s Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 26.319 MB/s [ 6425.6 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 57.589 MB/s [ 14059.8 IOPS] Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 136.652 MB/s [ 33362.3 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 83.068 MB/s [ 20280.3 IOPS] Test : 50 MB [C: 69.8% (41.6/59.5 GB)] (x2) Date : 2012/09/29 20:22:47 OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64) ----------- It's still a tad slower in some cases, but for the most part there is no major performance change.
Intel RST 11.6.0.1030 on an Intel Z77 controller, 64GB Crucial M4 SATA3 that I've owned for over a year. Keep in mind that my write speeds suffer horribly due to size compared to your 128GB M4.
Yeah I know on write speeds.. wish I had the 256 sometimes for that reason. Was just wondering because I am having some issues with the P67 on same Intel RST 11.6.0.1030 . I'll get some strange disconnect notifications in the system tray from RST when I resume working after I'm idle for a long time like watching a video. It will resume working somewhat normally, but it is disconcerting to see the drive drop out and then come back. It must be whatever they altered for power saving in this revision.. Never had this issue with any of the other firmwares like 000F, 0309, 0009, etc.
Try updating your BIOS. On my Asrock I have an option in the UEFI under SATA drives to select for a drive either "Hard disk driver" or "Solid State Disk driver"; check out if you have something similar.
I've now updated 7 M4's to this version, on 5 different mobo's. No issues before, no issues updating, no issues now. Can't tell any difference from previous firmware, performance or anything else wise. -scheherazade
I installed this fine for a while until today when my SSD stopped being detected. Alot of people on the crucial forums have had the same issue. I was able to fix it by power cycling as advised my crucial themselves. Basically you only connect the sata power cable, no sata data cable and switch the pc on and let it idle for 20mins then power off and disconnect for 30 secs and repeat 2-3 times. This should fix any detection issues. It worked for me just now.
With the reports that the SSD stops being detected by the BIOS after this update, I'm kind of glad that I've been unable to update my 256 GB m4 (the Windows installer keeps saying there's no SSD to update). Still puzzling though as the two previous Crucial m4 Windows installers worked absolutely fine. I'm using the latest Intel RST drivers (v11.6 I believe) and AHCI is enabled in the BIOS.
