W520 - various SSD issues

Question

Until now I have found the following issues with various SSD drives. I would like to use this thread to gather the various issues and to advise potntial buyers:
Intel 510 Sata3 SSD - 240gb:
- Cold boot without USER/MASTER password works fine
- Cold boot with USER/MASTER password works fine
- Warm boot without USER/MASTER password takes much too long with lot of drive activty
- Warm boot with USER/MASTER password halts due to unreadable POP/USER password
(Subsequential Cold boot accepts the password again)
OCZ Vertex 3 Sata3 SSD - 240Gb:
- does not fit the HDD bracket well
- setting USER/MASTER passwords results in inaccessible drive -> RMA is only option left
- setting USER passwords results in inaccessible drive -> HDD unlocker tool (ATAPWD) is only option
Lenovo Premium Business Partner
X1 Carbon Touch | i7-3667U | 8Gb | 256Gb | HD 4000 | 14HD+ | WWAN | W8.1 Pro RTM x64 |
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Answer 1

Referencing the opening post:
OCZ Vertex 3 Sata3 SSD - 240Gb:
- does not fit the HDD bracket well
Just FYI,
I posted the "fit" problem on the OCZ Sandforce Forum, as well as exchanged e-mails with their tech support.
They actually asked me to RMA my V3-240GB, then claimed they mounted it successfully in several laptops, but never specified which models or brands.
There was some indication that there was another housing/casing for the V3 other than the standard casing, but that never panned out, and the RMA'd drive is on its way back to me, as-is.
Two of their forum techs admitted that the V3 proportions are on the high side of the specs, but still within specs (the relevant spec is SFF-8201). I concurr with that conclusion, but told them that it does not solve the problem.
My observations which I shared with the OCZ tech support & RMA departments are as follows:
At the connection end of the drive, the V3-240GB is approx 1/16" wider than the V2-200G that I also have.
Consequently, only the non-connection end of the V3 fits into the W510 & W520 primary drive bay caddies. (Probably affects the T510 & T520, too.)
The connection end of the drive is too wide for the caddy.
Alternatives:
The only way to get the drive into the caddy as-is, is to use only 3 of the 4 mounting screws, but that leaves the non-screwed in flange of the caddy bowed out. This results in too tight a fit in the drive bay and possible torquing of the electrical connection to the laptop; heat causing further expansion may also be an issue.
Mount the drive without the caddy and/or rubber bumper rails. This leaves the drive so loose in the bay that I believe it risks actual disconnection from the laptop while remaining in the bay.
My at least temporary solution; mount the drive with the caddy and bumpers after cutting a notch out of the caddy at one of either side of the connection end of the caddy; essentially cutting off the flange through which the 4th mounting screw would be inserted. This allows the drive/caddy/bumper assembly to rest in the drive bay as intended.
===============
W520, i7-2920, 16GB, NVIDIA 2000M, Full HD, OCZ VTX-3 & VTX-2, Win7 Ult 64