SO once again I am riddled and cursed with problems on my new system. Also on one of the worst possible weekends to date

Anyway's onto the problems at hand. TL;DR is at the bottom of this post.

So currently here are my system specs.

Asus Sabertooth 990FX
AMD 4100FX OCed 4.6Ghz
Kingston Hyperx 8GB RAM 1333mhz
1x HD 6970 OCed with 20% power boost
1x Kingston V100 series SSD 64GB
650 Watt PSU

Now here are the two problems and my one concern.
So basically Kingston ****ed up with their brand of SSD Drives and my SSD's need a firmware update. This in itself is not a problem, at least I am aware of it. However downloading the Firmware update from their site produces an ISO file. So I am thinking ok ISO file, time to fire up daemon tools and mount this svcker. Only problem with this is that once it is mounted there are no files in the actual ISO itself. The folder comes up empty. So I am guessing that this is not the way to install the firmware update or I am doing something else wrong.

My second concern now however is that of the SATA AHCI Drivers. Now the first page of the MB manual you get, has a nice big warning notice that basically states.

"The SATA6g_1-4 and SATA6G_5-6 connectors of this MB are set to AHCI mode by default to enhance the SATA performance"
"For Windows 7 users, use the MB disk provided and install the AHCI Drivers off of the disk after OS installation"

My concern with that is simply. Do I need these Drivers (The AHCI SATA Drivers) for better SSD stability and compatibility with the rest of my hardware?

Finally onto my last question and concern. I seem to be having stability issues with this current SSD. During 3DMark and after prolonged battlefield 3 gaming, I get complete system freezes and lockups, which can only be fixed by hard shut down and restart. I am not sure if its due to system overheating, which seems to be unlikely as the entire system; including the GPU remains under 48C when under load. Or due to my whole system over-clock (GPU,CPU,RAM) that the system is not drawing enough power to feed the components due to only having a 650 Watt PSU.



TL;DR Questions / Concerns

Do I need to install these Drivers (The AHCI SATA Drivers) for better SSD stability and compatibility with the rest of my hardware?

The Kingston V100 series Firmware update comes in an ISO format. Using Daemon tools produces nothing in the containing folder. How do I apply this firmware update to the SSD than?

I only have a 650 Watt PSU, and I am getting stability issues and random crashes while using this SSD Drive. Is this due to the problems above or is my system not drawing enough power due to it being over-clocked and only having 650 Watts of power?

Do I need to install these Drivers (The AHCI SATA Drivers) for better SSD stability and compatibility with the rest of my hardware?

Most likely yes, that's why they exist. You should load all applicable drivers of your motherboard disk, or get updated ones from the manufacturers site. BIOS updates may or may not be applicable.


The Kingston V100 series Firmware update comes in an ISO format. Using Daemon tools produces nothing in the containing folder. How do I apply this firmware update to the SSD than?

I beleive you need to burn the ISO to a CD and then run the disk.


I only have a 650 Watt PSU, and I am getting stability issues and random crashes while using this SSD Drive. Is this due to the problems above or is my system not drawing enough power due to it being over-clocked and only having 650 Watts of power?

I'd try the SSD fix then worry about anything else. I doubt you are overtaxing your PSU. You could try http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp application to get an estmate though.

I would always install the latest drivers available.
For the firmware update burn it to disc and run from there. Also check that it is not an autorun type that runs at PC startup (just after BIOS post). I have never had a Kingston SSD so not sure.
As for your PSU you have more than enough for your system even with the overclocks. You could always check for yourself using a PSU calculator, like this http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Thanks for the help guys. After running stock clocks on my CPU it ended up stable and 3dmark turned up fine.

So I guess it is the drivers thats causing problems and what not.

Thanks again

What exactly is your system doing that you consider to be the malfunction?

I was playing Battlefield 3 for about an hour with the CPU overclocked to about 4.5GHZ.

It suddenly crashed and the entire system locked up. I did a hard shutdown and next thing I know the computer wont boot into windows. It kept circling back into BIO's and restarting.

At first I thought I fried some piece of hardware. Than I thought well that does not make sense, everything is brand new not even a week old except the GPU, however the Over-clocking is well within the limits of AMD and according to what reviewers said about my CPU it was fine.
I than thought next that the SSD Drive had failed. Which I assume it did as it was refusing to boot into windows even with all the BIO's settings reset to default.

So I reinstalled OS, wiped it clean, and just at this moment have the bare essentials installed. CPU-Z, 3DMARK, etc. Stability tests on stock clock settings are fine according to the AIDA64 also 3DMARK ran fine at stock CPU clocks and produced a half decent score.
I than discovered inside my manual as I stated above that the SATA cables are designed to run in AHCI mode by default and that this particular line of SSD Drives I have also require a firmware update. Both things I assume provide overall stability to the system and help to avoid the problem I just described above.

Ultimately that is what I believe the system is doing that I consider to be a malfunction.

Maybe try running stock clock or stock +10% on the CPU for a while and then incrementally to determine system stability before increasing to maximum OC. I would definitly recommend applying the firmware update from Kingston and installing the port drivers for your MoBo though. Check your MoBo manufacturers site too to see if there are updated versions for anything else like the Network interface and other things.

Will do for sure. Yeah I am not Over-clocking anything until I get the AHCI Drivers installed and than the Firmware update.
Can't do anything until later today though, I have no DVD-Drive installed yet and don't want to open up everything and take it all apart this late.

Thanks for your help though big time

I hope it all works out for you. Don't forget to have fun playing the game though.

haha. Yeah man, I am only going through all this trouble to play Skyrim and BF3

What is your CPU overclock (FSB) ? or is it a purely multiplier overclocked?

Since FSB overclocks effect more than just the processor, it effects bridge, RAM and bus speeds, you have to be careful about going too high, without ensuring that the other components are fixed or at a ratio to it. Many motherboards now have manually or automated control off this, but features vary and it is a common issue about going too high with FSB overclocks. It maybe fine at first, but instability can occur later or infrequently when it's just a little too high for a HD to cope with it.
This is where just going higher with the multiplier which only effects the CPU can work out better. With good FSB control with a Motherboard and making use of them however is usually best. You don't get that much performance increases by overclocking bridge and bus speeds with all the problems it can cause. So stick to increasing CPU and Ram speeds if you going down that route.

So your instability could be coming from a FSB based overclock effecting the hard drive via it effecting the bus speed going to the drive being too high.
My advice if i'm right, is to lower your FSB and increase the multiplier to acheive a similar overclock.

I agree; focus your investigation on your cpu & gpu overclock - it's almost certainly the cause of your instability.

about the ssd firmware, I'm not sure if this applies to your drive but some drives cant be updated when they are set as boot drives, ie they have windows running from them...
the achi drivers can be a bit of a hassle as well, since you actually have to tell windows to use the ahci mode and change it in the bios as well.. otherwise the system willl fail to boot. There is a microsoft article about it, google should find it, but iirc you'll install the drivers, flip windows into ahci mode (check the article where this setting is located (registry edit needed?), reboot into bios, change the sata ports from ide to ahci, save and reboot...

Battlefield3 doesn't like overclocked CPU's much, so it's nothing to do with your system in that respect, just Battlefield3 and some games are very sensitive to overclocking.

thats bull, it just shows the oc wasn't stable to begin with.

No, that's a typical people would say that and it's true that games are sensitive to overclocking. BF3 is the only game my mate cannot overclock with and his overclock is perfectly stable over wise. Even I have had a hard lockup with BF3 and they just don't happen on my system.

First off.. aside from a BRAND new on the day release of a SSD... your not going to find an SSD out there that doesn't have some kind of firmware update required...

secondly.. DO NOT TRY to update the firmware of a drive from within windows.. at least fully read and understand the process of updating firmware of a drive, otherwise you could potentially brick it.

The ISO you copied must be burnt to a cd/dvd.... then allow your machine to boot from it...

HOWEVER before doing so, i suggest that you go into your bios as set the SATA drives to ide mode (unless your firmware guide from Kingston specifically states otherwise).

AFTER updating the firmware.. make certain to set it BACK to the previous setting. ACHI or RAID modes are preferred to make use of the full capabilities of SATA..... IDE Enhanced mode is still IDE... it'll significantly slow down SSDs... or other drives. Basically it's a capability mode only. Do not USE it unless your planning on running an old pre sata drive somehow with windows 9x or 2000 or something that has no sata support or whatever.


Essentially the BEST results are to for example: Make sure your running the ports in ACHI/Raid mode, then install windows... IF windows doesn't see a drive to install to.. then you'll have to provide what is commonly referred to as the F6 Drivers... otherwise continue on..

When you in windows finally, install the drivers, among them should be the latest ACHI drivers which you should try and get directly from the chipset manufacturer. For example if it's an Nvidia SATA controller your using, then go to nvidia.... AMD? go to AMD..... Via.... intel.... etc..... and so forth.. always get the drivers DIRECTLY from the manufacturer of the specific chip, only use the CD or Motherboard Manufacturers downloads as a last resort. Try to always avoid using the CD drivers.. generally they are pre-release garbage drivers, and they should only be attempted when in total misery of nothing else working.


Short of you giving us a specific PSU model/make etc..... 650 watts could mean anything... it could be equivalent to a 200watt Quality PSU.. we can't know unless we have details.

What is known is that some SSDs are causing some people grief.. for example i know i had a vertex 3 drive that would randomly freeze/BSOD for no apparent reason and no matter the firmware updates applied.. nothing improved regardless of the fixes and solutions i attempted... Just a bugged drive..... SSDs are new.. and figuring out how they can be DOA or Faulty from the start is a tricky thing. You can't exactly do a bad sector scan or hear audioable clicks that some would clearly deem "BAD" and replace it straight away....