While I was at CTIA last week I ran into a friend from Kingston who let me know about an issue with the JMicron JMF618 based SSDNow V100 SSDs that were released last year. We never formally reviewed the V100 here on AnandTech but I've tested the drive and we've occasionally included scores from it in our reviews.

With the original firmware on the V100 there's apparently a chance you could lose data. Kingston wouldn't go into specifics other than the usual "this only impacts a small percentage of users" line we typically get with things like this. Kingston has an updated firmware that apparently fixes the problem available here.

Note that I never saw the original issue and I just now got access to the fixed firmware, so approach with caution. If you own a V100 drive back up and give this thing a try.

The full release from Kingston is below:

We have learned that a small percentage of our SSDNow V100 sold in the past has experienced a technical issue on the firmware. Kingston strongly recommends that a firmware update be applied to all SSDNow V100 drives to prevent possible data loss. 
 
The firmware update to fix the technical issue is available via Kingston Technical Support. As with any firmware update, we recommend that you back up your data prior to applying the firmware revision. 
 
Customer satisfaction and producing high quality products is the key to Kingston’s success, so we want to make every effort to ensure that our customers are aware of this firmware revision and have the opportunity to patch their V100 drive(s). 
 
The firmware update can be downloaded from our dedicated support page: www.kingston.com/support/ssdnow/v100_firmware.asp
 
Customers can also contact our customer service hotline at 888.484.9125 for more information. 
 
Affected Part Numbers are: 
 
SV100S2/64GZ, SV100S2D/64GZ, SV100S2N/64GZ 
SV100S2/128GZ, SV100S2D/128GZ, SV100S2N/128GZ 
SV100S2/256GZ, SV100S2N/256GZ, SV100S2N/256GZ
 
It is important to note that none of Kingston’s other SSDNow products -- with part numbers beginning with SNE, SNM, SS, SNV, SNVP and SVP -- are affected by this potential issue. 
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  • Galbias - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link

    Glad to see companies going back and fixing problems with their hardware instead of just releasing new stuff. Now, if only Crucial would do the same with the C300 0006 firmware bug...
  • Samus - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link

    you know, i've had a crucial c300 running 0006 since january and haven't had any of the problems people talk about running on my hp dm1z's native sata 6Gbps controller.
  • yioemolsdow - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - link


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  • jkostans - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link

    They seem to put the time and effort in to avoid situations like this all together. I find it difficult to trust most of these inexperienced companies with my data.
  • beastyben1 - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link

    My V100 bricked in January. Entered my password to Windows wrong, it thought for a moment and that was the end of that. Nothing would recognize it after. Local shop couldn't recover anything from it. Nice though they are doing something.
  • JimmiG - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link

    If I got a SSD, I would definitely run daily backups to a good old mechanical drive. However I think it's better to wait until the technology is mature enough that you can trust it with your data in the first place.
  • bji - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link

    You've been warned. JMicron can't make a reliable product, it is simply not within their ability, and they have been the source of fiasco after fiasco in the storage world. When Kingston annouced a JMicron based drive after everyone else had come to their senses and realized that no one should ever use technology from that company again, I was sure that something bad would come of it. Well, here is the proof.

    Research your drive. If any part of it has the word JMicron on it, run away, fast and far.

    I myself own an ASUS motherboard with a JMicron controller on it, it's only used for IDE which I do not use but just having that controller on there unused still makes me feel .... dirty.
  • softdrinkviking - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link

    oh come on, they're not that bad.
    if you don't ever want a micron product again, you are going to have a seriously hard time because they make an @$$ load of tech.
    not to mention, IMF is like the best consumer grade nand in the world, and it's in like everything intel pumps out...
  • pcfxer - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link

    JMicron != Micron Tech. Big time fail and he's right. JMicron is worthless garbage. Ask a sysadmin that has put their jobs on the line with JMicron.
  • piroroadkill - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link

    No, they really are pretty bad. Anecdotally, the jmicron IDE controller on my old Socket 775 P35 based board, when enabled, would cause the weirdest problem on the PCI bus, causing my system to hard lock if I tried to play sound.

    Disable the controller, and no more problems...

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