SandForce Pins Down Firmware Bug Behind BSoD Issues

Well, that didn’t take long. SandForce SSD users will be happy to learn that the company has reportedly been able to duplicate and resolve the longstanding, if uncommon BSOD issues that have plagued select users of the SF-2281 controller.

Although the root cause is a firmware issue, the BSOD problem gained notoriety partly because of the apparent randomness from which it struck. In some cases the user’s choice of motherboard, power supply, or SATA controller could sometimes mean the difference between receiving incessant BSoDs or having a problem-free experience, making the BSoD events uncommon and hard to pinpoint for most, including SandForce itself.

OCZ appears to be the first out of the gate with a firmware update (version 2.15) for its SandForce SF-2281 SSDs. More info on that can be found here, although OCZ is careful to note that it has been testing the update in-house for three weeks prior to release. SandForce released the revised firmware to all of its partners, so if a new update isn’t available from your specific vendor then it should be shortly. The updated firmware version is 3.3.2 for those manufacturers that utilize SandForce’s default revision numbering.

If users are not experiencing any problems with their SF-2281-powered SSDs then it may be worth sitting back for awhile, just to verify that the new update doesn’t create any new unforeseen issues, as like some other updates we could mention. It goes without saying that SSD users should make a backup of their drive before flashing any firmware, just in case.