PC unresponsive after clean Win 8.1 pro & ATI2014 install using Crucial MX100 SSD
ATI2014 has been running fine for some time now on my Win 8.1 Pro PC. Due to some hardware changes I had to reinstall Win 8.1 again. After installing ATI2014 (all Win 8.1 updates where installed successfully), the PC will 'freeze-up' and become unresponsive. Also the task manager will freeze up. Using the shutdown button on my PC does not work either. When I can shutdown or restart the PC, it freezes on the blue shutdown/restart screen while the circle with dots keeps turning.
I have tried to make a backup (non scheduled), a one-time full version, the back up will run for a few minutes before the PC freezes up again.
Also, when not using ATI2014, the PC will freeze after a few minutes. This happens when the PC is handling file operations.
I have reset my BIOS (Gigabyte) to a non Windows 8 UEFI settings, and this seems to work a little bit better. The PC freezes a lot less....but still freezes occasionally.
Removing ATI2014 altogether does solve the freezing problem, but its not really an option...
Has anyone experienced the same problems? Any suggestions how I could solve this?

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Managed to setup a boot USB today. Using the USB I was able to backup my drives :-)
This of course is not ideal, but at least I have a backup now.
So, anyone know what could be the problem? Computer still freezes after a few minutes, with only the mouse cursor still moving. I can alt-tab to different application a few times, even start the task manager. But that will stop al well and only the cursor remains. Looks like Acronis is 'freezing' the drives, so other applications (including the OS) are not able to get their drive commands through to the SSD.
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do you still have ati2014 installed? i have the same ssd and i'm having exactly the same problem, tried enabling ahci and turning off fast boot and nothing happened, if you find a solution please post it here.
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No, I have not installed ATI2014 as it keeps me from using my PC in a normal matter. But reading you have the same SSD as I have, and having no problems before with my Samsung 830 SSD and ATI2014, I am beginning to wonder if it has to do with the current firmware on the Crucial SSD in combination with ATI2014.
Is anyone else using the Crucial MX100 SSD having problems with ATI2014/2015 as well?
PS I used the Crucial SSD in another PC with Windows 7 Premium and had no trouble backing up....might be that Windows 8.1 has some influence as well.
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i will try to re-clone my hdd with another software, if that works then the problem has something to do with crucial ssd combined with acronis.
you mentioned that you used crucial ssd with a pc running win7, did you use this specific ssd (mx100)? or it was something else?
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It was the same 128GB Crucial MX100 SSD I used in the other computer. ATI2014 worked fine with this PC. Problems started when I installed it in my main PC with Windows 8.1 Pro.
Oke good to hear you are trying other software, keep me posted if it's working oke (or not)...
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Just a guess here but the Crucial MX100 is an edrive or self encrypting drive. Win 8, 8.1 install by default turns on bit locker encryption. There have been reports of conflict between the two. That could be what you are experiencing here.
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update:
i was searching for an alternative for cloning or changing os on the ssd and using these two options as a last resort. i was searching for every possible solution and found something, there is something called LPM (link power management) and it seems that other SSDs with different manufacturers had the same problem (or as i understood), turning off LPM for some reason solved the problem (apparently).
in normal situations, i could not even run my laptop for 5 minutes continuously, i ran my laptop for 20 minutes with no problem then turned on LPM and the problem occurred 2 minutes after that.
i still do not know if this is a temporary fix or an actual solution, but to turn off LPM do the following:
1) go to more power options (from the icon on the right side of the task bar)
2) click change plan settings (do this for all power plans)
3) click change advance power settings
4) scroll to PCI express open it and under it click on -link state power management-
5) turn it off for both when pc/laptop is on battery or plugged in
hope this works for you, i saw results even without restarting my laptop.
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LPM seems to be a problem for some SSD's including the Crucial MX100 especially when using Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers (iastor.sys). The MX100 drives utilize a built in power management feature that apparently conflicts with LPM especially Intel's version. In the advanced power settings outlined in the above post an LPM setting of "Active" is in fact a disabling of the LPM function and indicates that SATA ports are always full power on.
Some suggestions for users experiencing freezes and BSOD's with these and other SSD drives. First, make certain that your drive is compatible with LPM because the feature will not work unless the device supports it. Second, make certain all chipset, bios, and driver files are up to date with the latest releases. Third, if you are using Intel IRST drivers you may wish to experiment with some older versions of these drivers especially if your motherboard is a bit dated and running an older controller. Forth, if using Intel IRST drivers and problems persist you would probably benefit from reverting back to the default MS controller drivers as they seem to work in most cases when the Intel drivers do not.
The main problem with LPM appears to be that the controller driver does not respond within the preset timeout period for the LPM low power function state. If you would like to use LPM for its power management advantages you might find the link below of benefit:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-…
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It's strange that i had a bsod after disabling lpm, ssd could not be recognised after that untill a day passed, i formatted the ssd. I will wait and do some more research. Do you think istalling these drivers before cloning is a bad idea? In other words, will these suggested drivers conflict with my current hdd?
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Thx for all the good info. Bitlocker is not enabled on my drive, so thats not the source of the problems.
I did experiment with LPM and it did improve responsiveness as I turned it off. But it did not solve the problem, it still freezes up my applications, it only takes longer. I was able to let the PC run for 20-30 minutes after which applications like Google Chrome would not open/refresh tabs with message 'waiting for cache'.
I was able to shutdown or restart the pc, but it would end up in the shutdown/restart screen and stay there without actually shutting down or restarting.
So that still leaves me clueless at what the problem is. The only thing I can now think of is that some non-essential microsoft update is interfering. I install all updates, including the less essential/non critical ones, so perhaps one of those is interfering somehow....
Anyways, thx for all the help so far!
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Crucial recommends that users experiencing problems such as posted here that they should revert default to MS AHCI drivers, set power options for SSD's to never power down, and update bios and chipset drivers to current versions. As for Acronis TI, you might try disabling the Non Stop Backup Service in Windows Task Manager to see if that helps.
Good Luck!
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Reverted back to MS AHCI drivers, SSD to never power down and disable the Non Stop Service....and still its freezes. I can validate a previous backup, but the PC becomes unresponsive once more when its done.
Guess I have only one way of backup with using the USB boot drive. I'll try to sort it our when I reinstall my PC again in the future, perhaps I can somehow fix it then.
Thx for all the help!
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hello jaoasun
It has been about a month now since my last comment. I installed windows 8.1 from scratch, somehow the problem has gone, i don't know what was the problem, but i think it's drivers related problem. in windows 8.1 installation window, i chose an option to never update drivers when updating windows and till now i had zero problems. i will stay on this clean version of windows as the laptop came with bloated system (thanks acer!) and i will keep you updated.
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