The company on Monday made available a software package called SSD Toolbox to monitor and manage the performance and health of X25-M SSDs on systems running the Windows 7 OS. The package included a firmware upgrade and software called SSD Optimizer that included diagnostic tools to help keep the Intel SSD running at high performance.

"We have been contacted by users with issues with the 34-nanometer Intel SSD firmware upgrade and are investigating. We take all sightings and issues seriously and are working toward resolution. We have temporarily taken down the firmware link while we investigate," an Intel spokesman said in an e-mail.

The spokesman declined to comment on when the company would issue updated firmware. Intel declined comment on potential problems users could face, but in a , users said the firmware led to driver problems that crashed SSDs, making systems with the Windows 7 OS unusable.

"Upon rebooting into Windows 7, Windows began installing new drivers automatically. Don't know what it was installing, but it requested a reboot when it was done and poof!" a poster who went by the name of Georgewillow. The system prevented a reinstall of Windows 7, citing problems detected by the disk monitoring function built into the hardware.

After installing the firmware, a poster named Shade on rebooting a Windows 7 system that read "A disk read error has occurred. Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to reboot." Though the SSD with the Windows 7 OS was inoperable, a drive with the Windows Vista OS was accessible, Shade wrote.