Very low SSD Speeds

[astrais]

Hi,
When I first reinstalled windows vista 32bit on my SSD with my HDD unplugged, it was really fast although I did not check the speeds, now after around 1 month of usage and 20gb free its just the same as a regular HDD. The speeds now are
AS SSD Benchmark 1.6.4237.30508
------------------------------
Name: KINGSTON SVP200S360G ATA Device
Firmware: 501ABBF0
Controller: pciide
Offset: 1024 K - OK
Size: 55.90 GB
Date: 02/10/2012 18:34:17
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 143.32 MB/s
Write: 57.43 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 14.49 MB/s
Write: 36.71 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 17.04 MB/s
Write: 54.17 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.250 ms
Write: 0.314 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 46
Write: 97
Total: 168
------------------------------


It is the Kingston 60gb SSDNOW V200+
I have it on IDE mode, when I tried to change it, it started loading windows then gave me BSOD. My Motherboard supports only Sata 3gbs

 

[hitesh12]

Speeds are quite low. Can it be due to low space left ?

 

[RealBeast]

If you are using an Intel based chipset motherboard and Windows 7 it is pretty easy to change to AHCI mode:

Open the registry editor by typing regedit in the start button run box. The navigate to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci go to the start key and modify the value of that start key to 0 -- it is probably 3 right now.

Save the change by clicking OK then exit the registry editor and restart, during restart enter the bios and change to AHCI mode for your SATA.

Also check to see if your model is listed as one that needs a firmware update for slow seq read/write issues: http://www.kingston.com/us/support/technical/downloads?product=SV200S3&filename=SV200S3_64G_128G_e120506a

I would also create more free space, which should improve speeds by moving the paging file off the SSD to a HDD, turn off system restore, insure that your system has hibernation disabled to get rid of the big hibernation system file.

 

[astrais]

I got it to AHCI Mode, my SSD only is on AHCI. By using microsofts fix it tool. It did it for me

 

[astrais]

Speeds went up by 5mbs

 

[RealBeast]

I got it to AHCI Mode, my SSD only is on AHCI. By using microsofts fix it tool. It did it for me

The fix it just changes the msahci registry key to 0.

Work on the free space and check on the latest toolbox.

 

[astrais]

I updated the firmware not with link. Firmware update worked no improvement in speed though. I have the latest toolbox what do i do with it?

 

[RealBeast]

The toolbox should allow you to check the status of the drive with the SMART reporting that it does to insure that the drive integrity is okay.

Since you are running AHCI now and getting no improvement, you may need to do a clean reinstall after a secure erase of the drive. I don't know if that firmware only fixes the issue with the drive but still requires a clean re-install -- I would check with Kingston support for that answer.

 

[astrais]

Here is what smart read says SMART READ DATA
Revision: 10
Attributes List
1: (SSD Raw Read Error Rate) Normalized Rate: 108 Sectors Read: 17541528 Read Errors: 0
5: (SSD Retired Block Count) Spare blocks remaining 100% Retired Block 0
9: (SSD Power-On Hours) Value 0 Total 401 hrs 14 mins
12: (SSD Power Cycle Count) Power Cycle Life Remaining 0% Number of power cycles 4294967293
171: (SSD Program Fail Count) Program Error Count 0
172: (SSD Erase Fail Count) Erase Error Count 0
174: (SSD Unexpected power loss count) Unexpected power loss Count 22
177: (Wear Range Delta) Wear Range Delta 1%
181: (Program Fail Count) Program Error Count 0
182: (Erase Fail Count) Erase Error Count 0
187: (SSD Reported Uncorrectable Errors) Normalized Value 100 lifetime URAISE Errors 0
194: (SSD Temperature Monitoring) Normalized temp 26 Current 26 High 78 Low 19
195: (SSD ECC On-the-fly Count) Normalized Value 120 Sectors Read 17541528 UECC Count 0
196: (SSD Reallocation Event Count) Normalized Value 100 Reallocation Event Count 0
201: (SSD Uncorrectable Soft Read Error Rate)Normalized Value 120 Sectors Read 17541528 Uncorrectable Soft Error Count 0
204: (SSD Soft ECC Correction Rate (RAISE) Normalized Value 120 Sectors Read 17541528 Soft ECC Correction Count 0
230: (SSD Life Curve Status) Normalized Value 100
231: (SSD Life Left) Life Remaining 100%
233: (SSD Internal Reserved) 500
234: (SSD Internal Reserved) 584
241: (SSD Lifetime writes from host) lifetime writes 584
242: (SSD Lifetime reads from host) lifetime reads 653

 

[RealBeast]

SMART results look fine to me, like a pretty new drive.

 

[astrais]

If SMART results are fine, what could be the problem to the very low speeds. I am using SATA 3gbs. I believe I have a marvell controller. I updated the firmware to the latest, I changed to AHCI Mode. Any other ideas?

 

[astrais]

I have vista 32bit which does not have TRIM enabled. I do not plan on getting Windows 7 or 8.

 

[mad-max79]

Is it possible to try the native SATA controller, not the Marvell?
Do you some additional infos about your System? Mainboard, CPU ...

 

[astrais]

AMD FX 8120 3.1
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro Rev.11
Asus M5A78L-M USB 3 Motherboard
4GB DDR3 RAM
SAMSUNG 500GB HDD 5400RPM
KINGSTON SSDNOW V200+ 60GB LASTEST FIRMWARE

 

[astrais]

Corsair GS600(tried 2 PSUs no difference)

 

[RealBeast]

The garbage collection should be adequate although not as efficient as TRIM.

What model is your motherboard, i.e. does it have Intel SATA II ports also? If so, use them instead of the Marvell ports.

 

[astrais]

I listed my motherboard in a previous post Asus M5A78L-M USB 3 Motherboard

 

[astrais]

This SSD is causing my system to randomly restart and very low speeds. Here is AS SSD

On the 4K-64THRD my system locked up for like 2min everything froze.

 

[RealBeast]

Those scores are about right for that drive -- slow but in line: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1005/12/

As far as all the issues with your system it is more likely a corrupted driver or some other OS thing than the SSD, unless replacing the SSD causes it to stop. If it were me, I would do a repair install of your OS -- that saves all your data and program installs and just forces you to reinstall all the updates for Windows. The reason I would do that is that it is faster than trying to test each piece of HW and is a likely cause that is pretty quick to either fix or eliminate.

 

[astrais]

When I first installed the SSD on a fresh Windows Vista install it was lightning fast. Nothing compared to now. So I dont understand how it could be a driver issue, I also installed AMD AHCI Dirvers now.

 

[RealBeast]

I would run Kapersky Rescue Disk 10 (free download: http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/rescuedisk?level=2 ) and boot from it just to be sure the system is clean. I would also run the free memtest86+ ( http://www.memtest.org/ ) to test the memory as I've seen memory issues cause similar problems. And then I would do a repair install.

I've done a number of repair installs on previously fine Windows installations that suddenly ran poorly and it was due to corrupt registry entries that the reinstall solved.

 

[astrais]

Well I have already ran memtest for 8hrs with 8 passes no errors. I will try the other soultions

 

[astrais]

I will be getting Windows 8 in 2 weeks.