Another Intel SSD thread needing help.

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nowwhatnapster

Limp Gawd
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Hey all, I have a SSDSA2MH080G2R5 I picked up in early September 2009. I'm reading through threads here and I have a feeling my drive is not setup properly and I am gimping my performance!

I initially had this drive installed with XP 32-bit, I switched to Windows 7 64-bit in October. Below are things I did:

  • Regular install of windows 7 (my partition is aligned properly, I checked using this tool)
  • Turned off disk defrag
  • Disabled hibernation (to save space)
These are things I believe I need to address:
  • Not sure if TRIM is working
  • I have not update the firmware, Current firmware reported by Crystal disk info is "2CV102G9"
  • I have not changed BIOS settings

Question 1: I tried to check if TRIM was working with the "Intel toolbox", but the program is not recognizing my drive, I get "Error connecting to drive", I would assume this is due to the firmware being outdated. Anyone else get this? As a result I can't really check to see if TRIM is working, Windows 7 is reporting TRIM is working,
Code: 
C:\>fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
DisableDeleteNotify = 0
but lord knows if the drive is receiving the commands.

Question 2: I am going to update the firmware from "2CV102G9" to "2CV102HD" anything I need to be aware of? Like drives getting bricked or operating systems needing to be reinstalled.

Question 3: Which Bios Settings should I have turned on for best performance? There were like 2 or 3 I remember seeing that I left on default, Native mode and ACHP? I?

Question 4: I read that keeping up to 30% of your disk free will optimize its performance due to scratch space it uses. Is this true?

Off topic but, Question 5: any idea when TRIM will work in Raid? would love to raid 0 these for increased space/performance.
 
Update it to 02HD.
AHCI is reccomended for the Intel SSD's but if your on IDE your not missing out on much imho.
I've also heard about leaving space but I thought it was 20%.
Download and install Intel's SSD toolbox.
Run the optimizer.
Run the optimizer after that about every 2-3 weeks for normal use.
Enjoy.
 
where can you see that trim is working though? because windoes 7 will make trim work automaticaly so you dont have to run hte intel tool box optimizer right?
 
You still want to run the optimizer every so often. Trim only does so much. I have a Vertex, so for me I run Wiper.exe and I run it about every 2-3 weeks and I can tell it is finding stuff to do even though I have the Trim firmware. Just a reccomendation. Also, since you have been running without Trim you will definately want to run it right after you install 02HD to do an initial cleanup.

I think CrystalDiskInfo will tell you if Trim is indeed working both ways, as in Win7 is sending the commands and the drive is responding. Other than that, watch the hard drive light. lol When you delete something you should see the initial delete activity and then a second later the Trim activity. Weak I know, but that's all I got. ;)
 
If your benchmarks are about the same week in and week out, TRIM is probably working, but if its not, you may not have TRIM working. What motherboard do you have ? This will make a big difference. I have a eVGA 780i with nVidia chipset not Intel, and I did not have TRIM command sent even though TRIM is enabled as you have it shown using cmd (C:\>fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
DisableDeleteNotify = 0)

This is what I had to do to get TRIM working along with using Perfectdisk 11 that helped some.... [If you have an Intel chipset, then you don't have to worry about having to do the below)

How to replace your nVidia Controller to the Microsoft "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" which helped in getting better performance benchmark numbers pluse knowing that TRIM is actually activated and working on your eVGA 780i/750i mobo with nVidia controllers....

1... (Device Manager)

Go into Device Manager by way of Start > typing in the Search Box above Start, "Device Manager" > Click on device manager in the box above when it appears.

2. Find (Near the bottom of the list) and click on Storage Controller where you will find the nVidia installed Controller drivers and right click your mouse button on it.

3...Click on “Update Driver”

4...Choose and click on “Browse” for drivers

5...You will now see two suggestions, one being "Search Automatically" or below that "Browse my computer". Click on “Browse”.

6...Next box, you are met with two selections, one being "Browse" and the next one "Let me pick" and that is the one you select.

7...Next box pop up, you will see "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" from Microsoft and this is the one to click on. You will then be required to restart the system then restart again a few moments later. Now you have the Microsoft Controller and not nVidia, which should give you a better SSD performance.

After doing this, you will then find that a new entry will be made near the upper third of Device Manager list "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller" If you click on this you will find the Microsoft drivers listed.
 
ok nub question:
in windows comand prompt i need admin privileges to use FSUTIL. how to i give myself those?

edit... lol
fail just figured it out
 
right click on the dos/command prompt icon under accessories and select run as administrator.
 
02HA (the pulled one) and 02HD are the ones that support TRIM. With 02G9, TRIM isn't supported, so it cannot be working on your system.

I'm not sure if there's a surefire way to see if TRIM is working, other than benchmarking before and after a bunch of usage. Some people have said that DisableDeleteNotify only shows if it's enabled in the OS and that the indicator in some diagnostic apps only indicates if it's supported by the SSD. In other words, neither option really shows if it's working. Hopefully there is a simple, reliable way to tell, but so far there seems to be confusion with many of the available options.
 
Shouldn't need to run the Optimizer regularly at all if TRIM is working properly imo... But yeah, as Bill said, other than filling it up to capacity a few times and deleting stuff again then benchnmarking, I'm not sure there's a sure-fire way to tell it's working... Tho it's usually working fine if you have the proper drivers installed, you should run the Optimizer right after you've flashed it over to the TRIM-aware firmware tho.
 
Well finally i got my power back and got a change to upgrade the firmware on my drive.

It is now running 02HD without any issues. In CrystalDiscInfo "TRIM" is no longer greyed out. So it is safe to assume TRIM was not working before this.

Intel Tool kit still does not recognize my drive.

In response to SR45: yes I have an nvidia chip set. XFX 790i SLI, so this may be part of the reason the Tool kit is not working. I will look into the fix you reccomended.
 
here are my current results after the 02HD flash, let me know if these numbers seem good.

Benchmark%20-%202010-03-20%20-%20After%2002HD%20flash.png
 
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the drive obviously needs to be trimmed, when your writes are low like that.

Download this:
Intel SSD toolbox: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455

and

new INTEL motherboard drivers: http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15251/eng/STOR_allOS_9.6.0.1014_PV.exe (NEVERMIND just saw your post about Nvidia mobo... too bad)

Run the toolbox, pick the drive, click Management Tools, click Run. Things should turn green, means your drive has been trimmed.

Then from here on out your drive should stay trimmed, with those new drivers installed.

Rebenchmark when you're done & post your results
 
nowwhatnapster said:
In response to SR45: yes I have an nvidia chip set. XFX 790i SLI, so this may be part of the reason the Tool kit is not working. I will look into the fix you reccomended.
Click to expand...

Intel drivers aren't going to help him.

I've seen some comments about problems using SSDs (at least Intel) on nForce boards. It doesn't apply to me, so I didn't pay much attention to the details, but that's probably what you're running into.
 
InvisiBill said:
Intel drivers aren't going to help him.

I've seen some comments about problems using SSDs (at least Intel) on nForce boards. It doesn't apply to me, so I didn't pay much attention to the details, but that's probably what you're running into.
Click to expand...

they did just help. I did the procedure SR45 talked about to change my nvidia ide drivers to the standard microsoft drivers. after two reboots everything was installed and now my SSD is recognized by the SSD Toolbox. Which means I get to run the optimizer finally. I will post back with new benchmarks when it is done.

here we go, looks much better on the writes. someone let me know if these numbers seem acceptable.

Benchmark_2010-03-21_After_02HD_flash_and_optimizer.png
 
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