ASUS Z170 Deluxe. Slow SATA hard disk speed on cold boot.

[Loftus]

Hi,

I have a problem with the SATA hard disk speed on my PC.

When I first boot of my PC every day (cold boot), my SATA hard disks run very slowly. They run at 10% of their normal speed. If I reboot the PC again, the disks run at the correct speed. Every day I have to boot my PC twice to fix the issues. The issue does not affect my SSD drives.

My build is:

Asus Z170 Deluxe motherboard - BIOS 3007
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.
1 X Hitachi 4TB Hard Disk (slow on 1st boot)
1 X Hitachi 2 TB Hard Disk (slow on 1st boot)
2 X SSD
Intel ME driver 11.6.0.1032
Intel MEI driver 11.60.0.1032
Intel Chipset 10.1.1.27

I am using the Intel SATA 3 controller ports. I have loaded the latest Asus bios (3007) and Intel chipset drivers and it did not fix the issue. I have checked disk activity with process monitor and there are no processes using these disks and slowing them down.

Any ideas on what could be causing this issue?

 

[UsandThem]

I was a having a similar issue with a SSD that wasn't performing as well as it should. I tried everything to figure it out, I thought, but it turned out to be one thing I never thought of. It turned out to be the Intel SATA AHCI drivers that were holding it back. I installed the default Windows SATA AHCI driver, and everything performed as it should. Maybe try uninstalling the Intel drivers and see if it fixes your issues.

My thread if you want to read through it is here. In the first post I list all the steps I checked prior to another member suggesting to try the default Windows driver. You can look at those steps to make sure you are good on them as well.

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...rus-needed-slow-850-evo-issue-solved.2498047/

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Hi,

I have a problem with the SATA hard disk speed on my PC.

When I first boot of my PC every day (cold boot), my SATA hard disks run very slowly. They run at 10% of their normal speed. If I reboot the PC again, the disks run at the correct speed. Every day I have to boot my PC twice to fix the issues. The issue does not affect my SSD drives.

My build is:

Asus Z170 Deluxe motherboard - BIOS 3007
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.
1 X Hitachi 4TB Hard Disk (slow on 1st boot)
1 X Hitachi 2 TB Hard Disk (slow on 1st boot)
2 X SSD
Intel ME driver 11.6.0.1032
Intel MEI driver 11.60.0.1032
Intel Chipset 10.1.1.27

I am using the Intel SATA 3 controller ports. I have loaded the latest Asus bios (3007) and Intel chipset drivers and it did not fix the issue. I have checked disk activity with process monitor and there are no processes using these disks and slowing them down.

Any ideas on what could be causing this issue?

The Deluxe would be similar to my Sabertooth Z170. I haven't myself noticed any such problem on my rig. If I did, though, I'd look at the configuration of your PCH Storage menu and the other menu which includes the option for [M.2]/[SATA-Express] setting. [Or was it "PCI-Express?] You know what I mean.

You would have listed having an M.2 drive in your motherboard slot. M.2 in "M.2" mode is supposed to share bandwidth with ports 0 and 1 (or call them 1 and 2) -- the upper pair of ports on the board in line with the little short port that makes all three ready for SATA-Express drives.

I'd say look at device manager and see if the Intel drivers are properly configured with no indications.

As for the ME or MEI driver, that's not essential to anything -- I am not sure that would even be called a "driver." But you might try reinstalling the IRST SATA/RAID driver with the IRST front-end that appears in your system tray. You surely wouldn't be using the MS Native MSAHCI driver. If something is misconfigured, it might show in Device Manager.

How are these things configured? In AHCI or RAID mode? Which ports connected? Have you added anything to your bottom PCIE slot that can run at x2 or x4 (should be the same for your Deluxe)? that slot will either use x2 or x4 -- or it should be disabled for SATA ports 5 and 6 (or 4 and 5 starting from 0). Those two ports are on the left end of the SATA port bank, or the opposite side of the stub-port I mentioned -- one on top, one on the bottom.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I was a having a similar issue with a SSD that wasn't performing as well as it should. I tried everything to figure it out, I thought, but it turned out to be one thing I never thought of. It turned out to be the Intel SATA AHCI drivers that were holding it back. I installed the default Windows SATA AHCI driver, and everything performed as it should. Maybe try uninstalling the Intel drivers and see if it fixes your issues.

My thread if you want to read through it is here. In the first post I list all the steps I checked prior to another member suggesting to try the default Windows driver. You can look at those steps to make sure you are good on them as well.

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...rus-needed-slow-850-evo-issue-solved.2498047/

And also two thumbs up and +1 to that.

By the way. Since it comes up here. I've been posting at Operating Systems with another user who is troubleshooting his Windows Event Logs for Windows 10. I hadn't discussed this, but this was my observation.

IRST installs properly, but there is no success creating a Windows Restore Checkpoint -- which should also throw a VSS shadow-copy error in the logs. My VSS is working fine as far as I can see. Maybe this behavior is due to the fact that IRST version X+1 has to manage existing installation of version X while the installation proceeds. I cannot say.

It didn't create a problem for me, but if I update IRST again, I'm going to uninstall the earlier version completely first, letting the Windows Native driver function through the beginning of the X+1 install.

 

[Loftus]

To clarify a few of the points above.

I am using the default microsoft Windows SATA drivers. I previously un-installed the Intel AHCI drivers. It made no difference to the issue.

I am running the drives in AHCI mode. I am not using RAID.

I have the motherboard M2 and SATA express SATA mode set as 'SATA-Express'. (I tried M2 and my G: drive (Samsung EVO SSD) dissapeared.)

I have the following disk layout:

Plextor PCI Express disk - mounts as drive H:

SATA port 1: empty
SATA port 2: Samsung SSD EVO 1TB - mounts as G:
SATA port 3: Hitachi 4TB Hard disk - mounts as D:
SATA port 4: Intel SSD 240 GB - mounts as C:
SATA port 5: Empty
SATA port 6: Hitachi 2TB Hard disk - mounts as E:

It's the hard disks on port 3 and port 6 which give the problem on a cold boot. On a reboot they are fine.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I was a having a similar issue with a SSD that wasn't performing as well as it should. I tried everything to figure it out, I thought, but it turned out to be one thing I never thought of. It turned out to be the Intel SATA AHCI drivers that were holding it back. I installed the default Windows SATA AHCI driver, and everything performed as it should. Maybe try uninstalling the Intel drivers and see if it fixes your issues.

My thread if you want to read through it is here. In the first post I list all the steps I checked prior to another member suggesting to try the default Windows driver. You can look at those steps to make sure you are good on them as well.

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...rus-needed-slow-850-evo-issue-solved.2498047/

I've been on both sides of that issue and I'd tell anyone the Win native drivers are good and reliable. If you're having trouble with a particular Intel chipset and Intel IRST driver software, put it aside and use the MS driver.

On the other hand, I had come to a point where a second-to-last driver update was required for a chipset driver upgrade, or something similar. Or maybe there was something else -- for instance, Samsung Magician might mention a compatibility problem with one version of IRST and recommends upgrading to a different version.

The worst that can happen -- or that should happen if it doesn't work for you -- you can go back to the native drivers.

But if I install another controller -- say a Marvell PCIEx1 -- it, too, will use the native drivers. If the controller would appear in "storage controllers" with its own driver, I'd opt for that rather than have a string of 8 ports and the generic listing for "AHCI controller" listed in the node for those. Eventually, you find what works best all the way around. You make it work, even for troubleshooting which version of a driver you might use. But there's always the native driver if you need it.

 

[Loftus]

To clarify a few of the points above.

I am using the default microsoft Windows SATA drivers. I previously un-installed the Intel AHCI drivers. It made no difference to the issue.

I am running the drives in AHCI mode. I am not using RAID.

I have the motherboard M2 and SATA express SATA mode set as 'SATA-Express'. (I tried M2 and my G: drive (Samsung EVO SSD) dissapeared.)

I have the following disk layout:

Plextor PCI Express disk - mounts as drive H:

SATA port 1: empty
SATA port 2: Samsung SSD EVO 1TB - mounts as G:
SATA port 3: Hitachi 4TB Hard disk - mounts as D:
SATA port 4: Intel SSD 240 GB - mounts as C:
SATA port 5: Empty
SATA port 6: Hitachi 2TB Hard disk - mounts as E:

It's the hard disks on port 3 and port 6 which give the problem on a cold boot. On a reboot they are fine.

I have moved the disks to different SATA ports. I now have:

Plextor PCI Express disk - mounts as drive H:
SATA port 1: Hitachi 4TB Hard disk - mounts as D:
SATA port 2: Hitachi 2TB Hard disk - mounts as E:
SATA port 3: Intel SSD 240 GB - mounts as C:
SATA port 4: Empty
SATA port 5: Empty
SATA Port 6: Samsung SSD EVO 1TB - mounts as G:

I'm still getting the same issue with very slow hard disk on a cold boot. Next test is to connect the two hard disks to the Asmedia controller.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have moved the disks to different SATA ports. I now have:

Plextor PCI Express disk - mounts as drive H:
SATA port 1: Hitachi 4TB Hard disk - mounts as D:
SATA port 2: Hitachi 2TB Hard disk - mounts as E:
SATA port 3: Intel SSD 240 GB - mounts as C:
SATA port 4: Empty
SATA port 5: Empty
SATA Port 6: Samsung SSD EVO 1TB - mounts as G:

I'm still getting the same issue with very slow hard disk on a cold boot. Next test is to connect the two hard disks to the Asmedia controller.

I'm just coming in here for a minute, can't review entire thread, but I looked at my last post and your first post.

Might you be able to try this? Uninstall the IRST and ME software; update the IRST software and -- if you don't need ME -- try the system without it. If you need it, find an update and install it, too . . . .

 

[lopri]

It could be some sort of RAM caching or Windows Hibernation issue. Have you tried that route?

Also, check the Task Manager when the HDDs are slow to see if anything looks suspicious. Processes taking up lots of RAM or CPU cycles are obvious first target for troubleshooting.

Edit: How do you mean by slow HDD? Are you talking about boot time, or do you see slow file transfer speed after boot is complete?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It could be some sort of RAM caching or Windows Hibernation issue. Have you tried that route?

Also, check the Task Manager when the HDDs are slow to see if anything looks suspicious. Processes taking up lots of RAM or CPU cycles are obvious first target for troubleshooting.

Edit: How do you mean by slow HDD? Are you talking about boot time, or do you see slow file transfer speed after boot is complete?

I agree with all that 100%. I'm wondering if it couldn't be some sort of driver conflict causing high number of DPCs. He might want to get the freeware "Latency checker" to see if it turns up something.

 

[Loftus]

I'm having problems getting my graphics card out so I can move the disks onto the Asmedia SATA ports. In the meantime...

Here is a screen-shot of a HD Tune benchmark after a cold boot (powering the PC on from off:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20683608/SlowHD.png

Here is a screen-shot of the same benchmark after a re-boot (shutdown>restart):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20683608/normalhd.png

Quite a difference in speed.

 

[Loftus]

I switched the 2 hard disks to the Asmedia SATA ports. I still have the same problem with very slow disks on a cold boot. Conclusion. It's nothing to do with the Intel/Asmedia SATA disk controller.

I am going to open a support case with Asus next.

 

[Mark_Venture]

@Loftus , Did you ever find a solution?

Just curious... I'm seeing something funky with hard drives on my Z170-Deluxe (3007 and 3201 bios)... But it doesn't appear to be a slow down...

My setup is as follows...
P3: 500gb Samsung 850 EVO SSD (Bootmanager, WIn 7 64bit, Win 10)
P4: 250gb Samsung 840 SSD (Win 7 64bit)
P5: 1Tb Western Digital Black SATAII - WD1001FALS
P6: 3Tb Western Digital Blue SATA3 - WD30EZRZ
E1: 3Tb Western Digital Mainstream/Green SATA3 - WD30EZRX
E2: 4Tb Western Digital Blue SATA3 - WD40EZRZ3

Occasionally on warm boot, or when switching between Win 7 and Win 10, the WD30EZRX (E1) drive disappears from the system. Its not listed in the BIOS, and the OS doesn't see it. I moved the drives from E1 & E2 to P1 & P2, and I haven't seen the issue since.

NOTE: I also have a PCI-E SATA card plugged into PCIEX16_2.

I'm just curious if there are issues with this series/model motherboard, or if I just got a flakey unit.

 

[Loftus]

Update after a long while...

Finally I went to Asus support with this issue and they could not resolve it. They said it was probably a motherboard fault. So I bought an new motherboard (Z170-WS) and swapped out the Z170-Deluxe. Unfortunately I am still getting this issue.
I am thinking now that it must be a chipset compatibility issue with the Hitachi drives. I am going to find a different HDD brand and re-test.

 

[Loftus]

Ok. I finally solved this issue. It was the MSI Gaming App which I installed when I bought a MSI GTX1080. Somehow it was choking the SATA drives. Even when I thought they were running ok there were only benching at around 80 MB/Sec. After I uninstalled the MSI gaming app I am benching at 140 MB/Sec and I'm not getting the cold boot/reboot issues. It was probably the 'MSI_ActiveX_Service' which the gaming app installs. There are a few posts dotted around the MSI forums about this issue.