C300 Stuttering

[Old Hippie]

The OP has an older Intel mobile (M) chipset with a small 64GB drive and depending on how much space is used could have been a problem.

Maybe some of this stuttering can be attributed to the lack of unused space on the smaller drives but no one seems to post the drive size and used space.

If Anand's article is correct and the Crucial drives wait for GC, that could be a factor.

I only use @ 50GB of my 256GB drive and have never used over 50% of any SSD.

Maybe that's why I have no problems.

If you're filling an SSD to 80% capacity and wanting to do intensive work it's probably gonna cause a slowdown.

Edit.....For the most part my SSD experiences have been in RAID0 with no TRIM avaliable.

So even without TRIM it looks as if the unused space is a definate factor in some circumstances.

 

[Edrick]

I have a new C300 128GB with a P67 MB and have no issues.

After reading this thread, I applied the registry changes just as a preaution. After applying them, I saw no changes in speed. And still no shuttering.

So I can attest this issue is not happening on ALL P67 MBs with a C300.

I do have a new Win7 64 build with the latest Intel RST & Chipset drivers. The C300 has the latest 006 firmware and I disabled write cache flushing.

 

[taltamir]

it is possible that it is a defective drive. I still want to hear whether or not he has TRIM
it can also be any other issue... the last person here asking about his stuttering SSD only 2 weeks ago (an intel G2) turned out to have defective ram. he had ram errors as confirmed by memtest. he took out the defective stick and mem errors went away... then he bought an intel G2, and while installing it also put the defective ram back in, for no reason whatsoever. And then his "intel G2 was stuttering"... Now, I am not saying that this is the case here, I am just saying that all aspects of the system should be tested to make sure that the SSD is really the cause of the stuttering.

 

[Edrick]

I am just saying that all aspects of the system should be tested to make sure that the HDD is really the cause of the stuttering.

+1

You should always rule out all other components first.

 

[Arcadio]

Try the built-in MSACHI driver rather than the Intel AHCI driver.. It's the most compatible driver and the performance difference is small.

I tried this, and so far it looks like it fixed the problem. No stuttering issues yesterday or today... so far.

Does anyone know the drawbacks of using the MS AHCI driver? Is TRIM still available?

 

[Edrick]

Does anyone know the drawbacks of using the MS AHCI driver? Is TRIM still available?

Yes, TRIM is available on the MS driver for Win7.

 

[Burner27]

I think its luck of the draw. I have the C300 and a P67 motherboard. Mine stuttered and I too get that error in event viewer. I did the fix posted at crucial forums and its been all good since. For some the fix works and for others it doesn't yet we have almost the same hardware go figure...

Same BIOS?

 

[Burner27]

I tried this, and so far it looks like it fixed the problem. No stuttering issues yesterday or today... so far.

Does anyone know the drawbacks of using the MS AHCI driver? Is TRIM still available?

Did you try disabling C3 reporting in the BIOS?

 

[Arcadio]

Did you try disabling C3 reporting in the BIOS?

I disabled C6. It didn't work. Then I tried installing the MS AHCI driver instead of the Intel Driver, and that seemed to work. I didn't try disabling C3. I saw your post about disabling C3 after I installed the MS AHCI driver.

 

[Burner27]

I disabled C6. It didn't work. Then I tried installing the MS AHCI driver instead of the Intel Driver, and that seemed to work. I didn't try disabling C3. I saw your post about disabling C3 after I installed the MS AHCI driver.

Try it anyway as it has been mentioned on other forums as an 'issue'. It won't do anything in terms of performance. I had the issue where my PC would just lock up. I disabled C3 and C6 reporting and all is well. In fact, I turned C6 reporting back on and I am still running fine.

Try it.

 

[Arcadio]

Crucial will release new firmware for the C300.... This should fix the stuttering issue...

 

[Old Hippie]

Crucial will release new firmware for the C300.... This should fix the stuttering issue...

I'd like to know the percentage of the units affected.

I've never had a problem.

Edit. Just for shits and giggles I installed the Intel Beta drivers (10.1.2.1004) but they didn't seem to make a difference in speed. For all I know these drivers may include a "fix" for the C300s from Intel.

I got the drivers from Station Drivers that always seems to have the Beta Intel drivers.

 

[finbarqs]

don't think i've experienced the stuttering on my gf's c300 256gb... Thank god HP started throwing in the C300 as opposed to samsung's in their SSD manufacturers!

 

[LamTek]

I have stuttering on my 256GB C300 on a eVGA X58 SLI (ICH10). I've tried both the MSAHCI and the Intel RST drivers, with the Intel one's getting more stutter. The stuttering did go away when I disabled the Windows flush write cache feature though so that definitely helped my specific case of stuttering.

 

[Old Hippie]

I have stuttering on my 256GB C300 on a eVGA X58 SLI (ICH10). I've tried both the MSAHCI and the Intel RST drivers, with the Intel one's getting more stutter. The stuttering did go away when I disabled the Windows flush write cache feature though so that definitely helped my specific case of stuttering.

Go in and set your power usage so that the HD never turns off and disable hibernation.

Should work with the Intel drivers also.

 

[poohbear]

the C300 006 bios has had some ppl experiencing stuttering on it, especially those that did the firmware upgrade in AHCI mode instead of IDE mode. Other ppl experienced no such stutter. I opted to stick w/ my 002 firmware and play it safe since it works fine. if u check on the Crucial forums there are all kinds of tips ppl were giving that apparently minimized it. Go their official forums and check it out. good luck!

 

[finbarqs]

damn... this lottery-like purchase will put a lot of people off!!!

 

[Old Hippie]

damn... this lottery-like purchase will put a lot of people off!!!

The stuttering problem is probably less than 1% and I have no idea why it's gotten so much attention.

Go buy an OCZ drive is this really bothers you.

 

[finbarqs]

i have an intel drive, and my gf has a corsair c300 drive... I don't think she has any stuttering issues...

 

[Arcadio]

Edit. Just for shits and giggles I installed the Intel Beta drivers (10.1.2.1004) but they didn't seem to make a difference in speed. For all I know these drivers may include a "fix" for the C300s from Intel.

I got the drivers from Station Drivers that always seems to have the Intel drivers.

Excellent. I installed those drivers and the C300 is working flawlessly. No more stuttering. Reps.

 

[Old Hippie]

Excellent. I installed those drivers and the C300 is working flawlessly. No more stuttering. Reps.

Cool!

I had read that Intel was revising the drivers and hoped they would fix the LPM issue.

It's seems strange you tried the registry trick and it didn't work so it's pretty obvious Intel has another work around.

I'm always hesitant to recommend Beta drivers but I'm glad they worked for you.

 

[finbarqs]

great! I almost wanted to call this the "SSD's Speech"... Actually that wasn't funny...

 

[LamTek]

Go in and set your power usage so that the HD never turns off and disable hibernation.

Should work with the Intel drivers also.

Wouldn't that also disable my other mechanical drives from going to sleep or is there a way to set a single drive to just never shut off. In either case I tried it and didn't help.

Still been meaning to try to the Intel RST drivers.

 

[finbarqs]

gf had her c300 for a while now, nothing major is happening! no stuttering... yay!