Help with Crucial M4 128

[theattrox]

http://i.imgur.com/KsmBS.png

I just downloaded AS SSD and these are the results. I'm not sure what the problem is can someone please tell me what to do?

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I'm guessing where it says "pciide - BAD" means you have it set to IDE in the bios instead of AHCI?

 

[jhansman]

Does your hardware support SATA 3, and do you have it connected to the correct port on your mobo? Give us some specs and we can better help you.

 

[theattrox]

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
CPU: i5-2500k
SSD : Crucial M4 128 Sata III

I checked the bios and it says IDE Slot 4: Crucial 128 Slave

I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing since I just built this computer 2 days ago.

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Hi theattrox,

The 'BAD' from AS SSD tells us that your CM4 is not correctly aligned.

Correct alignment is required to assure that a logical sector starts exactly at the beginning of a physical page of the SSD. Without correct alignment, the sector boundaries and the page boundaries will not match and sectors will span pages and thus a Windows write operation is required to clear two blocks rather than one (which may, for example, reduce write speed by 50%!).

I'm guessing that the incorrect alignment is as a result of cloning a Windows 7 image to your CM4. If you do a fresh install W7 looks after alignment for you. You can correct the alignment - I suggest you google to find the options.

You also need to use one of your native Intel sata 3 ports to get the best performance from your C4 and run in AHCI mode (AS SSD is telling us that the C4 is in IDE mode).

If you correct these things your C4 will fly.

Regds, JR

 

[theattrox]

http://i.imgur.com/IJiYK.png

I went into the BIOS and changed the controller to AHCI and the pcii-de BAD is gone now and there seems to be a slight improvement on the score. Does this score seem normal for my ssd or should I do something else?

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Hi theattrox,

The alignment was good all the time - I assumed the bad was referring to alignment, sorry.

Is the C4 plugged into one of your Native Intel sata 3 ports? It will go faster in one of these compared to the supplementary onboard controller.

Regds, JR

 

[theattrox]

How will I know which one is a native intel sata 3 port on my board?

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Your mobo user guide will tell you - they are usually colour coded. I would guess the two native Sata 3 ports are ports 0 and 1.

Regds, JR

 

[theattrox]

Ok, so it was plugged into GSATA3_6/7 (Controlled by Marvell 88SE9172 Chip) According to the manual. I unplugged the sata cord and inserted it to sata 0/1 (Controlled by Intel z68 chipset) and when I turned on my computer its stuck on "Loading Operating System..." not sure what to do now.

When I go into the BIOS under Standard CMOS Features it shows IDE Channel 1 Master [M4-CT128M4SSD2]

Should I plug this into slave?

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Have you got the Intel Ports running in AHCI mode? This is a separate BIOS setting to that for the Marvell ports, usually found in Advanced > Sata Configuration section.

Regds, JR

 

[theattrox]

I could not find what you were talking about in the Advanced BIOS. I'm in it right now and browsing this forum from my cell phone. But what I did find is the Hard Disk Boot Priority, I think it's trying to boot the Slave drive since i'm plugged into Master. Should I hit page up and make Master #1?

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Oh and make sure your SSD is at the top of the hard disk boot priority list.

Regds, JR

 

[theattrox]

I got it to boot, I changed the boot priority to the master drive. Going to run speed tests now and see if it worked.

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

I'll have a look at your mobo manual and let you know where the AHCI setting is. Give me 5 minutes.

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

I got it to boot, I changed the boot priority to the master drive. Going to run speed tests now and see if it worked.

I believe it will be in IDE mode so no there will be no improvement. We need to switch the Intel ports to AHCI.

 

[theattrox]

you're right I have to go back into the bios and find out how to do this.

 

[theattrox]

Would it be "PCH SATA Control Mode" in the CMOS Setup Utility? It's currently set to IDE.

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Would it be "PCH SATA Control Mode" in the CMOS Setup Utility? It's currently set to IDE.

Yep.

Set this to AHCI. (as per page 86 of your manual - I'm an Asus man so not that familiar with Gigabyte BIOS layout)

Regds, JR

 

[theattrox]

It all works now, I'm flying thanks to you JR!

http://i.imgur.com/Fy5P5.png

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Wow - that's more like it, well done :thumbsup:

My pleasure

Regds, JR

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Actually, will probbaly go even faster if you install the Intel RST Sata driver. Use version 10.6 as listed for your mobo here - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3912#dl

IRST has better caching and usually makes SSDs go faster.

Regds, JR

 

[theattrox]

Oh awesome i'm going to dl that right now.

My friend went and checked his bench mark as well and he has the pcii-bad as well.

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156
OCZ Agility 2

http://i.imgur.com/Jo8Dx.png

Should he do the same thing I did to fix the problem?

 

[Athadeus]

Yes.

Always use Intel SATA controller (unless you have some mad RAID card).
Marvell SATA controllers are less compatible and perform more poorly than Intel controllers.

Always use AHCI.
Having SATA controllers emulate legacy IDE is suck. Granted there isn't much performance difference for HDDs and on XP, using IDE is the easy route driver wise. You get NCQ (native command queueing) which provides much better performance for SSDs even for regular users, and vastly better performance for HDDs and SSDs in enterprise use. TRIM is also only available with AHCI, and you want TRIM to keep your drive running fast through its life.

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Should he do the same thing I did to fix the problem?

Yes - he should switch to AHCI and use a native Intel port.

I suspect he has installed Windows in IDE mode so he will have to apply a registry fix before he'll be able to boot in AHCI. Here's a link to instructions for doing this - http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/content.php?286-Change-from-IDE-to-AHCI-after-Installation

IRST will probably be worthwhile as well.

Regds, JR