SSD only working at SATA 2 in new netbook

[grayem]

Hi there,
I've been using an Acer Travelmate B113 with a Celeron 1017u for a couple of days and decided to buy and install an 840 evo in it last night, but after everything was done the software says that it's not running at SATA 3 which kinda sucks.

Is there anything that can be done such as updating chipset and / or AHCI drivers. I wiped the OEM installation of Windows 8 and did a clean install of 8.1, would this have caused any issues?

I checked HWiNFO and in the motherboard section it says:
SATA Ports 2 and 3: Supported
SATA Port 1 6Gb/s: Not Supported
SATA Port 0 6Gb/s: Supported

In the drive section:
Drive controller: Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 3Gb/s

This is the CrystalDiskMark benchmark that I ran.

Advice will be appreciated.
Thanks for reading

 

[corkyg]

SATA Port 0 is supported at SATA 3. Put the SSD there if you can. Seems like the question is, why is SATA Port 1 not supported? Also, the Drive Controller is not doing USB3.

Too bad you wiped the OEM setup. Any chance of restoring it?

 

[grayem]

Thanks for replying

Silly question but what does USB3 have to do with my SATA issue?
Do you mean that Port 0 is a 5Gb/s transfer that USB 3 supports?

Yes, looking back it was a bit silly to not clone the drive with the OEM install before wiping it. I don't have access to it at the moment but do you think that the Windows.old folder would help (but I can't remember if it's there or not). I'll also post more screenshots of the HWiNFO motherboard page.

On the Windows 8.1 driver page for the laptop there is a chipset driver from Intel and I also noticed that on the Windows 8 driver page there is a SATA AHCI driver from Intel.
Do you think that either one of these would solve my problem and will the driver made for 8 work with 8.1?


It couldn't be some fault in the drive could it?

 

[grayem]

So I checked and the Windows.old folder isn't there.
I also updated the Intel chipset and AHCI driver from the Acer drivers page but still no luck.

Used PC Wizard to get the following:

I also took a picture of the the bottom:

 

[corkyg]

Sorry - meant to say that SATA Port 0 supports SATA 3 (6 GBS) That is where the SSD should be. As far as the newer drivers go, try it and see. You can always revert back.

You need to D/L all the current Acer drivers for your netbook. A clean install loses all of those.

 

[grayem]

These are the downloadable drivers for Windows 8.1 64-bit.
Audio Driver
Bluetooth Driver
Card Reader Driver
Intel Chipset Driver 9.4.0.1026 5.3 MB 2013/10/12
Intel ME (Management Engine)Driver 9.5.14.1724 55.9 MB 2013/10/12
Other Drivers (RF Button)
Touchpad Driver
Intel VGA Driver
Wireless LAN

I downloaded and installed the Intel chipset driver (no change), would the Intel ME driver change anything?
The rest don't really have anything to do with SATA so installing them is not an immediate concern is it?

When I select Windows 8 64-bit as OS I get this extra driver:
Intel SATA AHCI Driver 11.5.0.1207

I installed this but again no difference.


Did you have a look at the top picture in my above post?

Disk controller: Intel 7 series/C216 chipset family SATA AHCI controller.
AHCI verision: 1.30
Port #0: ATA device detected - (generation 2) - [hotplug-no]
(As the ssd was connected shouldn't it be saying generation 3?)

 

[john3850]

So I checked and the Windows.old folder isn't there.
I also updated the Intel chipset and AHCI driver from the Acer drivers page but still no luck.

Used PC Wizard to get the following:

I also took a picture of the the bottom:

PC Wizard
Disk controller intel 7 series 216 chipset
Now under drive controller Features
Bandwith needs to be 6 gb/s for sata 3
Your bandwith only states 3 gb/s or sata 2

 

[Ketchup]

My quesitons would be:
1. How many SATA ports are available to you on this laptop?
2. Are these options in the BIOS for selecting SSD transfer rate (probably not on an Acer laptop, but worth a shot).

 

[grayem]

John3850
So basically, this is a hardware bottleneck in the laptop and whatever drivers I install is not going to change that 3Gb/s to 6Gb/s right?

ketchup79
It's a 11.6" netbook and I only have space for 1 2.5" 7mm drive, so I don't think that there are any other available SATA ports.
I'll have a look in the BIOS.

 

[Ketchup]

OK, based on what you see here:

SATA Ports 2 and 3: Supported
SATA Port 1 6Gb/s: Not Supported
SATA Port 0 6Gb/s: Supported

In the drive section:
Drive controller: Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 3Gb/s

The port 0 is set to 6 being available through the chipset, so it is going to be up to Acer if the laptop will let it run at that speed. The BIOS should reveal this. Last effort would be the BIOS update on their site which looks to be relatively recent.

Yes, I was skeptical when I saw 4 ports listed, so I just wanted to be sure of how many ports you are seeing.

 

[grayem]

Acer BIOS - UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades) 2.21 6.8 MB 2014/04/07
Acer BIOS 1.09 7.2 MB 2012/12/11

I did a fresh install of Windows 8.1 and the laptop automatically used the built-in OEM Windows 8 key to activate my fresh install, so I can't use the top BIOS update can I?

In the update readme it says:
How to update the BIOS:
Click "Q1VZC221.exe" under Winodows mode

Is it safe to do this from within Windows?

 

[Data-Medics]

Yes, it should be safe. Just make sure your battery is charged and the laptop doesn't get messed around with while it's updating.

 

[grayem]

Even though it says - "UEFI for Windows 8 (Not for Upgrades)" and I have 8.1?

 

[Ketchup]

I laughed when I viewed the README. What a joke. I don't know how anything could be damaged by being at 8.1 except the Windows license, which is held in the BIOS.

So if you really wanted to try the upgrade, make sure everything is backed up, including a copy of the last BIOS off the Acer site, just to be safe.

You could always ask Acer too.

 

[grayem]

I've never had to update a BIOS before but I couldn't believe what I saw in the readme.

I went into system information using msinfo32 and saw that the current BIOS version is v2.21 26/11/2013 while the one above is 2.21 07/04/2014.

So same version number but different dates, is it worth updating?

Below are the pages of BIOS:

 

[Ketchup]

About what I expected. You should still be experiencing performance far better than what a platter drive could offer. Just a bit below what the SSD could do.

Personally, I can tell a slight difference between the laptop and desktop, but they are both too fast for me to care.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

I've never had to update a BIOS before but I couldn't believe what I saw in the readme.

I went into system information using msinfo32 and saw that the current BIOS version is v2.21 26/11/2013 while the one above is 2.21 07/04/2014.

So same version number but different dates, is it worth updating?

Below are the pages of BIOS:

Version number isn't necessarily going to change. A lot of times it's the same version (may be tied to physical hardware) but the date will change. Newer date = newer BIOS.

 

[Ketchup]

Version number isn't necessarily going to change. A lot of times it's the same version (may be tied to physical hardware) but the date will change. Newer date = newer BIOS.

This is news to me. I have seen different dates due to the web page referring to data published on the site vs date of last compilation on the file, but never two different BIOSes with the same version number. I see two different BIOSes listed on the Acer site, and they have very different numbers.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

This is news to me. I have seen different dates due to the web page referring to data published on the site vs date of last compilation on the file, but never two different BIOSes with the same version number. I see two different BIOSes listed on the Acer site, and they have very different numbers.

I don't know about Acer but this is very much the case with HP server hardware. For example the DL380pGen8 I believe runs the P70 version BIOS and the release dates change.

If you are talking about the date published on the website and not a date that shows up as part of the BIOS version then that's something else and I want aware that was what you are talking about.

 

[grayem]

I was just wondering.
A long shot, but would installing the Windows 10 Technical preview change anything with my issue?

I've been wanting to install it on my main computer but if it can help with the SATA issue, I don't mind running it in my netbook (dual boot with 8.1).

 

[corkyg]

Odds are the Win10 option won't make much difference. It will change nothing in your hardware.

 

[grayem]

So just to confirm, there is nothing that I can do to increase transfer speeds right?

 

[VirtualLarry]

It should be stated at this point that some laptop makers, though they use a chipset that is capable of SATA6G, will limit the speed of the ports to 3G, to save power. You might need a modded BIOS if your chipset is physically-capable, but is not showing up that way in BIOS or Windows.

 

[grayem]

From what I've posted is it possible to determine if my chipset is capable of SATA 3 and that it's the BIOS that is holding it back?

 

[redzo]

According to this wiki(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets), all recent intel mobile chipsets are sata rev 3.0 aware with at least 1 port running at full 6Gbits/sec speeds. I think that you may have encountered a BIOS bug.