[SOLVED] All 4 drives are > 10x as slow on current MoBo

[Yoolis]

What was the results when you ran the benchmark with only the m.2 connected in the desktop?

Was the install of windows done on the desktop or the laptop?

Speccy is showing you have a meatball stick of ram in the mix.

The topmost result is the benchmark that has only the M.2 connected in the desktop
The Windows OS was always installed on that M.2. My laptop has only one M.2 slot and no other SATA ports, so when I tested the M.2 on my laptop it was the only drive in the system, and contained the same OS install as when it was on my desktop. (this was the succesful benchmark that is marked green)

I'm not too familiar with Speccy. Can you elaborate on what seems faulty with the RAM?
I did notice Speccy said I had 'dual-channel' RAM, but to my understanding I have 4 sticks of RAM, not 2.

edit: I see what you mean now. one of the sticks is running at mostly 30Hz...... damn.
Is there anything I can do to try and remedy this?
Or is this just another sign that my motherboard might be fried?

 

[Bob.B]

The topmost result is the benchmark that has only the M.2 connected in the desktop
The Windows OS was always installed on that M.2. My laptop has only one M.2 slot and no other SATA ports, so when I tested the M.2 on my laptop it was the only drive in the system, and contained the same OS install as when it was on my desktop. (this was the succesful benchmark that is marked green)

I'm not too familiar with Speccy. Can you elaborate on what seems faulty with the RAM?
I did notice Speccy said I had 'dual-channel' RAM, but to my understanding I have 4 sticks of RAM, not 2.

edit: I see what you mean now. one of the sticks is running at mostly 30Hz...... damn.
Is there anything I can do to try and remedy this?
Or is this just another sign that my motherboard might be fried?

Speccy is just showing you have one odd ram stick.
It's still running at 3000 speed.
Perhaps bring up cpuz and see what it shows with the ram.
I doubt this has anything to do with your disk speed I was just pointing out something.

What sata mode is your bios set to?........ide/ahci/raid.

 

[Yoolis]

Speccy is just showing you have one odd ram stick.
It's still running at 3000 speed.
Perhaps bring up cpuz and see what it shows with the ram.
I doubt this has anything to do with your disk speed I was just pointing out something.

What sata mode is your bios set to?........ide/ahci/raid.

Wait what do you mean? Does the timing table not report 30 MHz?
I'm not sure what you mean with odd ram stick. All 4 sticks are "G.Skill F4-3000C15-4GRBB". I bought them as a set of 4

CPUZ shows the following:

My BIOS is set to AHCI. I only have the option for AHCI or RAID, no IDE.

EDIT: I just noticed there's more options in CPU-Z. see the following screenshots:

 

[Bob.B]

Wait what do you mean? Does the timing table not report 30 MHz?
I'm not sure what you mean with odd ram stick. All 4 sticks are "G.Skill F4-3000C15-4GRBB". I bought them as a set of 4

CPUZ shows the following:

My BIOS is set to AHCI. I only have the option for AHCI or RAID, no IDE.

EDIT: I just noticed there's more options in CPU-Z. see the following screenshots:

The speccy timing table for the ram shows 30mhz as an option.
If you go to the bottom of the timing table for that ram stick it shows 1500.
1500 is what you have selected.
It looks like speccy has miss id'd that ram stick.
Cpuz shows all sticks are the same......that's good.

Wag.....open device manager and expand the ide controller.
What is the driver date and rev level?

 

[Yoolis]

The speccy timing table for the ram shows 30mhz as an option.
If you go to the bottom of the timing table for that ram stick it shows 1500.
1500 is what you have selected.
It looks like speccy has miss id'd that ram stick.
Cpuz shows all sticks are the same......that's good.

Wag.....open device manager and expand the ide controller.
What is the driver date and rev level?

Ah, I see it now. Thanks for clarifying.

Device Managers lists the info as follows:

Intel(R) 100 Series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller​

Driver Date: 15/07/2019​

Driver Version: 16.8.3.1003​

​

I'm not sure what you mean with rev level. I googled it, but I can't seem to find it in the device properties.
Something I don't quite understand, is that when I got to the Intel website to search for my chipset 100 series, the only item that's listed that I recognise is the Z170 (which is what my Asus Z170-A motherboard should have).
Yet, the device manager shows my Chipset as "100 Series/C230 Chipset Family". Is this a problem or do I just not understand what these version numbers mean?

EDIT: I found a document about "Intel 100 Series and C230 Series Chipset Family Platform Controller Hub". It lists all 15 revisions, the last one of which is listed as December 2018. If this is a driver thing then my driver date would be after this date.

 

[Yoolis]

Ok. I remembered I tried to upgrade my Chipset drivers to the latest from Intel RST in an attempt to fix the issue.
I'm now going to downgrade to version 11.7.0.1040 from 2017/11/01, which is the latest one listed at the ASUS Z170-A webpage.
I noticed that simply installing older drivers doesnt work, as windows automatically updates to a version later than that one.
I'm making a full backup and bootable windows USB just in case I have to reinstall my OS in order to get the old drivers back.

I will update when it's all complete

 

[Yoolis]

All right. I tried a bunch of different things, but no dice.

At first I was confusing my Chipset drivers with the SATA/AHCI controller. I see I made that mistake in my previous post as well. But after I figured that out I tried a bunch of different things:

• First, I disconnected all drives except my C drive (M.2)
• I installed the latest supported Chipset driver from Asus (11.7.0.1014), but benchmark failed again
• I downgraded to one version before that (11.7.0.1028), but again it failed
• I installed the latest Z170 Chipset version from the Intel website, but still didn't work
• Then, I uninstalled my IDE AHCI/SATA called "Intel 100 Series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller"
  • after a reboot Windows installed the default "Standard AHCI SATA Controller"
  • benchmark was still bad
• Then I tried both the SATA controller from the Asus website (2017) as well as the latest from Intel itself (2021), but both times the benchmarks still failed.
  • one interesting thing though, with the 2021 drivers I did benchmark 100 MB/s as opposed to the <50 MB/s I was getting before

I feel like I've tried every combination of Chipset and SATA drivers. I'm left thinking that those drives probably aren't the issue then. I'm starting to suspect some sneaky hardware defect on my motherboard.

The only thing I haven't tried, is formatting the C drive and doing a completely fresh OS install. But honestly, I doubt it will make a difference.
I suppose I might try it in the future when I have more time.

But, if anyone else has any other insights, I'd be happy to hear them

 

[Yoolis]

In the case someone with a similar problem is looking through the thread: The issue is resolved.
Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how I fixed it.

I noticed my PC wouldn't turn on for several minutes after it had gone without power for a while. Attempting to fix that issue led me to replace the CMOS battery with a fresh one. (I had replaced it before, but i suspect it might have depleted itself over the many years I had it stored in my cabinet)

Upon replacing the CMOS battery I had to re-do all my BIOS settings. I didn't do much besides setting it so that it would detect my M.2 instead of Sata-express
However, I did notice my RAM profile was off. It had an autoprofile, I think of something like 1333MHz @ 1.2V. I made sure to set it to 3000MHz @ 1.35V as is the proper setting for my RAM (auto-detect did not detect the correct profile). I'm not sure if this RAM setting was always incorrect, or if it just reset because of the BIOS reset.

Anyway, it might have been part of the problem, as all my drives are now performing perfectly, according to their specs.
Sorry I haven't figured out the exact cause, but I hope it can at least point you in the right direction.
My advice would be replacing CMOS and/or double-checking all your hardware profiles and voltage settings in the BIOS.