Crucial M4 - Getting 3GB/s speeds instead of 6GB/s speeds?

[smashedpumpkins]

I have a Lenovo H415 with a 128GB Crucial M4 drive installed.
http://www.staples.com/Lenovo-H415-30991PU-Desktop-PC/product_441599?catalogId=10051&fromUrl=home&currentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.staples.com%2Foffice%2Fsupplies%2FStaplesMyOrderDetail%3FdebugInfo%3Dfalse%26staplesNumber%3D4247897772%26catalogId%3D10051%26orderNumber%3D9225723583%26errorUrl%3Dmyologin%26langId%3D-1%26storeId%3D10001&cmSearchKeyword=Lenovo+H415&cmArea=SEARCH&langId=-1&storeId=10001&ddkey=http:StaplesSearch


Here's a picture of HWiNFO64 before I installed the SSD. In the bottom left you can see it says 6GB/s. Atto benchmark is reading 275 Read and 175 Write. The write speed is correct but I should be getting 500 mb/s read speeds. Any idea what I might be doing wrong? The motherboard has 3 Sata ports. I tried a couple of them with no change in speeds. HWiNFO64 lists the SSD with 6GB/s by its side. Oh and the drive is in AHCI mode too. The M4 has the latest firmware from last month.

 

[bigcyco1]

I had this same problem and a friend of mine goes by odinlives did to he found the fix this is what you need to do The first thing you are going to have to do is open up "regedit" by going to the start menu and typing regedit and hit enter. If you have user account control turned on you are going to need to right click and run as administrator.

If you do not like messing with your registry then go here and MS has a file you can download which will do it for you:
Code:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976


In Registry Editor click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services and scroll all the way down to the folder called "msahci" and then right click on the icon called "start" in the right hand pane and choose modify.


Here we are going to set the Value data to "0" and click ok Next thing you need to do is reboot your computer and enter the bios and enable "AHCI"


Upon first boot in Windows 7 it will load AHCI drivers for each present drive and then you will need to reboot once more.


After that you will be getting the proper "Read and Write" speeds for you new shiny SSD. hope this helps!

 

[smashedpumpkins]

Thanks for the response but the drive is already in AHCI mode. The hard drive the computer came with was in AHCI mode and the reg file is already set to 0. I ran AS SSD and got 254 read and 157 write. (It also says msahci in AS SSD)

 

[unksol]

Your board most likely does not support SATA III. The fact that the harddrive had a SATA III interface means nothing, the SSD does too. What is your board model

 

[nbelote]

The motherboard apparently supports 6.0Gb/s SATA 3 speeds.

Did you try looking for a BIOS upgrade?

 

[smashedpumpkins]

I wish I could find a model of this motherboard but it's whatever came with this computer. I searched for BIOS updates at lenovo's page for the H415 but there doesn't seem to be any.

 

[bigcyco1]

Thanks for the response but the drive is already in AHCI mode. The hard drive the computer came with was in AHCI mode and the reg file is already set to 0. I ran AS SSD and got 254 read and 157 write. (It also says msahci in AS SSD)

No problem wow that's really odd i don't know what could be the problem then sorry i wasn't of any help and i hope you get it sorted out take care,and god bless!!

 

[smashedpumpkins]

Any other recommendations? I'm willing to try whatever it'll take. I've tried almost every remedy I can find on the internet.

 

[foscooter]

How many SATA ports are on the board?

Maybe only 1 is SATA III, did you plug the SSD into the port the HDD was on? (I know, duh!)

Can you see any information on the motherboard, like make/model/manufacture? I can't tell from the staples link.

All I can see is that it is an AMD based system, with integrated video, so it is probably a branded motherboard, not brand name (i.e. Asus)

Maybe somemore information pops up during BIOS post, but we don't need the BIOS name (i.e. American Megatrends), but the board name.

 

[smashedpumpkins]

How many SATA ports are on the board?

Maybe only 1 is SATA III, did you plug the SSD into the port the HDD was on? (I know, duh!)

Can you see any information on the motherboard, like make/model/manufacture? I can't tell from the staples link.

All I can see is that it is an AMD based system, with integrated video, so it is probably a branded motherboard, not brand name (i.e. Asus)

Maybe somemore information pops up during BIOS post, but we don't need the BIOS name (i.e. American Megatrends), but the board name.

I tried each of the SATA ports. There are 3 SATA ports. What's interesting though is after googling a few numbers such as "cfm1d3m" which I found on the board I stumbled upon the Lenovo A75. It's almost the same motherboard. Mine seems to have a few less ram slots and 1 less SATA spot. (Though you can tell they can be added but they're weren't soldered in place) Everything else is identical on the board. It was also made by N1996. I can't find anything else about the board though. Even after searching the A75 I'm still not getting anywhere.

 

[smashedpumpkins]

Here's some new pictures of both HWINFO and ATTO. You see how low my benchmark readings are? My SSD in my laptop hits the full 500 MB/s.

 

[Wamphryi]

Have you compared the results with another benchmarking program? I have had some varied results depending on the software. SSD's are new in the scheme of things. The benchmarking software may or may not be able to test the SSD accurately. The best way I found to see how things really stack up is to copy data from one SSD to another and examine what Win 7 is telling me.

 

[smashedpumpkins]

Have you compared the results with another benchmarking program? I have had some varied results depending on the software. SSD's are new in the scheme of things. The benchmarking software may or may not be able to test the SSD accurately. The best way I found to see how things really stack up is to copy data from one SSD to another and examine what Win 7 is telling me.

I wish I had an easily accessible SSD. I have a Corsair Force Series GT in my laptop which gets over 500 read and write but it would be a pain to pull out. This Lenovo is actually my father in laws and we're up at his place. I tried both AS SSD and ATTO and both read about the same. I do notice much faster speeds as is but I was hopping to max it out and give him what he paid for.

 

[smashedpumpkins]

Turns out the PC is a 3GB/s machine. HWINFO must be reporting what the drive is capable of. Thanks for the help everyone!