Question Crucial Storage Executive problem with Crucial CT1000P1SSD8 (P1)

[pyakiemchuk]

I used to have momentum cache and over-provisioning enabled just fine - but now I get this error for momentum cache:
Error occurred during the operation.
Failed to enable/disable the Momentum cache.
Failed to install cache driver.

Over-provisioning forgets it's enabled every time I reboot or open the software, prompting me to "Initiate Over-Provisioning" which Storage Executive quickly forgets.

I've tried contacting crucial support (livechat and both of their phone numbers for tech support), it's within their hours of operation and it says they're closed for the "observed holiday" which I assume means COVID-19.

At first I thought this was a localized problem, but I built a computer for a relative recently, using one of the same drives, and his computer had the exact same issue, in a different computer with a different drive. This makes me think it's on Crucial's end, but I can't contact them or manually fix it in any way I can see. I also can't find anyone posting about similar issues - possibly because everyone just sets storage executive once and forgets, but if anyone has a crucial P1 1TB SSD, opening storage executive will likely present you with the same problems.

It says my firmware is up-to-date, but it never accepts that my driver is up to date: when I update the driver, it installs 2.1.14.0, then tells me 2.1.14 is available (same driver different name?). This creates a feedback loop leading to the driver never "being up to date," I'm guessing just because of the different driver name notation.

How can I fix this? Or can't I? Momentum cache seemed to provide a really significant improvement in performance, and I want it to work again if possible.

I was going to post images related to the problem but I'm not allowed to for whatever reason, probably because of my account being new.

 

[pyakiemchuk]

Edited: some sentences made no sense without the images attached. Also Crucial's phone support has been updated to say it's closed "until further notice" due to corona, rather than being an ambiguous observed holiday. Their phones say to use their live chat but it's offline 24/7, even during the stated hours of operation. I submitted an offline message to them yesterday, no response yet, and I don't know if one is coming.

 

[tidyh]

Hey pyakiemchuck,

I just finished my new build and i am having the same problem. In device manager it is also showing that i am using the generic windows drivers as well. Have you heard anything back?

Edit: I should add on to this by saying i cannot find stand alone drivers for the P1 anywhere either.

 

[Maxxify]

First of all: you do NOT want to use Momentum Cache. It just uses RAM to cache which your OS already does quite well. Using MC just adds overhead and another layer of potential data loss (on power loss).

Second: not sure what you mean by over-provisioning but modern drives do not require it for consumer usage.

Third: you don't need drivers for NVMe drives, Microsoft's stock is fine. However there are two other drivers that will work for the P1: Intel's Client NVMe driver (install for 660p) and the general SMI drive (get from Multipointe for EX900).

I'd rather not get too deep into detail on all these points but I can assure you the drive should work well out of the box with no intervention. For the drivers, check my Reddit post here.

 

[tidyh]

Thanks Maxxify! I will stick with Microsoft's drivers then.

 

[pyakiemchuk]

Hey pyakiemchuck,

I just finished my new build and i am having the same problem. In device manager it is also showing that i am using the generic windows drivers as well. Have you heard anything back?

Edit: I should add on to this by saying i cannot find stand alone drivers for the P1 anywhere either.

Hi, I got a generic response from crucial support saying things like make sure antivirus/firewall software isn’t interfering, and make sure AHCI mode is enabled in bios. Already knew these things, and waiting for another response from them.

 

[pyakiemchuk]

First of all: you do NOT want to use Momentum Cache. It just uses RAM to cache which your OS already does quite well. Using MC just adds overhead and another layer of potential data loss (on power loss).

Second: not sure what you mean by over-provisioning but modern drives do not require it for consumer usage.

Third: you don't need drivers for NVMe drives, Microsoft's stock is fine. However there are two other drivers that will work for the P1: Intel's Client NVMe driver (install for 660p) and the general SMI drive (get from Multipointe for EX900).

I'd rather not get too deep into detail on all these points but I can assure you the drive should work well out of the box with no intervention. For the drivers, check my Reddit post here.

Thanks, I guess I just believed the things they stated about the settings in storage executive, like “up to 10 times faster” and stuff like that. I’m guessing they did some misleading overly-specific test for that result. I’d still like to see if they can make it work again just for silly psychological reasons I can’t properly explain, it just disappoints me that software designed for crucial drives doesn’t work with one of the intended products.

 

[Maxxify]

It can definitely be way faster, but it's just write caching in your system memory (RAM). Your OS (e.g. Windows) already does this. There are some differences in how this is done, but you're basically reserving some RAM for that drive specifically rather than for the entire OS. This adds overhead as the OS is still doing its things (e.g. you could have multiple drives) and if power is lost data in RAM can be lost as always. When just using the drive itself it will eventually write to its own internal SLC cache which, while slower than RAM, is at least non-volatile. Your SSD has DRAM of its own, too, but it's not used for write caching.

It's not necessarily psychological for that reason, it's just that you will end up at the same spot with workloads regardless if MC is enabled or not, to put it simply. That is, it will be faster initially and perhaps a bit longer (since some RAM is reserved) but you're then reducing how much the OS can use and at the end of the day once you hit the drive itself (SLC or QLC) it's the same speed/limit anyway. So you're just deferring that. Theoretically it can help in some cases, however for general use you're best letting the OS handle your limited memory.

 

[wdfarmer]

pyamkimchuk, I just today got the same error when I tried upgrading the Crucial Storage Executive software from version 5.05.082019.02 to version 6.04.042020.06.

My system:
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, version 2004 (19041.329), running on a 64-bit HP laptop.
16 GB RAM.
A Crucial MX500 (CT1000MX500SSD1) installed as the system's only mass storage drive.

The system had been running fine with the Storage Executive v5 installed, and Momentum Cache version 1.7.3.0 enabled and active.

Today, I opened Storage Executive, and noticed that it was encouraging me to upgrade to v6. I did the upgrade, ran the newly installed Storage Executive v6, and found that Momentum Cache was now disabled. When I tried to enable it, I got the messages you did:

Failed to enable/disable the Momentum cache.
Failed to install cache driver.

I did a restart, still running Storage Executive v6, and the Momentum Cache tab then said that Momentum Cache was inactive.

To fix the problem, I did the following:

1. Uninstalled Storage Executive v6.
2. Ran the Storage Executive v5 install file that I had saved weeks ago when I first installed the MX500. The install file successfully installed Storage Executive v5.
3. Ran Storage Executive v5. Went to the Momentum Cache tab, and enabled Momentum Cache.

I faintly remember reading online that v5 was more stable than v6, but I can't find that discussion now.