Question Samsung 970 Plus Drive Slow in W10 But Proper Speed in SAFEMODE

[JazzyJazzJ]

Good day,

I have Alienware R4 17 laptop and just upgraded to NVME Samsung 970 Plus. Speeds from CrystalDiskMark 6 are 2300Mb/s vs expected 3500Mb/s in NORMAL Windows environment. All Read/Write speeds are proportionately slow.

When I run CrystalDiskMark 6 in SAFEMODE I observe expected speed of 3500Mb/s. I conclude that something is interfering with ssd speed while in Windows. Whatever it is, is DISABLED when booting to SAFEMODE.

Question is HOW do I find the offending software or driver and get expected speed of 3500Mb/s in normal environment of Windows 10?

Thanks

 

[CountMike]

Did you install Samsung SSD drivers ?

 

[JazzyJazzJ]

Yes, installed Samsung NVME drivers... NO CHANGE.

 

[hnkenshiro]

I don't know if it applies to your case, but it is similar to the problem I had.

My problem first came to me when my 4k q32t1 was slower than usual. Then I found that the speed was almost twice as fast in safe mode. For a long time I didn't know what it was, then I found a probable suspect..

Spectre and meltdown patches.

Try disabling the patches as per this article.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/325...e-and-meltdown-hurt-your-pcs-performance.html

Check and see how if that gives you gains for all the tests. Again, I'm not sure if this applies to you, since my Samsung 970 topped at around 3500 sequential read even with patch on, so your problem might be different from mine. But for the other tests, most of them had a good gain with the patch off.

 

[JazzyJazzJ]

Hello,

Thank you for your replies. The SPECTRE PATCH helped a lot. Using CrystalDiskMark 6. SPECTRE PATCH is the second value ie, Line 1... 2637.4 to (SPECTRE) 3332.8. Please note at the bottom the SAFE MODE SCORES?VALUES.

READ (Normal Windows)
2637.4 to 3332.8
509.2 to 599.2
101.4 to 149.0
34.3 to 41.2

WRITE (Normal Windows)
2607.9 to 3252.1
488.3 to 614.4
97.3 to137.6
61.9 to102.1

SAFE MODE
READ WRITE
3563.8 3330.4
1520.2 1671.3
441.6 399.6
52.13 200.1

Guess I will leave SPECTRE enabled. Thank you!
More suggestions???

 

[ElectrO_90]

If you are testing it, and its your make drive (eg c drive) and because you are loading windows up fully, that means back ground programs are still running and maybe taking your speed away.
When in safemode, you don't load all the software up, so therefore less stress on the SSD as windows hasn't loaded up the programs

 

[JazzyJazzJ]

If you are testing it, and its your make drive (eg c drive) and because you are loading windows up fully, that means back ground programs are still running and maybe taking your speed away.
When in safemode, you don't load all the software up, so therefore less stress on the SSD as windows hasn't loaded up the programs

This is true regarding the BACKGROUND PROCESSES, however, my minimized and ENDED BACKGROUND PROCESSES should never consume so many resources as to cause discrepancies as noted below, ie,
READ 1520 vs 509.2 (see below). This is a DIFFERENCE of nearly 1000MB/s! There is something else afoot here.

SAFE MODE
READ WRITE
1520.2 1671.3
441.6 399.6
52.13 200.1
VS.
READ WRITE
509.2 488
101.4 97.3
34.3 61.9

 

[hnkenshiro]

I think something else is the culprit too. Makes me think whether something else in addition to Spectre/meltdown was slowing my SSD too...