This post is more than 5 years old
8 Posts
1
5700
7577 NVME drive issues
Hi all,
I have been having some issues with my 7577 in recent weeks. The laptop seems generally unresponsive and lagging at times. Opening file explorer takes longer than it should and device manager can take 20 seconds at times. I have since found threads regarding this issue and it being an issue with optimus. So, I can live with that for the time being.
However, while looking into this I tested the Toshiba 256 NVME drive, which was giving around 2700MB/s Read and a dreadful 300-400MB/s Write. I used CrystalDiskMark to perform this test. I tested the drive with a fresh install of Windows using the Dell recovery media and also with a standard windows image and installed the drivers etc myself. The results were the same, poor write speeds. During this process I also tested the RAID vs AHCI and updated the BIOS to 1.4.2. The results were the same.
I have been in touch with Dell technical support regarding this issue, after seeing other users having the same issue. Dell Technical support wasn't very good and passed me around departments for an entire morning, in the end I managed to convince them to send me a Samsung PM961. When this arrived, it was a Hynix 256 PC041 drive and not the Samsung. I tried this drive anyway and got really mixed results, the Hynix gave constant read speeds of around 2600MB/s, but the write speeds vary. I tested using the Dell recovery image and a normal Windows 10 installation with drivers from the Dell website. Sometimes I get constant 800MB/s write speeds, but then it will drop to 350MB/s for hours at a time before coming back up to 500/600MB/s. It seems it can only maintain 800MB/s for a short time after installation.
The thing that is really confusing me is the a friend of mine allowed me to use his Samsung PM961 256GB from his MSI laptop for testing. I didn't reinstall the OS as he didn't want to lose anything. I did installed the Dell drivers. Testing straight after booting it would achieve 3200MB/s Read and 1400MB/s Write. Testing a short time later would give mixed results, with no drive activity I was getting 3200MB/s Read and 600/700MB/s Write or 13000MB/s Read and 400MB/s Write. I tested this multiple times with the same results. It's like the laptop is unable to maintain the bandwidth. I am taking the Samsung results a little less seriously as I wasn't able to do fresh installs. But I wouldn't expect to see this.
Can anyone give any advice on what to try next? The Toshiba drive is being returned today and I'm currently using the Hynix. I am tempted to try Tech Support again and see if I can get a Samsung PM961 issued as I have read other threads where this corrected the issue.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Regards
Rob.
avtella
66 Posts
2
March 7th, 2018 15:00
Also note on long transfers that TLC drives like the 960EVO, and your current drives run out of the dynamic SLC cache and end up writing to the TLC flash causing a massive drop to the 300 MB/s that you are seeing.
MLC (Multiple aka Dual Level Cell) drives like the 960 Pro don’t need SLC caching as they can maintain high speeds up to spec almost indefinitely. Triple Level Cell NAND is much slower and has significantly lower life. To allow higher speeds some of the unused space is dynamically used as a Single Level Cell NAND to speed up writes and increase life, on a 256 GB TLC drive, SLC caching is around 8-13GB and usually double on 512 GB drives. After you run out of SLC cache you end up at like 300-500 MB/s writes till enough of the previous writes are cleared into the TLC portion.
For a standard end user they won’t run into the cache issue on TLC drives as such sustained writes are highly uncommon in consumer use.
Saltgrass
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
•
4.3K Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 07:00
You might try disabling the anti-virus.
There are many threads on this. You might go to the General forum where the prior threads are archived and do a search for NVMe.
When I was testing last year, the Microsoft NVMe driver was poor but someone has mentioned it has been improved but I have not tested. I use the Samsung driver for my Samsung 960 EVO.
avtella
66 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 09:00
I am using a Samsung 960 Pro (512GB) and even the old Toshiba SGX5 (512GB) performed to spec. I use the built in nvstore drivers in AHCI mode as they are most stable over RST and Samsung Drivers. Apparently according to some in Raid On mode the controller can’t use nVME protocol on the 7577/7567, even in my case my 7577 came with AHCI default and the 960 Pro never booted in Raid On mode. There was an issue for quite a few few were under certain applications the Samsung driver would cause lockups and reduced speeds with newer 960 Evo/Pro firmwares. The Intel Raid mode RST driver has had DPC latency issues in my use with various laptops and so as I said I always use the default msahci/nvstore drivers.
robuk360
8 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 13:00
I'm now running the Hynix 256, I've been installing drivers and testing all day, I installed in AHCI mode, not RAID. So far it seems more stable, no problems with READ, write is better, getting around 800MB/s with the occasional drop to ~350MB/s. The performance slider is on best performance, all the way to the right. I have no idea what the Read/Write speeds are for this Hynix PC401 as I cannot find anything on the internet about it. I'm guessing 2600MB/s Read and 1000MB/s Write, similar to the Toshiba. Under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers I am using the iaStorA driver for the AHCI controller and not the nvstore driver. If I recall the write speeds were terrible until I installed the Intel drivers.
I was contacted by the Dell Tech Support team today. They were checking that I'd got the part and was happy, I explained I was still getting these strange write speeds and the testing I had done. The representative apologised for not sending the Samsung drive, but she said they had non in stock, so the Hynix was sent. I asked if they could swap the Hynix for a Samsung when they are in stock, but she said they don't know if they will come back in stock and that as there was no actual error messages/codes, they are unwilling to take this matter any further. So without an error code or message, the won't even entertain a faulty controller or even motherboard. Not sure on my options from here.
I am tempted to buy an Evo 960 250 or 500GB and do some testing, but I feel I shouldn't have to spend my own money correcting an issue on such an expensive laptop, it should have had a decent drive in the first place.
robuk360
8 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 13:00
I've also started using a program called TrayPwrD3, which has solved the stuttering problems. The stuttering problems seem to be worse than ever at the moment. Opening file explorer, device manager, right clicking and even loading and using MSI afterburner was extremely slow. MSI afterburner was unusable until I ran TrayPwrD3. Now everything is working stutter free.
avtella
66 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 14:00
robuk360
8 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 14:00
Just tried a few AS SSD benchmarks, on a 1GB file the Read is about 2100MB/s and Write about 500-600MB/s. When running the 10GB file test, it slowly reduces in speed on the write until it settles around 350MB/s. It's like something is throttling the bandwidth.
robuk360
8 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 14:00
As soon as Windows was installed and loaded, I downloaded the CrystalDiskMark software and ran it once or twice, I was getting 300-350MB/s on the write speeds. This was before any driver installs, so I'm assuming it was using the default MS driver and this was in AHCI mode.
DoctorRzepa
24 Posts
0
April 9th, 2018 07:00
Try installing Windows from clean image, without internet connection. Then try to test drive.