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April 12th, 2015 06:00
Dell Latitude D6200, SSD installation problems
I have installed a Samsung 850 pro to my D620 with the following results:
1) The performance has increased to about that expected from a SATA 150 device, which is good.
2) Windows 7 DID NOT recognise this drive asn an SSD and lists it as a generic ata/ide device (disk.sys).
3) I have BIOS version A10. I cannot find a higher version for this model. There is no SATA or AHCI options in the BIOS setup. There is a SATA parameter under power management, which is enabled.
4) I have a SATA controller listed in MSinfo32.exe but no way to select or enable it,
5) In devmgr.msc, the drive is listed as just "disk". There is a SATA controller listed under controller but I think this refers to the SCSI miniport. How can I "connect" my drive to that,
6) I have enetered the appropriate Iastor and MSAHCI entries in the registry and placed bothed sets of drivers in dirverstore under Syetem32,. If I try to load either, I get BSOD on reboot and have to run (F8) restore or repair from Win7 installation media to recover.
7) Because the SSD is not recognised as such, the disk is listed in the defrag schedule and has been defragged. I checked because one person said that even if your SSD was seen as a standard ATA/IDE device, windows would still "intelligently optimise" your SSD. This is not true.
8) I have Samsung Magician installed and this permits me to send a trim command. I have checked that TRIM is enabled in windows (fsutil........ etc), but I don't think it TRIMS instead of defrags, even when enabled if the drive is not recognised as an SSD.
IN SUMMARY
The performance of the 850 pro SSD did not meet the requirements for win7 detection. How do I force Win7 to treat the drive as an SSD. There seems to be a SATA1 controller in the Dell D6200 and the Intel chipset 945 supports it. I cannot find any AHCI option apart from the normal registry keys. Is it possible to install this SSD properly in my D620 under SATA instead of ATA/IDE and preferably enable AHCI. Finally, as Windows does not TRIM my drive, can I create a TRIM script that I can schedule in command or VBS?
I know this subject has been addressed in separate parts for various Dell laptops with the D6200 configuration type. This post has attempted to bring all the issues together. The issues are not specific to Samsung SSDs. It will apply to many, if windows does not correctly identify them and the BIOS does not support SATA or AHCI switching.
Keith Knight
osprey4
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April 12th, 2015 14:00
Hi Keith,
Did you perform a clean installation of Win 7 or clone your old drive?
KeithPKnight
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April 12th, 2015 15:00
Thanks for replying.
I always clean install - for a fresh start. I find it well worth the extra effort.
I have installed the following relevant driver ware.
sisraid4.sys 0x8ABB7000 0x8ABCD000 0x00016000 1 26 System Driver SiS AHCI Stor-Miniport Driver 5.1.1039.3600 Silicon Integrated Systems Microsoft® Windows® Operating System 14/07/2009 02:19:04 13/07/2009 23:09:18 C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\sisraid4.sys A SiSRaid4
installed on my miniport and
msahci.sys 0x8AC7A000 0x8AC84000 0x0000a000 1 29 System Driver MS AHCI 1.0 Standard Driver 6.1.7601.17514 Microsoft Corporation Microsoft® Windows® Operating System 20/11/2010 22:29:03 20/11/2010 22:29:03 C:\Windows\system32\drivers\msahci.sys A msahci
My disk driver is just disk.sys (generic PCIIDE) set to start=3 in registry
MSAHCI is set to Start=0 throughout registry
This is s snip of my devmgr.msc view
It is as though I have the controller and the drivers but they are not connected to my priimary ATA channel but to my SCSI miniport. I need to join the two together, so to speak.
This is complicated by the fact that Windows 7 does not recognise any of the three SSDs I have tried as anything but generic IDE drives, Therefore the automatic windows defrag SSD optimisation and TRIM function do not work, even though TRIM has been enabled. Also, despite flashin from A04 to an A10 BIOS, which I think is the latest, there is no mention of AHCI or SATA in the BIOS setup, apart from a SATA power management option "enabled", which proves the controller is there. The 945 chipset supports it. Maybe there is no solution without BIOS recognition of ACHI/SATA or windows recognition of the drive ID and type. In other Computers all three SSDs were recognised and ACHI/SATA2 enabled in the BIOS. Maybe I need to load ACHI drivers on Windows install?
I am truly flumoxed after a lifetime of technical knowhow, I am stuck. I was going to ring Dell and Samsung tomorrow. I know I will get no help from Microsoft. Anything you can offer will be pursued with vigour. I am determined to resolve this. I am convinced the two sets of resources exist but just do not know about each other..
Keith
Philip_Yip
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April 12th, 2015 18:00
There is no BIOS setting for AHCI even on the latest version. I have a Latitude D820 which is similar hardware with a larger screen.
No point in calling Dell as this is a limitation of this systems hardware and it is a 2006 model (9 years old and well out of warranty) it will never be updated by Dell again and it may cost for the support call. This system can use the SSD but not to its optimal performance.
KeithPKnight
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April 13th, 2015 07:00
Thank you Natakuc4 for replying
I agree and accept all you have said.
There are people who have tried using raid, on the basis that if a drive is then not part of an array it is a SATA drive by default. The BIOS detects Raid (Sisraid4.sys) so i will try this. I have not given up. Sorry you have.
In addition, every laptop I have worked on with SSDs (100s!) have recognised the device ID - except this model. There are additional performance panalties when the drive's drivers are only the generic PCIIDE/ATA drivers. I may have to alter the registry settings for PCIIDE if this is the only adapter that will work.
Samsung have heard of this problem with Dells of this configuration and do not have a fix for it. The Dell user forum is there so that it can help us from other people's experience even when Dell cannot help or the item is ouf of warrantee. I have a friend with a D820 and A16 BIOS and Samsung Magician DOES detect AHCI and the device ID correctly. He had to play with Raid to get this result. So, you are not entirely right and the fantastic acumen of such a large forum may yet yield a better outcome.
I did manage to speak to Microsoft in the US via chat (a helpful technician). He advised loading the SATA drivers when prompted during the windows installation. He siad this will help to boost the initial performance of the drive so it is seen as an SSD during setup, which otherwise it is not until the drivers are loaded by the user or MS Update.
Thank you for your response.
Keith
Philip_Yip
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April 13th, 2015 09:00
Personally for me the limitations of this system in other aspects were too much and I needed newer hardware. I still have my Latitude D820 to play around with and test some things however.
Let us know what you find.