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April 15th, 2015 09:00
SSD Firmware and Intel RST
My Alienware M18X came installed with a Samsung 'PM810' SSD and I'm having trouble upgrading the firmware. Samsung calls this drive a 470 series but their Magician software says I do not have a Samsung drive installed, even though the identifier in their system is just as above, Samsung PM810.
My first question is, if I have a single SSD connected to an Intel RAID controller, and I want to update the firmware, would I be able to change the controller mode to AHCI so that the Samsung software will see the drive?
Or is there a better way to update this drive?
Secondly, Intel RST was included and I see no need for it's monitoring since I don't intend to run an internal RAID - could I uninstall it without any repercussions?
Thanks in advance, I know your time is valuable.
osprey4
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April 15th, 2015 14:00
Hi Fuzzyrhino,
You have an OEM drive, so Samsung will not provide support or firmware upgrades. If there is a firmware upgrade, it will have to come from Dell.
Is your SSD the system drive or is it an mSATA drive being used as the cache?
FuzzyRhino
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April 16th, 2015 16:00
My SSD is the system drive. Would I be able to flash the drive in another machine? or do you think I would run into the same problem with recognition?
Thanks for your help
osprey4
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April 17th, 2015 12:00
If your SSD is a SATA system drive (not mSATA), then it should already be set up in AHCI mode. RAID is only used for mSATA drives. However, you are not going to be able to use the Samsung's firmware update, which only work with retail drives, regardless of which laptop it's in.
FuzzyRhino
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April 20th, 2015 11:00
That's unfortunate, but I understand. Would you know how I could start asking Dell for an update to that drive?
The underlying issue is read & write performance when this drive is involved. Data transfers spike upwards of 300mb/sec but nose dive within a few seconds to below 100mb. 1gb+ files drop down to below 20mb/sec and get as low as 6mb/sec.
I've tested this with eSATA and gigiabit ethernet transfers - eliminating the connection method. Since I'm left with an internal software/hardware issue, I've made sure there are no caching applications installed and I've looked for any resource hogs. After finding none, I scanned for viruses and malware. With a few results removed, the problem remained. That led me to the firmware update since a fellow IT specialist mentioned that it fixed a slowdown problem for another client, once TRIM was enabled.
I'm left with the prospect of becoming a 'squeaky wheel' for Dell unless another option comes available.
Would you have any other ideas I could try?
Thanks!