Stuttering HDD

[dmnd]

I am on my second 128 GB Falcon after RMAing the first. I put it in my new system (Asus P6T Deluxe V2, Core i7 920, 6 GB DDR3 RAM) and installed Windows 7 RC 64-bit on it.

Both drives have a terrible stuttering in my system. Here is what I mean:



Performance is great when it works, but there is a horrible stuttering that locks up the UI every few seconds.

I have the latest firmware on the drive. It's a fresh install of Windows 7. Another normal HDD works perfectly in my system. I haven't changed anything after installing Win7 and letting it run Windows update.

How can I fix this? Am I just really unlucky and got 2 bad drives in a row?

I'm going to install the drive in another system soon, but this really sucks. Is QA that bad or could there be some setting I need to configure?

[razzlejon]

We have a similar setup except I have the first version of the P6T Deluxe. I'm also running Windows 7 RC x64. I need to ask some more questions.

Did you install the latest drivers for Sound Card, GPU ect? What drivers are you using for Sound Card and Video Card? Did you install the latest chipset driver for x58. I believe the latest chipset driver is 9.1.0.1014 for Vista. That's the driver I'm using.

Did you try the tweak guides like moving your swap file to another drive ect? Disabled defrag, superfetch and prefetch? There are more tweaks, but I have to check my notes.

Did you disable write-cache buffer for your drives within windows?

What mode are you running it in, IDE or AHCI?

Do you have the falcon installed as drive 0?

Update: Well, the x58 chipset driver I'm using is no longer on the website. I downloaded it from Intel's home page, but the version 9.1.0.1014 is not there anymore. Now, they have version 9.1.0.1012 posted on the site.

[attempt2]

There is a newer driver for X58 on win 7: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filt...=190&submit=Go!

Also, after you run the performance measurement tool on Win7, it automatically does all of the config you need. There should be no reason to mess about with Superfetch, disable defrag etc.

What does the experience index report for your HD?

Also, when installing the OS did you allow the installer to delete the existing partition, then create and format a new one? That is usually required to ensure the SSD is correctly aligned/configured for the OS.

[razzlejon]

thanks for the help, attempt2.

I didn't even think to check there for the driver.

I knew Windows 7 did it automatically but did not know how to initiate it, so thanks for that info too. Though, there are a few other major tweaks that I'm pretty sure the performance tool won't do automatically for me.

My experience index score for my SSD is 7.4; and, no -- I forgot to align my drive. I'm planning to fix that later.

[dmnd]

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually got the SSD to perform normally by plugging it into a different SATA port on my motherboard. It no longer stutters. THis is pretty weird because my old HDD performs ok in that port (i.e. doesn't stutter). I'm not sure which chip (marvell or intel) the port is connected to.

I haven't updated anything that Windows update doesn't do automatically (been busy).

I'll do some further testing when I can, but it's good to know I haven't paid $310 for a SSD that doesn't work.

[Ristogod]

I have that same motherboard as you. Here is how I run it all and get no stuttering.

The motherboard is flashed with BIOS 0504.

The Intel disk controller is set to AHCI mode through the BIOS.

To properly use the Intel disk controller, you need both the Intel Chipset software installed and the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software installed as well. Without both, your drive will not actually be running in AHCI.

You can get the latest software here:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-029901.htm

Make sure your drive is flashed to the 1571 version firmware.

Make sure to disable Defragmentation and align your partition also.