Windows 7 - SSD Real Slow

Slow is how I describe the performance of my SSD. I've had this SSD for about a year and over the course of the last few days I wasn't quite sure what was going with my computer.

At first I was getting these random lockups which the only way to break it was to reset the PC. They first started when I came out of Sleep, then even after the desktop got loaded on a clean bootup, it would freeze too.

Event viewer didn't tell me anything other than I had an unexpected shut down. The latest mini dump is dated last year.

Everything takes so long to load, even booting up to the desktop takes longer. I used the sites Restart-Time utility.

Restart-Time Results October 2010 - 47 seconds
Restart-Time Results November 2011 - 110 seconds

I also had taken similar snap shots from the AS SSD Benchmark tool. I've posted the results which shows October 2010 vs November 2011.

Here are my system specs:
Alienware Aurora
OS - Windows 7 Professional (64bit)
CPU - Core i7 Extreme 975 @ 3.33GHz overclocked to 3.6 GHz
Motherboard - Alienware 0H869M
Memory - 12 GB DDR3 1333MHz
Video - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1.8 GB RAM
Sound - Creative SB X-Fi Titanium
HD - OCZ Vertex 2 100GB SSD - Primary Drive, Western Digital 300GB SATA-II 3GB/X, 10,000 RPM, 16MB Cache - Secondary Drive

I'd appreciate your questions or recommendations what I can do to correct this situation.

Thanks,
Greg

I would suggest you make sure you have the latest firmware. Then, from a cold boot, let it idle at the login screen for a few hours. See if that speeds it up a little. I would also run sfc /scannow to make sure the problem isn't system files.

How full is that drive? Speed decrease is a known issue when they reach 80 - 90% of capacity.
How often do you write and re-write data?

+1 on both firmware and disk usage.

Start your OCZ Tool Box Utility. If the drive is not highlighted, select it. Then click on Details.
On the Detail screen, click on Smart Data.
Post a snip of that screen.

Current firmware is 1.35. It looks like you're behind.
http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssd_too...LE,_Agility_2/

As with most of of the SSDs, you might have to set the drive to IDE in the BIOS before applying the Firmware Upgrade. This is EXTREAMLY important. Failure to do so could "Brick" your drive.

Applied updated firmware, no change to my results. You mentioned to provide a screen shot of Smart Data from the Toolbox, see attached. Hopefully you can see something there.

Disk usage - 59% free
Ran scannow, no errors found.

Is your PC plugged into a UPS? The SMART list shows 39 unexpected power losses. That's not good but otherwise your drive is 100% healthy. The power losses could have affected garbage collection though.

The idle period is a good idea but Windows has already grabbed the disk by log on. Instead, reboot and enter the BIOS. Let it sit at the BIOS main menu. I think an hour should be plenty. Most SSDs will initiate a self cleaning (TRIM) but there's no way to tell if it's running or not. (The disk light won't blink)

according to OCZ forums, sandforce controllers are supposed to start from a cold boot and idle at the login screen for 2 hours each week. It is supposed to aid in 'garbage collection'. Not sure why trim dosen't do well enough for them, but it works.

Hmmmmmm. I don't think the drive is idle even when at the log on screen. Windows should hitting it by then. I don't use a log on so I can't check but if the disk activity light is blinking, the drive is busy and it ain't with garbage collection. I wonder how much of the "improvement" is the placebo effect?

Man, if that's a requirement for OCZ drives I don't believe I'll ever own one.

I can't remember where/when I saw it, but some 'industrious' people have charted the differences of several brands/models over time of GC+Trim vs GC+non-trim vs Trim+No GC vs No GC or Trim.

End result, GC does something.


The drive may not be 'fully' idle at log off, but it's idle 'enough' for GC to do it's thing.



It's not just OCZ that recommend log off/GC.