SSD Lags HARD While Multitasking

kbronski · 27 May 2015

I know drives are known to work slower while multitasking, but this new Samsung 850 EVO I put in my laptop is dog slow right now. Chrome and WMP12 are open. Drive, F.lux, Avast, and Intel HD Graphics running in background. Also copying 5.4GB of data to flash drive. I have my startup and services slimmed, OS is optimized for SSD performance. See system specs in signature. Normally, it takes 2 seconds or less for OneNote to open, but this time I counted about 10 seconds. Any reason for this? The SSD is currently 54.3% full. I do plan to remedy this some once this microSATA-to-SATA adapter comes and I can mount my HDD in the optical bay.

Thoughts? Do the 850 EVOs just not handle heavy multitasking very well, or is this actually normal and I'm just being an impatient nerd?

logicearth · 27 May 2015

You are asking too much. If you are copying data to the drive, you are likely filling the pipelines it uses to communicate with the system. You know what happens during rush hour when you go to work don't you? The roads can only support so many cars at once, too many and everything slows to a crawl. The same applies to computers. I don't know what kind of laptop you have, or what version of SATA it has, but those links only have so much bandwidth.

There will always be a bottleneck some where. Its not the drive in this case, it is likely the connection or the hardware in general.

Then again, OneNote takes 10 seconds to open? And you are concerned? Hmm well I trade you an 7200 RPM HDD then for your SSD.

ish4d0w · 27 May 2015

kbronski said:

I know drives are known to work slower while multitasking, but this new Samsung 850 EVO I put in my laptop is dog slow right now. Chrome and WMP12 are open. Drive, F.lux, Avast, and Intel HD Graphics running in background. Also copying 5.4GB of data to flash drive. I have my startup and services slimmed, OS is optimized for SSD performance. See system specs in signature. Normally, it takes 2 seconds or less for OneNote to open, but this time I counted about 10 seconds. Any reason for this? The SSD is currently 54.3% full. I do plan to remedy this some once this microSATA-to-SATA adapter comes and I can mount my HDD in the optical bay.

Thoughts? Do the 850 EVOs just not handle heavy multitasking very well, or is this actually normal and I'm just being an impatient nerd?

My guess is that SATA AHCI mode might be disabled. In this case it operates with the speed of an old IDE drive.

Please verify if SATA AHCI mode is in use. It enables the fastest data transfer mode and should be enabled in all cases.

You need to enable it in TWO different places:
1) In the BIOS
Make sure SATA AHCI mode is enabled in BIOS. Do NOT use anything like IDE mode or Legacy...

2) In Windows - Device manager:
You NEED to have SATA AHCI drivers in Windows. To get that driver either use your driver restore DVD (if one came with your computer) or go online and find it on your motherboard or computer manufacturer's website.

This is always related to your motherboard (or computer model, if it's a brand PC) and NEVER specific to your drive. It doesn't matter if it's an SSD or a HDD, if it's SATA you need AHCI drivers or it will be as slow as a turtle. That state is very similar to what you described, that's why I think you have this problem.

Note: You need to enable it in BOTH places. If you enable it in only one place, then it won't work at all.
WARNING: There's a possibility Windows won't boot up after enabling SATA AHCI mode in BIOS. In that case try starting up in safemode (press F8) if that still doesn't work then go back into BIOS and disable SATA AHCI mode (make it what it was before). You will be able to boot up then.
In some cases you have to reinstall windows to enable AHCI mode. But even in those cases if you disable AHCI mode again, you should be able to boot into Windows.

I do have a Kingston SSD, quite similar to yours. Peformance is amazing, opening those apps take about one second and running them all doesn't slow it down that much. So there must be something wrong, don't accept it that way.

GokAy · 27 May 2015

You don't need to re-install Windows to enable AHCI or other SATA modes. Just enable them in the registry. AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista

kbronski · 27 May 2015

logicearth said:

You are asking too much. If you are copying data to the drive, you are likely filling the pipelines it uses to communicate with the system. You know what happens during rush hour when you go to work don't you? The roads can only support so many cars at once, too many and everything slows to a crawl. The same applies to computers. I don't know what kind of laptop you have, or what version of SATA it has, but those links only have so much bandwidth.

There will always be a bottleneck some where. Its not the drive in this case, it is likely the connection or the hardware in general.

Then again, OneNote takes 10 seconds to open? And you are concerned? Hmm well I trade you an 7200 RPM HDD then for your SSD.

I figured that would be the case. From idle, it normally takes 1-3 seconds to open (from clicking the icon, to the app being usable).

EDIT: Resource monitor was showing random spikes in disk usage too, and I really wasn't sure why. But I rebooted and it's STILL slow. I don't understand this and I'm rather peeved. It's no faster than it was with the HDD. >

GokAy · 27 May 2015

Hey, download and benchmark with AS SSD Download AS SSD Benchmark - MajorGeeks and HD Tune 2.55 (scroll down to 2nd download on page) HD Tune website

Post the results here Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums