Show Us Your WEI [3]

[Dch48]

When I got this laptop, it came with 6 GB RAM and the WEI score was 5.7 (1st image)

After I increased the RAM to 8 GB the WEI score become 5.8 (2nd image)

Then I have added a 16 GB SDHC card to the system as Readyboost and the WEI score increased to 5.9. (3rd image)

Now my inherent limitations on the system are the Hard disk (score 5.9) and onboard Intel graphics (score 5.9).

I can increase the HDD's score by going for a SSD, but what to do about the Intel graphics?

Can I do something about it?

Since it's a laptop, I would say there is nothing you can do about the graphics. Almost all laptops do not allow graphics upgrades since the graphics chips (even the ones that are called discrete) are soldered on the motherboard and there are no expansion slots like on a desktop motherboard.

 

[Lebon14]

Hey guys... I have some kind of... concern with my WEI. I have an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD and, well, its WEI is 6.9. Shouldn't it be 7 and over for a SSD? Do you think it's worth calling OCZ for support?

 

[essenbe]

Do you have it ahci mode? And is it properly aligned?

 

[Lebon14]

Do you have it ahci mode? And is it properly aligned?

AHCI mode is enabled but when my PC boot up, I only see my 2 HDDs (500GB & 1TB) and my LG BD/DVD/CD drive during the short AHCI detecting sequence. When opened a benchmark software, the SSD is IDE. For some reason. Probably because I plugged it into a SATA 6Gb port...

Don't know about alignment.

 

[essenbe]

Go to device manager and expand IDE/ATA/Atapi controllers, you should see an ahci controller listed at the bottom. It should be the intel or msahci. Go to properties - details and go down to the listing for children. You should see your SSD listed there. Also download AS SSD. It is a SSD benchmark program. open it and select your SSD, don't run the test, just show a screen shot of the program. It will tell you the controller and the alignment. That is the easy way. Also, with OCZ drives don't run many benchmark tests, it will slow them down and also start from a cold start and let the computer idle on the login screen for 2 hours a week. It aids in 'garbage collection'- (removing what trim missed).

 

[Lebon14]

Like I said, my SSD is not on AHCI but other drives are. Alignment is 1024K and is shown "OK" by AS SSD.
Would it be safe to replug it on another SATA port?

 

[essenbe]

Like I said, my SSD is not on AHCI but other drives are. Alignment is 1024K and is shown "OK" by AS SSD.
Would it be safe to replug it on another SATA port?

No, it will not boot. You should have 2 sata controllers in bios and should be able to change them both to ahci, but there is a procedure before doing that, here is the tutorial on changing to ahci. So, I assume AS SD said the controller was pcide or something like that? 1024 is a good alignment. That is the alignment of all my SSDs.

 

[Hopalong X]

Do you have it ahci mode? And is it properly aligned?

Probably because I plugged it into a SATA 6Gb port...

Don't know about alignment.

Each controller has IDE/ACHI mode.

Read the manual and it should tell you how to put the 6.0GBs controller into AHCI.
Somewhere in the Bios there is a seperate setting for that controller.

On my Asus it isn't listed with the normal HD settings. It is in the add on listing with the USB 3 ports etc. So it could be anywhere.

 

[Lebon14]

Regedit value is already 0 in msahci's start entry. I don't know... I have Intel Rapid Storage driver installed but I haven't installed the driver for "Marvell 91xx Config ATA Device". Should I install that? Also, I'll check my BIOS to see if there isn't two controllers to see if I missed one.

EDIT

I'm going to suspend this problem for the evening. I will backup my data just in case. And if I need it, I will 0 my SSD and install Windows again.

 

[essenbe]

Lebon, in every thread I've been involved with, a Gigabyte board is very confusing there are several settings you have to make, and they are not obvious. Panais and I think wishmaster have Gigabyte boards. They may be able to tell you which settings to change. it seems like it is about 3 different settings. All of the boards I have had, it was a simple procedure.

 

[Hopalong X]

LeBon

Snips from your manual. Marvel 6.0Gbs is the GSata ports. http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449#manual

At least this is what is listed as the manual for your mobo.

 

[essenbe]

See if any of this looks familiar. It is the bios of a Gigabyte board in AHCI mode.

 

[Lebon14]

thx all, I will set this up later... I need to help my friend now.

 

[essenbe]

thx all, I will set this up later... I need to help my friend now.

OK. If you need help, let me know. I will do the best I can.

 

[Lebon14]

So, I download and installed the Marvell Drivers. Then, I rebooted and changed the said settings to AHCI but I ended welcomed by a 0xc000000e error at boot. Revert back the BIOS settings, no go. I tried a system restore, no go. After a searching just a bit, I saw that a CHKDSK would work. So, that's what I did : chkdsk c: /f /r in a command prompt. After 5 minutes, it finished and I rebooted. Windows loaded just fine.

I wonder what was the problem... the driver or the BIOS settings?

 

[essenbe]

As best as I can figure, it must have been the driver.But, by all rights, the Marvell ports should not have worked without the driver. Checkdisk does not make the OS load ahci drvers. The ahci drivers have to be loaded for it to boot in ahci mode. But, whatever is was, I'm glad you have it working again like it is supposed to be.

 

[essenbe]

Also, go back and read the last part of post #405, It will give you some good tips about Sandforce controllers and how they work best. Make sure defragment is off. and turn off hiber nate and check if trim is working. To do that open an elevated command prompt and type/copy paste powercfg -h off that turns off hibernate and will save you 6GB of space on the SSD. In the same elevated command prompt type/copy paste fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify it should return DisableDeleteNotify = 0 that means trim is working, if it returns =1 trim is not working. Also go to disk defragmentor and turn it off.

 

[Lebon14]

@essenbe

* Yes, I learned about leaving my PC at logon a while ago. So, I might just log off completely and leave it there once in a while.
* Degramentation is OFF. I always checked when I installed Windows the last two times.
* Hibernation is turn off.
* and "fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify" returned 0.

So, I will probably turn all AHCI on when I will be ready to re-install Windows. That might be the best thing to do and it will avoid errors like I had tonight. Of course, before re-installing Windows, I will zero the drive using the command prompt and disk part. This will hopefully help regaining some lost performance.

Later and thx!

 

[essenbe]

If you want to do a secure erase, here is a tutorial from OCZ.

 

[Lebon14]

If you want to do a secure erase, here is a tutorial from OCZ.

I tried all their tutorials before and, none of them worked for me. Either it didn't work or said that my SSD was "locked". The only way I found to "zero" my drive was with the command prompt during Windows' install.