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alborz · ‎01-24-2015

Hi all,

I have an ASUS G750JW-RB71-CB laptop, which came with 2 HDDs. I moved one of the HDDs to the optical bay and installed a Samsung 850 Pro (512GB) SSD into the SATA 3 port. My Linux 17.1 Rebecca on there seems to be operating kind of slow. I tested hdparm -t /dev/sda (that's the SSD) on it and here's the general output:

Timing cached reads:   25918 MB in  2.00 seconds = 12973.48 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 806 MB in  3.01 seconds = 268.10 MB/sec

Now that's running hdparm /dev/sda ON the actual sda/SSD; when I run it in a USB live-boot of Linux, it also shows somewhere around 260 MB/sec which is still slow considering its theoretical max is 550 MB/sec and I've seen people with that speed in the 400s! TRIM is enabled and the laptop is in AHCI mode. I've tried reinstalling Linux a bunch of times (secure erasing each time) to no avail. Testing on Windows gives the same results of 260 MB/sec!

I sent my laptop to ASUS for an RMA to see what was going on, they took a look at the motherboard and said it was fine (that's what they said when I picked it up) and the only thing wrong was that the SSD wasn't being recognized properly (that's what the person on the phone said), so I guess they did something to fix that (even though they said there was nothing wrong with the laptop), anyways when I get home the "Timing buffered disk reads" was 525 MB/sec initially, but after half an hour or so it went back down to 260 MB/sec and its stayed like that ever since! Also when I restarted it said "keys:Continue to wait, or Press S to skip mounting or M for manual recovery" and it keeps saying that, so not sure what happened... I fixed that by editing the fstab now but still it has 260 MB/sec. Do you think these have anything to do with each other?

Question: What is going on?? Why is the SSD so slow? I've tried everything!!

Quad5Ny · ‎01-24-2015

260MB/s sound like SATA 3Gbps not 6Gbps.

The physical connection might be bad (or prone to interference) and is only negating SATA2 speeds or (more likely) the port its connected to only does SATA2 speeds either becasue of a UEFI option or becasue its just a hardware limit on the port.

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null bs=8M count=2048 -- What does the read speed on that say after its done reading the 16GB?

alborz · ‎01-24-2015

Quad5Ny wrote:
260MB/s sound like SATA 3Gbps not 6Gbps.

The physical connection might be bad (or prone to interference) and is only negating SATA2 speeds or (more likely) the port its connected to only does SATA2 speeds either becasue of a UEFI option or becasue its just a hardware limit on the port.

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null bs=8M count=2048 -- What does the read speed on that say after its done reading the 16GB?

That's the thing, I just plugged it in like any ASUS laptop, so I don't know if it's me connecting it wrong... As well, in BIOS (or is it called UEFI?) it says that the Samsung is in Port 0 which should be the SATA 3 port...

Also, here are the results of that test:
2048+0 records in
2048+0 records out
17179869184 bytes (17 GB) copied, 59.0014 s, 291 MB/s

Quad5Ny · ‎01-24-2015

Everyone still calls it the BIOS but the correct term is UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface).

291MB/s is SATA2 speeds. You should be getting at least 500MB/s with a 850 Pro.

Grab smartmontools (its <1MB) and check your link speed:
• sudo apt-get install smartmontools
• sudo smartctl -i /dev/sda

"SATA Version is" should show: "SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)".

If it doesn't show a 6Gb/s link speed than something is configured wrong or there's a hardware problem. In which case I would ask ASUS if that SATA bay supports SATA3. If it does, ask them is there a UEFI (BIOS) option to switch it to SATA3.

alborz · ‎01-24-2015

Quad5Ny wrote:
Everyone still calls it the BIOS but the correct term is UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface).

291MB/s is SATA2 speeds. You should be getting at least 500MB/s with a 850 Pro.

Grab smartmontools (its <1MB) and check your link speed:
• sudo apt-get install smartmontools
• sudo smartctl -i /dev/sda

"SATA Version is" should show: "SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)".

If it doesn't show a 6Gb/s link speed than something is configured wrong or there's a hardware problem. In which case I would ask ASUS if that SATA bay supports SATA3. If it does, ask them is there a UEFI (BIOS) option to switch it to SATA3.

My test results show:
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)

??? Why would it be 3.0 Gb/s when it's connected to a SATA 3.1 6.0 Gb/s??

Quad5Ny · ‎01-24-2015

Can you try another drive (that supports SATA3) in it?

Or better yet try your drive in another computer/laptop?

Also paste the output of "sudo smartctl -a -x /dev/sda" here.

If you can't copy paste all the text you can dump the output to a txt file by using "sudo smartctl -a -x /dev/sda > /850ProSMARTInfo.txt"
^ That will write a text file to the root of your drive that has the SMART info (feel free to chage the directory and/or file name).

alborz · ‎01-24-2015

Quad5Ny wrote:
Can you try another drive (that supports SATA3) in it?

Or better yet try your drive in another computer/laptop?

Also paste the output of "sudo smartctl -a -x /dev/sda" here.

If you can't copy paste all the text you can dump the output to a txt file by using "sudo smartctl -a -x /dev/sda > /850ProSMARTInfo.txt"
^ That will write a text file to the root of your drive that has the SMART info (feel free to chage the directory and/or file name).

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     Samsung SSD 850 PRO 512GB
Serial Number:    S1SXNSAFA14082N
LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 8a0789783
Firmware Version: EXM01B6Q
User Capacity:    512,110,190,592 bytes [512 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4c
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Sat Jan 24 16:06:03 2015 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
AAM feature is:   Unavailable
APM feature is:   Unavailable
Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
Write cache is:   Enabled
ATA Security is:  Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]
Unexpected SCT status 0x0001 (action_code=4, function_code=2)
Wt Cache Reorder: N/A

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)	Offline data collection activity
					was never started.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
					without error or no self-test has ever 
					been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		(    0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x53) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					No Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					No Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (  33) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x003d)	SCT Status supported.
					SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
					SCT Feature Control supported.
					SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 1
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAGS    VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   PO--CK   100   100   010    -    0
  9 Power_On_Hours          -O--CK   099   099   000    -    255
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       -O--CK   099   099   000    -    197
177 Wear_Leveling_Count     PO--C-   099   099   000    -    1
179 Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Tot   PO--C-   100   100   010    -    0
181 Program_Fail_Cnt_Total  -O--CK   100   100   010    -    0
182 Erase_Fail_Count_Total  -O--CK   100   100   010    -    0
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       PO--C-   100   100   010    -    0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      -O--CK   100   100   000    -    0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O--CK   074   057   000    -    26
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  -O-RC-   200   200   000    -    0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    -OSRCK   099   099   000    -    9
235 Unknown_Attribute       -O--C-   099   099   000    -    38
241 Total_LBAs_Written      -O--CK   099   099   000    -    1064346917
                            ||||||_ K auto-keep
                            |||||__ C event count
                            ||||___ R error rate
                            |||____ S speed/performance
                            ||_____ O updated online
                            |______ P prefailure warning

General Purpose Log Directory Version 1
SMART           Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]
Address    Access  R/W   Size  Description
0x00       GPL,SL  R/O      1  Log Directory
0x01           SL  R/O      1  Summary SMART error log
0x02           SL  R/O      1  Comprehensive SMART error log
0x03       GPL     R/O      1  Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
0x06           SL  R/O      1  SMART self-test log
0x07       GPL     R/O      1  Extended self-test log
0x09           SL  R/W      1  Selective self-test log
0x10       GPL     R/O      1  NCQ Command Error log
0x11       GPL     R/O      1  SATA Phy Event Counters
0x30       GPL,SL  R/O      9  IDENTIFY DEVICE data log
0x80-0x9f  GPL,SL  R/W     16  Host vendor specific log
0xa1       GPL,SL  VS      16  Device vendor specific log
0xa5       GPL,SL  VS      16  Device vendor specific log
0xce       GPL,SL  VS      16  Device vendor specific log
0xe0       GPL,SL  R/W      1  SCT Command/Status
0xe1       GPL,SL  R/W      1  SCT Data Transfer

SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
No Errors Logged

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 3  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 5  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 3  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 5  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

SCT Status Version:                  3
SCT Version (vendor specific):       1 (0x0001)
SCT Support Level:                   1
Device State:                        Active (0)
Current Temperature:                    26 Celsius
Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature:      ?/ ? Celsius
Lifetime    Min/Max Temperature:      ?/ ? Celsius
Under/Over Temperature Limit Count:   0/1483
SCT Temperature History Version:     2
Temperature Sampling Period:         10 minutes
Temperature Logging Interval:        10 minutes
Min/Max recommended Temperature:      ?/ ? Celsius
Min/Max Temperature Limit:            ?/ ? Celsius
Temperature History Size (Index):    128 (0)

Index    Estimated Time   Temperature Celsius
   1    2015-01-23 18:50     ?  -
 ...    ..(126 skipped).    ..  -
   0    2015-01-24 16:00     ?  -

SCT Error Recovery Control:
           Read: Disabled
          Write: Disabled

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04) not supported

SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
ID      Size     Value  Description
0x0001  2            0  Command failed due to ICRC error
0x0002  2            0  R_ERR response for data FIS
0x0003  2            0  R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS
0x0004  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS
0x0005  2            0  R_ERR response for non-data FIS
0x0006  2            0  R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS
0x0007  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS
0x0008  2            0  Device-to-host non-data FIS retries
0x0009  2            3  Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy
0x000a  2            3  Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET
0x000b  2            0  CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000d  2            0  Non-CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000f  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC
0x0010  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, non-CRC
0x0012  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC
0x0013  2            0  R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, non-CRC

I wish I had another computer to test it on 😞

alborz · ‎01-24-2015

Just called ASUS support (1-888-678-3688) and they are absolutely useless. I said I was running Linux and he said "Oh we can't help unless you're on Windows... Thanks for calling ASUS--" and I had to interrupt him before he hung up. He suggested turning off "background programs" and running anti-virus software and I told him "this has nothing to do with that" and he said "bring it in for RMA" and I told him I did already which was of no help!

I then asked to speak to his supervisor because he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about and maybe even doesn't know what SATA II vs SATA III difference is (or, hell, what BIOS/UEFI is!)... He said I was gonna be placed in his supervisor's call back queue so let's see what happens.

Why would ASUS hire incompetent people for their support??

Son_of_Altair · ‎01-24-2015

Hi Alborz

I have a few questions.
How much space is used up on the ssd when you are running these tests?
Are there any partitions other than the standard bood partitions created with instllation of either os?
Have you checked disk usage while running these tests?
Also are you using samsung disk magician?

Intel 4930k i7 OC 4.6GHz Offset Mode ~ Asus Rampage IV Black Edition ~ 2x 8GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400MHz 10-12-12-31 ~ Asus ROG Matrix Platinum 780ti ~ C: Samsung 840 Evo 250GB SSD ~ 😧 Samsung 840 Evo 750GB SSD ~ Corsair ATX 1200i ~ Corsair 900D ~ Corsair H110 ~ 3x Corsair SP120 Red LED fans ~ 6x Corsair SP140 Red LED fans

Quad5Ny · ‎01-24-2015

He's running a Linux distro and reads will always be at full speed regardless of how full the disk is (well unless you have a ****ty TLC drive and the cell voltage is all over the place).

Installed SSD is slow -- ASUS says laptop is fine