Why won&#x27;t my SSD operate at SATA 3.0 6 Gb/s?

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SOLUTION

Seth Simmons

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SOLUTION

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pgm554

Check your BIOS settings.
If it's set to SATA instead of AHCI,that can cause those speed fluctuations.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

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ASKER

This is a ThinkPad T410 model 2522-25U. I cannot find much information on it as Lenovo has wiped it from their Support pages.

What little info I can gather states that it came with a SATA 2 HDD.

I cannot find any BIOS upgrade though I am pretty certain that I have the latest. In any case, here's the Speccy data on the motherboard:

Motherboard
      Manufacturer      LENOVO
      Model      252225U (None)
      Version      Not Available
      Chipset Vendor      Intel
      Chipset Model      Havendale/Clarkdale Host Bridge
      Chipset Revision      02
      Southbridge Vendor      Intel
      Southbridge Model      QM57
      Southbridge Revision      06
            BIOS
                  Brand      LENOVO
                  Version      6IET85WW (1.45 )
                  Date      02/14/13
            PCI Data
                        Slot PCI-E
                              Slot Type      PCI-E
                              Slot Usage      Available
                              Data lanes      x1
                              Slot Designation      ExpressCard Slot
                              Characteristics      Hot Plug
                              Slot Number      0
                        Slot Other
                              Slot Type      Other
                              Slot Usage      Available
                              Bus Width      Other
                              Slot Designation      Media Card Slot
                              Characteristics      Hot Plug
                              Slot Number      1

It appears your system only supports SATA II. I'll try to find the documents but I found this on their forum:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-T400-T500-and-newer-T/SSD-Thinkpad-T410-SATA-II-or-SATA-III/td-p/1605084

T410 is a SATA II unit.

If your system only supports SATA II, a SATA III drive will work but will run at SATA II speeds.

So it appears that the Thinkpad T410 only has SATA II support:
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd006109

ASKER

Thanks to all. Everyone seems to have the right ideas about what's critical to answer this question.

Let me follow with a comment on clarification about Speccy. I think I was asking more as to what Speccy was telling me.

SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ACS2
Serial Number 1228091002FC
Firmware Version Number 0809
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 853 times
Power On Time 53.6 days
Speed Not used (SSD Drive)
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ, TRIM, SSD
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA II 3.0Gb/s
Interface SATA

I thought that the Max. Transfer Mode indicated the performance capable by the (combination of) motherboard/SATA interface/drivers/BIOS. Closer to the top, it clearly - to me - mentions the drive's SATA III 6.0Gb/s spec. But I suppose it (Max Transfer Mode) is only referring to the capability of the drive itself, which seems redundant to me, or confusing, since it clearly cannot operate at SATA III in this T410 as currently configured.

Thoughts about Max Transfer Mode? Is it redundant, as SATA Type seems to say the same thing?

Also trying to figure out how to close this and make it meaningful going forward. Thoughts on that?

Robert

Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
That means you SSD can use that transfer rate if it is connected to a SATA III 6.0Gb/s.

Used Transfer Mode SATA II 3.0Gb/s
That means your SSD is connected to a SATA II 3.0Gb/s which limited it's ability.

So in this case, the Max transfer mode is just referring to what the SSD supports, which is SATA III. Since your motherboard only supports SATA II, it is referring that the current transfer mode is limited to SATA II speed. This is just the terminology that this program uses. Also remember that if you run an I/O test, don't expect to see those types of speed. SATA III should see at best 600MB and SATA II of 300MB.

Gerald Connolly

So 6Gb/s = 600MB/sec for all these high speed buses they use 8b10b coding which means that every byte = 10 bits

That means the interface is capable of 600MB/s that doesnt mean the device will get that speed, on my machine a 6Gb/s i/f gives just over 500MB/s when tested with something like HDtune.

ASKER

Well, no one is really answering the question. Speccy lists the SATA Type as 6 Gb/s and then repeats that at the Max. Transfer Rate. Why repeat if it means the same thing?

SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
.
.
.
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA II 3.0Gb/s

I see it just like this:

SATA type SATA-III // this line only refers to SATA type.
.
.
.
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s // this line refers to Maximum transfer rate which is available on SSD.

Used Transfer Mode SATA II 3.0Gb/s // this line refers to Transfer rate which was available during the test.

ASKER

I see that, too, but SATA III is equivalent to saying SATA 6.0Gb/s. They mean the same thing, AFAIK.

Gerald Connolly

The manufacturers (well their marketing depts) are often economical with the truth - Yes SATA III is 6Gbits/s, the device is 6Gb/s by definition, but what they are really quoting is the BUS speed, not the maximum speed the device can consistently deliver dat, yes it might be able to do 6Gb/s for certain parts of the protocol exchange, but its highly unlikely it can deliver that speed consistently over a reasonable period of time.

nobus

you might get the max speed - or very near it - when starting a large data transfer; but then you see it drop very quickly to say 50/60 MB/sec, once the cache is full, and it is transferring in real time
(start speed is high because it fills up cache = memory = MUCH faster than disk)

ASKER

I think the key to the question that you answered was to know what performance the motherboard could provide.

Thanks to all for participating.

At some point I will upgrade my Desktop PC as well as my laptop and they will probably both run with the OS on an SSD using an m.2 interface on both.