Drives randomly change from SATA 3 to SATA 2

[idata]

Hi,

I have recently purchased (1 month ago) a Dell XPS 8300 dekstop which has an i7 2600 chip on what appears to be an H67 motherboard (made by Dell?) and I separately bought 2 Intel 510 120gb SSDs. My motherbaord has 6 SATA ports, 4 x SATA 2 and 2 x SATA 3. Obviously my SSDs are connected to the SATA 3 ports.

They went in easily and work very well but they do have a habit of changing from SATA 3 (6gb/s) to SATA 2 (3gb/s) for no obvious reason. It can happen to one or both of the drives and 90% of the time a complete shutdown and start returns them to SATA 3. I am using the Intel Rapid Stroage Technology Tool to check the SATA speed.

I'm quite sure they really are changing speed and that it isn't just a reporting issue as I can see a slightly longer load time for windows when the system SSD has started up as 3gb/s. Normally the windows logo only half completes when it's at 6gb/s but when it has gone back to 3gb/s the whole logo forms. When this happens I check the Intel tool and indeed the system SSD is running at 3gb/s.

One of the drives reports firmware PPG4 and the other PPG2 but the problem affects them both equally. I downloaded and booted the Intel SSD Firmware Update Tool which found both SSDs but told me that both firmwares were up to date. That seems a bit odd as one is PPG2 and surely that is not as new as PPG4?

Anyway, they work and even at 3gb/s they are considerably faster than a mechanical drive but I would obviously prefer them both to stay at 6gb/s. I expect no help whatsoever from Dell because when I first asked them about adding SSDs they said it should be possible but they couldn't offer any support as they hadn't tested them out with this system yet.

Does anyone have any idea? I've also sent a message to Intel support outlining this problem but thought I'd see if anyone else put there has come across/solved this problem.

[jbenavides]

There are multiple components involved in the behavior of SATA drives. SATA downshifts can be caused by different factors.

The focus of this forum is on Intel SSD's, however, SSD's from other brands should behave in a very similar way.

Here are some recommendations you can consider if your system presents SATA downshifts from 6 Gbps to 3 Gbps:

- Check with the motherboard manufacturer and update the BIOS of your PC.

- Update the firmware of the SSD.

- Contact the manufacturer of the motherboard and make sure you use the most current drivers for the storage controller, and chipset. *For Intel products, they can be obtained from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/ Intel® Download Center.

- Replace the SATA cable.

Furthermore, you can try to isolate the possible culprit by using the SSD in a different computer, or trying a different drive in the SATA port where the issue occurred initially. This may help you identify if the issue follows the drive, or the SATA port.

If the issue persists, you may want to contact support for the SSD, or the motherboard manufacturer for additional assistance.