RST Driver Lockup / Freezes (Win7 x64 w/2 x 80GB X25-M G2)

[idata]

Hello all,

I have reviewed some of the other posts in the forum, but haven't found any that directly address what I am experiencing with my configuration.

As always, it is a challenge to troubleshoot the source of the issue - driver? mobo BIOS? etc.

I just purchased two 80GB SSD X25-M G2 drives (SSDSA2MH080G2C1). I connected them to my PC, I have an EVGA x58 Micro motherboard with updated BIOS.

In the BIOS, I have it set to "RAID" which the documentation indicates to me means that AHCI is enabled.

Installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 64-bit.

I installed the RST driver set in Windows and am able to see that the drives have NCQ enabled etc (that indicates AHCI is working, right? wrong?).

I have run CrystalDiskMark benchmarks and the performance was outstanding.

Through usage, be it web browsing (watching some Hulu) or playing games Modern Warfare 2, eventually the system freezes. It is not a blue screen, but it becomes non-responsive (task manager won't open, etc).

I changed the Windows driver installed to the Intel MSM drivers 8.9 set, and this lock up/freezing does NOT happen. However the benchmarks post statistically significant lower numbers performance-wise than with the RST drivers.

I installed the RST drivers from the Lenovo site 9.5.7.x listed in a post on this forum, and the freeze/lockups returned.

I am happy with the drive performance with the MSM drivers, it is damn quick, but it is bugging me that there is a 10-15% gain I could have with the RST drivers but there is no system stability.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[DZand]

Have you tried the other Intel RST drivers (v9.5.0.1037, v9.5.4.1001 and 9.5.6.1001)?

[idata]

Hi Fernando,

Yes, I originally tried 9.5.6.1001. That is when I experienced the first set of lockups.

I am back home from work, so I have access to the benchmarks I ran you can see them below. I have highlighted the dramatic gains from use of the RST driver set.

BTW - Is there a way I can tell of AHCI is enabled for my SSD drives? I have RAID0'd them... so not much software will let me know if they are AHCI enabled.

MSM 8.9

--------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo

Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

--------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 494.933 MB/s

Sequential Write : 171.280 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 280.993 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 143.522 MB/s

Random Read 4KB : 21.711 MB/s

Random Write 4KB : 131.616 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB

Date : 2010/02/24 18:52:31

RST 9.5.7

--------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo

Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

--------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 601.346 MB/s

Sequential Write : 170.583 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 392.803 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 194.468 MB/s

Random Read 4KB : 22.136 MB/s

Random Write 4KB : 160.312 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB

Date : 2010/02/24 19:10:02

[DZand]

Hi Hajji,

I am running 2x160 GB Postville SSD's in RAID0 and I had not a single problem with any of the RST drivers.

Regards

Fernando

[idata]

Hey Fernando,

Are you running Win7 64-bit?

EVGA x58 brand mobo?