Intel SSD 330 120GB often freezes for 60 seconds

[idata]

Hello,

I have a problem with my SSD. The symptoms are exactly as decribed in this Microsoft article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976418 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976418

The problem is that I have already installed Windows 7 SP1 and available hotfix is already included in SP1. So the problem should be gone, but it's not in my case. It happens quite often and is very annoying. I think it may be the SSD firmware issue, because I have already tried almost everything and nothing helps. So I decided to post here on Intel's support community for help. I have Windows 7 Home Premium x86 SP1 installed in AHCI mode with msahci driver. My motherboard is Intel D915PBL with 4 SATA I ports. The OS often freezes for exactly 60 seconds and after that time, simply returns to the normal operation. Please help me solve this problem.

[idata]

I inderstand your point of view however, I don't want to upgrade my legacy system. I don't see any reason to do this. Everything works as it should except the ssd. Besides, the SSD is backwards compatible with SATA I, so everything should work, but it's not. I'm not complaining on the ssd performance, but on the ssd freezes. I read on many forums that this is a very common issue and can affect even the latest hardware available on the market.

[idata]

I'm glad to see that Intel (eventually) replied. However, I have to agree with trance.

While the fix I suggested earlier in this thread appeared to have resolved my issue for a while, it has come back with a vengeance (three year old, not four year old, M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard). I'll try Tok's suggestion, but back to Intel's comment...

As trance says, SATA is backward compatible. The performance may not be as good, but we're talking about painful freezes here. Of several SATA devices that have been in this machine, only the Intel SSD (335 in my case) has issues. I would purchase a newer controller if I believed it would resolve the issue, but I've no reason to believe it would. I think the "buy new hardware" suggestion was too much of a wild guess.

The funny thing is that I selected an Intel branded SSD to avoid problems.

[idata]

Sorry to say, there is some confusion about drivers in this thread, for example:

Windows has several SATA drivers that it will install when it is installed, which can be seen in the registry entries being discussed. Only one can be used per SATA chipset at a time of course, and the only way to determine which one is being used is by checking either the IDE/ATA Controllers or Storage controllers in Device Manager. For example, brn's picture shows he is (was) using the msahci driver, Windows generic AHCI driver, which is designed to work with multiple SATA chipsets. Entries for iaStor and iaStorV are for the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) drivers, and different versions, which are used in AHCI or RAID mode.

If the msahci driver is installed as the SATA chipset driver, changing registry entries for iaStor, etc, have no affect on the functioning of msahci. A Windows Hotfix or SP1 update for the msahci driver will have no affect on any other SATA driver, such as iaStor. The same is true if the iaStor driver was installed, and the registry entries for msahci were changed, no affect. So the SSD issue would also be unaffected.

brn's M4A785TD-V EVO board is an AMD CPU and chipset board, using the AMD SB710 SATA chipset. Intel's iaStor drivers are not compatible with AMD SATA chipsets, and cannot be installed/used by them. So changes to iaStor registry entries will have zero affect. Again, SSD issue unchanged.

brn could have tried the AMD AHCI driver for his board, which is part of their "All in One" driver installer.

The point that MBV2000 made was that the hardware itself has changed significantly since trance's ICH6R chipset was released. SATA may be backward compatible (in theory) but that is software not hardware. That is the reason to update the hardware. The reality is there, whether it is recognized or not.

There is also more to the picture than is obvious, this is a quote from the FAQ's for brn's mother board:

Controller limitations:

Cause: There could have been a known limitation with the existing SATA/RAID controller, such as limited support to particular SATA standards or specifications.

SATA chipsets made by Nvidia are an example of this. The D915PBL board is almost 10 years old. That FAQ also mentions another important point:

Driver or HDD firmware issue

Cause: SATA/RAID Driver loaded may need to be matched with specific versions of SATA/RAID BOOTROM, or the controller's behavior under AHCI mode, in order to allow the controller and device to function correctly. System may result in fail to install operating system, performance drop, or even not detecting HDD during OS installation process if the drivers are not matched. (Note: Some versions of Windows may have been bundled with a previously existed version of driver for a particular controller.) Only when this driver also matches with SATA/RAID BOOTROM or controller behavior under AHCI mode, would the controller be able to function without fail. The same could also happen if the HDD firmware is not fully compatible with such SATA/RAID controller.

The BOOTROM or SATA option ROM is code stored with the BIOS code and updated only by a BIOS update. It obviously becomes out of date once BIOS updates for a board end, assuming that the SATA option ROM is updated, which is rare.

No one has mentioned the Intel SSD Toolbox, that performs OS optimizations, none of you use it?

I must say that running Windows 7 and 8 on a D915PBL is quite a feat. Intel specs driver support for it up to Windows XP, but that's it. The ICH6R is a SATA I chipset, although it does have RAID support, via a Matrix storage driver, and supports AHCI mode, which is amazing for a board of this age. The Matrix storage driver has not been used on any new platforms for since the ICH10R chipset, the last of the ICH style chips, used in X58 systems.

My only suggestion would be choosing a Windows high performance power plan, and in the Advanced settings set Turn off hard drive after, to Never. Or in brn's case, try the AMD SATA driver.

[idata]

parsec,

I appreciate the comments. They are helpful. With this information, some help from Intel Support, and Google, I decided to plug my SSD into a SATA port that does not have AHCI enabled. The problem went away and the performance is better than before.

I will experiment with AMD drivers, but if it all fails, I'm content with the system as it is now.

As to your question "No one has mentioned the Intel SSD Toolbox, that performs OS optimizations, none of you use it?"

Yes, I do use it and it says my setup is perfect.

- brn

[idata]

Glad this forum could help you a bit. Also thank you parsec for the detailed information and explanation.