Intel 320 120GB SSD slow

Hey guys

I've been missing out on the action here due to exams and stuff. Just got back on track.

Anyway. I have a problem. I bought an Intel 320 120gb ssd from America two weeks back and I just installed it in my G53JW. I went for Intel because:
1. Budget
2. Had to be a non-sandforce controller ssd because of all the glitches i read on the sandforce controller based ones. I cannot RMA because I'm in India so I could not afford to be stuck with glitches.
3. Laptop does not support SATA3 so had to go with SATA2.

My problem is my boot up time. I have installed the ssd in the slot that was empty (My laptop came with a 750gb 7200rpm hdd in the first port) because I tried switching ports but when I did so, the panel simply could not be closed because of some things projecting from it which would touch the hdd.
After installing the ssd and making sure it was in AHCI mode in the bios, i installed all the necessary drivers and softwares and followed some popular guides on tweaking my ssd (followed them to a T). But my boot up is still not very fast. It is faster than when I had my HDD but still not very fast. I use the software called soluto to measure total time to a useable desktop and it shows 44s with everything loaded. My HDD used to do it in 45-48s!!!!

How do you guys measure boot up time? From after POST till my desktop, it takes 35s when i measured using a stop watch which I think is still slow.

Please help me out guys. I'm looking forward to your suggestions.

Regards,
Vipin

 

3. You didn't have to go with SATA II, my M4 is a happy camper in the G73, but that's off topic and the 320 is still a great choice.

Can you run crystal disk mark and post some numbers, that would be of great help. Also, did you clone the OS or did a clean install?

Your boot time does seem slow indeed, mine takes 20 secs to boot from pressing the power button to desktop.

 

My Kingston mid range SATA II was a quick little thing at booting nothing on SATA III mind but this guide help me loads.

Make sure you have the latest Intel RST software installed first and then work your way through this guide:

The SSD Optimization Guide - The SSD Review

The best things I found were:

Hibernation off
System recovery off
Page filing off
Windows loading features during boot off

Sped things up and increased my free space.

 

Hello tijo and Yiddo

I did run CM. The numbers are put up below.

I used a stopwatch to check my bootup time. From the moment I press the power button till my desktop, it takes 39s.

I did follow that exact same guide, Yiddo.

I'm using Intel RST version 10.1.0.1008.

What do you think guys?

 

Kinda late right now, i'll boot up my G73 and check my CDM numbers on the m4. At first glance, your numbers do seem rather reasonable.

EDIT: Just remembered i have the bench i did a few months ago saved on the desktop so here it is:

 

Those numbers are fine, compared to mine I only saw 205mb/s Read and 140mb/s write on my old kingston bad boy that is now in my netbook. Did you clone it or reinstall from scratch as Tijo asked?

Have you tried disabling the windows aesthetics that play during startup and your fancy boot screen?

I guess mine took in the region of 20-30 seconds in total although I seem to remember it was quite quick.

Can you run a health check on it using HDD Tune? A full one not a quick one.

 

Hey Yiddo and tijo

I did do a fresh install. Thought i'd clone my old os but then decided against it and did a fresh install.
And no. Both fancyboot and windows startup animation (or whatever the "starting windows" screen is called) are disabled. It saved me around 3s.

And ok. I will run HDD tune and let you know the health status.

Thank you very much guys. How do you people measure your bootup time. Some software or the good old stopwatch?

 

I didn't measure mine but I know it was around 15-20 seconds to get to the log in screen but then probably another 10-15 to get fully into windows and everything loaded as I had tons of gadgets

 

Yiddo

I have HDTunePro. Is that the same as HDD Tune? How do I run a health check? I ran a benchmark test. In the health tab, it shows health status as ok.

I had the animated logo enabled in POST. Made that static. Used a stopwatch to measure bootup time. It takes 37s from the moment i press the power button till my desktop.

 

That is not that bad to be honest, if you have the latest drivers for it and have applied all the tweaks and your benchmarks look about right just check again in a month.

It might just be warming up

 

Here is a wee script that times your boot time.

Copy the text between the quotation marks and put it in a .txt file.

"Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next
Dim Wsh, Time1, Time2, Result, PathFile, MsgResult, MsgA, AppName, KeyA, KeyB, TimeDiff
MsgA = "Please close all running applications and click on OK."
KeyA = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RestartTime\"
KeyB = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\RestartTime"
AppName = "Restart-Time"
Set Wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
PathFile = """" & WScript.ScriptFullName & """"
Result = wsh.RegRead(KeyA & "Times")
if Result = "" then
MsgResult = Msgbox (MsgA, vbOKCancel, AppName)
If MsgResult = vbcancel then WScript.Quit
Wsh.RegWrite KeyA & "Times", left(Time,8), "REG_SZ"
Wsh.RegWrite KeyB, PathFile, "REG_SZ"
Wsh.Run "cmd /c Shutdown -r -t 00", false, 0
else
Wsh.RegDelete KeyA & "Times"
Wsh.RegDelete KeyA
Wsh.RegDelete KeyB
TimeDiff = DateDiff("s",Result,left(Time,8))
MsgBox "Your computer restarts in " & TimeDiff & " seconds", VbInformation, AppName
end if
wscript.Quit"


Now rename that .txt file to something like 'Restart-time.vbs' and safe it on your desktop.

Run that .vbs script and it will give you your restart time.

Hope that helps.

Oh and your crystal diskmark figures look okay. You could try the following 'Tweaks' found here http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/513313-laptops-w-intel-series-5-chipset-can-not-take-full-advantage-fast-ssds.html to maximise the 4k speeds though.
But you'll have delve a bit deeper in the inner workings for that so.......... be carefull.

Hope this helps

iemie

 

Well, just timed my booth including typing a password over 12 characters long, 26 secs to usable desktop on battery from the moment i press the power button. 67 processes running at boot because i put some stuff back on instead of keeping a fully clean install.

EDIT: Didn't disable the windows GUI boot by the way.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-your-windows-7-boot-time-tweaks-allowed.html

Tijo, now I have a standard to try to achieve. I am at 40 seconds sans password. Guess it is time for a clean install.

 

Well, 26 secs is not entirely accurate, not sure if it is 26 or 27, there is the error induced by having to press the stopwatch button. Also i'll have to time again now that i updated my chipset drivers and IRST.

I'll time the POST too next time as it can have an influence, i set my G73 to boot directly from the SSD so it helps. It is still nothing compared to my desktop, past post, the windows logo barely has time to form itself before i get to the login screen.

 

I did the JJB tweak and most of the ones in the SSD Optimization Guide

I have the same drive as the OP. Before & After JJB tweak.

 

Hi guys

Sorry for the delay. Had loads of stuff to do and no internet access.

@ Yiddo - I really hope my SSD runs in soon and I can see better boot up times

@ tijo - Your boot time is good. I wish mine was that fast. My post takes around 3 or 4 seconds. Still not happy with my SSD. I've done every tweak everyone mentioned in here before I timed my SSD.

@ Josea - Did you time it at 40s? If so, that is a lot. My old 7200rpm harddisk used to take 40s to a workable desktop (including loading up my rainmeter theme).

 

@FlyingFalcon
Is your alignment set right?
Check it with AS SSD tool.
Download
If the partition offset label is green, your alignment is right.

 

Just timed my post, a whopping 7 secs from pressing the pwr button to the windows starting message...

 

Using the boottimer software, my boot time is 39.6s. Unbelievably slow. Damn.

@ @tilla- I've downloaded it. Will run it and post back.

This is my AS SSD benchmark score

 

Your score and values looks normal.
But 40 s seems slow indeed.
Have you done a clean windows install or cloned the HDD system?
Any network folders which are connected at startup?
Latest firmware for the Intel 320?

 

Falcon...

In your BIOS, are you booting from your HD as first choice or is it boot from cd/dvd?

Mine was booting from cd first and I simply changed that setting to boot from harddrive first and my boot went from 42 sec to about 30 now...

 

Hi Cereallll

I'm not sure whether my primary boot is from the ssd or the dvd drive. I don't have my computer right now because it is at home. I'll be going home tomorrow. Will check and update.

Hi @tilla

I know my values look normal compared to some of the other benchmarks i found for the same drive.
40s is pathetically slow. My old 7200rpm hard disk took only 4 seconds more than this.
I did a clean install. I did not clone my OS.
No network folders connected at startup. i use my computer only for watching movies, playing games and reading up on medicine. That is all. No virus (I'm paranoid when it comes to connecting other people's hard disks and pen drives), no malware, no spyware, nothing. I use my netbook to go online.
I'm not sure if it is the latest firmware. This is because I got it during christmas so I'm assuming it has the latest firmware preloaded. Not sure though. Will check and update.

Regards,
Vipin

 

Try to install XP or Vista and compare the boot time there
You need to know that Microsoft tuned the boot up time in Windows 7 a LOT! That's why the difference isn't that big. Then also count in an Antivirus tool, they usualy add several seconds on boot time. The worse the AV, the bigger the win with the change to the SSD.
Just to say, 40 seconds look absolutely fine.

 

40s is fine? Damn. My HDD used to do it in 45s. So $160 down the drain?

I use Avast antivirus btw.

 

40s its not fine lol

Mine used to be around there abs after switching boot order went down to 28s from pushing power button to windows loaded and the hourglass not on the mouse curser

I still think you changed the boot drive to the dvd drive to install windows then never changed it back. Happened to me and made a huge difference

 

A place where you should get a big gain is in starting Battlefield 3. That takes around 30-45s on a 7200 laptop-hdd, and around 10s on a SSD.
It really depends on what you do and how much your system already was optimized. But in the end, it's always better to have an SSD

 

I have an Intel 320 120GB SSD that I installed into the secondary HDD slot of my G53SW-XN1. It only takes my computer ~23 seconds from the time I press the power button to to my desktop being displayed. (And it takes another 2-3 seconds for all the icons and various start-up programs to load.) All in all, ~25 seconds for a fully functioning desktop.

I did all of the typical stuff people recommend:
Clean Install of Win 7
Set boot order to SSD as primary source

As I'm not much of a technical expert, I'm not sure how to help you solve your issue, but I did want to chime in and offer a data point for you as I have the same SSD and it seems to be working well for me.

 

I had changed the boot drive to the DVD drive to install windows. But I disabled it soon after I installed windows. I have only boot option 1 enabled from the SSD. boot option 2 is disabled. Similarly, boot from dvd drive is also disabled. I have something called UEFI boot which is disabled in my BIOS. Idk what that is though.

From the moment I press power button till my rainmeter and objectdock is loaded, it takes 39s. My POST is 5.2s long.

My system was very optimised whe I had my 7200rpm drive. I had followed many guides to make my system fast and they did make it fast. With my old HDD, startup times where fast (45-47s to a working desktop).

My Intel is connected to the second slot too. But it takes a painfully slow (for an SSD) 39s from the moment I hit the power button to a fully working desktop (including loading rainmeter and objectdock which takes a total of 3s to launch). It takes 36.4s without rainmeter.