Crucial M4 / Micron C400 SSD Series Thread

Well I found a few benchmarks from people who have the 128GB M4 for you to compare. I also found another reason why you got 3MB/s with 4Ks but it is different solution than what Phil suggested. If you read this thread: Some Crucial M4 128GB results - Overclockers Forums you will see two guys who have the same exact problem. One of them says:

The other one says:

Read from #13 and down. Anyways, benchmarks are also in that thread so read it.

 

Thanks, and I am not sure what version of RST I have should I unistall it, or try 1008?? I am not sure if I have 1008 or 1027

 

CrystalDiskInfo just says SATA/600 in transfer mode...

 

hmm, it looks like 1027 is only for desktops and RST for notebooks is 1008 and down. I don`t know where to find out which version you have. Maybe someone else can help you with that. But didn`t your benchmark score increase after what Phil`s advice? Are they similar to what`s in the thread? If so then you don`t have to do this

 

Similar but people are still getting quite a bit higher 4k speeds and sequential reads, I should be over 400, I dont know if I am running in Sata 3 or 2 nor do I know how to change that. I just downloaded RST 1008 and I am about to try another benchmark

 

Latest benchmark with RST 1008:


Now its just down to the last thing which is if I am in SATA II or III, and if I am in SATA II how do I get to SATA III? Also, any last things to optimize read and write times? Thanks a lot for the help

 

Your performance is perfect now. Well done.

404MB/sec read means you're in SATA III.

 

Sweet! Thanks guys! Going to take out the Optical Drive and put the HD back in for a second hard drive with my caddy

 

Yup those are great speeds. SATA 2 means up to 300MB/s. SATA 3 means up to 600MB/s. So are you running over 300MB/s it means you are using SATA 3.

 

ignore this post....woops

 

Here is my Benchmark, Crucial 128GB M4 with 0002 firmware no LPM hack.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 400.220 MB/s
Sequential Write : 189.359 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 347.844 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 182.165 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 21.900 MB/s [ 5346.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 42.528 MB/s [ 10382.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 241.195 MB/s [ 58885.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 166.033 MB/s [ 40535.4 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 44.1% (52.6/119.1 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/06/22 12:44:11
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


Website is not letting me upload a screenshot....

 

Got a 256GB M4 in yesterday and flashed it up to 0002 before anything. Works great, though my sequentials are a tad under spec (400/260 R/W). Random 4k IOPS were over rated spec though

I can post a screencap tonight if anyone is interested.

This drive smokes the Vertex 2 in my desktop (but that doesn't have SATA3), and I am staying far away from Sandforce after the issues I had with that drive and getting it to work right...plus the latest issues with SF.

 

Stradevarius

When you tried to update the firmware what happened on your vaio SA. I tried with mine and it just refuses to recognise the firmware disc I created and loads straight to windows.
Is this the same problem you had before you updated the firmware on another machine as I would rather not remove the m4 if possible.
Thanks

 

Well here is my AS SSD and ATTO scores. Not so hot AS SSD scores, they were higher the first time I ran it (seems to vary a fair bit though, I ran it like 4 times - yea, I know, not so good for the drive, but I'm done for now).

Last night was 400 Read/260 Write, slightly higher 4ks too, but I didn't screenshot it.

Whatever, the drive runs great.

 

Mine recognized the firmware disk I burned, but it failed to recognize my drive as it wasn't in IDE mode, but rather ACHI. For the firmware to be flashed, the M4 needs to be in IDE mode, and this as of now is only possible through the use of another computer that has this capability, until either Crucial changes how the firmware flashes or if Sony releases a new BIOS.

Yeah it sucks, but it sure beats frequent stuttering, and it only took me about 10 minutes.

Stradevarius

 

Mine doesn't have IDE mode either so to speak, just AHCI and ATA. ATA worked fine for mine. I think it is the same thing, but it's been one of those weeks...

 

Well that's good. I don't know what ATA mode is, but now i'm going to look it up. Glad I was of help, and hopefully you'll get better write speeds than me (compared to others in the thread).

Stradevarius

 

I'm going to try the disc again initial problem was that I only created a data disc with the iso folder on. If not I checked my old dell and it has ata option in the bios only issue it occasional crashes due to faulty graphics card and am little concerned if happen during update.
Cheers

 

ATA is the same as IDE. Think PATA if that helps. A new morning and I'm thinking clearer...My speeds are a little off. See post above. But there may be other things going on, I haven't looked that hard. The thing is still awesomely fast!

 

Can confirm the latest firmware update does not work on the Sony SA gonna have take it out and do it on my old laptop. Defiantly needed as the lock ups and delays on restart with the intel rst problems are very annoying

 

I stand informed, thank you.

Yeah the freeze's only occurred maybe once every 15 minutes for me but they got annoying quick. Hopefully Sony releases a new bios soon that fixes this problem and also gives us the user more options.

Stradevarius

 

Guys anyone of you experience BSOD with thinkpads after you updated to firmware 0002? I post my experience here > http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/577491-x220-ssd-installation.html

 

Installed my 128gb Crucial M4 after updating it to firmware 0002. Works great, no stuttering or freezes.

 

I've seen some more problems pop up with firmware 2 and laptops.

I've been told there's more people on the Crucial forums.

 

Hi.

I've just updated my laptop bios to SATA II... I know, old tech!

The M4 128GB CDM results look OK, apart from the 4KQD32, which should be around 180 / 130 (r/w) from what I have seen of other laptops on SATA II... does anyone have any ideas why my 4KQD32 results are low at 118 / 95 (r/w)?

The SSD is aligned correctly, and is using msachi drivers, and the bios is set to AHCI. My M4 is still on firmware 0001, and I do not have any problem with BSOD, stuttering or delays...

 

Englishcoder, try Intel RST driver for better qd32 performance.

 

Hey Phil,

Will it really make that much difference? (I've seen 180/130 using msachi)
Also, I'd have to update the M4 to 0002 to prevent the RST stuttering/BSOD issue.

 

Oh ok. I don't know if it will make much difference.

 

Any other ideas? (BTW Would try new RST drivers - though I don't think that's the issue - but you never know!, but can't yet update M4 firmware because I can't boot from CD. Booting from a USB stick, the M4 software would not run without giving an error that it could not find a file "memdisk")... I feel like I'm in the MAC bootcamp

 

Normally the Intel RST drivers boosts QD32 performance.

 

Hey guys I just bough my first SSD the M4 64GB and i had a question. For those that have the 64gb are you doing OK with the limited space? Anyone care to tell me the main programs on their drives and how much space they have left?

I'll be using it in my laptop and will move the 500gb to the optical bay so i will mirror the drive.
edit: Asking as it hasnt arrived yet and just curious.

 

Crucial M4 owners, please answer the poll here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...wners-did-firmware-2-solve-lpm-issue-you.html

I tried Crucial M4 now with firmware 2 in my Macbook Pro. Happy to say it runs great.

I gained ~ 1 hour battery life over Vertex 3 240GB OEM.

 

Impressive right there.

I'd answer the poll but since I never tested mine before flashing to see if I had the LPM issue, I can't say if it fixed it...I just immediately flashed it before doing anything.

EDIT: I voted I didn't know.

 

If anyone's interested in a Crucial M4 256GB SSD for 319,- euros ex. shipping send me a PM.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...ial-m4-256gb-ssd-barely-used.html#post7686433

The price is probably uninteresting for Americans.... probably interesting for Europeans.

 

Anyone have a Thinkpad W510 and M4 128GB SSD working?

I got major reboot problems that occurs at different times, i had to remove it and install my old mechanical drive again.

Would it help if i try to disable LPM in registry?

My post at Crucial forum

I got major problems with my M4 128GB SSD with 0002 firmware.



I got it installed in my Thinkpad W510 with Win7x64.



Suddenly the system just reboots with no warning, it can happen when running the Windows Experience Index tool or it can happen just when installing something, it never happens when the computer is idle.



This is really annoying as a bought this SSD instead of a Sandforce one to avoid most problems but this gets on my nerves.



In Event Viewer i get this Event ID 41 and Kernel-Power, it never writes anything as it reboots instantly.


- System

- Provider
[
Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[
Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated
[
SystemTime] 2011-07-09T21:27:44.507608800Z

EventRecordID 1489

Correlation

- Execution
[
ProcessID] 4
[
ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer W510

- Security
[
UserID] S-1-5-18
- EventData
BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

 

It can't hurt to disable LPM.

If that doesn't help try disabling Intelppm. This often helps, although it increases power consumption.

Last resort would be a firmware downgrade, in combination with the LPM tweak. I read that a firmware downgrade can void warranty though.

 

Instead of using the Intel driver you should also try to use the default MSAHCI driver (or vice versa, whatever you use now). With the MSAHCI driver LPM Slumber is disabled when you use the "High Performance" power-profile, but enabled when you used the default "Balanced" or the "Power Saver" profiles.

 

64GB C400 in my HP dm1z-3000, Win 7 HP x64 fresh installed and then did all updates, then ran AS SSD. Pardon the German but I can't find the English version anymore.



My 4k numbers went down by 50% going from MSACHI to the AMD AHCI 11.6, but the 4k-64thread numbers went up by 50%, raising the overall score. Sequential went up a little as well with the AMD driver.

ATTO achieved max read score of 468 MB/s and max write of 108 MB/s

 

Seems like the M4 is exellent for battery life too:
http://www.ssdreview.com/review/com...gb-25-inch-4pc10302,54/power_consumption.html

_______________________________

There seems to be an issue with certain laptops & cold boot timing. There's also a solution. I'm not aware of the ins and outs but here's the link: Re: Problem with boot on SSD crucial M4 256Go on A... - Page 2 - Crucial Community

 

I still have my C400 on firmware 1. Micron is not fond of consumers, so I've had some trouble locating the instructions and .exe/.iso in order to update mine. Micron has the info on their site, but the pages are screwed up and revert to 404 errors once you click to download or view. I keep mine running at max power usage at all times because I don't use it that often, am always by a plug, and have an extra battery. Besides battery power, are there any real benefits that would make me want to hurry up and switch to firmware 2?

 

Well the whole LPM thing but if you aren't having that issue, then no not really. If you want to put LPM on to have the better battery life, then yea. That's really all FW 2 fixes according to the notes.

As for the info, well, the Crucial site is great for the FW: Crucial.com Product Downloads - Firmware Updates. I would think Micron would be the same since they are the same company, but I've seen firsthand how different divisions of the same company can be totally different in their "helpfulness"...

 

Anyone have issues where when you are transfering files the progress bar tends to freez a bit? then it changes transfer speeds and resumes again and so on and so on?

 

Well I've had that issue for 10 years on Windows machines, lol. That said Win 7 has done a lot to fix this. I haven't really seen anything dramatic in that regard though.

What firmware are you running? 0001 or 0002?

 

Well I jsut got the ssd yesterday, fresh install and it was rev 002 out of the box.

Really annoying, normal OS operation seems fine but transferring files seems to pause and go(pause can be as long as 30 seconds) Im on SATA2 and these were my results out of the box.

 

Interesting. I asked about FW because 0001 had an issue with LPM where it could "stutter" for up to 30s or so. 0002 fixed it for almost everyone. Sounds similar to what you have except yours is during the middle of a transfer? Odd, but your numbers look about right, though a bit slow on read. Write is over spec

 

4K write looks quite low. You could try disabling LPM (at the expense of a little battery life).

Look at the crucial M4 64GB results here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...e/594298-disabling-lpm-performance-boost.html

 

Others have also told me my 4k seems low. Ill try the LPM and post again. Also can i untick everything other than the 4K on As ssd and still get accurate 4k results?

EDIT: DO i disable LPM with this?



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Parameters\Port0]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


Also can this be undone by deleting the reg file?

 

Yes and yes.

And now that I look your 4k is low...missed that one sorry.

 

Well LPM made little to no diff, increased write 4k by about 1mb.
EDIT: Well this is interesting. I ran 4 HD 1080p videos to increase the cpu usage to 70-100% and these were my results.
Seems like a power management issue.... Should i try (JJB Tweak) tweak?




EDIT: Applied JJB Tweak, all seems better.
How does this look?

 

Hello all,

This morning I un-boxed a new Elitebook 8640p and instantly replaced the hard drive with a new M4 128Gb crucial drive.

The machine setup a clean install of windows, restarted etc. I then installed the drivers, restarted etc. Did a windows index score and I was instantly impressed with the 7.9 but...

The laptop will no longer boot. Just after the initial laptop screens it simply stops on a black screen where it should show the 'windows' logo. I put the original hard drive back in and the machine boots fine and I put the M4 into my desktop and it starts to boot.

So it seems that the drive is fine and the laptop is fine but together... Nope.


Any suggestions?