Intel Turbo Memory 2.0

Oh, didn't know it (this lappy never stops surprising me...). How do I use it?

 

I just got my t400 and am a bit confused as to which driver is best for my 2gb Intel Turbo Memory...

Driver 1.8.1.1002 is currently installed (but i dont see any user pinning option)

The intel website offers 1.8.0.1018 as the most current driver, though when I try to install it my system says its older than my current driver.

What do you guys think?

 

I have a new Sager 2096 - P8400, 4GB RAM, 250GB, 7200 rpm HD. I ordered the 4GB Turbo Drive module, but can't get it to work (everything else is fine). Sager support has been great, but problem remains. Am using 1.8.0.1018 driver. Any comments or suggestions would be very much appreciated. [I know this is a new post rather than a reply, but I can't figure out how to get started!]

Turbo Memory Console (1.8) gets loaded OK, but shows both ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive as disabled.
Clicking in the box to enable ReadyDrive does not result in doing so. Trying to open Turbo Memory Dashboard results in a message box that "the Intel Turbo Memory device is not functioning properly or is not present (it is present, I checked; have tried two different 4GB modules)

 

See if this helps: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/itm/sb/CS-025852.htm

 

Many thanks for your suggestion - but it did not help - no change in my situation. Actually, I was aware of this from the Known Issues and Solution section on the Intel basic site for Turbo Memory.
I will keep working on my problem and hope that someone will have an answer for me.

 

Did you just try reinstalling the driver?

 

Hi, I have a Clevo M860TU laptop. What ITM 4GB size does the laptop use?

Is it recommended to put one on my laptop when I have 4GB 1333MHz RAM and 320GB 7200RPM HDD? Thanks.

 

which of the 4GB modules from this site: http://www.antonline.com/antonline.php?op=inventory&st=intel+turbo+memory is for the Clevo M860TU?

 

I have installed the driver several times - no change.
One thing I failed to mention - In Device Manager, at Storage Devices, there is a listing for Intel Turbo Memory Controller; right-clicking and then selecting Properties gets the report "This device is working properly"
It would appear to me that the problem is in getting it "enabled"
I am using Vista in 32-bit mode.

 

Sager tech support has suggested reinstalling Vista (Home Premium, 32-bit) - what do you think? If I do this, can I install over the present installation so as to not lose the other programs that have been installed on Drive C??

 

After waiting quite literally a month for my 4GB 1/2 height turbo memory module to come in the mail, I finally got it yesterday. I installed it into my Gateway 7805u notebook, and I used the -up switch to enable pinning in the control panel.

So far I've tested it with the two applications I use the most: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.2 x64 and Photoshop CS3 Extended v10.0.0.1. When I pinned Photoshop, I also created a custom set for Photoshop's brushes, since those are some of the things that cause Photoshop to lag when it starts.

The verdict? The jury's still out for a little while longer really, but the verdit so far is that it helps shave a few seconds off of the load times of the applications I have pinned. I can see an improvement in load times for Lightroom and Photoshop, but I came across something with the ITM software that I hope gets addressed in future revisions:

You can't accelerate files that are not on the boot drive.

I have two HD's in my system, and I have some video games installed on the second drive (Steam and Left4Dead). ITM refuses to preload those files since they're not on the boot HD (and it says so when you try to do it).

So far though it looks like the ITM was worth it. I got mine from Provantage for a little under $70. By next week I'll be able to say for sure if it was a home run though.

 

The limitation is probably all drivers. Man, Intel really does not invest in driver teams that they don't see much profit on.

 

We have seven pages of posts and almost zero hard numbers on ITM 2.0.

wow

here is intel's "specifications" (hint: there are no actual specs) http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/turbomemory/316979.pdf

why on earth hasn't Intel published the actual transfer speeds? This fact is a little unsettling. I've heard multiple times that ITM 1.0 is ~65Mbps why won't they say how fast ITM 2.0 is?

I would love faster boots and prog loads but first I want to see hard numbers from not-Intel. Also I'd like to know if it works with Windows 7 as that is currently my primary OS (will update Sig) and whether Santa Rosa can use 2.0 or only 1.0.

If anyone that has ITM 2.0 could do some actual boot tests and post the numbers that would be great.

_Nate

 

Transfer rates doesn't matter much on ITM. It's latency that determines most of program load times and OS boot times.

If you were actually transferring files that would matter.

(The transfer rate of Turbo Memory 1.0 according to Sisoftware Sandra is ~40MB/s)

 

OK, yes latency is sometimes more important to a point it doesn't matter how low your latency is if your transfer rate is low. the formula for total time of task is: (total size of all files/transfer rate + number of files*latency).

If what you are saying was true we'd all be running windows off of 16gb thumb drives since they have oh such low latency. But we don't. Cause their low latency doesn't make up for their low (~20Mbps) transfer speeds.

However you raise a good point because now the question is why has Intel published neither transfer speed NOR latency specs.

By the way I see you are from BC I am from Vancouver Island, what up

_Nate

 

Intel's next generation Calpella won't use Turbo Memory (Robson)... kinda tells you how much they think about its usefulness, eh? (Yeah, I'm Canadian...)

 

Hello.

Again, you are pointing about the file transfer rates. The benchmarked read speed was 37MB/s for the Turbo Memory and that was before Robson 2.

Look at the first AT review: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=2985&p=4

The second one after they found out it was driver fault: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3009&p=4

Same review with battery life tests:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3009&p=6

The worst flash memory has faster read access times than the best HDDs. Sure, the write speed is slow and it will take longer time to get cached in. Once it loads in though the boot time and load time will be determined by how fast it'll access those small individual files.

As for USB drives, putting an ENTIRE OS vs merely putting boot files is a different thing. You don't use USB drives for main storage for multiple reasons, one being not all USB drives being bootable.

Turbo Memory also has faster transfer rate: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=193749

Yea it will. Ever heard of Braidwood?? Braidwood will integrate the NAND controller into the PCH to improve performance further.

 

Great to see a hard number for Robson 1.0, 2.0 is supposed to be 2x as fast or 74Mbps which is on par with the best 2.5" drives so 2.0 should have all the pros without the cons but still be worse than a high end SSD (I trust only Intel's at this point, I wonder if the 66flash tech is shared between these two products).

Read them already, here's a quote from the one with the updated drivers
"It seems like the write speed of the flash memory is to blame here, causing performance degradation when there's a lot of writing (e.g. hibernating)"
This is why I don't trust ITM, it helps but there are compromises that may greatly decrease the product's real value, this is what I've been getting at. Though if Robson 2.0 is truly 2x as fast this will no longer be an issue.

True, and by a lot

True, though transfer speed still factors a little.

So... why not just the boot files? and I've yet to find a flash drive I can't boot linux off of (never tries MS OS's)

True

 

I installed the 4 GB ITM module in my Latitude E6500 and then downloaded and installed the 1.8 driver software. It worked for maybe an hour or two, and I was able to pin quite a few of my programs. I filled 46% of the module. (It still shows that 46% is full.) But then I started getting the following error message: "It appears that the Intel Turbo Memory device is not functioning properly or is not present." The console lists everything as disabled, and the check boxes to enable ReadyDrive and ReadyBoost are grayed out. Has anyone else had this problem? Excuse the ignorant question, but is my laptop for sure compatible with ITM. I have the Mobile 45 Express chipset and the ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E SATA RAID Controller. Thanks!

 

i was told by dell that it definitely was compatible. you might want to check with intel to be certain.

 

I got the same results...Mine now shows 59% full but I can no longer open the dashboard and I also get the same pop-up message when I try to open the dash from the tray icon or from withing the programs section. Use to work with version 1.6 so i upgraded to the 1.8 when it came out and I re-fromatted my HDD but I'm tired of flip-flopping back and forth and reinstalling until something is done by the MS geeks.

My sys: T7700 laptop with Vista Ultimate (32bit) and 4gb mem and a 4gb ITM chip.

 

I have common problem..I was running with 4G ITM for 5 months,,and today I uninstalled driver ver. 1.8 - reboot and installed new 1.9. and from this moment I cant not run Dashboard - I started getting the following error message: "It appears that the Intel Turbo Memory device is not functioning properly or is not present."...

so I uninstalled 1.9 and installed back 1.8...but it is the same error.
tried change size od page file...unsuccesfull... tried installed new version on the oldone ( without uninstalling the old one).

I dont know what happends...I have Intel ICH8M controller , ACHI and RB enabled in BIOS, Page file on. ReadyBoost in Win is on....but happends

will tried full system recovery in few days, will see

 

I have the same issue as well after installing the 1.9 drivers. And this is only a few weeks after a fresh install of Vista Ultimate x64 with the 1.8 drivers. Thus I'm in no mood to do that process again anytime soon. I will wait and see if I can get my hands on a Vista SP2 RTM disc before I try another fresh install.

One note - I had that same error message with the 1.8 drivers for a few days but then it magically disappeared and everything worked just fine until I decided to upgrade to the 1.9 drivers. I figured it was just taking a few days to cache data or what not. However I remember the LED on the ITM module being on and flashing during read/writes for that whole time. This time, the green LED on the module turns off when logging into Windows and stays off until rebooting; then it will come on again and flash with read/writes while booting and then turns off again when in Windows. On my machine, the green LED on the ITM module happens to be visible in the tiny gap between the palmrest and keyboard (Dell Precision M4300, same chassis as D830) which is kinda neat and convenient as I could always see when it was caching data.

 

I have the same doubt, if the 2Gb half sized will work with GM965 Santa Rosa.

 

It will. I have had all flavors in my SR laptop, 1gb, 2gb and 4gb running just fine sans driver issues that are widespread (doesn't matter if you have SR or Montevina, same driver issues exist); albeit all my modules were full height but I seriously doubt that would make any difference?

 

are there any fps gains??
anyone tried 3dmark06??
i doubt it but no harm asking..

 

would 4gb tm fit in inspiron 1720 ?
is there 8gb for vista sp2 ?

 

No, there will be no FPS gains in games at all, sorry. Well maybe like....1 FPS or something insignificant.

For the 2nd question, the max module out now is a 4gb ITM module. I believe it should work in your 1720. Just make sure you have two mPCIE slots. My laptop has two, one with a N wireless card and the other with an ITM 4gb card. I was considering replacing the ITM card with a GPRS card for WWAN, but This particular laptop doesn't travel as it is more of a desktop replacement, so I think I'll pass that up. By the way Intel Turbo Memory came out with a new driver, and caching seems to be improved. If you look at their release notes, a LOT of new things were added in addition to fixes. In the real world however, I can't really tell. I can see it is working/cachine, because it has a green LED on the card, and I can see the LED lighting up during cache seeks (I can see the LED right in the tiny 1mm gap between the palmrest and keyboard on my lappy). I have gone through every type of ITM module. I still have a 1gb and 2gb module lying around so if you want to get one for cheap just let me know. The 1gb one can actually be used as internal storage as well rather than just caching. The 2gb one also can do user pinning for your favorite programs to load them instantaneously. It is nonvolatile RAM so it is always there. Think of it as kind of a SSD.

 

Do you think there will be any real or noticeable improvment between ITM 2Gb and 1Gb?

 

Has anyone tried to use Turbo Memory in a laptop that might not actually support it?

I have a Dell Latitiude D620 with an open WWMA slot and I am considering slapping in my wife's 4GB card to see what happens...

 

Would intel turbo memory work with my laptop?

 

Hi, I have the same problem where it says it Turbo Memory is not functioning properly or is not present...

any fixes???

 

I got 1GB ITM on my Lenovo T61p.
When I was using Vista x64, I can see the ITM Console after installing the ITM driver, and I could enable/disable it.

Now, I'm using Windows 7 x64. When I install the latest driver from Intel (Ver. 1.​​10.​​0.​​1012), only the Matrix Storage is there. I do not know whether my ITM is running or not.

Any advice?

 

It seems that if you give it long enough (just leave it alone and look back after a week or two) then it works just fine (goes from being disabled to enabled).

weird but i read about this somehwere else too

 

I too get this message eventhough the services say all is working. so why? my system E6500 2.9 ghz 4gb ram 200gb hd at 7200 (hitachi) and turbo memory. If you re install drivers it works again until next boot then same all over.

 

I got this error message too. "It appears that the Intel Turbo Memory device is not functioning properly or is not present." If I reinstall the driver and restart, it work. But when I turn off or restart again, the error message reappear.
My system is also E6500 with ITM 4 GB.

 

the ITM I used was in the Latitude D830 with the santa rosa Platform that the ITM was initially designed for, so now the platform has changed Intel possibly has not changed with itr to take into account the new platform. it is in the hands of intel now to find a solution, or microsoft to give update to fix the issue.

 

that didn't work for me, so I just removed it, it was worthless anyway imo

 

I had a Dell Latitude D830 with the santa Rosa Platform, and the 4GB intel turbo and all of them worked, however since the New drivers from Intel were introduced giving user pinning and only allowing ready drive to be enabled with the 4GB model at present the software (dashboard is not compatable) in both vista and win 7, which is a a feature of the 4GB ITM. At present Intel are addressing the issue, as in a previous version of the software all was well, nonetheless now no. I now have the latest E6500 Latitude with 200GB 7200 rpm 300GB/s, 4GB ram, plus 4GB ITMand T9600 processo.plus HDD has a 16GB cache.

 

I have a Dell Precision M4300 now which is basically a Dell D830. I had for a short time at work the Precision M4400 which is the same as a Latitude E6500. The one I used didn't have Intel Turbo Memory (ITM) though. ITM 2.0 was released the same time the Montevina platform like yours was released (GM/PM45, ICH9). In fact I got my 4gb ITM module from a Montevina laptop if I remember correctly. It seems ITM is very temperamental based on intallation of the OS. I would always try and install it after a fresh clean install of windows (mostly Vista at that time), and sometimes it would work and sometimes not. Sometimes I gave up to find it working a few weeks later for no apparent reason. Windows 7 seems to be better and most times I did a clean install it worked (I think once it didnt). One experience I have however is when Intel releases driver updates - EVERYTIME I try to update, it ends up not working, then requiring a clean install to get it working again. The current driver is from October of 2009 version 1012. I have doubts that Intel will provide any more support for ITM, since this driver is an official windows 7 driver as well and for both 32 and 64 bits. Which ITM module do you have and what OS are you running? I've also tried switching PCI express slots and it didnt make a difference. If you haven't, I think what you need is a clean install of Windows to get it working, as if I tried anytime after a clean install, it would not work.

 

Has anyone seen any recent benchmarks with Windows 7, and say, SSDs?

 

Greetings to all, I hope this is in the right section.

OK...

So I drank the kool-aid and nabbed a 4gb ITM to fill that unused spot in my Dell e6400. Long story short I was looking into MSI Whitebooks and experienced purchasing stupidity with a website and as such ended up on craigslist. Poking around I came across a brand new e6400 and settled on a $360 price. I was the first person to turn it on, and I updated the bios. I promptly dropped in 4gb DDR2 800mhz (2x2gb) along with a T9550 processor (replacing the P8700), the 4gb ITM, and a 320gb 5400rpm Seagate. I then installed Win7 Ultimate x64 w/SP1 (RC) (ACHI, not IRRT) and followed the Dell driver order guide to the letter. All drivers used are the absolute up to date drivers. Some had to be taken from the manu websites as they were not offered from dell for 7x64.

Everything was working flawlessly.

So I start to examine the ITM Dashboard and Console, pin lots of programs. Virgo thoroughness led me to the understanding that on the 4gb ITM ReadyBoost is greyed in favor of User Pinning, ReadyDrive is optioned. Console is static on that. Notice the HDD LED is hardly lighting up. Programs are flying.

Yay.

End up doing a restart for one thing or another.

Notice that the ITM Dashboard is sitting in my Tray, appearing completely normal. Everything is fine in Device Manager, zero flags.

Clean. Happy. Penguin. Slide.

Attempt to open the ITM Dashboard to pin a newly installed program and get the message [sic] "device is not functioning or not present." Strange because everything I can see points to it working fine.

Good feelings gone.

I open the Console and see that ReadyBoost along with ReadyDrive are greyed out.

Possible driver error on the restart.

Do some searching. Uninstall drivers. Follow guide about unpacking, overwriting, re-installing.

Working again, and even everything I pinned is still there (?). I pin the aforementioned prog.

Restart. Cigarette. Crossed fingers. Greyed out.

Frustration. Explicatives.

Searching.

Find thread about "Just let it sit there for a few weeks and it will magically start chugging."

Really? YGBSM.

Frustration. Cigarette. GF now suffering overflow wrath.

Not satisfied I continue searching. Find thread about installing with the -UP flag.

Blah blah blah, working. Rejoice. Fear looming of inevitable restart.

Doom. Despair. Stockholm syndrome.

Intelligence.

I poke around the ITM Console, 2 grey option boxes looming at me, while a happy, no ! tray symbol is giving me a Simpsons style "HA HAAAAA."

And all.

Being a good, smart guy I reinstall Win7. Perhaps a driver conflict, bug, dare I say mistake, user error, cat walking across the keyboard (or GF's ankle biter terrorist) when my back was turned, divine intervention, or prank has unfolded. Perhaps sitting on a dock caused some kind of error.

Remove from dock, AC power in.

Get Win all installed (20 min from USB Flash =) and get back to basics. NSS, Chipset drivers, PCMCIA/Smartcard drivers, Matrix/ITM. Dell's perscribed order.

Working. *For now.

On the ITM Console 1.10, under View tab, open System Information:

*********************************
System

Kit Installed: 8.9.0.1023
Shell Version: 8.9.0.1023

OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
OS Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1, v.721 Build 7601
System Name: LABWERKS
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: 0U695R
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9550 @ 2.66GHz
BIOS Version/Date: Dell Inc. A27, 08/19/2010

Language: ENU

Intel(R) Turbo Memory

Cache Disk Location: 0
Model Name: FUJITSU MHZ2320BH
Capacity: 298 GB

Installation Status: Present
File: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\iaNvStor.sys
Version: 1.10.0.1012
Provider: Intel Corporation

OROM Version: 1.10.0.1012
OROM Status: Success
*********************************

Restart. Fury.

Discovery.

On the ITM Console 1.10, under View tab, open System Information:

*********************************
System

Kit Installed: 8.9.0.1023
Shell Version: 8.9.0.1023

OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
OS Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1, v.721 Build 7601
System Name: LABWERKS
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: 0U695R
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9550 @ 2.66GHz
BIOS Version/Date: Dell Inc. A27, 08/19/2010

Language: ENU

Intel(R) Turbo Memory

Cache Disk Location: -1
Model Name: None
Capacity: 0 GB

Installation Status: Present
File: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\iaNvStor.sys
Version: 1.10.0.1012
Provider: Intel Corporation

OROM Version: 1.10.0.1012
OROM Status: Success
*********************************

So now I'm here with this great find. I've never come across this in the hours of scaling the cliffs of every search imaginable on the subject. Obliviously ITM can't cache a disk that does not exist.

This has got to be some kind of a simple fix, right? A bug of some sort? The issue that seems to be the bane of the ITM existence? How has this simple observation gone overlooked?

Rocket Scientist that can't tie shoelaces?

Apologies for the verbose description, internal POST set to through.

Collective genius conspire to solve. GO.

And thanks for your time.

Hardware Etc:

Dell e6400
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
T9550 @ 2.8 (10.5x), 1066 FSB, 6MB, 1.050 VID (Thanks ThrottleStop!)
4GB (2x2gb) DDR2 800MHz
nVidia Quadro NVS 160m (8.17.12.6099)
GPU Clock: 800MHz Mem: 595 MHz Shader: 1700 MHz
Backlit Keyboard
ITM 2.0 4gb
Dell 410 Bluetooth/UWB

 

Wow, thanks for posting your results!

That seems quite frustrating... By chance are you able to uninstall the drivers instead and use it as a disk for pagefile? I had ITM 1.0 in my old Sager and on dual-booting XP, I was able to see half the disk and use it as a normal (512MB) hard drive.

 

it's never shown up in disk managment. I'm trying to get it to work 'as advertised' prior to any potentially unintended uses.

however, with 4gb, i may embark on a project to get 7x64 installed on the little F'r...

 

the thing with itm 2.0 is that until the driver must begin self caching befor you can saffely use the command center to pin thing if you mess with it befor it begin self caching you will end up having issue

i think it was tom's hardware second's review of itm where they had a meeting with intel on how and why to use turbo mem whenre intel recommends waiting a week or 2 for the driver to learn your habits and begin caching befor you can really use turbo meme and enjoy it's benefit

in short there is nothign wrong with your turbo mem your likely breaking it

 

... haven't laughed this hard since my chick stepped on her Poo-Wawa.

Chihuahua/Poodle. I know.

granyte, your post is welcome and intriguing, i'll search that up for sure, amazing that little tidbit isn't more prevalent.

all aside, i've made other progress in this diorama.

events and discoveries thus far:

changed bios settings to IRRT from ACHI and the Matrix version popped up after bios boot and it was 8.0.0xxxx as opposed to the 8.9.xxx it should be. further digging in forums prescribed 'matched' Matrix/ITM drivers, so I'm going to try an F6 type 3rd party SATA install and see if i can get that to update. I'll try the IRRT option first as i can easily pop it back to ACHI with no BSOD.

I also came across another post on the Intel forum that said to let 7 update from the clean install pre-final desktop, an option i usually skip completely, and 7 will grab all the right drivers.

so that's my plan of attack for the night, and for a real laugh here's a thread from the Intel site:

http://communities.intel.com/message/100562#100562

.

i'm going to come up with a write-up as to the best possible way to do this. the tech is sound and the m-PCi slots are abundant, and for the price it's worth it. and by the time i get around to getting a new laptop even the Core i7's are going to be blown.

People are still on Vista, my chick is right now, for example, and all.

For Reals.

 

OT - a Poo-Wawa? How do they even... I mean... Oh I'm confused as to the science on that one.

 

effectively the intel thread is laughable

and yes turbo memory is an unsuported tech it could have been great but no body belived in it and the tech was bashed to death befor it was even out


sorry i mixed my review site here is the review
Investigating Intel's Turbo Memory: Does it really work? - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

I particularly like this tidbit:

It's hard to believe a major corporation can make something that bad. Come to think of it, the same may apply to the problem of pinning a program making the cache location become -1. I think you should probably just leave it alone and let it do its thing.

 

well user pinning can likely be donne once intel turbo mem is fully working i wonder though can you cache other thing then app like a movie you plan on listeing on the road?