Kingston SSDNOW V200 Is Having Serious Performance Problems

My V200+ finally arrived. Here's what I got with my sata2 controller. Opinions?

 

Hi again i have my v200+ too, look

both tests are made with full programs and OS installed

Now i can really feel the diference

before with v200:



after with v200+



thanks to kingston

 

I will make it available, as soon as I finish it.

I've been partying with some friends and cool family this weekend, so I put the entire thing on the back-burner.

I'll start writing it up and doing the benchmarks and real-world performance sometime Monday after lunch. Probably take me a few days to get it all done and ready for posting.

If there's a specific bit of data you would like soon, let me know and I can try to get a snippet up for you.

 

This is V200+? Write speeds are too slow.

 

I used AS SSD before sending out the SV200S3, so ran the same on the SVP200S3. The numbers look wrong because they are.

I discovered that AS SSD is not entirely accurate, so I ran ATTO on the SVP200S3 (the SV200S3 was gone, so not ATTO for that one).

Before and After and ATTO after and CrystalInfo for the device. ATTO shows the SVP200S3 is right in the neighborhood of published benchmarks.

The test system was the same, in both cases. The SATA driver for the test system was changed from MSAHCI to AMD_SATA. Both SSDs contained identical data (Win7 Home Premium and my normal applications, as boot drive for an HP DV4-4141US Core i3 laptop). Both SSDs were removed from the laptop and tested as secondary drives on the system specified below.

Test system for troubleshooting and benchmarks:
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula Thunderbolt (bios 1102)
CPU: AMD FX-8150 Octocore at 4.136GHz per core air cooled
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 1600 16GB OC'd to 1760
Main Boot Drive: Patriot Pyro 128GB SSD (SF-2281)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1

(the rest of the specs wouldn't affect the testing, but if you really wanna know, just ask)

 

Hello everybody,

Im from Holland and bought my SSD V200 128 for a pretty sweet price (80€ . Due to them selling at wrong price.
BUT as all others, have serious problems. Such as games lagging and Windows not responding. Before i had a samsung f3 and no problems at all.
Qeustion is who i should ask for eg a v200+ ? My retailer or Kingston? I have never before. requested RMA before and dont know where to start.

 

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents. This thread made me aware of the problems with the drive, meaning I could send it back straight away.

Behold the Kingston V200 128GB compared to the recently arrived Crucial M4

 

I doubt that your retailer would provide a V200+ as a replacement. They would very likely exchange for the exact same model or refund you.

Kingston would be your best option if you want an upgrade model exchanged.

 

i just got the v200, and so far it seems it is behaving like its suppose to

are you guys getting the errors after a while or?

 

^ Install an OS, use it for a while (week, two, three), and.... the moment of truth, your write speeds are barely 40% from those now... And guess what, there is still no firmware fix...

 

yeah i see what you are saying...the drive has some weird pauses in writing files which prohibits it from functioning like it should

it will get decent score and all of the sudden it will go to crap

 

hey anyone have an idea which of these is the best choice:

KINGSTON 120GB SSDNow V+200
ADATA 120GB S511
SAMSUNG 64GB 830

tnx

 

^^^

If capacity is your main concern, get the V+200.
If speed and bulletproof reliability are your concern, get the 830.

I currently own both units and provide this suggestion based on my real-world experience.

Have questions? Shoot me a message.

 

Hi all,

Just wanted to add my experience here in the UK.

I bought a SSDNow V200 Drive (64GB) for my desktop running Win7. After running my own tests and finding this forum I decided to try and contact Kingston.

I lodged a support question on their website (bit of a tedious affair) and included a link to this thread. Without batting an eye they offered me a V+200 drive as a replacement (60GB, not 64GB but I'm not worried about 4GB).

I sent my drive back recorded delivery (£5.99 cost) and they sent me the replacement pretty promptly. Total turnaround was just under a week.

I have yet to try out the new drive as I need to dedicate some time to the disk cloning task.

Mixed feelings about Kingston: great that they were willing to replace the drive with no fuss and good communications from their support center but then not so great if they are still selling the drive if they know there is an issue with it!

Thanks for all of you who contributed on this thread.

 

Kingston discontinued the model. The replacement you and I were given is the enterprise analog to the units we returned. We actually came out ahead.

Stores that obtained a large number of units, when they were still in production, may still have plenty in stock. Kingston has nothing to do with what retailers do with those units.

Many of the larger retailers are aware that remaining inventory 'has issues' but they leave it to the end-buyer to resolve those issues. The retailers just mark-down the price to get rid of them quickly.

 

damn i took adata already did i make a mistake?

adata looks good in all the tests, better than v+200

 

^^^

I can't speak directly and reliably about the ADATA SSDs. I've only owned their SDHC cards for my camera.

Since you already have the ADATA, benchmark it a few times, to write on all the cells. See how well the firmware handles the TRIM. Then benchmark again, to see if it writes slower on cells that have been 'recycled'.

It has the SandForce 2281 controller inside, which is the same as the Kingston V+200, Patriot Pyro, and several others. I've had no problems with any of my SF-2281 SSDs.

See how well it transfers data that is already compressed (at 7%, 28%, and at 46% compression). See how well it does 4k reads and writes. See how well it handles 4k, 64 thread reads and writes.

The sequential reads and writes are nice to see, but most data will be the smaller block reads and writes. A slow 4k is more noticeable more often than the sequential performance. How often do you read and write 200MB files without interruption? How many times will your OS read and write small blocks all day long?

If it stands up to that, it should be good. Although, from reviews, it does seem to benchmark synthetically a bit lower than other SF-2281 drives (maybe up to 20% slower).

But now we are drifting off the main topic. You can message me if you like.

 

No argument that I am happy with the replacement I received. Just not so sure I agree with your statement that Kingston has "nothing" to do with the existing stock levels. A note on the Kingston webpage would be better than nothing. Basically I think Kingston is looking after the bottom line and only replacing the drives of customers who care enough/are knowledgeable enough to bother/notice.

I can even understand Kingston's position, just not sure it leaves me with that 'warm fuzzy feeling' inside is all.

 

hi thanks for the input. so you are saying that adata is 20% slower than v+200? do you have any links to the benchmarks? thanks. also i cannot see the option to send you the message, maybe because i am new to the forums
thanks again

 

@JurgenW

Kingston is a multi-stream provider, not a single-stream. Once an order is placed by a retailer, those units belong to the retailer. Until a user registers a purchased product, Kingston can't do much. They can send a bulletin of some sort, but they can not force the retailer (owner of that batch of inventory) to return the inventory.

I do agree that a note on their website would have been nice, but even with that; users would still have to go through the normal support riggmarole. Lack of a note on their website is therefore a minor issue, in my opinion.

I don't believe they are as concerned about the bottom line as they are about satisfying users who have the faulty unit. If they were concerned about the bottom line, they would have offered me and you a refund only, instead of very quickly providing us the enterprise-class units.

My confidence in Kingston went down a few years ago. My recent experience has boosted my confidence with Kingston. Sure there was a problem, but the resolution worked out in well and in my favor. I feel compensated for the inconvenience.

 

yes, the kingston support guy offered me v+200 drive 60gb without asking too much about it. luckily i was able to exchange it with the local dealer. although vicvelcro has me worried i have made a mistake :S, and should have taken v+200 or samsung...

 

I am saying that synthetic benchmarking here shows up to 20% less performance than some other units (I did not specifically mean the V+200). If I wasn't too clear about that, the fault is mine and I apologize.

Real-world performance could be entirely different. The SF-2281 SSDs are all pretty nice (I have several different SF based SSDs). The NAND used to manufacture can vary, which is where performance will be determined. Synthetic results are good for general comparison, but aren't always a good indication of what you and I might actually experience.

Test the ADATA, then use it for a week, then test it again. You may get a pleasant surprise (like I did with my Patriot Pyro). If you see significantly degraded performance after a week or two, you can still deal with it later. Just be sure to backup your data then do an ATA secure erase on the unit before sending it back.

 

alright, thanks...can you tell me which tests i should use?
as ssd? atto and crystal mark should be enough?

 

@dadach

Those, and Anvil if you have it.

Since neither of us seem to be able to PM each other, you can contact me via email if you can decipher the following hint.
After the first 3 letters of my user name, put a dot (".") then the remaining 6 letters of my user name at (@) Google's mail (gmail dot (".") com

 

As soon as you have 5 posts and the database it updates (11pm EST) you gain pm privileges unless you explicitly disabled the pm system. You should be able to pm each other by tonight 11pm.

 

Im asking for a replacement but there asking for the BOM number !

Where do I find this ?

Thanks

 

I don't see anything that indicates a BOM number on any of my Kingston SSDs.

They asked me for the full number on the top line above the barcode of the drive label on the SSD. Mine started with SV200 and continued all the way to the right.

 

ok I try that thanks

 

Has anybody heard back from Kingston?
The support page ( Technical Support for sv200s3 | Kingston Technology) still has no mention of a firmware upgrade.
A lot of time has passed now and there's still no fix from Kingston. Strange, I expected more from this company.
Does anybody know what chipset this drive uses? I'm asking this because I had a similar problem with the Corsair Nova 2. Just like Kingston, Corsair doesn't provide a firmware upgrade. But thanks to this page ( Corsair Nova 2 solution - Fix for poor performance - Overclockers Forums) I managed to fix my problem by flashing it with a generic Phison firmware. Maybe something similar can be done with the Kingston V200.
I really need a firmware solution because it's very inconvenient for me to disassemble the system.

 

^^^

Yes, some of us have heard back from Kingston. Have a look at previous posts.

There apparently is no firmware upgrade for the SF-2281 based drives for any brand. It seems the manufacturers are happy with the current firmware.

There is no "FIX", but they have been replacing the V200's with other units. I suspect the issue was at the board or NAND level.

In post #215, I stated that Kingston has discontinued the V200 (they told me that they no longer manufacture it but it is still available from some retailers who may still have some units in their own inventory).

The firmware in the V200 was the same version as the firmware in my Patriot Pyro (which has no problem), so I am going to presume that firmware was not the issue with the V200.

Re-read this thread for all of these things that have already been mentioned, which already covered the majority of the content in your post..

From what I can determine, based on my own experience and direct conversations with knowledgable people at Kingston, you will need to replace the V200 with something else.

Regarding the disassembly of your system: should be 2 maybe 3 screws to remove the lid, a couple of screws (or none) for the drive tray or caddy, and the SATA cable. Unless you welded your own case in a non-standard config.

 

Well vicvelcro, I had read the complete thread before posting that post. It's because some people suggested that Kingston was working on a new firmware (a beta firmware was mentioned) that I expected a new firmware by now.
Your reference to Sandforce and the Pyro suggest you didn't read the thread because the V200 isn't Sandforce based.
I know how to replace a SSD (I think after >100 one learns) but this clients computer isn't at my disposal. That's why I would prefer a software solution.

 

I disagree, based on my own experience with this exact issue.

I know what my firmware was, I had the device in my machine. I've done a few more SSDs than you have and probably been building systems since before you were born. If your firmware was different than mine, perhaps yours was a different board revision using a different firmware or you flashed it to something else without remembering or perhaps mine was a fluke.

So, good luck and have fun waiting for your 'beta' firmware.

The answer you want is not here. The answers you need ARE.

 

Well Vicvelcro, I'm not here for a d*ck swinging competition nor am I a teenager (as you might be implying). I've been doing this line of work professionally for over 15 years now but that's of no importance. Don't act like a know-it-all and try to show some respect. I kindly suggest you to change your tone because like this you're not going to make too many friends on the web.
That aside, I get the feeling you didn't read my original post completely or just misunderstood it.
And also, are you still suggesting the V200 uses a Sandforce chipset? (I'm not talking about the V200+!)

 

And what is the link between Patriot Pyro, SF-2281 and Kingston SSDNow v200?

 

I don't know why you had to be such a jerk vicvelcro, and for someone touting his own tech prowess, I'm surprised you don't seem to know that the Patriot Pyro and Kingston V200 use different controllers yet you believe that you installed the same firmware on both. Maybe senility setting in since you've been building systems since before MrMilli was born?

To MrMilli and anyone else who stumbles on this thread -- I was moments away from ordering a Kingston V200 128GB drive for a fantastic price, but after discovering this thread I held off. Kingston claimed to be working on a new firmware months ago, but that never arrived and I am now quite sure that it never will (I think this is what vicvelcro was saying you don't want to hear).

That's why Kingston has been so quick to replace V200s with V+200s when a disappointed user complains, and the V+200 looks like a pretty good Sandforce drive.

 

Hi Ricardo, I just want to know how you handle your warranty because I have the same issue and I'm from Mexico too, my write benchmark was about 20MB/s and I bought it in february, did you contacted directly with Kingston or with your reseller?
Thanks.

Hola Ricardo, solo quería preguntarte como manejaste tu garantía porque tengo el mismo problema y también soy de México, mi benchmark fue de 20MB/s en la escritura y apenas lo compré en febrero, ¿hablaste a Kingston directamente o lo llevaste donde lo compraste?
De antemano gracias.

 

Anyone had any luck with the promised upgrade for returning the SSD?

I thought once they agreed to send an upgrade it wouldn't take long, but it's been at least 7 weeks (after another month or so with technical support pushing them on the issue) and I've heard nothing.

 

I heard that Kingston is preparing firmware update soon.

 

V200 uses Jmicron's crappy controller JMF662/661, it is deemed to have problems and bad performance.

If you have heard the stuttering, bad performance with the 1st gen SSDs 2 or 3 years back, most of them were caused by Jmicron's JMF60x/61x controllers and the 66x is their successor.

Jmicron's controller is cheap but crap.

 

Are you guessing this or did you open a V200?
I'm asking this because I've had zero problems with the SSDNow and V100 series and it would be strange to me that JMicron would take such a big step backwards again.

 

SSDNow V200 Firmware Update
Kingston Rolls Out Performance Enhancing SSDNow V200 Firmware Update, Slashes Price

A new firmware update available for the 64GB and 128GB SSDNow V200 drives that increases performance and fixes a few bugs.If you have a 256GB SSDNow V200 drive there's no need to apply it.

For performance, Kingston claims the firmware update increases random write IOPS performance by up to 136 percent for the 64GB model and 129 percent the 128GB, Random read IOPS get a less dramatic (though still significant) boost to the tune of 22 percent for the 64GB model and 5 percent for the 128GB model.

Technical Support for SV200S3 | Kingston Technology

Updating the Firmware on the V200 - YouTube

 

Searching online shows several sites such as Newegg stating the controller is the JMicron. One thought it might be SF. Kingston site does not name the controller. All in all, Save your money and buy something that actually works well, right out of the box.

The JMicron controller named by Newegg is used in low end SSD drives. Spend your money on proven quality drives. Nothing is worse than buying something that frustrates you. There are many great drives out there. Sammy 830, Intel 510, Crucial M4, they are proven drives, don't spend money on cheap drives. Also, don't buy small capacity drives. 128GB and higher drives are faster, have more room for over provisioning and seem to be more reliable. I have been using SSD drives for a couple of years now, and never, repeat, never, has Kingston been mentioned as even a good drive, let alone a great drive. Do some research. Don't listen to random online buyers of anything. After research on anything you want to buy, then do due diligence and check reviews, but research first. After all the issues with SF drives, it will take a couple of years of glowing reviews for me to trust them. After FW updates, they may now be great. But I won't be the one to test them. When I buy my drives, they need to be trustworthy and give me performance. Sammy's, my Intels and my Corsair Nova 128 from several years ago have shown me they are up to the tasks I put them through. My newest drive, the 510, has over 350TB's on it, the others much more. All show 100% life in the Smart, and all function like when I first put them in. And know that if you shop around, you can get good sized SSD's for under a buck a GB. Get what you want, need and deserve.

 

A few things:

I had, on separate chronological occasions, two units. Each had a different controller. I got flamed, so I didn't bother trying to clear it up, since I was very clear that one of mine appeared to be a fluke of some sort. Some of the less observant people here didn't read posts in their entirety or don't grok 'fluke'. Both units were kaput.

Now, it seems that SF based units may or may not have had AES-256 in the firmware, but if so - the AES-256 is flawed. Anyone that still has a v100 should check to see what firmware they have and if it was supposed to support AES-256.

I don't know if mine claimed to have AES-256, because it was returned to them quite a while ago. The replacement they sent was an SF based SVP and the AES-256 on the SVP is faulty. I don't think I'll bother sending it back, I'll put it in my gaming rig.

 

Kingston Releases Firmware Update for SSDNow V200 64GB & 128GB

 

Thanks everyone for all the interesting stories in this thread, painful reading from someone else who made the mistake of buying a Kingston drive, I have a Kingston SSDNow V+200 SVP200S3 120gb SSD and the speeds are unacceptable, just submitted an email to their support system a little while ago. I bought it about 2 months ago but I was so disappointed with the speed I ended up buying a second OCZ SSD really just to compare on my system to make sure the issue isn't with me or my PC! Here's some pics of the speed results:



This is the result of my Samsung non-SSD SATA drive:



And these are the results from the OCZ Vertex4 drive I purchased this week:


I appreciate that some of you are reporting write speeds that are way below even what I'm getting but if a drive is advertised at Read 535MB/s and Write 480MB/s it has to get somewhere in the ballpark on a modern compatible system surely? For comparison the OCZ Vertex 4 I bought advertises Reads 560MB/s and Write 430MB/s and I got a hell of a lot closer on my system to the advertised spec than I did the Kingston one.

 

Grimbarian, one of the issues specific to your system may be that you're running the AMD AHCI driver?

Have you tried (both drives) with just the Win7 default MS SATA 1.0 drivers too?

 

Thanks for the reply Turns out the issue is I don't know how to test the drive properly!

So I got a reply from Kingston:

The changed configuration is:



And now when I run the bechmark on my Kingston it shows this:



So obviously the drive is fine as they're good benchmark scores.

I ran the same 0 fill test on my OCZ and the results are:



So seems the drive is fine it's just flawed end user testing on my part!

So now what do I do? Keep two SSDs? Is there any benefit to doing a raid with two different types of SSD?

 

I am just wonder if the new firmware has solved the issues as my 64GB V100's are to be replaced with these V200 Drives this week and i'd rather not go thru this for a 4th time , (SNV425's Failed too)

Thanks for any updates......

 

Hey!
I have two V200 64GB SSD's (SV200S37A/64G E111008a) and got the firmware updated on the first drive, but update failed for some reason on the second drive with code "D00". The update program recognizes it with the new firmware, but will not allow to flash it over since it already seems to have the same firmware on it. The drive is not usable now since it disconnects when trying to write on it.
I got an idea, while I wait for reply from Kingston, that there is one thing I could try - flash it with the beta firmware and then I could flash the official firmware on it again. I would be using different PC this time, just in case there was problem with the one I used to flash it with first time (even thought it worked on the first drive drive). What I lack is the beta firmware and I am not even sure if there is beta firmware for the 64GB model, was it only the 128GB model? If anyone got a firmware update different from the official update (E120506a) for the SV200S37A/64G I would appreciate if you could send it to me.

 

Don't flash the beta firmware as you wont be able to flash the latest firmware. Also since you are not apart of the beta program, kingston may not let you rma your drive. So, its best for you to contact kingston and do not flash the beta firmware to avoid troubles.