MyDigitalSSD mSATA SSD 64GB Very Bad Performance - Update: FIXED w/ FW 030

Yes, I'm getting those speeds if I turn on all 0s for data as well but those are inflated numbers on ssdreview. My numbers are with random data. Who writes all zeroes I'm the real world?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

If you are buying the 128GB you have nothing to worry about that part has not changed one bit since March of 2011 when we released it.

The 64GB has never been a huge performer when it comes to top speed and when we were forced by Toshiba to change over to 24nm flash on the part we knew it would effect the performance even more and that is why the price also dropped a good 20%.

We did not consider taking it off the market because it is still around 10 times faster than your average HDD and the pricing is just to low to ignore for someone in the mood to trick their PC out on a small budget.

MyDigitalSSD

That is great news did it also get ride of your lag problem you mentioned before?

Also I am looking forward to FW 16 sounds like Phison is really putting some time into improving performance of their controller with the 24nm flash.

MyDigitalSSD

 

Thankyou for keeping us informed - much appreciated. I conducted a defrag of the MyDigitigasl SSD (I initiated this whilst booted into my laptop HDD). This took a very long time with five passes.

Booting into the SSD, I saw an immediate improvement in write speeds and general responsiveness. 4K and 4kQ32 writes are about 10MB/s which is good. I do, however, seem to get occasional locks up when using applications. I have disabled my anti-virus program but these occasional lock ups stilll occur for about five seconds. I am in ACHI mode, AiStor drivers are active and alignment is OK. I will keep playing with the SSD to see if performance degrades or improves and report back here.

 

I got the 64GB drive yesterday and it came with Firmware 14 that had performance similar to the first post on this thread. Tried to upgrade to 15 and I think the SSD is now bricked. Any idea what to do? I tried upgrading but it gave me a bad checksum error and now I can't upgrade nor do anything with the SSD. Might return it for a refund...

http://i.imgur.com/n6aGF.jpg

 

One more user is having that same error. My staff and Phison are out for the weekend but there are many people here who may know how to help in the mean time. I have also asked an NBR member who is very knowledgeable on FW upgrades if he knows what to do.

MyDigitalSSD

 

Thanks for the prompt response! Looking forward to getting the solution.

On another note, is there an ETA of when 16 is going to come out? Thanks!

 

Hi all I was just informed on top of doing a Defrag you should clean your drive with software like SDelete by MicroSoft. Let me know how that works out.

My go to guy was unable to help because he said he could not reproduce this error so unless someone else did and fixed it we are going to have to wait untill Monday. Sorry about that I know how excited you probably are to get the drive up and running.

MyDigitalSSD

 

Sdelete writes zeros (0x00). Better to use the AS-Cleaner component of Tony Trim to write 0xFF into empty space instead so a NAND write can then occur without a prior erase. Per this article:

 

Thanks for the info Nando4. Hope this works even more magic to get these 64gb drives humming along even faster.

MyDigitalSSD

 

Ok. Solved the firmware "brick" problem and got it to firmware 15!

This is what I did:

1. Downgraded to F12. That uses a different command line writer and it downgraded my firmware to F12.
2. Re-ran the F15 upgrade. This time the update ran fine. I have no idea what caused the initial hiccup.

Re-installing Windows now and will re-benchmark after the install is complete.

EDIT:
Much better results with FW15 though I wish it was a bit more faster


With FW14:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 : 137.989 MB/s
Sequential Write : 64.711 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 108.938 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 21.197 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 10.863 MB/s [ 2652.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.889 MB/s [ 461.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 43.760 MB/s [ 10683.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.498 MB/s [ 365.7 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 74.5% (44.3/59.5 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/03/03 9:32:13
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


With FW15:


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 : 137.989 MB/s
Sequential Write : 59.312 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 107.671 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 40.666 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 11.402 MB/s [ 2783.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 8.865 MB/s [ 2164.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 55.149 MB/s [ 13464.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 11.485 MB/s [ 2803.9 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 48.6% (28.9/59.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/03/03 17:50:46
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


Hope 16 pushes things up even more. UPDATE: See below post for after programs/updates were installed. Performance took a DIVE

 

Are the 128gb units better? I just go one of these 64s and it is slow and everything freezes every once in a while. I see that firmware upgrade post. How do I tell what firmware my unit is running? Does it definitely improve performance? I don't have time to reinstall operating systems over and over. I'd like to get it right for sure the next time I do it...

 

Use a drive backup program to create a backup image. Updating firmware wipes your drive clean. I use acronis which takes me about 15 mins total time to backup, flash firmware and restore data.

Definitely runs faster with the latest firmware.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

Update:

Decided to run CrystalMark after reinstalling all my programs and the performance took a DIVE:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 : 124.905 MB/s
Sequential Write : 17.361 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 104.701 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 4.884 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 9.449 MB/s [ 2306.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.814 MB/s [ 198.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 48.114 MB/s [ 11746.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.743 MB/s [ 181.5 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 54.9% (32.6/59.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/03/04 1:52:38
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

Seems to be a common issue here. A fresh install or defrag seems to improve the problem in the short term but performance gradually degrades. I thought my issue was fixed with a defrag but after a few days, performance drops offs.

 

Well I'm going to exchange my drive for the 128GB today... Figured I'm 75% full on the 64 now and I still have things to install so I should probably get something with a bit more storage. Hopefully the performance is significantly better on the 128 than the 64...

 

Still working to figure this out and get a permanent fix for this issue.

But in the mean time if you are a potential customer and don't want to take a chance of having this problem (I would say at this time it is a 1 in 40 user issue) and can get by with even less storage then go for the MyDigitalSSD 32GB Super Cache mSATA it is just as fast as the 128GB mSATA. But if you are on the other side of the scale and need more space for games, programs and apps then go for the 128GB.

 

Hey,

So just to confirm, the issues on the 64 do not affect the 128 right (i.e. there have been no changes to the 128)? I put in the RMA order already so I'm definitely looking forward to enjoying full-ssd goodness with the 128.

Thanks!

 

No worries it is still the same old 128GB drive that has been shipping since March of 2011. We actually ship way more 128GB vs. 64GB. I would say 2 to 1. So if there were any issue like this with that product you would see a thread 2 to 5 times as big as this 64GB thread.

MyDigitalSSD

 

My Drive had similar performance and is going back. How are you guys still selling these in good conscience?

You know you have a serious issue yet you require your customers to spend their time troubleshooting it for you.

 

Agreed. However, I gotta give them credit for a speedy refund process with no restocking fee, as it should be.

Here's a suggestion... keep an eye on eBay for Samsung mSATA SSDs. I picked up a brand new Samsung PM810 mSATA 128GB SSD for $200 shipped. I've seen many others go for $180-220 range. You can use this search term "MZMPA128HMFU" if "Samsung mSATA" doesn't work.

 

I agree with this statement 100% but the fact is you guys on this thread are literally the only people having this issue. We sell around 10-15 a day. I have consulted with the resellers and they say they are getting almost 0 returns and do not want me to discontinue the product.

There has been a grand total of 6 customer returns of a 64GB mSATA in the past 3 months since the change over to 24nm flash out of hundreds of pcs sold.

I am caught between a rock and a hard place here I don't know what to do.

Our 128GB is still made the same way as before with 32nm flash and our prices have come down in the past few weeks so it may make it worth your time and money to simply upgrade.

Also I don't want any of you that are having this problem to feel obligated to help and you can send them back at any time. FW16 is coming soon it may or may not fix this issue for you guys but if you don't want to wait around then I completely understand.

MyDigitalSSD

 

First, I don't have any of these, I have an Intel, so no dog in the race for me. That being said, it is not unusual for a forum like this to have the majority of complaints for any item, since way more people will come on here if they have issues so they can find answers. Most people that buy something and it is fine don't go on forums because they don't need to. A lot of us do because we like to research tech, but a good portion of consumers do not do this. So it can appear that something is a much larger problem if there are a hundred posts, and 10, 20 or 30% of the posters are having issues.

There is not a single manufacturer I am aware of that does not have some kind of hardware issue at some point. I think the way they take care of us, the consumer, is much more important. If MyDigital is processing returns fast and trying to make the consumer happy, I would not be afraid to use them in the future.

If you sell a thousand units of something, and 3 are bad, you will hear from at least 2 of the unhappy customers, and few of the 997 happy ones. I would rather you make the 2 that you hear from change from unhappy to happy.
It looks to me like MyDigital and their rep here are really trying to figure this out, and make the buyer happy in the end. So far, I would give kudos for the response they are giving to this issue.

 

As I posted in the other thread reviewing this drive, I had the same problem a lot of people here are having. I got the replacement drive today and here are the results:



The results are still not as good as what was reviewed last year, but they are a lot better than what I was getting here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...talssd-msata-ssd-64gb-x220-6.html#post8291226

Also, my laptop actually feels like it has an ssd in it now. My preliminary review is MyDigitalSSD came through. We'll see how it goes a month from now.

 

Guys the new FW will be ready next week. I got a sneak peak at it last night and the testing I saw looked very promising. According to Phison it will improve the Trim functionality the most.

MyDigitalSSD

 

I bought a 64GB mSATA from MDD, and am having the same issues. I will wait for FW16 to see whether it fixes anything, but I would like to know more about the "return for full refund" process that some have written about.

Are you sending it back to the retailer or the manufacturer? If it's a retail return, isn't there a restocking fee? If it's a manufacturer return, does one have to open a technical support ticket before returning? Can someone explain? Thanks.

 

I purchased directly from MyDigitalDiscount.com. I called them and they issued me an RMA number and sent me two forms. I filled out the forms and sent them with the drive. The full credit was on my card 2 days after they received the drive.

I am still annoyed that i am out $5 for shipping it back and 7 hours of my time troubleshooting the drive but their refund process was smooth and quick.

 

Just letting every know to not buy this drive, it is a piece of .
My speeds, causes my computer to hang all the time. Updated to FW15, Hard drive has lots of space left.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 : 138.280 MB/s
Sequential Write : 43.299 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 108.101 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 9.399 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 8.005 MB/s [ 1954.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.575 MB/s [ 140.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 52.389 MB/s [ 12790.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.756 MB/s [ 184.5 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 68.8% (41.0/59.6 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/03/31 14:22:51
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)





My normal hard drive in my laptop, writes 2-3x faster then this
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 : 81.015 MB/s
Sequential Write : 80.468 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 33.357 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 37.226 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.458 MB/s [ 111.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.045 MB/s [ 255.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 1.008 MB/s [ 246.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.016 MB/s [ 248.2 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [E: 5.8% (17.0/293.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/03/31 14:29:50
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

 

So it seems that when the MydigitalSSD drive is empty it performs up to specification, when it's filled with data ( and that should be its purpose, containing data ) performance get dramatically down, especially WRITE performances get worse than mechanical hard drives.

I got a 32 GB and i have the same problems with the drive 90% full, writing speeds downgrade.

MyDigitalSSD 32GB msata firmware 09 Benchmark

 

Guys make sure you are using the Intel AHCI driver.

FW17 was given to me for release last night. I am going to put some punishment on a computer with the 64GB mSATA and see what it does. Look for the FW update within the next 48 hours. I hope it solves these problems for the low GB size 24nm drives.

Until we figure this out I suggest the 32GB Super Cache which has 24nm DDR2 flash on it or the 128GB Bullet Proof mSATA which has 34nm Toshiba flash on it.

MyDigitalSSD

 

I have a Verbatim 128GB SSD with the Phison controller in it (except that it came from Verbatim and not you MyDigitalSSD guys ^^)

I came here because I was having the same troubles than others with the poor writting speed.

Upgraded today from S5FAM015 to 017.

It's performing way better with 4K blocks:


I was having an average 1.6 MB/s on 4k writes before (with S5FAM015)

 

Thank you. So the 16, 32 and 64 GB version of MydigitalSSD are 24nm while the 128 is 34nm Toshibas? Am i Correct? So the 17 Firmware was directed to the 128GB issues ( I read the other thread ) and could not fix the lower sizes one ? (can not flash it immediately on my 32Gb to see in person, as i need my OS as it is for now)

I am curious to see a benchmark of a MydigitalSSD with 24nm NANDS with FW17 and 80% data full. Eventually i will able to do it in a week or two 8D

 

His #'s for the 128GB are quite slow that may very well be 24nm flash in his Verbatim unit.

I can still get 34nm flash for our 128GB solution so even though it is much more expensive we are still using it because of how solid the drive performs with that flash. I assure you guys that all 128GB mSATA we ship will be using 34nm flash but unfortunately I cannot get 34nm flash for any of our other products. If anyone can get by on 32GB then I suggest the MyDigitalSSD 32GB Super Cache Drive as it is just as fast as the 128GB because it uses 24nm DDR2 flash (also higher cost but great performance and reliability).

Also I should have some info regarding my home testing of the 64GB tomorrow.

MyDigitalSSD

 

Thank you, Much appreciated !
If you can bench also with ~70% space filled you will help me decide for updating my firmware.

 

i registered just to chime in on this. i bought this drive and its the same problem. HORRIBLE SPEEDS! after reading this thread i have come to the conclusion that the drive is a POS. im pretty ticked off with MyDigital for even having such a POS on the market, the thing is they're aware of that this drive is a problem but wont do anything about it. i will be returning it asap and in the future i will be avioding mydigital. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL COMPANY.

 

Maybe you guys need to test your drives a bit more before you even think of selling them - Did you test the 24nm chip when you changed over? Seems like a lot of people are having issues with it. When I buy a drive I want it to work fine out of the box rather than having to keep updating the firmware in the hopes it will work.

I can't even leave a bad review on mydigitaldiscount, they Nazi patrol it and won't publish it....

 

Guys demand is still high for the drive even at the speeds that are being reported.

I have been playing with one for about 2 days now and unfortunately still not the greatest performance at 70% full I am getting around 3/7MB/sec for 4K. Phison says they are commuted to making the problem go away. I have been suggesting everyone buy the 32GB or the 128GB and also like I said before way more people are getting the 64GB to work than not. We have sold 441pcs since the change over and at this time has 17pcs that have been returned. I would discontinue it if demand was still not so high. Not sure what to do at this time.

MyDigitalSSD

 

Want to chime in here and state that i'm having this problem as well on firmware 14 with the SSD at 40GB/60GB capacity. Going to upgrade to 17 and see if that changes anything...

 

Thank you for making Phison know about the problem, i hope that if they focus on the problem they can solve it with a new firmware. We will eagerly follow your updates!

 

Firmware 17 definitely improves performance. Every update has boosted my numbers up in crystaldisk and is noticeably faster. I have benchmark screenshots at 50% and 82% usage and will share when I get some free time. Performance definitely drops but is not too noticeable.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

F17 has vastly improved performance. No where near what it SHOULD be, but usable even with 48/60GB filled as long as im not installing a program or something.

 

Nevermind, i'm going to have to retract what I said. After a few hours of use the thing slowed to a crawl when doing anything involving the SSD, even at below 30% capacity.

I'm going to return this. Does Mydigitialdiscount still waive restocking fees for returning this SSD for a refund?

 

the drive is crap. simple as that. if ur getting that many returns and this many problems. DISCONINTUE IT. simple as that. im sure not every who purchases the drive knows alot about computers and doesnt know when they have a product that isnt proforming like it should. in my opinion if ur getting this many bad reviews, the decision is obvious. why ruin the repuatation of your company by selling this useless drive?

its just arrogant in my opinion to know that this drive is a piece of... and continue selling it. says alot about your company.

 

Harsh words, but I have to agree.
Sure... only 17 of 441 have been returned, about a 4% failure rate if you want to use those stats, 1 out of 25... which doesn't sound THAT bad.
However, you're not accounting for customers that have recognized the problem but are fortunately (for MDSSD) willing to be patient. I think it's a conservative estimate to say there are at least as many (another 17) just in this thread that are willing to wait. That means at least 1 in 12 are failing. And I don't think it's crazy to assume there are many others that just haven't pinpointed the problem yet. In my opinion... that is far too many and enough to warrant a recall until a definite solution is found, not one that lasts a couple hours.

You guys have shown excellent customer service thus far, it'd be a shame to tarnish that. Look at OCZ or anything with SandForce... they've permanently lost significant market share (me included). Hell... I've seen several members refuse to even consider the new Intel 520 SSD simply because it is SF driven.

 

These are Phisons words.

"We duplicated the issues and this is top priority now internally."

This was sent to me on the 4th.

I think this is definitely a bruise on our rep as far as performance goes. Luckily it is confined to this one product but this is not acceptable to anyone.

I am giving Phison till the end of this week and if I don't have something from them I will halt sales until they deliver a proper solution.

MyDigitalSSD

 

errrr, I just bought this from Amazon.com last night. I am just going to return it when it arrive.

 

Let's hope Phison will patch the 16, 32 and 64GB write problems...

 

I don't think I even want to deal with it. It took Sandforce (a much more known company) months to fix the BSOD on the Vertex. If I can get my hands on one of those Samsung mSata drives, I'd be set.

 

Phison has a solution called the S7 and according to them it is not having the same trouble as the S5 is with 24nm flash. We are trying to get a sample built up with that controller ASAP. The main difference between the S5 and S7 is that the S7 is a 4 channel controller vs the normal 8 so it will save you on battery life but usually the performance will be cut in half. If it can be a stable performer then it may be a good option until the S5 FW is updated properly.

MyDigitalSSD

 

So if they are thinking about changing the whole controller does that mean that the firmware fix for S5 will take a long time ?

 

I would just like to say that it has been my observation across multiple threads that MyDigitalSSD has been very responsive when it comes to any issues with their products. They offer a fast turnaround while doing their best to appease the customer of every issue they have been having. Most of the complaints against them seem to be unfounded apart from the direct issue of slow drive performance which as stated can be difficult to solve when the problem cannot be replicated on demand.

When I buy my Sager np9150 shortly, I will assuredly be putting a 128 GB MyDigitalSSD into it.