SSD running only on SATA 1.5 Gbps? Where's the problem?

I got a new SSD Samsung 470 Series 128GB SATA 3Gps for my Dell Vostro 1700 laptop. All my hardware supports SATA 3Gbps, there's no reason for the SSD not to work well. I updated to the latest firmware, made a fresh installation of Windows 7 x64, installed the latest chipset driver and the latest Intel RST. I then tested the speed of the drive and it was about a half of what it's supposed to be, and I've read reviews showing very high performance. The problem, I believe, is that when I looked at the RST window it says that the SATA transfer rate is 1.5 Gb/s. So there must be something preventing the drive from running on SATA 3G?
I contacted Dell and after quite a long talk and waiting on hold they told me that there should be no reason for it not to run on SATA 3Gps.
I should also mention that I tested the SSD on another computer and it runs as fast as it should, and in SATA 3G.

Even though it's a huge improvement over my old HDD it still bugs me that I can get only about half the performance of the drive.

Any help on solving this would be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry if you've already seen this thread in other forums but I can't seem to find an answer, so...

 

Is the SSD installed in the same slot the original HDD was in?
If its in a caddy, alot of optical drive SATA ports are only SATA I (1.5Gb/s)

Download and run System Information for Windows (SIW) get the freeware version down the bottom.

Look under Hardware, Storage Devices what does it say next to Transfer Mode (current/max)?

 

Thank you for the answer JKleiss
I have two HDD slots on the laptop, and yes, it's in a caddy with SATA adapter.
I currently have the HDD and the SSD in. Checked with the program you said and the transfer mode (current/max) for the SSD is SATA-300/SATA-300. The HDD is 150, but that's understandable.

I'm sure the SSD doesn't run on SATA 3Gbps at the moment though. The benchmarks confirm it and as I said previously, when I look in Intel RST, the transfer mode for the SSD is 1.5Gbps.

PS: As I said, Dell were more than certain that it should run SATA II without any problems. I'm thinking of trying a normal SATA II HDD, to see if it runs on SATA II, but that can't happen sooner than Monday. Is there anything I can do before that?

 

So the SSD or the HDD drive is in the caddy?

 

Both. Each of them is in its own caddy, in its own slot. Here, look at this:

 

Oh ok, make sure the SSD is in the slot that the original boot HDD was in

 

IF it is in the correct slot, I was going to suggest a firmware update may be needed, but of course like ASUS, Samsung gives no release notes on its site

Do you have another comparable computer you can install it in and test the transfer speed?

 

It is in the original HDD slot. The first thing I did is updating the firmware. I tried it on a friend's laptop and it runs on SATA II with the proper speeds – about 240-250 both read and write.

 

BIOS up to date?

 

Yes, even though the latest version is from 2008.