SATA 3 spec, but interface only running at SATA 2 speed! Please advise.

Hi, I've searched for days for a clue and come up nowhere with this:

Summary: CF-53 SATA controller seems limited to SATA 2 speeds for any drive in primary drive bay.

I have a Toughbook CF-53 (model CF-53STLZYLM) which is a Mk3 unit with i5-3340M CPU and Intel QM77 chipset, which should be capable of SATA 3 (6Gb/s) speed.) SATA 3 SSD installed is only running at SATA 2 (3Gb/s) speeds.

Using HWiNFO for full hardware report, it indicates motherboard PCH features SATA 6 Gb/s supported for both Ports 0 and 1. But under the SATA controller section it lists: "Interface Speed Supported: Gen2 3.0 Gbps "

None of my research seems to show this unit would be limited to SATA 2 speeds. This is occurring with the computer restored to factory load using the recovery partition (it's not a Windows driver issue.) To eliminate chance it's a problem with the SSD, I replaced it with cloned SATA 3 spec HDD, and the system still runs interface at SATA 2 speed.

And, to confirm, in case it's suggested: BIOS is set to AHCI, drive is in caddy in primary drive bay (and no secondary SSD/HDD installed.)

Some of the hardware report pasted below:
(Full hardware report on dropbox here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/32u0vr3s3ukg8o4/Panasonic CF-53 hardware report.html?dl=0 )

[Motherboard]
Motherboard Model: Panasonic Corporation CF53-3
Motherboard Chipset: Intel QM77 (Panther Point)

[PCH Features]
SATA Port 1 6 Gb/s: Supported
SATA Port 0 6 Gb/s: Supported

Intel Panther Point-M PCH - SATA AHCI Controller [C1]
[General Information]
Device Name: Intel Panther Point-M PCH - SATA AHCI Controller [C1]
Device Class: SATA AHCI Controller

[SATA Host Controller]
Interface Speed Supported: Gen2 3.0 Gbps
Number Of Ports: 6
AHCI Status: Enabled
AHCI Version: 1.30
Ports Implemented: 0, 1

[SATA Port#0]
Port Status: Device Present, Phy communication not established
Current Interface Speed: Gen2 3.0 Gbps
Device Type: SATA

Crucial_CT256MX100SSD1 (SSD)
[General Information]
Drive Controller: Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 3Gb/s *
Drive Model: Crucial_CT256MX100SSD1
ATA Transport SATA 3.1 Version Supported:

* Indicates the SSD drive is 6Gb/s but it’s currently running at 3Gb/s

ANY guidance or ideas for why I can't achieve SATA 3 speed over the host controller interface would be MOST appreciated!! THANKS!

 

Panasonic limits the SATA speeds.
They have been doing this on ALL Toughbooks for years.
They do it to decrease heat and increase reliability. You can not change it.

 

CF-19 MK5. Unlimited )

 

Speeds were found to be reduced in 2011, limiting SATA 2 speeds to SATA 1. I find absolutely no evidence that practice is continuing. (And in a call to a Panasonic tech support rep, I was told there is no configuration option, at least in my CF-53, that would limit a SATA 3 speed to SATA 2.) Can you provide any links to corroborate your statement as it relates to any Toughbook from 2014 onwards?

My quest to solve my deficient SATA controller speed continues, and I certainly appreciate the feedback! Thanks !

 

There never was a configuration option. It is limited permanently in the BIOS.

Do a search on this board for plenty of experience on this topic.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/search/15278785/?q=sata+speed&o=relevance&c[node]=1012

Would not be the first time a Panasonic service rep did not have a clue.

 

Interesting threads

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/i-might-be-onto-something-here.610856/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sata-3-0-discovery.580720/

 

Hi Shawn,

You certainly seem to have a long history of providing qualified and detailed information, and I appreciate you taking the time to point me to useful and explanatory searches and links! (I wish Google did a better job of indexing threads in this forum!) I'm just surprised this SATA speed throttling issue isn't more widely documented on the Internet at large.

I did see a recent post where a CF-54 owner posted a SSD speed test which seemed to indicate SATA 3 speeds (unless it was achieved using Samsung's "RAPID" cache feature utilizing RAM...) so I wondered whether the newest Toughbooks might be allowing SATA 3 speeds.

So, I guess the bottom line is that Panasonic limits the SATA controller speed from SATA III to SATA II in my CF-53, and there's nothing to be done about it. I'm glad I found this resource, and hope you'll be available to shed light on things the next time I stumble at finding the answers out myself (purely by searching.)

Cheers!

 

real world speed results

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/toughbook-ssd-thread.725310/

That's because I am the search Ninja.

 

i can think of one possible reason that the "speed limit" is not widespread knowledge .
i would hazard that 90+% of users are not really interested in what goes on beyond hitting the power switch and surfing for pr0n .
(he says in a facetious tone)
sooo ... while "uptown funk" garners over 3 billion views , a lot of tech information simply never gets searched for

 

A post from long ago. http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...d-speeds-to-sata-i.619298/page-2#post-8032268

mnementh


You know... I've been reading the forum and thinking back on the several threads on this subject, and I suspect I know why Panasonic deliberately throttled back the bus speed here, and you probably aren't going to like it.

Heat management. Just bear with me.

Panasonic actually took a fair bit of heat with earlier models of Toughbooks and brick PCs by throttling back the CPU clock to reduce heat generated, especially in passive-cooled designs. Smart people know underclocking is a good idea; dumb people think they're somehow getting cheated. Well, what if there was a way to slow down EVERYTHING without taking the PR hit of underclocking the CPU again?

With Windows-powered machines, there is. Because of the way it manages virtual memory, EVERYTHING the computer does follows the timetable of a single point - the data bus of the HDD. Slow that down, and the CPU gets a bunch more idle cycles, the RAM and video do too. Now I suspect that with the limitations of the PATA HDD bus that wasn't much of a problem; though I do seem to remember some talk, even back with the CF-29s, of people being frustrated with their shiny new SSDs because of Panny using an ATA-166 capable controller and throttling it back to ATA-100 or ATA-66 speeds. The IDE standard was always the bottleneck on any machine that suffered with it, especially on later 3GHz P4 powered and similar era machines of any manufacturer. In desktops, we run RAIDs to eliminate this bottleneck; in a laptop, it suddenly becomes a brick wall to beat your head against, unless you WANT to slow down a machine exponentially.

Now... a few years later, and the standard is SATA. Gotta use SATA, cuz the chipsets don't support IDE anymore and nobody's gonna buy your machine if it still uses PATA, as SATA has been the standard long enough even dumb@sses know IDE is old stuff. But SATA can actually handle the speeds that your new processor operates at, so you don't have the natural governor of that bus working in your favor anymore. So... you throttle back the SATA bus to the slowest speed, and presto. Your CPU gets to rest, your video gets to rest, everything stays nice & frosty even under the desert sun and only a few freaks like Alex and Toyo who bother to put an SSD in a laptop whose daddy was a bulldozer and expect it to go fast would ever notice.

Does any of this sound even a little bit like a design of a company motivated by business as a major Defense Industry manufacturer?

 

"everything stays nice & frosty even under the desert sun and only a few freaks ... who bother to put an SSD in a laptop whose daddy was a bulldozer ..."


i believe the simple truth is that , in the case of the "throttle back" is that function followed design .
this is what the conceptual design looks like (the typical panasonic *heavyweight rugged* design) ...
what ?
we have heat problems ?
well , fix it !
oh , you cant get rid of anymore heat without a miniature cooling tower designed by the chernobyl engineers ?
hmmm ... how about slowing things down ?
what's that you say about customers and users looking at faster machines ?
screw 'em , we have a corner on the market and a foot in the door ... "let them eat cake"

or was that something to do with sand ...
however , i shall digress .

 

Heat is the exact reason the fan-less models are throttled back. I remember when I got my 1st CF-30 I was a bit ticked off about it. I was able to speak to someone with Panasonic, not Heartland, about the issue. He explained that it's all about heat. Hence why the 31 series with the fan was able to handle SATA lll. I only encountered a lag a few times on my 30's. My 54 is on steroids compared to them.