Turbo Memory 2.0 Issues

I'm wanting to submit a report of issues thats users are having with the Turbo Memory Dashboard. I've got a few issues I can't seem to get working properly and Intel Support doesn't seem to know about any of them or even care about them, but I'm sure somebody wants to know that their app sucks... Perhaps any of you are experiencing the same thing and know a solution.

Here is a list of issues I have with the TM Dashboard:
Running Vista x64 SP1 w/4GB Turbo Memory Module

* After many restarts and launches of the TM Dashboard (15+) the application begins to fail and is unable to find programs on the computer, and throws an error message of "A generic exception was thrown while finding applications". You can no longer add data to the module without reinstalling the OS.

* After restart, the TM reports using 3% of the module, and does not update any higher until I open the dashboard, where it will propagate the card with data. No amount of waiting for it to do it on its own will help it propagate.

* Using the TM Dashboard to move items from right to left, or to scroll through the list of items, utilizes 100% of the CPU cores, causing the system to perform very poorly while using the interface.

* Adding more than one program to the module at a time can cause the dashboard to freeze and the HDD to read constantly until the OS is restarted.

* The TM Dashboard changes the % of usage to different percentages at random times. It isn't always consistent, and will drop from 85% to 65% usage after a single restart.

* Removing an application from cache while it is propagating causes the application to freeze and fail to perform the operation.

* Application will hang for several minutes and will crash.

Reinstalling drivers for the TM does not seem to help. The most annoying error is the not being able to find applications after a certain time. TM is awesome if its working properly, but it doesn't ever really want to. There are no newer drivers available.

Is anybody else experiencing these or other errors?

 

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Any ideas? Am I the only 4GB TM user having these problems?

 

Experiencing all those exact same problems. I gave up and just said screw the dashboard and it now "works" with just readyboost and readydrive. But really, I can't tell if those things are working.

So it may have been a 49 dollar scam from intel.


Good luck getting them fixed. And please post about it if you figure them out.

The dashboard is just too much of a headache to keep around.

 

Well luckily you can use ReadyBoost with your card. The 4GB cards are prevented from using ReadyBoost at all. They are supposed to be used specifically for the User Pinning Dashboard. Intel really screwed this one up...

 

man turbo memory 2.0 is more confusing than understanding the meaning of life.

I have had no luck yet with "pinning" programs to my 2gb of memory.

My advice - just make the whole GUI easier and ACTUALLY right out of the box.

 

²nd this... 100%

 

Well I'm going to send an email off to Intel and see what they say about it. Anybody have any other issues I have not listed?

 

Good luck, I did thatold to and 4 days later was to kiss off.
(I was told to talk to my "OEM")

 

I sent it to Intel (With a note telling them to don't dare refer me to my OEM), Clevo, and Sager. We'll see what the response is. The last time I ever say hardware / software problems like this was from a $2.99 usb wireless adapter that had no brand...

 

I've asked that they sticky the post with the answers but nobody has done it... there is a glitch with the software but it's easy to fix, just a bit of a pain. There's a couple of threads with the solution, unfortunetly I don't have the thread links handy.

 

great,more problems. i know im only getting the 2gb but would it be better for me to cancel it as i think mines not starting to be built until tomorrow.
i had problems with the 1gb on the m15x i dont want problems with the 2gb on my Nexus.

 

Was it the same ..."install using -UP switch command"?

 

Well Intel got back with me and told me to **** since the system isn't Verified by Intel. Just as I suspected. Waiting on Clevo and Sager's response.

 

Is Turbo Memory even worth the money? I thought there wasn't enough of a performance boost to justify getting it.

Reading your post seems to me to make it even more of a disadvantage of getting it then an advantage.

 

Turbo Memory 2 is worth getting once they work out the software bugs. It is far better performing than the original TM module. Give it time and the software will eventually get worked out.

 

↑ We hope. Although it might get worked out just in time for revision 3

 

Here is a little more information Sager has provided:

The issue of it reporting the wrong %, it’s just a graphical error, what is pinned is pinned. It just won’t report right.

The issue with Dashboard not loading, the bug is only at reloading the dashboard to remove or add programs into the turbo memory. What is pinned in it is still optimized.

To get around the dashboard not loading, the only way at this time is go into the intel pinning UI folder in program files or program files (x86) and delete all the *.xml files.

And repin everything.

Unfortunately there is nothing Sager can do other then wait until Intel decides to release newer drivers as this is completely controlled by Intel.

 

from my original post above, i now wish i hadnt bothered getting the 2gb card.
it totally disapeared and is know where to be found. checked all the program files but its not in the intel matrix folder.
was told it could be a glitch with the turbo and the fingerprint reader. the turbo has to be loaded first but i loaded the finger reader and somehow its deleted the turbo.

how easy is it to totally remove the card inside and forget about the turbo.

 

Where do you open the dashboard? I cant seem to find it. Can someone link to the software too? I have installed the driver.

When i open Intel turbo memory controller (which is the only thing i can see is related to this, namewise) there is nothing i can do, except disable and enable readyboost and readydrive.

 

Taking the TM module out is no biggie, your user manual should tell you how to do it, or at least where its located Should be removed as easily as a ram stick

Dunno if it will affect the system in anyways, but I would recommand that you remove all software related (drivers and dashboard) to the TM before removing it, just to be sure it wount mess up when booting again...

 

thanks M3z3iAs
might just wait as im taking it to kobalt soon.

 

Thanks for the help Justin!

Some more info:

Anybody running a Creative card, such as the Xfi Extreme Notebook Audio or the 5.1 USB card, the addon creative software such as its console launcher (dashboard) will cause the ITM Dashboard to fail to read applications at all.

The solution for that, sadly, is either to not use the Creative card or the ITM, as there seems to be some strange issues with the combo. If you choose to drop the Creative card, use system restore to go back before anything was installed for creative. Wipe any XML files in the Intel Matrix Pinning folder and restart again. SHould be able to create a new profile and pin applications.

If that doesn't work, a full OSRI is the only other option.

 

ahhh, that could be my problem. ive got the creative loaded.
thanks for the info emike09

 

Well that's a bit of a major bug...

 

Well it wouldnt sound strange to me, that the creative software would mess up something in the system... Long time since ive seen stable and unbugged drivers from creative...

Now I dont have either a creative card nor TM, so I cannot mess around with it and have very little idea about how it works... But wouldnt it be possible to unpin all creative software from the Dashboard and block it from begin loaded with the dashboard ?? If the problem occur only when pinned, that could be a tempoary fix for the creative/TM bug??

 

Nope. If there is even the most remote amount of creative software on the system, even a single registry entry, it fails to find applications.

 

I have another greivance to add to the list...sometimes, when I try to open the dashboard, it just hangs on me and then after about a minute I get a message saying intel_robson has stopped responding and then it turns itself off =/.

 

Hmm... Major bug indeed :s Hopefully Intel and Creative will listen... Tho it seems that isn't the case Glad I ordered with out TM, think my friend who is getting a Kobalt Mojave is glad that it wount be in his either... Just sad to see that they dont care about their products... A great idea that fails under something as "simple" as software

 

I'll add it to the list. Solution for that is to clean all the XML files and if needed, completely remove the applications and reinstall.

 

Greetings folks.

Thanks for posting on this issue. I recently bought a Sager 5796 and splurged on the 4g robson card, thinking that it could help speed things up further. I wrongly assumed that this option would only be offered because it worked. Wrong. Between the constant crashes, and no discernible impact on my actual RAM overhead (shouldn't pinning applications reduce RAM usage??) its hard to tell what it actually does.

I've had the machine for under a month and kept my windows error logs.. everything associated with TM has crashed on multiple occasions, and may be responsible for some serious system lockups that I was experiencing out of the box (my first boot was a recovery from a system crash).

A quick list from Windows Problem Reports and Solutions:
intel_robson - Stopped working x 4
SmartPinService - APPCRASH x 5; Stopped working x 3
ITMServ - Service Hang Report x 4
PowerBiosServer (not sure if this is TM related) - Stopped Working x 4

Having read previous posts about success contacting Intel or Sager, I didn't bother trying. But I have sent several emails to XoticPC about my system freeze and they sent me a RAM test, which I ran without error. (My subsequent emails to them (2) have gone unresponded to.)

My thought is that there's a good chance TM is responsible, and for the sake of their own rep (which appears to be rock solid within this forum), they should consider removing the option from their laptop customization section.

I'll try dumping my xml files and reinstalling as suggested, I'll report back on whether or not it resolves things, and hope that others experiencing the same issues will put their two cents in as well.

 

Yes, I did have and still do have all the issues listed above. My solution? Stop using with useless piece of #### until Intel fixes it . I cannot believe those lazy *******s didn't do anything since SEPTEMBER. It takes 15 minutes to fix their "dashboard" interface (half of the problems are associated just with this really poorly written C++ app).

 

Ya, I don't think they care about it at all. Everytime I try to tell them, they say I'm not supported... Gay homos...

 

I've experienced all of the above problems. The most frequent is the same as Anomaly's problem. I was told by Sager it's out of their hands. In order to access the dashboard I have to delete all the the XML files and the associated BAK files. Which, of course, takes out all your file sets and profiles, so I spend the next hour pinning apps and files again up to 58% full....

Now, if I reboot the tray will only show 3% loaded and I'll be back at square one, because I won't be able to get back in to the dashboard. So, I've been hibernating instead of shutting down ever since, and pretending like it's working because the tray % is accurate. With the lack of support, that's all I can do. I don't want to have to put myself through dealing with that gui ever again.

 

2gb card still playing silly buggers. took it into kobalt and they re loaded it but they couldnt even drag and drop. nothing registered.

in the end i solved my ongoing problem.

ripped the card out. sorted. now i wont have any more problems with turbo cards.
ive had the 1gb in my m15x
the 2gb in my nexus
and neither worked. im not going to try 3rd time lucky.

 

Well, I installed a new program and was forced to reboot. To my suprise, my pinning was still accurate upon restart. I am also able to access the dashboard again. Everything is working as intended for the time being. Maybe all that cursing at my laptop finally set it strait?

 

Intel is about to release a new Turbo Memory Driver 1.8.0.1018 that will fix these issues.

They are available at Sager's download page for your model...or HERE

You will need to make sure that all older versions of Intel Matrix Storage Manager and Intel Turbo Memory drivers are uninstalled and your computer is rebooted before installing the new 1.8 version.

To enable Intel application pinning on 2GB modules you will still need the –UP command. To do this Click start and type 'run' in the search box. When the run box appears, click 'browse' and find where you saved the installer file for the turbo memory driver and select it. Click 'ok' on the browse window and the path and filename of the turbo memory driver installer should be in the run box. Click in the run box and move the cursor to the end of the file name. Put a space there and type -up. Then click 'run'.

You will not need to do the process above for 4GB modules...it will be done for them by default during installation of the new 1.8.0.1018 driver.

With this new driver you will have 1.4GB available for Intel application pinning with the 2GB module, and 3.4GB available for pinning with the 4GB module.

 

Thanks palin. Hopefully when I get my blu ray drive and turbo memory all these problems will be like a bad dream and I'll be using mine as it was intended.

/me thinks its sometimes good to get things later than sooner.

 

New drivers! Its a miracle! I know that Intel Rep was full of bologna when he told me there was nothing wrong!

 

too late for me. i got Andrew to rip the card out.

 

Even with the new driver, I still cant get it working ...
To uninstall and delete the driver, I think I might have not erased all, what is some keypoints I need to notice in clearing the whole thing out?
PS: after unin, I restart and directly install the 1.80 new driver.
I also have a " ! " beside the dashboard saying that it is "hardware unconfigured"

 

Need help!
My Dashboard crashes everysingletime !
I tried the new patch, tried deleted .xml files, still not working.
Is there anything I can do? Please hELP

 

well how about you start by giving us the error message or a description of how it crashed?

 

"intel_ITM has stopped working

windows can check online for a solution to the problem

==> check online for a solution and close the program

==> close the program

PS: Description:
Stopped working

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ITMDashboard.exe
Application Version: 0.8.8289.1
Application Timestamp: 48f5a22f
Fault Module Name: KERNEL32.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Fault Module Timestamp: 4549be94
Exception Code: e0434f4d
Exception Offset: 00023843
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 3076

and I have a yellow "!" beside it, saying that its' hardware unconfigured.

 

Completely uninstall the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and Turbo Memory. Restart. Install again. Restart. Then try it. If not, you may have to redo your OS.

 

Is yours working well now with the new driver?

Does it add any performance?

I went through the original Turbo Memory 1 hell (lots of posts in the Lenovo forums) and am about to get another notebook. I did get two notebooks sorted out and working with TM 1, once the drivers were no longer insane. I am trying to decide if there is any reason to try the new Turbo Memory or just run screaming from the room?

If anyone has any way to show it adds performance I'd love to know.

 

I installed version 1.8.0.1018 with the -UP command and in the Intel Turbo Memory Console I cannot check/uncheck "Enable Windows ReadyBoost" and it says that Windows ReadyBoost is "Disabled".

Is this expected if you install it with the -UP command? Where can I find info about this -UP command?

 

Readyboost can only be used if you do not install user pinning (UP). UP is a manual version of readyboost. IF you have the 4GB version, UP is installed by default.

 

I see thanks for the info. Are there any real advantages of using user pinning over readyboost?

 

Pinning is much faster. You pin the applications you use the most that take the longest to open.

 

Yes but I thought that ReadyBoost was smart enough to use an algorithm to see which applications are frequently used and optimize the startup time of these?