Ready Boost Says Flash Drive isn't Fast Enough (when it is)

I am assembling an older machine with: Athlon 64 3200+ (single core), 1GB (2x512MB) DDR400 RAM, 80GB SATA 150 hard drive, onboard audio (Realtek) and video (ATi Radeon Xpress 200) with Windows 7.

I wanted to use a USB stick for Ready Boost, but when I plug it and say "use this to increase performance (Ready Boost)" it says the USB drive isn't fast enough. I tried it on another PC and it worked fine. I tried several thumb drives, with the same result. I did a file copy to the flash drive just to make sure my USB wasn't operating at 1.1 or anything but it would copy a large file at ~10MB/s. Not quite up to USB 2.0 but still significantly faster than USB 1.1.

When I click to "Test Again" it does nothing. The window just flashes real quick.

I'm at a loss. I just want something to help out until I get 2GB in the machine.

Thanks.

 

Small files are usually harder/slower to transfer than larger ones , and just because you can transfer a large file at 10mb/s , a small file could be substantially slower and that is why the ready boost test is failing.

Try bench32 to test you flash transfer speed , it might seem to freeze when you first start the test , but this is normal.

Download bench32.zip free - ATTO Disk Benchmark

 

10MB/s is nowhere near USB2 speeds. You are likely running at USB1.1 speeds, which is the issue. USB2 will push 20+MB/s. That is almost certainly your problem, not the drive. Check your motherboard USB drivers.

That said, ReadyBoost is almost worthless: Windows Vista Performance Guide - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Stop fighting it. You won't get even close to the benefit you will from the extra RAM. Almost no benefit at all.

 

It could be the hardware or USB drivers on the computer. readyboost uses the extra memory for paging on program start ups. I have my computer loaded with the maximum amount of ram and still have a large improvment in program startup speed using another 4gig of sd memory on a similur application. Even 10mbps is faster than that slow hdd and will give improvement if he can make it work. htwingnut: Because you are using older hardware and it may be a problem to use much more ram than you already have if you can't make readyboost work download the eboostr demo and see how it works. It will work on most operating systems including Windows 7. I am getting about 16mbps Random Read Speeds with my old 4gig sd card. Format your drive with NFTS or EXFat and use an allocation unit size of 512 bytes for faster speeds.

 

First of all, thanks for the responses.

I already said I tried it as a Ready Boost drive on another computer and it worked fine, so it's not the drive. Plus I mentioned this is a temporary solution until I manage to find some cheap 2x1GB DDR400 RAM.

Also, I attribute the transfer speed to the drive itself, not USB. USB 1.1 is max 12Mbps, which is a measley 1.5MB/sec, nowhere near 10MB/sec.

I'll try out eboostr and for the heck of it try out bench32.

 

it could be the usb/chipset drivers themselves. Besides speed it has to have 1.0 ms access or less. if the drivers are introducing latency this could be an issue too,

 

Unfortunately there's only one chipset driver available for Windows 7 with Xpress 200.

 

your basis for saying that the flash drive is fast enough is an experience with another machine. beyond what the flash drive itself may be capable of, there are a lot of new variables (machine, interfaces, os, drivers, etc, etc) to say that this drive should work in your current machine. windows looks at the whole system, not the individual components before deciding whether or not ready boost can be turned on.

 

Doesn't matter so much now. I found two 1GB sticks in my assortment of computer paraphenalia. Yay!

 

As an example I have a P-7805u with an O2Micro card reader and U81-a with an Alcore micro reader. With the P7805 I get 0.5 ms access with a 8GB Extreme III SD card. With the same card I get to better than 1.1 ms access with the U81-a. Different readers hardware, firmware, drivers chipsets and a host of variables can cause these issues.

 

I havnt, had much performance luck with ready boost mainly because your at the mercy of the speed of USB.