HP Mini 1000 - Solid State HD Constantly Thrashing - Slowing System Down

[mutex0]

I recently bought an HP Mini 1000 (the actual model number is the 1100 CTO).  It came with the HP flavor of Linux.  I put the Windows 7 RC on it, as several others have, and noticed incredibly poor performance with the 32GB solid state hard disk.

The symptoms are whenever the disk starts to write, the system is completely unresponsive.  I cannot scroll down on browser windows, I cannot launch new processes, I cannot switch tabs, keyboard input is not recognized (until the hard disk stops writing).  This happens way too frequently, pretty much any time I load a web browser page or do anything on the system.  The hard drive thrashes about 80% of the time that I'm using it.

I have the upgraded 2GB of memory, so I'm not sure why there are so many disk writes going on.  I am also not sure why disk writes are taking so long to complete... I thought disk speed was supposed to be faster on a solid-state drive.

I've done numerous things to improve performance:  ensuring superfetch and all indexing operations are disabled, turned off the page file,  etc.  However I still cannot get the system to perform to a point where it is usable, and am seriously considering sending it back and having the regular disk put in it.

Is there anything I can do? 

[Ded_Mazai]

I got a 1GbRam/32GbSSD mini a couple of days ago.

Absolutely the same problem, Unusable indeed!

I am sending it back (took me an hour and a half phone call to place the replacement/fixing order)

[mutex0]

Did you have Windows 7 on yours?  Are you ordering a replacement HD or sending the computer back to HP?  If you are getting a replacement HD are they paying for the shipping cost?  (they should)

[Ded_Mazai]

No, mine is xp. A wierd thing - after you keep it on for more than an hour it feels like it gets faster. So I am not sure whether sdd is the one to blame. It could be ram as well or a bus or whatever. Other people seem to be happy with sdd, so I guess it is only us who got lucky I am sending the whole thing back, the shipment is on them. I am not switching to hd as I still what it sdd. What do you plan on doing with it? rgs/Igor

[mutex0]

I'm not sure... it's very frustrating.  The problem is definitely the SDD.  Anytime I open an web browser and open a few tabs, especially with any flash content or javascript, the SDD starts thrashing and the system becomes completely unresponsive.  This also happens whenever other writes are going on, such as updating using Windows Update, installing applications, etc.  I pretty much have to go grab a coffee and come back if I'm installing something; I can forget about browsing while that's going on.

[dsb]

I'm having the same problem.  System hangs while the SSD light is on.  Often happens for a minute or two at a time.  Machine is basically unusable. Mine is still a fresh install.  All I've done is install the patches and firefox.  It's so frustrating that it's actually easier to browse this forum on my 8 year old dying laptop which the mini was going to replace.  I haven't had a chance to call them yet.

I realize that a 32 GB SSD is a lot to ask for at this price, but it's not a good value at any price unless it works acceptably.  Perhaps HP needs to use a better SSD and raise the price accordingly or not offer this configuration at all.  

Frustrated...

[mutex0]

What OS are you running?

[dsb]

XP Home SP3 (32-bit).  Machine is still basically a fresh install, essentially as shipped, with Windows and Norton patches. Swap file is off since it seems like a bad idea for SSD-based systems in general.  I also eased some of the graphics settings (like displaying window contents when moving windows) since that's more eye candy than necessary.

HP's tech suggested checking for bad blocks.  Doesn't seem to have helped.  My intention in getting the machine was to configure a dual-boot with a yet-to-be-determined linux distro (I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 on the dying P3 laptop I'm using to write this -- so, yes, I'm finding a 2001 vintage consumer-grade laptop preferable to our new Mini 1000s...).

Performance may actually improve after being on for 30 minutes to an hour.   Perhaps Windows has begun to cache things in RAM as it should.  That doesn't really work for a netbook, though, since the whole point is availability when you need it.  

I wonder if these SSDs have the notorious jmicron controller.  I'm not sure how to check.  Supposedly if you have XP professional or embedded you can use a module called Enhanced Write Filtering (EWF) as a sort of buffer.  It isn't shown in the Windows XP Home help menu, though, so it might not be included.

[mutex0]

What's the output of lspci on Linux?  Maybe we can find out what kind of controller it has?

[oc]

I also have the 32G SSD and it is so **bleep** slow.  Whenever web browsing.  Can't seem to figure how to disable whatever it's doing.  My friends all have the HDD version of another competitor (the cheap one) and they love theirs.  They're netbook speeds super fast!  

If anyone know how to fix this, please let me know.  I tried disabling the add-ons, killing the norton, and other applications.  I don't have a virus as far as I know as well as I can enable norton and it finds nothing.  Maybe it's bad hardware?  We just have bad hardware?  Or the technology isn't ready at all?  This is slow as an old PC.