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‎04-16-2013 10:52 AM

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Hi All,  I recently purchased an HP Z1, and to get the most out of it decided to replace the existing HD with an SSD. After installing the SSD (a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro)  I used the System Recovery CD's to install Windows 7 Pro.  The install went smoothly, but I did notice after, when looking in device manager, that the SSD appears as a SCSI device, not SATA.  Under Disk drives it shows "ATA Samsung SSD 840 SCSI Disk Device".   Did Windows install the wrong driver? The driver listed in the properties is from Microsoft, ver 6.1.7600.16385.

 

Also, I noticed the Windows Experience Index is 6.7.  I would expect it to be higher with this setup.  Any advice?

 

Thanks!

 

Edit:  I just ran the Samsung Magician software that came with the SSD, and it indicates AHCI Mode is "deactivated" and that it is "unable to detect SATA interface details."  So something is not right.  I did check the BIOS and "RAID + SATA" emuation was selected.   So it is my understanding AHCI should have been setup.  Any ideas?  This is my first experience with an SSD, and it's turning out a little more involved than expected.   Thanks!

3 REPLIES 3

‎04-17-2013 04:59 AM

HP Recommended

I have a Z210 and used the HP System Recovery disks to load Win7 Pro with BIOS set to RAID+AHCI and an Intel 520 SSD installed. The result was that HP IRST driver version 10.5.0.1027 was installed to the storage controller "Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller" as seen within device manager. Also, the Disk Drive device string within device manager indicated "Intel SSDC2CW12" or something similar and the SSD was connected to the SATA Raid controller when viewing "device by connection" within device manager. .

 

The latest IRST driver on the HP website is version 10.6.0.1002 yet Intel is at version 11.7.0.1013. Oddly the structure of the Intel drivers changed around 11.2(?) onwards which, if loaded, will change the device string for all attached Disk Devices by appending "SCSI Disk Device" to the end of the device string.

 

As for the windows experience index, I get 7.9 for my SSD but odd HDTune benchmarks

 

Some more info can be read here and here.

 

Just check that you have BIOS set to AHCI+RAID and that the SSD is connected to SATA Raid Controller and that you are using iaStorF.sys and all should be fine. You should be able to run TRIM and check SSD SMART details if the Samsung tool supports this (the Intel SSDToolbox does).  Don't know why Samsung states you are not in AHCI? Maybe it sees IRST iaStorF.sys drivers and gets confused!

‎04-18-2013 10:40 AM

HP Recommended

Thanks Skylarking.   Sounds like you did a similar install to mine.  

 

I did the checks you mentioned:  BIOS is set to AHCI+RAID;  SSD is connected to SATA controller (i.e. Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller).   The driver in my case was at 11.5.0, and I updated it to 11.7.0.1013.   But based on what you said about the change from 11.2 on, that explains the "SCSI Disk Device" label.   If I look at the driver details it shows both iaStorA.sys and iaStorF.sys.  I also checked that TRIM was enabled (it is), and the SMART details says everything is OK.

 

I've come to the conclusion that the SSD setup is probably fine, and some of the information the Samsung Magician is providing is incorrect.    I'm surprised though, as would think my setup would be fairly typical.  Anyway, if you have any other insights, please share.  I'm still don't know why my Windows Experience Index is low.  My Z1 has an Xeon E3-1245v2 with 32GB of memory.  That should have it at the top I would think...  

‎04-19-2013 02:02 AM

HP Recommended

My Z210 has Xeon E3-1270 V1 with 8GB of ECC memory and an Intel 520 series 120GB SSD and I get WEI of 7.9.

 

The CPU is not the limiting factor and the V2 Xeon is a better chip that the V1 (clock for clock) so I would expect better WEI scores than your getting. Do you have a real PRO version of the Samsung 840 (as the non pro is slower just like some of the counterfeit 840's I've heard are out there)?

 

How do you find the Z1 in general? I was considering this unit a little while ago.

 

[edited to clean up spelling & grammar]

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