X61s: Is HD misconfigured?

[SzDoc]

So, I wiped out and rebuilt my TP some weeks ago. It's faster, but HD access seems very slow. And, HDTune 2.54 won't reflect any "features" or drive SN, or drive health. I suspect that there is a HD driver problem

DM shows Intel 82801 HEM/HBM SATA AHCI controller
and ICH8M UATA storage controller (2580)

Drive is Hitachi HTS541612J9S.

Do I need to run the Intel SM program? I did do the Intel chipset driver thing.

I'm usually rather more adept at such hardware issues. For some reason, which Intel drivers to install over the Lenovo drivers, and in what order, is rather mysterious to me.

NB: HDTune: Min 15.6 Max 37.3 Avg. 29.0. Access 16.3 Burst 81.2


Thanks much.

Happy New Year to all.

[tinue]

Hello

You can set the device manager to show the devices by connection (in the "View" menu). There you should see your hard drive attached on the AHCI controller, and the DVD (if you have any) on the UATA controller.

Did you install the Lenovo provided Intel Matrix Storage Manager? Don't use the one from the Intel website, even if it is a few versions newer: It caused blue screens on my system when using iTunes, plus many entries in the Windows log file about timeouts and parity errors on the drive. If you already installed it then force a reinstall of the Lenovo drivers.

HD Tune doesn't show drive health etc. on my system either, by the way. If I set the Thinkpad's controller to "Compatibility" mode in the BIOS, then HD Tune shows these elements, so I guess there is an incompatibility somewhere. However, on my system the hard disk isn't slow or anything.

Regards, Martin

[SzDoc]

Hello

You can set the device manager to show the devices by connection (in the "View" menu). There you should see your hard drive attached on the AHCI controller, and the DVD (if you have any) on the UATA controller.

Did you install the Lenovo provided Intel Matrix Storage Manager? Don't use the one from the Intel website, even if it is a few versions newer: It caused blue screens on my system when using iTunes, plus many entries in the Windows log file about timeouts and parity errors on the drive. If you already installed it then force a reinstall of the Lenovo drivers.

HD Tune doesn't show drive health etc. on my system either, by the way. If I set the Thinkpad's controller to "Compatibility" mode in the BIOS, then HD Tune shows these elements, so I guess there is an incompatibility somewhere. However, on my system the hard disk isn't slow or anything.

Regards, Martin

In re: MSM: It was from the Lenovo site, but may have been old. Perhaps need to try again. Although the documentation indicates that a reinstall is not necessary if the controller shows as AHCI.

I have left SATA set to AHCI mode in the BIOS, per a concensus on these boards.

Thanks much.

[JabbaJabba]

From what I can tell from the information you posted, everything is as it should be. Both Device Manager info and HD Tune results.

In which situations exactly are you experiencing low performance? And which OS are you using?

[SzDoc]

Overall performance just seems slow.

However, if my HDTune results are in line, then I will just stop worrying about it.

Thanks.

[SzDoc]

NB: OS: XP SP2 with all current patches.