Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-53) - Slow HDD speed after working fine for weeks

soulvoid86
soulvoid86 Member Posts: 7 New User
edited November 2023 in 2019 Archives

Hello, I purchased an Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-53) about 3 months ago on eBay. It's been a great machine and I'm very pleased overall. My machine came with the 1TB HDD only, but the original owner put a cheap Silicon Power M.2 SATA 120GB SSD in it. It's not a bad SSD, but I plan on putting a 970 EVO in it's place. In the below description, all speeds were tested with CrystalDiskMark

Initially, the laptop came with a 7200 RPM HGST 1TB. I was getting the expected 150mb/s read/write from the drive. I then swapped it out for a WD Blue 5400 RPM 1TB, as I had a few laying around. I did this to conserve power and help with battery life (which helped tremendously!).

These are late 2016 models, and are 6Gb/s. In the USB 3.0 enclosure I have,  all of them get 150mb/s read/write as well, and these were pulled from working machines, have been tested, and only have a few hundred hours on them. They all get 150mb/s read/write and about 2-4mb/s on 4K. I made this swap not long after purchasing the laptop. Initially, everything was fine.

However, as of late, I've been noticing slow load times in games and overall slow performance from that disk. So I tested one of the other WDs in my USB 3.0 enclosure, and it ran fine (150mb/s). The disk install in the laptop is only getting around 50-85mb/s though, and 4K speeds are horribly low, around .6-.8mb/s. I assumed there was something wrong with the disk, cloned it to another WD drive and swapped them. However the new WD drive does the same exact thing, and the original WD gets 150mb/s in the USB enclosure.. So something is clearly wrong with the laptop.

I updated/reinstalled Intel Rapid Storage, Chipset drivers, I/O drivers, and even installed the latest 1.22 BIOS that was just released. No change what so ever. (Other than the stupid new keyboard backlight timeout on AC)

I popped the laptop open to make sure the tiny SATA ribbon cable didn't come loose, and there doesn't appear to be any damage to it. I'm lost at this point what else could be going on. Windows 10 has been acting strange lately on this machine, but it's a fresh install, only about 5 weeks old. I'm also still on 1803. I tested 1809 and it caused nothing but headaches.. So I reimaged. The machine is still in like new condition, and I take very good care of it.

I unfortunately no longer have the original HGST drive that was in the laptop either to test.

Answers

  • Commodore_1995#
    Commodore_1995# ACE Posts: 98,322 Trailblazer
    Hello!
    1) On bios 1.22, there have been reports of other users with the same problem. I suggest you wait for Acer to launch a new bios update to fix this bug!
    2) As for the transfer rate being slow in hd, I suggest you try to update the drivers using the driverbooster program: https://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php#
    However I recommend that you first activate the system protection and also uninstall any antivirus that is installed notebook, such as norton for example:

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                                                     egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
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  • soulvoid86
    soulvoid86 Member Posts: 7 New User
    egydiocoelho said:
    Hello!
    1) On bios 1.22, there have been reports of other users with the same problem. I suggest you wait for Acer to launch a new bios update to fix this bug!
    2) As for the transfer rate being slow in hd, I suggest you try to update the drivers using the driverbooster program: https://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php#
    However I recommend that you first activate the system protection and also uninstall any antivirus that is installed notebook, such as norton for example:


    I saw the other posts regarding the keyboard. It's annoying, but tolerable, lol.

    I'm not concerned about system restore, it just slows the system down, and I have everything important backed up to my personal server. I'll try driver booster. I don't usually like using those types of software, but I'll give it a shot. It's strange that it happened out of no where after the system was running fine, and nothing changed. I didn't update/install any new drivers or anything that would have caused this. I even have Windows updates disabled because I'm on a hotspot for the time, so I'm limited on data usage.

    I also do not use any Anti-Virus software and have Windows Defender disabled. I'm an IT professional and understand safe Internet practices! :)

    It's not that there's any software using my disk either, because even task manager reports the same numbers as CrystalDiskMark. And there's no indications that there may be a Virus on my system. I may try a fresh install on another drive just to test it.
  • Commodore_1995#
    Commodore_1995# ACE Posts: 98,322 Trailblazer
    did you check if the disk is at 100% in the task manager?

    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          
                                                      
                                                     egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
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  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer
    >>>. It's strange that it happened out of no where after the system was running fine,>>>
    Prolly cuz another errant Win10 update got in there and messed things up while you weren't looking. Check Control Panel for a restore point with a date stamp around the time the HDD went haywire. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • soulvoid86
    soulvoid86 Member Posts: 7 New User
    egydiocoelho said:
    did you check if the disk is at 100% in the task manager?

    Yes, in task manager, the disk shows near 100% usage.

    I tried using Driver Booster, which did find a number of out-of-date system drivers, like Intel Management Engine and Network Cards. No change though. I've attached a screenshot of test of each drive. It turns out these are some of the higher hour drives I have, but they still function just find outside of the system.
  • soulvoid86
    soulvoid86 Member Posts: 7 New User
    Zip didn't post with the initial reply.
  • soulvoid86
    soulvoid86 Member Posts: 7 New User
    JackE said:
    >>>. It's strange that it happened out of no where after the system was running fine,>>>
    Prolly cuz another errant Win10 update got in there and messed things up while you weren't looking. Check Control Panel for a restore point with a date stamp around the time the HDD went haywire. Jack E/NJ
    I do not have system restore enabled, as it's only a 120GB drive and would take up too much space. I'm also not concerned if something breaks, system restore nearly never works anyway. I have a spare SSD I might put a fresh install on and test.
  • Commodore_1995#
    Commodore_1995# ACE Posts: 98,322 Trailblazer
    Is windows installed in ssd or hd? Did you try disabling fast start up in power options?
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          
                                                      
                                                     egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer
    Restore points don't take up much room and are auto deleted every so often. If egydiocoelho's suggestions don't work, you may be faced with a factory reset to rule in or rule out a hardware issue. If you do reset, you should seriously consider enabling system protection. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • soulvoid86
    soulvoid86 Member Posts: 7 New User
    Haven't yet had the time to test this with a fresh install, but I'm starting to just think it's Windows. While trying to fix my corrupted GTA V install, the disk was getting 120mb/s according to task manager. I'm a little less worried now xD

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