Why Don't I get the accurate SSD speed in my Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51G-59UX)?

aphanic · July 2020

No problem

The tests are a bit different than those of CrystalDiskMark 7, they're more like CDM 6 (at least judging by how they're performed). Note the values, or since we have the screenshot here there's no need for that and go back to Windows (switch to RST, enable Secure Boot). Then download and run CrystalDiskMark 6 and let's compare those values to those we got in Linux.

Here you should be able to download CDM6: https://osdn.net/projects/crystaldiskmark/downloads/68624/CrystalDiskMark6_0_2.zip/

Sobuj · July 2020

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/3a/4m1talf3uv0s.png

This is the result I got now.

aphanic · July 2020

Aha, those are comparable, those are the same tests only measured in different platforms. What are your thoughts? I think they're more or less the same, with Linux being on the winning side in sequential reads for example.

It could be a matter of drivers for Windows then, maybe wait until the next Intel release for Windows for now, but the hardware side seems to be working similarly on both OSes.

Sobuj · July 2020

I am thinking about the ssd. I should check the ssd with another laptop or Desktop. But around me there is no one who has the NVMe ssd slot. So I can't check that either. So, I will go with the hardware problem or driver problem.

Sobuj · July 2020

Though the test results are not that bad. But when I know that, the ssd can go higher than that, It is very disappointing for me. I was hoping for the best. Can you tell me where can I find the latest driver for my laptop? I can't find anything latest on the acer driver website.

aphanic · July 2020

Sobuj said:

I am thinking about the ssd. I should check the ssd with another laptop or Desktop. But around me there is no one who has the NVMe ssd slot. So I can't check that either. So, I will go with the hardware problem or driver problem.

Is there any computer repair store nearby?

Maybe you could go there and explain the situation, that you have an NVMe drive and you'd like to know the results of CDM in a PC that has a 4-lane M.2 slot for it because you're getting mixed feelings about the ones you see in your laptop.

If it were me I'd say "Sure, no problem, bring it here" and I'll check it out for you. They're bound to have several machines capable of performing the test.

Sobuj · July 2020

Ok. I will go to a shop and find out what happened. But it is a festival season here(EID), I have to wait for couple of days. I will comment in this thread after getting the result from the repair shop.

Sobuj · July 2020

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/nr/4yaokz3jpcfa.png

In the meantime, can you help me with another problem? The selected drive opening time is bigger than any other drive. In that drive I have different kinds of software. But it takes like 15-30 seconds to open.

aphanic · July 2020

I wonder how that disk is faring and all, maybe it is damaged. I'm attaching a piece of software to this comment, a build of GSmartControl with an updated database.

Open it (gsmartcontrol.exe) and access all of the disks you have connected now that we're at it. There's probably no support for NVMe drives, and for the rest it depends on the enclosure they're in, but most are able to show SMART data.

Post info like this:

The error log just in case there is something, this one blank doesn't do us any good haha:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/s9/l4q16sw806gm.png

There's another program that may display such information more visually appealing, it's called Hard Disk Sentinel, you can install a trial version to get some input on the disks.

Sobuj · July 2020

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/sx/akbjy0y0n75d.png

There is no error shown neither😁😂

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/95/rez8k0ydmg56.png

I don't know all the terms, but I am seeing that your HDD and mine are quite similar.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/8u/ana5ats3gd36.png

There is two red line over here. I am thinking that this is the problem and causing my specific drive works slowly.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/c0/zf1lnj8d8wci.png

Another red line.

aphanic · July 2020

Aaaand that's what I expected, there are damaged sectors in that disk and that's what makes it slow.

I'll try to simplify things a bit in the explanation. That disk advertises itself as a 2 TB disk, and it is divided in sectors, there is however more space than what is advertised, there are "some" spare sectors. I used quotes because the number is unknown but known not to be many.

When a sector is damaged, the disk internally maps that sector to one of the spare ones. So for the user it is as if nothing has happened. There are many, many causes for damaged sectors, from bumps to the disk when it is spinning to some defect inside of it.

Those spare sectors are not next to the ones that are damaged, they may be on the other end of the disk so to speak, so the heads (the things that read the data off of the platters) have to travel to that other area to get the content of that sector. That's the slow down, that travelling translates in degraded performance same as fragmentation, when data is not consecutive there is a penalty for hard drives (the same is not true for SSDs because access times are the same for all of the "sectors").

In your case there are quite a lot of damaged sectors, some reported unrecoverable errors which could be due to a fault connection (like a faulty cable), who knows. I'm interested to know what Hard Disk Sentinel suggests of your disk.

Let me show you an example of one that is also damaged and what it says:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/o6/hre5j99024py.png

The message about backing up immediately may sound ominous... but it is what it is. That is a disk which you can still use, but knowing that no valuable data should be put there, period. It's been powered on a cumulative of 192 days too, so it's not like it's a new disk. That estimated remaining lifetime may be just an estimation though, but it gives you an idea.

Run HDS, see what's up and think about getting another disk to replace that one maybe (just maybe).

Sobuj · July 2020

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/10/466tqm08jdkx.png

So, I have to buy a new HDD or SSD to get rid of this problem? And there is nothing I can do for this drive? Can I format the drive again or don't use the drive something like this.

aphanic · July 2020

Sobuj said:
So, I have to buy a new HDD or SSD to get rid of this problem? And there is nothing I can do for this drive? Can I format the drive again or don't use the drive something like this.

There is, but I think it is a paid function in Hard Disk Sentinel, there are a couple of ways it does it but basically it goes through all of the sectors one by one evaluating them. The ones that are already remapped you won't be able to recover, they're allocated somewhere else and that's it; but it tries to locate weak sectors and damage sectors forcing the disk to relocate them.

The problem is that once you have that many sectors that are damaged more could appear, the disk becomes unreliable, data on it can become corrupted for example. That's why it recommends you monitor the disk, and to back up its contents; just in case.

The one I showed you that is also damaged I have it in an external enclosure and I use it for testing and nothing more, no archival of data or anything precious goes in there for me. Just because I have other disks for that, if I were to have only that one I guess I'd risk it, but I'd try to replace it at one point, the sooner the better (depending on the value I have for the data).

For example, if I had my wedding recording in there there's no chance in hell I'll keep it there, but if I have a movie I downloaded off the Internet (to name something that has barely any value) sure, why not.

The important thing is that you're now aware of the state of your drive, what you decide to do with it is your thing. You can keep HDS installed and monitor it from time to time.

Just in case the testing operation I talked about was free in Hard Disk Sentinel it is in the Disk menu, under the Surface Test and it's either the reinitialization of the disk (destructive operation) or some repair I think (generally non-destructive).

Sobuj · July 2020

Thanks for the information. I think it is better to change the hard disk. I have some important file in this. I will try to get rid of this hard disk as soon as possible. You haven't answer my another question. I think it passed away within our so much discussion hahahahah....

Where can I find my laptop updated drivers.?? The acer driver website don't update the latest drivers. The graphics card driver update automatically from nvidia. but I don' t know how to update the audio driver.

aphanic · July 2020

Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't even notice haha

Updated drivers... that's a tricky question, there are several programs to do it (Driver Easy, Driver Identifier, Snappy Drivers, etc.), or you can do it manually. As you can guess the manual way requires more time and sometimes doesn't even yield results. The automated ways aren't always accurate either, because driver vendors differ from how they do things.

It's all on the knowledge, for example, Intel SST (Smart Sound Technology). Some audio cards go through that and there are several driver versions for it, 10.23.X.Y, 10.24.X.Y, 10.25.X.Y... the thing is that you can find newer 10.23 than 10.25 by the date of the drive signage. Does that mean it is better because it is newer? I'm afraid not, those second numbers are tied to the generation of the processor, and not even by order, I think Ice Lake is 24 while Comet Lake is 25.

Will a .23 work on a Comet Lake system? Absolutely, that's what is being shipped for the A515-54G, probably because it initially launched with Whiskey Lake processors. But who's to say it's the right one? Only Intel knows for sure. And the big problem is that some manufacturers *ahem*Acer for example*ahem* doesn't bother to test newer and provide newer drivers for older systems. So you're stuck.

You can be lucky and see newer drivers in the support pages for newer models, but it's a chore. And that Intel SST was just an example, Qualcomm does the same with Atheros WiFi cards if I'm not mistaken (or was it Realtek with their NICs...?). It's nuts.

Now that Intel allows overriding the graphic ones the OEM provides (as long as the ones it provided you with were DCH drivers and you have a 6th gen+ processor) that department got sorted. NVIDIA too luckily.

As for audio, not a chance in hell, and Realtek not only that but their releases depend on the DSP your laptop has too... bah. It's like their last 4 digits, for Windows 10 2004 it is recommended that you use an audio driver in the 8900s if you're using Realtek, but where to find them? Access to their FTP server is restricted.

What I do for that is going manual, I look at the Hardware IDs and try to find a compatible driver, but it becomes a trial and error process rather quickly so I tend to only look for drivers when I am to install a machine and I leave most of them for Windows Update to figure out. The hardware IDs can be seen in the device manager:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/1n/u9kxks7rf9dq.png

Search for those or the other property, the compatible ones and good luck, or rely on Windows or a 3rd party program to do the job. I like that Driver Easy allows you to update drivers even in their free version (although download is capped at 50kbps being free), but there are plenty of alternatives. Snappy Drivers or Driver Pack Solution can usually find you the latest ones, even if they sometimes fail and you have to revert to your older ones or try a different release.

Commodore_1995# · July 2020

The problem is not with the ssd. The motherboard of the model a515-51 has only 2 lines. that's what the service guide says:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/cu/1f9wtxcspttk.jpg

Sobuj · August 2020

egydiocoelho said:

The problem is not with the ssd. The motherboard of the model a515-51 has only 2 lines. that's what the service guide says:

Can you give me the service guide or the link from where to download.?

Sobuj · August 2020

aphanic said:

Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't even notice haha

Updated drivers... that's a tricky question, there are several programs to do it (Driver Easy, Driver Identifier, Snappy Drivers, etc.), or you can do it manually. As you can guess the manual way requires more time and sometimes doesn't even yield results. The automated ways aren't always accurate either, because driver vendors differ from how they do things.

It's all on the knowledge, for example, Intel SST (Smart Sound Technology). Some audio cards go through that and there are several driver versions for it, 10.23.X.Y, 10.24.X.Y, 10.25.X.Y... the thing is that you can find newer 10.23 than 10.25 by the date of the drive signage. Does that mean it is better because it is newer? I'm afraid not, those second numbers are tied to the generation of the processor, and not even by order, I think Ice Lake is 24 while Comet Lake is 25.

Will a .23 work on a Comet Lake system? Absolutely, that's what is being shipped for the A515-54G, probably because it initially launched with Whiskey Lake processors. But who's to say it's the right one? Only Intel knows for sure. And the big problem is that some manufacturers *ahem*Acer for example*ahem* doesn't bother to test newer and provide newer drivers for older systems. So you're stuck.

You can be lucky and see newer drivers in the support pages for newer models, but it's a chore. And that Intel SST was just an example, Qualcomm does the same with Atheros WiFi cards if I'm not mistaken (or was it Realtek with their NICs...?). It's nuts.

Now that Intel allows overriding the graphic ones the OEM provides (as long as the ones it provided you with were DCH drivers and you have a 6th gen+ processor) that department got sorted. NVIDIA too luckily.

As for audio, not a chance in hell, and Realtek not only that but their releases depend on the DSP your laptop has too... bah. It's like their last 4 digits, for Windows 10 2004 it is recommended that you use an audio driver in the 8900s if you're using Realtek, but where to find them? Access to their FTP server is restricted.

What I do for that is going manual, I look at the Hardware IDs and try to find a compatible driver, but it becomes a trial and error process rather quickly so I tend to only look for drivers when I am to install a machine and I leave most of them for Windows Update to figure out. The hardware IDs can be seen in the device manager:

Search for those or the other property, the compatible ones and good luck, or rely on Windows or a 3rd party program to do the job. I like that Driver Easy allows you to update drivers even in their free version (although download is capped at 50kbps being free), but there are plenty of alternatives. Snappy Drivers or Driver Pack Solution can usually find you the latest ones, even if they sometimes fail and you have to revert to your older ones or try a different release.

Then I think it'll be good for windows to update the driver. If I go to update the driver only God knows what will be happen hahahah.....
But thank you for the information.

aphanic · August 2020

egydiocoelho said:

The problem is not with the ssd. The motherboard of the model a515-51 has only 2 lines. that's what the service guide says:

Yes sir! That would explain it!

But I wonder... wouldn't that refer to those disks in question? I mean, the fio tests under Linux did show more than 2 lanes were being used, it breached the 2000 MB/s barrier in the sequential read speed (roughtly, 1 lane = 1000 MB/s).

Thank you for the info @egydiocoelho!

As for the service guides, their access is restricted I'm afraid @Sobuj.