G74SX running in SATA II mode

[bwd]

I understand the G74SX is supposed to have SATA III mode, but when I run either Intel RST or HD Tune, they report both my HDD and my SSD runing in SATA II mode. My HHD is the WDC 750GB that came with the laptop and the SSD is a Crucial m4 128GB. Benchmarks also comfirm a slower SATA II speed.

I don't know about the HDD, but the SSD clearly states on the box that it runs in SATA III mode.

I installed the latest chipset drivers and BIOS so I have no idea what could be causing this.

Any ideas?

TIA

[Zygomorphic]

Which SATA channels are you running on? On the SandyBridge chipset, only SATA channels 0 and 1 are SATA III capable, the other four are SATA II. The hard disk will run at SATA II speeds...it cannot saturate that bandwidth anyway...except for the new Seagate Momentus Hybrid 750 GB. The SSD, well those sometimes have compatibility issues. Try making sure that you are running the latest firmware, as well as updating all drivers. That is the only advice I can give, besides contacting Crucial and asking for an exchange. If the drive cannot reliably communicate in SATA III mode, then it will switch to SATA II for compatibility.

[bwd]

The HDD is on channel 0 and the SSD on channel 1.

I understand the HDD probably can't keep up to SATA III speeds, but it still be in that mode, shouldn't it?

Also, I upgraded to the latest driver for the SSD, and the latest BIOS and drivers for the G74SX.

I also turned on AHCI and UEFI in the BIOS, and reinstalled the chipset drivers with the -overall switch on.

Is it at all possible that there may be a Windows 7 service that needs to be running in order for SATA III to work?

I adjusted them according to BlackViper's page, then went back in to check but don't see anything related to hard drives that is disabled.

Still pulling my hair out trying to figure out this problem.

[Zygomorphic]

HDD is probably not capable of SATA III connections due to interface hardware in the drive. Try disabling UEFI and see if that helps. I do not know what that will do.

[bwd]

Well, I figured it out. Was thinking what a cheap looking POS that ribbon cable was that came with the laptop for the 2nd drive bay. So, I opened it back up, switched the drives, with the SSD on channel 0 and now it works!!

The HDD still gets SATA II, but I didn't really expect any more from that.

The SSD now gets SATA III and I benchmarked it and it's flying now!

Gets to Windows 7 desktop in 12 seconds and Firefox loads fast as lightning, even with 52 tabs open. 🙂

Thanks for all your help, really appreciate it!

[Camo_w]

Hey,
i have just put a vertex 4 ssd in, and a seagate hybrid on the extend cable.

on the formatting and installing of the ssd it works, and the computer was flying, but now i have installed the second drive, the computer hangs on startup, no idea why. . .

i also have a problem where the graphics on start up look as though the nvidia driver have not kicked in, if i try to log in when this has happened, the computer will sit in limbo.

after a few restarts the graphics go to a high reolution, and then the computer will start. . .

its killing me. . .any thoughts?

[PILGRIM]

Camo_w wrote:
Hey,
i have just put a vertex 4 ssd in, and a seagate hybrid on the extend cable.

on the formatting and installing of the ssd it works, and the computer was flying, but now i have installed the second drive, the computer hangs on startup, no idea why. . .

i also have a problem where the graphics on start up look as though the nvidia driver have not kicked in, if i try to log in when this has happened, the computer will sit in limbo.

after a few restarts the graphics go to a high reolution, and then the computer will start. . .

its killing me. . .any thoughts?

Hi there. Was your previous Windows OS installed on the Seagate Hybrid? If it was, remove it.
Also, try re-seating the cable connecting the Seagate Hybrid to the laptop.

[Zygomorphic]

Always glad to help--especially when it is helpful! 🙂

@Camo_w, try booting into Safe Mode (hold down F9 right after BIOS...select start Safe Mode). Completely remove the nVidia driver, reboot into Safe Mode again, then install the most recent one from www.nvidia.com. Should be 301.XX (304.XX is beta). Install the nvidia driver in safe mode, and reboot normally. See if that helps.

The second drive hanging I cannot tell you. It might be the nvidia driver as well. Good luck!

[PILGRIM]

Zygomorphic wrote:
...@Camo_w, try booting into Safe Mode (hold down F9 right after BIOS...select start Safe Mode)...

:)You've made a typo in there, Zygomorphic. It should be F8.
You wouldn't want Camo_w to be doing an ASUS factory restore..