The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    SATA3 running at SATA2 when using HDD caddy

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by Arcticsoldier, Jan 4, 2016.

  1. Arcticsoldier

    Arcticsoldier Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    46
    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Im stumped at the moment.
    I have msata 256gb, samsung EVO 840 256gb and WD black 750gb in the SATA3 slot on the HDD caddy.
    when i remove the cdrom and add a 1tb WD blue (in cdrom area) my SATA3 reverts back to SATA2.
    samsung magician application allows me to perform speed test and im only getting 284/272 out of the SSD. it tells me i can get more performance if i connect it to a SATA3 port. Ive tried swapping ports, changing drivers etc...
    this only occurs when i add the hdd caddy to the CDROM side. do i need to put the hdd in the cdrom location to slave?
    If i remove the the hdd from the cdrom caddy, everyone goes back to normal and SATA3 works again

    bios set to AHCI
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2016
    Arcticsoldier, Jan 4, 2016
    #1
  2. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

    Reputations:
    1,708
    Messages:
    5,820
    Likes Received:
    4,311
    Trophy Points:
    431
    Intel 7 series Chipset in the M18x R2 only supports 2 SATA III ports, and those are ports 0 and 2 on the main HDD array. The middle slot is SATA II, the mSATA slot is SATA II, and the ODD is SATA II as well.
     
    Raidriar, Jan 5, 2016
    #2
    Mr. Fox likes this.
  3. Arcticsoldier

    Arcticsoldier Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    46
    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    The 840EVO is in the SATA3 slot. it runs full speed when i dont have the caddy in the cdrom slot. the moment i add an extra hdd to the cdrom caddy, the 840EVO gives me an error saying it has reverted to SATA2 speed. ive been messing around with IRST drivers and disabling link power management. i've also did the reg hack to make sure all ports have LPM disabled. its just weird that i cant get the get the SATA3 port to run at full speed when i put an extra hdd in the cdrom bay.
    FYI i replaced my mobo today because I messed up the A10 custom bios by playing around with the IGP and this issue is still occuring.
     
    Arcticsoldier, Jan 5, 2016
    #3
  4. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

    Reputations:
    1,708
    Messages:
    5,820
    Likes Received:
    4,311
    Trophy Points:
    431
    You may need to get into the unlocked BIOS chipset options and manually override port settings.
     
    Raidriar, Jan 5, 2016
    #4