[Solved] Spinpoint F3 1TB poor performace

[Inbox]

Hello.

So lately I've been noticing that every time I access my Spoinpoint's F3 disks, they were not performing like they used to (the games that are installed in that drive take a long time to load, sound is delayed and so on), so I decided to run a bench in HD Tune, and here are the results:





As you can see, this is not in any way normal, they used to have an average transfer rate of 110MB/s, and now they only have 56MB/s? What can be causing this? Even my slow WDC is way faster than my Spinpoint F3...

Regards.

Here are my system specs:

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core i7 3930K @ 3.20GHz 39 °C
Sandy Bridge-E 32nm Technology

RAM
16,0GB DDR3 @ 770MHz (11-11-11-28)

Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. RAMPAGE IV FORMULA (LGA2011) 33 °C

Graphics
W2486 (1920x1080@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (NVIDIA) 31 °C
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (NVIDIA) 30 °C
ForceWare version: 335.23
SLI Enabled

Hard Drives
2329GB Western Digital WDC WD25EZRX-00MMMB0 (SATA) 35 °C
238GB OCZ-VERTEX4 (SSD)
932GB SAMSUNG HD103SJ (SATA) 35 °C
932GB SAMSUNG HD103SJ (SATA) 33 °C

Optical Drives
ASUS BW-16D1HT

Audio
USB PnP Sound Device

More Hard Drive Info:

WDC WD25EZRX-00MMMB0
Manufacturer Western Digital
Heads 16
Cylinders 16*383
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number WD-WCAWZ0413684
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 410 times
Power On Time 683,3 days
Features S.M.A.R.T., AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA III
Interface SATA
Capacity 2329 GB
Real size 2*500*495*958*016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
Status Good
Temperature 35 °C
Temperature Range OK (less than 50 °C)
01 Read Error Rate 200 (200) Data 0000000000
03 Spin-Up Time 159 (143) Data 0000002341
04 Start/Stop Count 099 (099) Data 0000000410
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 100 (253) Data 0000000000
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 078 (078) Data 000000400E
0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0B Recalibration Retries 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 000000019A
C0 Power-off Retract Count 200 (200) Data 000000010C
C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 185 (185) Data 000000B534
C2 Temperature 117 (110) Data 0000000023
C4 Reallocation Event Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C8 Write Error Rate / Multi-Zone Error Rate 200 (200) Data 0000000000
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #0
Disk Letter D:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number 50277A12
Size 2329 GB
Used Space 1856 GB (80%)
Free Space 472 GB (20%)


OCZ-VERTEX4
Manufacturer OCZ
Heads 16
Cylinders 16*383
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ACS2
Serial Number OCZ-JUGFP931V1GY7829
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 224 times
Power On Time 630,1 days
Speed Not used (SSD Drive)
Features S.M.A.R.T., NCQ, TRIM, SSD
Transfer Mode SATA III
Interface SATA
Capacity 238 GB
Real size 256*060*514*304 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
Status Good
01 Read Error Rate 006 (000) Data 0000000006
03 Spin-Up Time 100 (100) Data 0000000000
04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
05 Retired Block Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 100 (100) Data 0000003B13
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 00000000E0
E8 Lifetime Writes From Host 100 (100) Data 008683CE4A
E9 Remaining Life 099 (000) Data 0000000063
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #0
Size 350 MB
Partition 1
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #1
Disk Letter C:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number FAD754E2
Size 238 GB
Used Space 198 GB (84%)
Free Space 40 GB (16%)


SAMSUNG HD103SJ
Manufacturer SAMSUNG
Business Unit/Brand Desktop
Business Unit Type Spinpoint F1 DT
Model Capacity For This Specific Drive 1TB
Heads 16
Cylinders 16*383
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number S246JDWSC52082
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 628 times
Power On Time 1403,8 days
Speed 7200 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface SATA
Capacity 932 GB
Real size 1*000*204*886*016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
Status Good
Temperature 35 °C
Temperature Range OK (less than 50 °C)
01 Read Error Rate 100 (100) Data 000000000A
02 Throughput Performance 252 (252) Data 0000000000
03 Spin-Up Time 078 (072) Data 0000001AD4
04 Start/Stop Count 099 (099) Data 00000004EC
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 252 (252) Data 0000000000
08 Seek Time Performance 252 (252) Data 0000000000
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 100 (100) Data 000000839A
0A Spin Retry Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
0B Recalibration Retries 252 (252) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 0000000274
BF G-sense error rate 100 (100) Data 0000000001
C0 Power-off Retract Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C2 Temperature 064 (050) Data 00000F0023
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C4 Reallocation Event Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C8 Write Error Rate / Multi-Zone Error Rate 100 (100) Data 0000000006
DF Load/Unload Retry Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
E1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 000000051D
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #2, Partition #0
Disk Letter E:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number DEE44EC1
Size 931 GB
Used Space 831 GB (90%)
Free Space 100 GB (10%)


SAMSUNG HD103SJ
Manufacturer SAMSUNG
Business Unit/Brand Desktop
Business Unit Type Spinpoint F1 DT
Model Capacity For This Specific Drive 1TB
Heads 16
Cylinders 16*383
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number S246JDWSC27887
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 669 times
Power On Time 1422,3 days
Speed 7200 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface SATA
Capacity 932 GB
Real size 1*000*204*886*016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
Status Good
Temperature 33 °C
Temperature Range OK (less than 50 °C)
01 Read Error Rate 100 (100) Data 0000000001
02 Throughput Performance 252 (252) Data 0000000000
03 Spin-Up Time 078 (072) Data 0000001B19
04 Start/Stop Count 098 (098) Data 00000009E3
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 252 (252) Data 0000000000
08 Seek Time Performance 252 (252) Data 0000000000
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 100 (100) Data 0000008556
0A Spin Retry Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
0B Recalibration Retries 252 (252) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 000000029D
BF G-sense error rate 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C0 Power-off Retract Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C2 Temperature 064 (059) Data 00000D0021
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C4 Reallocation Event Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C8 Write Error Rate / Multi-Zone Error Rate 100 (100) Data 0000000004
DF Load/Unload Retry Count 252 (252) Data 0000000000
E1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 0000000A0E
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #3, Partition #0
Disk Letter F:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number A6D1AE83
Size 932 GB
Used Space 545 GB (59%)
Free Space 386 GB (41%)

 

[Deders]

Just wondering if you have changed your antivirus or the way it behaves recently?

Some will scan the data as it's read off the disk which can slow disk access times down although I would have thought the benchmark should access the disk before windows or the antivirus gets involved.

 

[Inbox]

Just wondering if you have changed your antivirus or the way it behaves recently?

Some will scan the data as it's read off the disk which can slow disk access times down although I would have thought the benchmark should access the disk before windows or the antivirus gets involved.

Hello Deders.



No, I've not changed my antivirus software recently, and I've already tried to disable the antivirus software but the results were the same... And it's unlikely it's the antivirus because I'm with the resource monitor opened just to check what's going on, and the AV does not try to access the hdd while I'm benchmarking.



Regards.

 

[mikeymikec]

The antivirus software might have had an update that causes a performance drain for some reason. If you want to be certain that it isn't having an effect anywhere, I would uninstall it completely during testing.

Otherwise, what's the state of file fragmentation on the drive? How old is it? (not that I expect the performance to drop with age, just wondering what performance I would expect from the drive based on the year it was produced)

 

[bononos]

.....

As you can see, this is not in any way normal, they used to have an average transfer rate of 110MB/s, and now they only have 56MB/s? What can be causing this? Even my slow WDC is way faster than my Spinpoint F3...
......

Hdtune says your F1 mode (active) is udma-5 which doesn't sound right for a sata2 drive.

 

[mikeymikec]

Hdtune says your F1 mode (active) is udma-5 which doesn't sound right for a sata2 drive.

Well spotted. I wonder what the difference is between the 'standard' and 'supported' fields are as well. My guess is that the 'standard' is the highest standard that the disk supports, and the 'supported' is the highest standard that the chipset claims to support?

AHCI / IDE? Is CPU usage higher than it ought to be when the system should be idle (I'm asking this because I've seen recent Intel rigs chew up processor time because of a mismatch of settings in the storage department)?

Are the drives all connected to the same controller? Date of the controller driver?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I must have about three of those Samsung 1TB SATA-II F3 drives.

I didn't buy them for speed, and used at least two in my server drive-pool before I upgraded all the disks to 2TB Seagate units. I figure the Sammys will be great hot-swap backup disks, but I had to use one over a couple-weeks' time as a boot disk after I thoughtlessly made my WD Veloci-Raptor temporarily unbootable, and it performed pretty well.

I'm mystified somewhat by the OP's performance problem. His system is a bit "heavy" with hardware, but that Rampage motherboard should handle it easily.

I also can't understand how the drive appears as "UDMA" on an Intel controller for such a recent motherboard.

 

[Inbox]

Hdtune says your F1 mode (active) is udma-5 which doesn't sound right for a sata2 drive.

But even my SSD is in UDMS-5 mode:



And there hasn't been a performance decrease on the SSD:





AS SSD reports the HDD is connected in AHCI mode:

Well spotted. I wonder what the difference is between the 'standard' and 'supported' fields are as well. My guess is that the 'standard' is the highest standard that the disk supports, and the 'supported' is the highest standard that the chipset claims to support?

AHCI / IDE? Is CPU usage higher than it ought to be when the system should be idle (I'm asking this because I've seen recent Intel rigs chew up processor time because of a mismatch of settings in the storage department)?

Are the drives all connected to the same controller? Date of the controller driver?

No, the OCZ Vertez 4 and the WDC Green are connected to the SATA III port of the mortherboard, and the other two are connected to the SATA II port.

I'm mystified somewhat by the OP's performance problem. His system is a bit "heavy" with hardware, but that Rampage motherboard should handle it easily.

I also can't understand how the drive appears as "UDMA" on an Intel controller for such a recent motherboard.

As I've said before, even my SSD is showing as UDMA 5 and the performance is OK.

Regards.

 

[mikeymikec]

Your board apparently has 4x SATA 6Gbps ports, two are controlled by the ASMedia controller.

Can you verify which ports you're using and so therefore which controller(s) are involved?

What about processor usage when idle, zero?

 

[Inbox]

Your board apparently has 4x SATA 6Gbps ports, two are controlled by the ASMedia controller.

Can you verify which ports you're using and so therefore which controller(s) are involved?

What about processor usage when idle, zero?

Hello, for the Spinpoint I'm using the Sata II ports, as they're more than enough to handle the transfer speeds of the disks.

Regarding the CPU usage when idle, it's close to zero.

Regards.

 

[Coup27]

You haven't commented yet on if the drive is heavily fragmented or not? Have you defragged it recently with a decent defragment program?

I would also advise running SeaTools in DOS mode and doing a full scan on the drive to ensure there aren't any errors or signs of failure.

 

[Inbox]

You haven't commented yet on if the drive is heavily fragmented or not? Have you defragged it recently with a decent defragment program?

I would also advise running SeaTools in DOS mode and doing a full scan on the drive to ensure there aren't any errors or signs of failure.

Hello.

My drive is not fragmented:



I've already performed full system scans with different software and all of them told me the HDD was ok.

Regards.

 

[bononos]

Hello.

My drive is not fragmented:
.....
I've already performed full system scans with different software and all of them told me the HDD was ok.

Regards.

Bad sectors/fragmentation would cause the graph to plunge in bad spots or become fairly spiky. Since the curve is fairly even, I think it has something to do with the settings.
Did anything change in the bios/hardware manager right before the slowdown happened? Better check that the write cache setting is ticked even if its probably set.

 

[BFG10K]

Bad sectors/fragmentation would cause the graph to plunge in bad spots or become fairly spiky.

Fragmentation doesn't affect that HDTune curve since the test doesn't actually read the data.

 

[Deders]

Interesting enough, Argus Monitor reports that my SSD is using UDMA mode 5, even though it's capable of 6, but all my HDD's including a Samsung F3 aren't using the UDMA modes they are capable of.

 

[mikeymikec]

Are both Samsung disks performing about the same? I'm wondering because one drive is 90% full, I could understand a performance drop-off on that one because not all areas of the platter have a uniform read/write speed (as I understand it), but if both drives are performing below par, that theory doesn't really explain the symptoms.

Out of curiosity, can you benchmark the drives with ATTO?
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1749/atto-disk-benchmark-v2-46/

I'm curious about whether the read/write speeds are similarly affected.

 

[Athadeus]

I've already performed full system scans with different software and all of them told me the HDD was ok.

Can you please confirm that you used SeaTools specifically? Nothing can substitute for the manufacturer's diagnostic.

You can find it here under the download tab if not.
http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/spinpoint-f-series/

If that passes flawlessly, then have you replaced the motherboard or updated the BIOS since it used to work better? I like to troubleshoot bottom up.

 

[Inbox]

Are both Samsung disks performing about the same? I'm wondering because one drive is 90% full, I could understand a performance drop-off on that one because not all areas of the platter have a uniform read/write speed (as I understand it), but if both drives are performing below par, that theory doesn't really explain the symptoms.

Out of curiosity, can you benchmark the drives with ATTO?
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1749/atto-disk-benchmark-v2-46/

I'm curious about whether the read/write speeds are similarly affected.

Hello.

Here are the benchmark of both drives with ATTO:

Drive E:



Drive F:



I also tested both drives again with HD Tune 2.55 and drive F: is showing strange results:

Drive E:



Drive F: first benchmark



And printf of task manager while benching the F: drive the first time:



Drive F: second benchmark:



And printf of task manager while benching the F: for the second time:



As you can see, the second drive displays a rather erratic behavior.

Can you please confirm that you used SeaTools specifically? Nothing can substitute for the manufacturer's diagnostic.

You can find it here under the download tab if not.
http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/spinpoint-f-series/

If that passes flawlessly, then have you replaced the motherboard or updated the BIOS since it used to work better? I like to troubleshoot bottom up.

Hi.

I'm going to do that next, but first I'm going to try something else.

Regards.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Your access times are also terrible, but the pattern doesn't look bad.
- If it was AAM it wouldn't affect the sustained transfer rate.
- If you were hitting transfer protocol limit it would be plateaued at that, not show a proper decreasing transfer rate.

You can try resetting BIOS to defaults, switching ports, and reflashing the firmware, but what I'm thinking is the motor/bearing/RPM sensor is going bad and your drive is now running at half speed.

E: ^^ Wait, BOTH of your drives? Dude, wtf. Burst rate 81MB/s on two drives, ~27ms access times, and that transfer rate graph? AND same average for both??
Nuke it from orbit.

I'd do these in order:
-Change to new SATA ports
-Set BIOS to defaults
-Reflash BIOS
-Reinstall Windows

 

[Inbox]

Hello again

So I really don't know what happened, but I tested the same two drives today and here are the results:

http://imageshack.com/a/img538/8824/6kDZA6.png
http://imageshack.com/a/img673/5731/7i6tkL.png

They are strikingly different... I really don't know what happened.
Does anyone have a opinion about what could have happened?

Regards.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Haven't experienced this with my five F3s. Hope they never die - love them

 

[Inbox]

Haven't experienced this with my five F3s. Hope they never die - love them

But look at the new results.

I don't know why, but they are a lot better now.

Regards.

 

[Inbox]

Hello.

Just to say the problem was due to Ashampoo HDD Control 2.

After uninstalling the software, everything seems to be OK and speeds are now normal.

Regards.

 

[nerp]

Hello.

Just to say the problem was due to Ashampoo HDD Control 2.

After uninstalling the software, everything seems to be OK and speeds are now normal.

Regards.

Interesting. Nice work coming back to update the thread.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Thanks for the update.