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Intel X25-M G2 Problems

NovemberWhiskey

NovemberWhiskey

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 18, 2009
3,024
1,272
I have a mid-2009 post wwdc 3.06 ghz, 4gb ram 17'' mbp that I just installed a new X25M G2 SSD in.

I am trying to load windows into bootcamp, but when I start "Bootcamp Assistant" it says: "Boot Camp Assistant cannot be used. You must update your system before using bootcamp setup assistant."

I have updated all my software, and there is nothing left to install but it still won't let me launch it.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Also, my start-up time is 30s (starting when you push the power button). Is this normal? I thought the performance would be a lot better, but it seems only slightly faster than with my 5400 rpm drive. Shutdown time is blazing fast (maybe 2 s or so). My friend said his startup time was 18s, and he has an older MBP with lower specs.

Loading applications is not much faster either. It takes the same time to load a large 100mb word file with audio recording.

Did I get a dud? Or did I do something wrong? After I installed the drive, and loaded the Snow Leopard DVD, it would not recognize the drive until after I "erased" it via disk utility (I selected the Mac ...Journaled...option). I didn't write zeroes or anything, I just chose the fastest method. Was I supposed to reformat the disk before installing SL?
 
Another thing I've noticed is that my battery life has actually dropped after installing the drive. I used to get an estimated 6+ hours, but now it is only 4-5. It drops to 3:20 when I browse the web.

I thought the SSD should improve battery life.
 
NovemberWhiskey said:
it would not recognize the drive until after I "erased" it via disk utility. I didn't write zeroes or anything, I just chose the fastest method. Was I supposed to reformat the disk before installing SL?
Click to expand...

Yes, you must format a new drive to HFS (or NTFS on Windoze) before you can install OS, it come unformatted from the factory.

Don't really know much about your other problems though. I'm not surprised about your boot time, because when my MBP boots, it sits with the grey screen for like 15 seconds doing it's checks and looking for a hard drive, then the Apple logo shows and it starts booting the OS. I'm sure the actual loading of the OS to RAM is improved massively.
 
So the intel x25-m g2 is able to install windows via bootcamp? I was an early adopter of the x25-m g1 and couldnt install windows via bootcamp.
 
I am unable to install it either. Where did you get held up? Was it when you tried to run bootcamp assistant?

For me, it may be the fact that I only got the 80 gb model, and after transferring all my files over, I only have 13 Gb of free space left.

But I don't see why they would say something about updating to new software.

Anyone with the INtel X25 use bootcamp?

I just read about a firmware update, but that seems to only have affected the G1 models.
 
NovemberWhiskey said:
Also, my start-up time is 30s (starting when you push the power button). Is this normal? I thought the performance would be a lot better, but it seems only slightly faster than with my 5400 rpm drive. Shutdown time is blazing fast (maybe 2 s or so). My friend said his startup time was 18s, and he has an older MBP with lower specs.
Click to expand...

Mine was slow when I first installed it...it has sped up over time...not sure why...
 
It really doesn't sound like your Boot Camp problem is related to the SSD.

Are you saying that when you simply try to launch Boot Camp Assistant you get that error message? Or at the actual partitioning step?
 
MBHockey said:
It really doesn't sound like your Boot Camp problem is related to the SSD.

Are you saying that when you simply try to launch Boot Camp Assistant you get that error message? Or at the actual partitioning step?
Click to expand...

I get that error message right when i launch boot camp assistant. It doesn't opent he application, it just pops up the warning window.
 
Does Console have any pertinent error messages for you when Boot Camp tells you this? Googling the boot camp error only turns up this thread.

Edit: Actually, maybe it is related to the way your drive is formatted: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/wi...em-software-before-using-setup-assistant.html

I would reformat the disk via the Snow Leopard installation disc (from disk utility). Just give it one partition has HFS+ with the GUID partition table, then install SL.

This is how I formatted my G2 drive when I got it three days ago, and I get no error upon opening Boot Camp Assistant.
 
I'm guessing that the OP doesnt have enough space left to partition for bootcamp. This even happened to me with a conventional harddrive.
 
jjahshik32 said:
I'm guessing that the OP doesnt have enough space left to partition for bootcamp. This even happened to me with a conventional harddrive.
Click to expand...

Interesting, i like it. Simplest theory yet :)

Is there any documentation from Apple on how much free space one should have? 13 GB sounds like enough to me.

Incidentally, I will be partitioning my 160GB G2 intel drive later today when I get home. I plan on installing Windows 7 later this week to a 10 GB partition. I hope that's enough space.
 
I recall reading (possibly at anandtech.com) that the intels (and most SSDs) tend to slow down significantly as they fill up.
 
bware189 said:
I recall reading (possibly at anandtech.com) that the intels (and most SSDs) tend to slow down significantly as they fill up.
Click to expand...

And I read at the same site that I believe when you start to load a lot of stuff up on it, the drive will slow, then level out. I don't get the dynamics of it, but I did read that at I believe anandtech myself.
 
bware189 said:
I recall reading (possibly at anandtech.com) that the intels (and most SSDs) tend to slow down significantly as they fill up.
Click to expand...

All SSDs do this. The TRIM command can help speeds after SSDs reach this 'filled' state. Unfortunately, OSX has not supported it yet.

Simply stated, the slowdown happens when all of the space is taken on the SSD (including previously deleted files). After this point, the SSD is forced to rewrite (delete, then write, instead of just write) files onto the memory. It's more complicated than that, but you can read up about it at anandtech.
 
I recall reading (possibly at anandtech.com) that the intels (and most SSDs) tend to slow down significantly as they fill up.
Click to expand...
I also read that article, but I don't think it's a significant slow down though - iirc it was roughly 30% slower write speed (about 55MB/s instead of 70MB/s) and 10% slower read speed (about 225-235MB/s instead of 250MB/s).

I've got only 40GB left on my 160GB and it's lightning fast.
I boot to login screen in about 8-12 seconds approx, after I type my password and click login, my desktop appears within half a second and is fully usable after about 1 second approx.

I formatted mine to the Mac Partition and did a complete clean install on it, and manually added my data back later.
I've tested opening almost all of my applications at once, and it works pretty well, probably 30 or 40 in total, CS4 Suite, Final Cut Studio, almost all my Mac applications etc.. took about 8 seconds in total to open everything, they popped up like cards :)

Viewing 1920x1200 pictures in Coverflow they like load almost instantly too.

I'm on a Mac Pro, but that's probably how your SSD should be going, try some tests.
Did you do a clean install, or did you install from time machine / migrate from your HD?

Kind Regards
 
vant said:
All SSDs do this. The TRIM command can help speeds after SSDs reach this 'filled' state. Unfortunately, OSX has not supported it yet.

Simply stated, the slowdown happens when all of the space is taken on the SSD (including previously deleted files). After this point, the SSD is forced to rewrite (delete, then write, instead of just write) files onto the memory. It's more complicated than that, but you can read up about it at anandtech.
Click to expand...

The TRIM command isn't the only thing that helps keep the SSDs running fast. Newer drives like the Intels and OCZ drives with newest firmware have garbage collection features for that. Intel should release a firmware with TRIM support when Windows 7 ships.
 
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