Quick Crucial M4 Firmware Ques

[polbit]

Sleeping Mode

Default is 3, which writes RAM to disk on sleep in the event of power failure. To avoid writing to disk, you need to set it to mode 0, which is plain RAM suspend:

$ sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

After that you can delete the old RAM save file:

$ sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

To check what mode you are in:

$ sudo pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

Sudden Motion Sensor

I turn this off, but not really sure if it matters:

$ sudo pmset -a sms 0

HD sleep
You should also disable the "Put HD to sleep whenever possible" under System Preferences -> Energy Saver, for both Battery and Power Adapter.


TRIM Enabler
I've been back and forth on enabling TRIM. On the C300 in caused problems when enabled with freezing. On M4 I see no issues, so I left it on.

 

[Macjames]

I'd back up all of your stuff, and do a complete clean install. So don't use time machine or anything to copy settings back. If your still having trouble with beach balls you could have a dud SSD and contact crucial for a replacement. A clean install will be definitive proof that either the SSD or SATA cable is faulty. So re-install snow leopard and don't put anything back on and just browse safari for a bit and see if any beach balls returns.

Don't forget to back up or make a copy of your data!

 

[AppleGoat]

I'd back up all of your stuff, and do a complete clean install. So don't use time machine or anything to copy settings back. If your still having trouble with beach balls you could have a dud SSD and contact crucial for a replacement. A clean install will be definitive proof that either the SSD or SATA cable is faulty. So re-install snow leopard and don't put anything back on and just browse safari for a bit and see if any beach balls returns.

Don't forget to back up or make a copy of your data!

Do you suggest I go down that route even though I haven't had beach balls in a few hours? Or wait for another lockup to reinstall the OS?

Thank you again, polbit.

 

[Macjames]

I'd wait.

 

[AppleGoat]

I'd wait.

Well it had a minor beach balling bout 15 minutes ago while in system preferences, but since then it's been fine.

 

[AppleGoat]

I did a fresh install as advised and thus far the system is unusable. It's slow as hell and constantly freezes. I have a lot of work to do today and I really NEED my computer -- my boss is gonna be really angry when he gets in and I haven't made any progress. Does it sound like I should give up on the M4 and move onto a Samsung 470?

 

[fat jez]

are you using a 17" MBP?

 

[AppleGoat]

are you using a 17" MBP?

No, 13-inch 2011, got it in early March. Before I did the fresh install the drive was performing better, it had a run of several beach ball-less hours. Yet after that it was still locking up intermittently before I did the reinstall, despite being usable for the most part. If I gave the M4 drive time, is it likely to just kick the freezing issue eventually? I tempted to order a 470 right now.

 

[fat jez]

Not sure, I haven't had any issues with mine. I updated it to the 002 firmware and enabled TRIM via the hack and it has been fine.

 

[AppleGoat]

Not sure, I haven't had any issues with mine. I updated it to the 002 firmware and enabled TRIM via the hack and it has been fine.

When did you get yours?

 

[fat jez]

umm, about a month ago, I think. It came with the 001 firmware.

 

[AppleGoat]

umm, about a month ago, I think. It came with the 001 firmware.

Sorry, I meant your MBP

 

[AppleGoat]

Is it normal for a 1.88 GB set of files to take 4 minutes to be written from the server to disk?

 

[fat jez]

Sorry, I meant your MBP

Oh, LOL. Back in early June, but because it's the top spec MBP, they don't sell many in the store I bought it from, so it has a manufacture date in March, from memory.

 

[AppleGoat]

Oh, LOL. Back in early June, but because it's the top spec MBP, they don't sell many in the store I bought it from, so it has a manufacture date in March, from memory.

Oh, well I'd imagine my Macbook was manufactured prior to the release in February. I just copied the said 1.88 GB group of files from one folder on my computer to another and it took about 16-17 seconds I guess. Wondering if I hadn't counted that well, I redid the test and it temporarily froze so I stopped it. I once again did the test and it performed the task in 17 seconds as it did the first time.

I read online that the Samsung 470 copied 1 GB of music files from one folder to another in 9 seconds, so I suppose the write times are similar on each drive. The read times are where the M4 distinguishes itself from the mass of SATA II drives.

 

[fat jez]

you're not the first person I've come across who have had problems with an M4 (actually, you're only the second). It could be there's a problem batch of drives, it could also be that the firmware flash went a bit wrong. Crucial do have support forums, it might be worth posting in those?

http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/bd-p/ssd

 

[AppleGoat]

Thanks...I have posted there. My computer has been pretty good for most of the day and I've been productive in Illustrator, inDesign, Photoshop, etc. for hours without any 30 second holdups (well, one happened when I downloaded Firefox). This sounds like a defective drive problem to you?

I'm giving the drive the weekend...if I'm still getting random, intermittent holdups on Sunday -- even if they are separated by hours -- I will swap out the drive for a Samsung 470.

 

[fat jez]

Thanks...I have posted there. My computer has been pretty good for most of the day and I've been productive in Illustrator, inDesign, Photoshop, etc. for hours without any 30 second holdups (well, one happened when I downloaded Firefox). This sounds like a defective drive problem to you?

I honestly don't know. The behaviour you have been describing is downright weird compared to my own experiences. The OS shouldn't just freeze, especially not with a drive technology known for its low seek times and high throughput.

 

[AppleGoat]

1 GB stress test --- do the write speeds seem subpar to you? I couldn't break 200. If you haven't already, download the free Disk Speed Test app from the app store.

 

[fat jez]

I get about 240MB/sec write speeds.

 

[AppleGoat]

I get about 240MB/sec write speeds.

Well that is to be expected, you have a larger drive.

 

[fat jez]

Well that is to be expected, you have a larger drive.

How big was the drive you installed? Only the 64GB drives should have lower write speeds, from all the reviews I've read.

 

[AppleGoat]

How big was the drive you installed? Only the 64GB drives should have lower write speeds, from all the reviews I've read.

128GB. According to Newegg's website, the theoretical write speed for my drive is 175 MB/s, while yours is 260 MB/s, which jibes with the benchmarks we are getting. I never thought write speed varied with storage space but I discovered that it in fact did a few days ago.

 

[fat jez]

Yeah, it seems the 256 and 512 models are on a par (260MB/sec), the 128 clocks in at around 175MB/sec and the 64GB at 100MB/sec.

It's kind of like a striped RAID array in that the more disk you use, the faster the overall throughput. In the case of an SSD, it's the number of NAND chips. Seems like they just vary the number to get the capacity (i.e. they use the same NAND chips across the whole range), so the more they use, the faster the speeds. Not sure what the difference between the 256 and 512 models is then, as they benchmark about the same