Alienware M17xR3 only 3gb/s speed with SSD

2

I have an alienware M17xR3 and a Samsung 830 SSD, I've had it for a while now but today I've installed Samsung Magician, and I've noticed the message that my maximum speed is 3gb/s and 6gb/s is not supported.

My laptop does support the 6gb/s speed, I've read about the issues with the module 0 bay, so I moved it to the module 1 bay, but nothing changed. My bios has the latest firmware, I have AHCI mode on and the SSD has it's latest firmware. How can I make it go at 6gb/s?

DoubleP90

Posted 2014-02-04T13:06:22.007

Reputation: 123

Answers

3

Dell intentionally disabled 6Gb/s support on these laptops (in the A09 BIOS) due to a controller problem that caused data reliability and SSD compatibility issues. If you want to enable 6Gb/s, you need a hacked BIOS, often called "unlocked" or containing a "SATA tweak". I would leave well enough alone -- Dell disable 6Gb/s support for a reason.

David Schwartz

Posted 2014-02-04T13:06:22.007

Reputation: 58 310

Ohh now I remember, I have downgraded to the A08 bios version when I first installed the drive, I was doing now an OS reinstall and I was updating all my firmwares. I was running on the A08 firmware until now, so I think I will downgrade back to it, it was working fine so far. Would you recommend a hacked A12 firmware or the official A08 one? – DoubleP90 – 2014-02-04T13:17:34.050

2@DoubleP90 If it was working fine before and you're willing to tolerate whatever possible risk of data loss there might be, I'd suggest downgrading to A08. – David Schwartz – 2014-02-04T13:19:22.417

Asked: 2014-02-04T13:06:22.007

Viewed: 839 times

Active: 2014-08-24T22:31:47.327