Z170 Extreme4, m.2, etc. troubles

It's starting to sound like at least one UEFI version for the Z170 Extreme4 may have problems. I say may only because I don't have this board and can't confirm that myself. With two users saying the same thing when using 950 Pros, that worries me.

Quick tip about the Samsung Magician software, which I'm glad was mentioned by Christer703. You can see my 950 Pro runs at its normal speed in my AS SSD results. The Magician software lists my 950 Pro as running at 10Gbps, which seems to be reporting the speed of ONE of the four DMI3/PCIe 3.0 lanes, given a correct connection. This is what the Intel IRST Windows software reports for one 950 Pro:



Notice on the left side, the "PCIe Link Speed" of 4000MB/s. If you are using RAID mode, you can install this software and see what it reports your speed as. If you can do that, it might help prove your case about the UEFI issues.

I've used IRST version 14.5 myself, and it did not change the speed of my M.2 connection. You can try the latest version, but I can't tell you it will fix your problem. This is it, but scroll down to the SetupRST.zip file, which is the one you want.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25165/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver

It is interesting that Christer703 said the Magician software listed his 950 as running at 2.5GBps. Plus the change in speed waking from Sleep. That is good evidence that for some reason the bandwidth of the DMI3 lanes in the Z170 chipset is changing to a lower speed. It should stay at full speed all the time as far as I know.

Questions for those with this situation: Do you have any SATA drives connected to the Intel SATA ports? NOT that should make a difference, but just curious if that might be causing some strange interaction. That would include an Optical drive connected via SATA.

If you do, what SATA speed(s) are the drives you have rated for?

The Chinese Lunar New Year holiday started this week, so everyone in Taiwan is not working, including ASRock. So don't expect a quick reply from ASRock support for a while, sorry to say.


Edited by parsec - 12 Feb 2016 at 1:41pm

parsec wrote: Questions for those with this situation: Do you have any SATA drives connected to the Intel SATA ports? NOT that should make a difference, but just curious if that might be causing some strange interaction. That would include an Optical drive connected via SATA. If you do, what SATA speed(s) are the drives you have rated for?

port: (M2_1), boot disk

ports: (SATA3_2 & SATA3_3), SATA transfer rate 6 Gb/s

Edited by Mushu - 14 Feb 2016 at 9:48pm

Christer703 wrote: There is one other very strange thing about this. if i put the pc in sleep mode and wake it up right away i actually get full speeds. but when i restart the system or turn it off and on again i get the same slow speeds. samsung macigian still says im running in only 2.5Gbps after wakeup from sleep tho. This problem i can reproduce over and over again.

parsec wrote: It's starting to sound like at least one UEFI version for the Z170 Extreme4 may have problems. I say may only because I don't have this board and can't confirm that myself. With two users saying the same thing when using 950 Pros, that worries me. Quick tip about the Samsung Magician software, which I'm glad was mentioned by Christer703. You can see my 950 Pro runs at its normal speed in my AS SSD results. The Magician software lists my 950 Pro as running at 10Gbps, which seems to be reporting the speed of ONE of the four DMI3/PCIe 3.0 lanes, given a correct connection. This is what the Intel IRST Windows software reports for one 950 Pro: Notice on the left side, the "PCIe Link Speed" of 4000MB/s. If you are using RAID mode, you can install this software and see what it reports your speed as. If you can do that, it might help prove your case about the UEFI issues. I've used IRST version 14.5 myself, and it did not change the speed of my M.2 connection. You can try the latest version, but I can't tell you it will fix your problem. This is it, but scroll down to the SetupRST.zip file, which is the one you want. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25165/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver It is interesting that Christer703 said the Magician software listed his 950 as running at 2.5GBps. Plus the change in speed waking from Sleep. That is good evidence that for some reason the bandwidth of the DMI3 lanes in the Z170 chipset is changing to a lower speed. It should stay at full speed all the time as far as I know. Questions for those with this situation: Do you have any SATA drives connected to the Intel SATA ports? NOT that should make a difference, but just curious if that might be causing some strange interaction. That would include an Optical drive connected via SATA. If you do, what SATA speed(s) are the drives you have rated for? The Chinese Lunar New Year holiday started this week, so everyone in Taiwan is not working, including ASRock. So don't expect a quick reply from ASRock support for a while, sorry to say.

Hi Parsec,