WDS256G1X0C-00ENX0 Win 10 Pro Problems with TRIM and SPEED issues!

I just finished building my new rig and made sure I bought a M2 SSD that supported TRIM so I bought myself a WD Black PCIe 256GB because I love how well it keeps them running and according to Error it should work just fine but in my WD Dashboard v2.2.0.1 TRIM is greyed out and there is no way to turn it on. So it doesn’t seem to be an option…
I’m running the latest firmware I could find B35500WD.
Checking CrystalDiskMark TRIM also seems to be missing in the list.
I did the normal optimize drive through the disk defrag in win 10 and checked cmd for “fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify” and set it was set to 0 so that would mean its on, yet nothing seems to register that it is.
It said it was not on or off for NeFS (or something like that) so I changed that to 0 as well just to be sure.

Using the Trim Checker tool it says its most likely working but I just don’t feel 100% certain about it.

My motherboard supports the card.
Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon Firmware BIOS v1.50 (7A63v15 which is the latest as far as the live updater and site say) and it’s connected to M2_1 for, those that happen to know the board, so its connected just fine.

Anyone any idea what could cause this? Mostly why I can’t seem to enable TRIM or make any program show up that it is enabled while it seems to be…?

Hello,

I think it is because you are using NVMe devices and TRIM is different, but if you are using Windows driver TRIM should be on automatically and you don’t need to worry about turning it on

But when I check CrystalDiskInfo (for example) it does show the drive just fine and it shows all supported parameters but only parameter supported by the WD Black PCIe 256GB seems to be S.M.A.R.T., no others are avaialble.

On my friends NVMe M2 Device (in a different computer with the same WD Black NVMe but the 512GB version) it DOES show the TRIM command, motherboard is exactly the same, just a different sized M2 SSD but the same brand and model.

Optimizing in Windows went fine. It detected it as an SSD (I see optimization but no defrag status so it does pick up an SSD)

When checking the WD Dashboard it also says
NVMe Revision: N/A
NVMe Link Speed: N/A

It also says under tools → advanced

Write Zeros command supported: No
Cryptographic erase per namespace base supported: Yes
Cryptographic erase support: No

Which, on the other device, have NVMe details and the advanced settings all have a value of Yes.

So maybe there is something wrong with the Win 10 driver or something, I don’t know but it doesn’t look correct, the TRIM feature should show up in the dashboard and even if it doesn’t it should show up in something like Crystal Disk Info.

I just want to be sure it zero’s out my garbage on a paging base (what TRIM was invented for) so I won’t see any performance decrease and in the long run with heavy gaming and nearly 24/7 run time. Also I don’t want sensitive work data to be exposed for long, that should just get zero-ed out after a bit.
Since the knowledge base says both 256GB and 512GB versions support the command I really do want to be sure it’s running for that reason.

If needed I can copy and paste my entire specifications from my Dashboard along with driver info or anything else needed…

Thank you for responding, are you using Windows 10 native driver or iRST driver ?

Standard NVM Express Controller 10.0.15063.0
So Windows 10 Native Driver I’d say, which is dated from 2006 so nice and recent…

I tried looking for another driver since most manufacturers have their own NVMe drivers (Samsung, Kingston et cetera) for their NVMe SSD’s because windows drivers preform poorly but since WD doesn’t have any yet I couldn’t find any others that looked like they could work.

yes, WD does not provide specific driver for this product, if you are running Windows native driver, TRIM is automatic on. no need to worry.

I think the difference you see in CDM is because of configuration

Well that’s good to know, I hope an NVMe driver for WD NVMe products will be available in the future. iRST or a different driver going to be a performance boost? Because the WD Black is pretty fast… but not by much compared to SATA SSD’s.
I think top read speeds are around 700Mb/s, nothing spectacular, certainly not around 2Gb/s.

What kind of configuration might that be? Because the windows install was new, so is the card, first thing I did was install the Dashboard and that was kind of it.

Have the same problem. In Windows however you can use the trimfunction via defragmentation of Win10. It will read “optimaliation” and you will see trim working when selected. Other (non SSd drives) will have only defragmentation as option.
What is anoying though is that other programs also don’t see the drive as SSD and they DO want to defrag (e.g.: Advanced Sytem Care 10.5 for instance) which is not what we want of course.

Well mine does show up as an SSD, I checked in a few benchmark utilities and things like ccleaner and defraggler.
I tried some powershell trim options and fstrim seems to work fine same goes for trimchecker.

What does strike me ass odd is the horrible disk read speed I get from this drive, it’s more along the line of a normal SSD then a NVMe model

This is just… it’s horrible… I don’t have any other words for it.
This isn’t a heavy test and compared to other drives throwing randoms at it makes it read like a SATA SSD at best and even in full sequence it preforms at nearly HALF the rated speed of WD.
(please note that I did not let te program write, I was so shocked that I tested it multiple times and i’m not going to wear my drive for no reason so I screenshotted a read only result, one of the better ones).
This could be a driver issue or I could be in luck and got a slow drive but this is no where near what I expected before running it.

Can you take a look at these result @Chushi_Cai since you’re WD staff.

PC setup
Win 10 Professional
Processor: I7-7700k @ 4Ghz
RAM: 32GB DDR4 @ 2400Mhz
Motherboard MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon
GPU: GTX 1080 Ti
SSD: WDS256G1X0C

What driver are you using? If you are using the native MS driver that could be the problem. I would suggest installing the Intel IRST driver. You may need to set the SATA mode in your BIOS from AHCI to Intel RST Premium as well after the Intel driver has been installed.

I’m indeed using the native windows drivers, I knew they where notoriously slow but I couldn’t find any information on which drivers to use for the device.

Any idea where I could get the IRST drivers?

I tried both AHCI and M2/Optane setups though, the only thing that changes without different drivers is the fact that my UEFI starts remapping my drive (which takes a while for some reason).

you can get it fro MSI webpage. I found it at the link below under Drivers > Other drivers

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z270-GAMING-PRO-CARBON.html#down-driver

I don’t get why my MSI live updater didn’t show these (or maybe it did but I have another installed).

The options seem to be the following:

Intel Optane Memory

Version
15.5.0.1051

Release Date
2017-04-19

File Size
10.12 MB

Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver

Version
15.2.0.1020

Release Date
2017-01-17

File Size
13.31 MB

Note
Please refer to the manual to download the correct Intel Rapid Storage Technology RAID driver for your system.
For Intel RST ROM 15.2 version

Intel Serial IO Drivers

Version
30.100.1633.03

Release Date
2017-01-04

File Size
2.61 MB

Title
Intel Software Guard Extensions

Version
1.6.101.32869

Release Date
2017-01-03

File Size
3.6 MB

ASMedia USB3.0/3.1 Drivers

Version
1.16.36.1

Release Date
2017-01-03

File Size
9.39 MB

I’m pretty sure I have the Optane and ASMedia USB3.0/3.1 drivers installed so I doubt the other one isn’t installed but just to be sure, the IRST drivers are the one I need right? Should I get the Optane one as well? Not that I have Intel Optane installed at the moment but it looks like it’s the same kind of module.

Thanks for linking it’s my first NVMe SSD so uncharted territory :slight_smile:

the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver is the one you need for the NVMe SSD. From a quick google search it seems the optane driver may be for use with a Intel Cross Point storage product. I would not install that one. the IRST driver should be all you need for the SSD you have.

Ok I was just asking about the Optane because I will most likely add another NVMe SSD (Samsung 960 Pro 500GB or 1TB, still unsure) next to it on the board and some HDD’s as well, I do want them to play nice together.

On the same MSI link you gave me I also found these under On-Board PIDE/SATA Drivers

Title
Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver
Version
15.5.0.1051
Release Date
2017-04-19
File Size
16.86 MB

Note
Please refer to the manual to download the correct Intel Rapid Storage Technology RAID driver for your system.
Support Intel Optane Memory features (Win10_64).

Version is newer and seems to do both Optane and IRST.

I benchmarked with the older driver (no BIOS settings) NVMe Windows driver still in the device manager list.
Under storage controllers it now says Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller and Standard NVM Express Controller.
Under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers it now says Intel(R) 200 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller.

First 2 increased speed, Sequential slightly decreased, 4K slightly faster still, not that great but better. Note that while it seems to slightly benefit of the drivers the Intel software only picks up on my HDD, not my SSD.

Also the driver managing the device in device manager still seems to be Windows native NVMe driver, however I do see a speed increase in my benchmarks, not great, but better.

I also checked my UEFI BIOS, no IRST mode available, ACHI or Optane/RAID are my options.
What I did notice today was the fact that some programs stopped working on my SSD’s OS after a reboot (icons where gone, signatures gone, information about the files gone). Did a S.M.A.R.T. Short test, no errors found, S.M.A.R.T. Long test I had to do about 10 times for it to finish, every time I used it and reached 100% it gave me an “The test was cancelled” at 100% but after a few tries no problems.
No errors showed up in the SMART Diagnostics Report and yes I’m virus free since this is a fresh install (not counting a work program which is 100% safe right from my company server).