Category Archives: Samsung

PCIe NVMe SSD Slow Write Speed

Having recently purchased a Samsung SM961 PCIe MVMe SSD I was shocked to find that my write speeds were only 350MB/s.  I have the SM961 installed in a Lycom DT-129 PCIe card but I only have a x4 PCIe 2.0 slot on my current motherboard.  When I purchased the SM961 I was aware that my speeds would be impacted by the PCIe 2.0 slot but did not anticipate such poor Write speeds.  With it being an OEM product the SM961 also has no drivers supplied and at the time of writing this article Samsung and no other PC manufacturers appear to have posted optimised drivers.  I was aware that Windows 10 provides native NVMe driver support and expected reasonable performance from them.

Unhappy with the Write speeds I started to experiment and eventually found that if I disable windows write cache buffer flush in Device Manager then my Write speeds jump to just over 800MB/s which I can happily live with.

Here are my findings:

The default setting is for Write caching to be enabled and write-cache buffer flushing to be enabledTurnOnWindowsWriteCachebufferflush ASSSDTurnOnWindowsWriteCachebufferflush

I tested with write caching and write cache buffer flushing disabled

TurnOffWindowsWriteCache ASSSDTurnOffWindowsWriteCache

I then tested with write caching enabled and write-cache buffer flushing disabled.

TurnOffWindowsWriteCachebufferflush ASSSDTurnOffWindowsWriteCachebufferflush

I would be interested to hear for you so please do post your feedback or questions.

Disclaimer: Please ensure that you have and maintain a full backup of all your data before making any changes to your system.  These changes may make your system more susceptible to data loss should a power failure occur whilst your system is in operation.

Hdaudbus.sys – Pre Service Pack 3 Revision History for Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008)

Hdaudbus.sys – Pre Service Pack 3 Revision History for Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008)

29-Apr-2009 – 6.0.6002.22125 – Hdaudbus.sys – x86/x64 – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970030 – HD audio controller is consuming power during sleep or hibernation in Windows Vista

[RESOLVED] Google Android ICS 4.0, 4.01 or 4.02 – Handset Crashes and Reboots when you try to connect to an IPSec Xauth PSK VPN over the 3G Mobile Network

You may find that your Google Android ICS 4.0, 4.01 or 4.02 Smart Phone crashes and reboots when you try to connect to an IPSec Xauth PSK VPN over the 3G Mobile Network.  This has been seen to occur with Watchguard and Cisco VPN connections and is related to a glitch in the Google Android Modem Driver.

You will need to wait for an Over the Air update to Google Android 4.0.3 for the issue to be resolved, if this issue is severely affecting you then you may be able to contact your moile network carrier and/or the handset manufacturer to arrange to have the phone updated earlier.

Further information about this issue can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=23404&can=1&q=vpn%20xauth&colspec=ID Type Status Owner Summary Stars

Microsoft Windows – Network Printer/s Unexpectedly Show Offline

When using Microsoft Windows (various editions and versions) you may find that your Network Printer Unexpectedly Shows Offline.  This can occur for a number of reasons and todays blog will try and help get you printing again.

First you should verify that you can ping the printer you are trying to print to, you can usually find the hostname or the IP address of the printer from the “Ports” tab of the printers “properties” page.

It should look something like this:

Printer Name or IP Address is where we can see which port the printer is trying to print to, we can then enter a “command prompt” by typing “cmd” into the “run” box and then type the ping command and the ip address or hostname of our printer.  Example is “ping 192.168.1.230” or “ping hpinkjetprinter”

If we do not get a response from the address or hostname then it could indicate that the printer has been assigned a different IP address (DHCP) by the server or your Router.  It could also indicate that the printer is turned off, the network cable is unplugged or damaged, if the printer is wireless it may be that the signal is no longer in range or that the wireless credentials it was setup with have been changed (WEP or WPA Key, SSID).  Many Servers or Routers support reservations so that you can ensure your printer always gets the same ip address, alternatively you can find the hostname of your printer and set the printer port to the hostname, if the ip address changes the computer should then still be able to resolve the hostname to the current and valid ip address of the device.

If your printer is responding to a ping command but you still cannot print then it may be an issue with the configuration of the printers “Standard TCP/IP Port” you will several options on the port configuration page that can effect your ability to submit a print job to the network printer, it may also cause the printer to incorrectly report that it is offline.

One particular issues that I have witnessed first hand is an HP OfficeJet Printer showing offline when the “SNMP Status Enabled” is ticked under the  “Standard TCP/IP Port” printer port configuration tab.  You may be able to ping the printer and access its web configuration but the printer will continue to show offline in Windows and print jobs will remian in the print queue.  Once the “SNMP Status Enabled” is unchecked the printer will appear online again and print correctly.

You amy also find that your printer only supports RAW or LPR mode, you can usually find further information on the “Protocol” that your printer supports via the technical manual or sometimes via the printers web configuration page.

Last but not least please remeber to check that you have the latest printer drivers from the manufacturers website, any firmware updates or software updates should also be installed to ensure the optimum performance and reliability of your product.  It is also important to remember that you should ensure the printer you are accessing is compatbile with your operating system and that driver support is either providd natively within Windows or the manufcaturer supply drivers via their website.