Nospheratu Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I recently installed a OEM PM810(Dell branded 470) 128gb SSD and it's working fantastically well. I'm just curious if fellow R2 owners have a blinking cursor at the top left hand corner of the screen before the "Starting Windows + Logo" appears?Never really noticed it on my normal HDD but I plugged it back in and its also there but it blinks just once. With the SSD I get 3/4 blinks and then the "Starting Windows + Logo". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nospheratu Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 No one? Timed from the time I pressed the power button to the windows starting screen = 15 secs. I'm trying to reduce the total boot time as much as practically possible but I don't know if there's some way for the BIOS to detect the SSD boot partition/sector quicker. Its set as the first boot device and that is the only option I can see in the standard BIOS that could help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Michael Posted July 6, 2011 Founder Share Posted July 6, 2011 There's not much else you can do then. I don't remember i had a blinking cursor with my SSD in the R2 but i might be wrong.Are you on A10 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nospheratu Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 Yes I'm on A10 at the moment. Its a minor issue but if I can get rid of it or at least reduce the blinks, it would be awesome. If its how this machine works, I don't have much choice really. That's why I'm hoping someone with a R2 can help me out. SSD or normal HDD, just some feedback would help. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AssimilatorX Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Nothing to worry about the BIOS handling the boot to the OS...If you plug a testcard in the mpci slot it will tell you what happening exactly.In case you wonder after the POST (self test) Bios handling the control to INT19h calling the Operating System Debug code usually 00hMore Info here The Master Boot Record (MBR) and What it Does and here http://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMIBIOS8_Checkpoint_and_Beep_Code_List_PUB.pdfevery BIOS is different AMI, Award, Phoenix,O2, EFI, My favorite test equipments from them Home - Sintech Electronic CO.,LTDBTW: is part of CompTIA A+ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 (edited) Maybe you can check bios and make sure its set to quickboot or minimal boot diagnosis. I do remember seeing the blinking cursor except for me it was a white square the size of one character. Its nothing to worry about. I had an R2 just don't remember if that's where I seen the cursor. I had the Samsung SSD also a pm810 in the 256gb flavor. 2 In raid. It may be the call to the os from the bios like Assimilator talks of. Don't know a fix but yeah 15 seconds sounds like how long it took for me. I started to respond last night but my phone battery died. Edited July 6, 2011 by mw86 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AssimilatorX Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 I dont seen option like that in my .... and my is also blinking 3/4 times. I find the "intel PXE" more annoying than the blinking cursor, specially when i hit F12 in the wrong time is try boot from my WDS server... is nothing we can do about the blinking cursor... :S 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Yup same cursor blinks a couple times... I couldn't remember what the name is but most bios have an option to perform more or less hardware boot tests and the minimal is the quickest option. Either way I suggest @Nospheratu that you upgrade to the latest Samsung firmware here. Problem is the upgrade erases entire drives contents so you'd have to reinstall the os. The link is for Samsung pm800 series 250 or 120gb ssd drives.. Its the same firmware. The firmware is for the ssd Dell sold in the R2. Must switch to ahci or Ata mode for the hard drive to perform the upgrade. You can switch back after firmware is updated. Drivers and Downloads 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nospheratu Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 (edited) Awesome feedback. Thanks a lot guys I really appreciate it. I've got a little sum'm sum'm I'm working on so that'll be my official "thanks for the help" AssimilatorX, wicked post man. Your original post was bit more in depth than I was looking for but very interesting reading. Thanks for the "3/4 blinking" feedback mw86, dont have many boot options in A10 apart from the boot order. Thanks for the info about the firmware updates. I didn't know the PM800/PM810 firmware was the same. Are you sure about this though? Don't really want to brick the the drive as I did see the updates but didnt consider them as they were for the PM800. The PM810 is the newer retail Samsung 470's. Edited July 6, 2011 by Nospheratu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AssimilatorX Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Your welcome!the safe site is dell...http://ftp.us.dell.com/SATA/SAMSUNG_MULTI-DEVICE_A00_R276513.exemake sure you back up all what you need. I still dont trust SSD's, 2x died on me but, my 2/4y old conventional HDD still works just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Awesome feedback. Thanks a lot guys I really appreciate it. I've got a little sum'm sum'm I'm working on so that'll be my official "thanks for the help" AssimilatorX, wicked post man. Your original post was bit more in depth than I was looking for but very interesting reading. Thanks for the "3/4 blinking" feedback mw86, dont have many boot options in A10 apart from the boot order. Thanks for the info about the firmware updates. I didn't know the PM800/PM810 firmware was the same. Are you sure about this though? Don't really want to brick the the drive as I did see the updates but didnt consider them as they were for the PM800. The PM810 is the newer retail Samsung 470's. If you bought those with your Dell they are the right updates... i went to the windows 7 64bit section of the M17x R2 drivers download section for that link... so if you bought those with your alienware then yes... if you bought those and installed them yourself from somewhere else they may not be the drivers for you. If the right drive is not detected the flash doesn't commence... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nospheratu Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 If you bought those with your Dell they are the right updates... i went to the windows 7 64bit section of the M17x R2 drivers download section for that link... so if you bought those with your alienware then yes... if you bought those and installed them yourself from somewhere else they may not be the drivers for you. If the right drive is not detected the flash doesn't commence...Its Dell OEM with the firmware from Dell but I bought it separately. I cant flash with the latest Samsung firmware either. Their magician software doesn't detect the drive as Samsung. The current firmware has TRIM enabled and the performance is on par with the tweaks from StamatisX so I'll leave it as it for the time being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Its Dell OEM with the firmware from Dell but I bought it separately. I cant flash with the latest Samsung firmware either. Their magician software doesn't detect the drive as Samsung. The current firmware has TRIM enabled and the performance is on par with the tweaks from StamatisX so I'll leave it as it for the time being. In that case you probably do have the latest Samsung firmware. Sorry I couldn't help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nospheratu Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 In that case you probably do have the latest Samsung firmware. Sorry I couldn't help You did help with the feedback about the cursor blinking a couple of times. Thanks for that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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