VAIO S Series SATA3 not working

[leekyuh]

Hello,

We purchased VAIO S15 (SVS1511C5E) in June, 2012 and changed the HDD to Samsung 830 256GB SSD, which supports SATA3.

The problem is, its transfer speed is capped by the maximum speed of SATA2. (3 Gbps, not 6 Gbps) We conducted two tests, once immediately after receiving the unit, and another after 1 month. Please see the attached screen shots:

                            (On Sony VAIO S15 Laptop)

                         (Reference: The same model on Desktop)

It seems that there's a problem on BIOS. Since even the random access performance is limited, it actually causes a real-world problem. I was forwarded an e-mail originally sent by Mr. Tamer Zedan via David Fraser (David.Fraser@eu.sony.com), who is responsible for B2B sales regarding this issue:

================================================================

Dear Mr Fraser

This is Tamer Zedan from Sony support. I am emailing you with relation to your inquiry about VAIO model SVS1511C5E specification. I have just received the below reply from our second level of support.

•         This is a preconfigured model and the customer can choose between normal hard disk drives and Solid State Drive, for the last one he will need to configure it with Nvidia graphic chip. https://shop.sony.co.uk/shop/ipc/displayLayout/(rdb=0&cScrollCharGroupName=%24BASE_GROUP&layout=26_184_74_75_77_78_79_80_82_91_92_151&cInstId=1&cCharName=C1000000009_S1511&uiarea=9&cCharGroupName=%24BASE_GROUP&carea=%24ROOT&citem=4D5E49A6338A0106E10080002BC29BE14F999E754839003EE10080002BC29B71)/.do

•         Regarding the SATA3 support. The chipset H76 supports SATA3 by default. And there is no option on BIOS to disable it.

Yours sincerely

Tamer Zedan

Sony support

================================================================

He clearly states that chipset supports SATA3 by default. On Windows, the drive controller is clearly detected as SATA2. It is quite clear that there is a bug in BIOS or it is somehow "restricted."

My questions:

1. Does anyone fixed this problem?

2. Where should I report this problem in Sony?

3. Does anyone know Tamer Zedan's e-mail address, so that I could report this problem directly to technical team? Our rep Daivd Fraser ignored my e-mail asking for Tamer Zedan's e-mail address already two times, which was surprisingly disappointing customer experience for a company like Sony.

Thanks.

[Blencogo]

Hi leekyuh and welcome.

This question was asked in February/March earlier in the year and the matter was escalated all the way to Japan for a response from Sony.

To summarise the reply, Sony say S-Series laptops since the original SA1/SB1 models are not advertised as being SATA3 compatible and although the chipset supports SATA3, the S-Series Vaios do not support SATA3 speeds and are only fitted with a SATA2 Controller and only support SATA2 transfer speeds.

I don't think there is a fixable problem here.