--- title: Your BIOS is probably throttling your SSD, and a single... description: BIOS-level Active State Power Management (ASPM) can throttle PCIe lanes feeding an NVMe SSD or GPU during idle periods to save power, but the transition back... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/your-bios-is-probably-throttling-your-ssd-and-a-single-toggle-can-fix-it-w6b8siamy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Your BIOS is probably throttling your SSD, and a single toggle can fix it | daily.dev og:description: BIOS-level Active State Power Management (ASPM) can throttle PCIe lanes feeding an NVMe SSD or GPU during idle periods to save power, but the transition back... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/your-bios-is-probably-throttling-your-ssd-and-a-single-toggle-can-fix-it-w6b8siamy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/W6B8siAMY.png og:image:alt: Your BIOS is probably throttling your SSD, and a single toggle can fix it og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Your BIOS is probably throttling your SSD, and a single toggle can fix it **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary BIOS-level Active State Power Management (ASPM) can throttle PCIe lanes feeding an NVMe SSD or GPU during idle periods to save power, but the transition back to full power when the drive wakes can introduce microstutters or lag during gaming, app launches, or file transfers. Disabling ASPM in the motherboard's UEFI keeps the PCIe link at full strength, which many users report improves stability and frame times, especially on desktops where battery life isn't a concern. Even with ASPM disabled, the SSD may still enter low-power states via its own Autonomous Power State Transition (APST) controller setting, since the BIOS only controls the motherboard-to-SSD link, not the drive's internal power management. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is ASPM and why would disabling it help reduce SSD microstutters in games? ASPM (Active State Power Management) is a BIOS power setting that throttles or sleeps PCIe lanes feeding an NVMe SSD or GPU when idle to save energy. When the link has to wake back to full power during gameplay, app launches, or file transfers, that transition adds a small delay, causing microstutters. Disabling ASPM in the motherboard UEFI keeps the PCIe link at full strength so the SSD stays immediately responsive, which many users report improves frame times and system responsiveness, particularly on desktops where battery savings don't matter. _Anyone chasing consistent frame times can find more BIOS and SSD tuning breakdowns like this on daily.dev._ ### Will disabling ASPM in the BIOS completely stop my SSD from entering a low-power sleep state? No, disabling ASPM only controls the PCIe link between the motherboard and the SSD, not the drive's internal power management. SSDs have their own power-saving mechanism called Autonomous Power State Transition (APST), which lets the drive controller independently switch between active and low-power states regardless of the BIOS ASPM setting. _Developers troubleshooting storage latency issues can keep discovering hardware tuning nuances like this via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Your motherboard is throttling your PCIe slots in BIOS, and you probably don't know how to fix it](https://daily.dev/posts/your-motherboard-is-throttling-your-pcie-slots-in-bios-and-you-probably-don-t-know-how-to-fix-it-lmkmt8rgd) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I added a second SSD just for games, and it fixed a problem I blamed on Windows](https://daily.dev/posts/i-added-a-second-ssd-just-for-games-and-it-fixed-a-problem-i-blamed-on-windows-oeuecenmn) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your flagship SSD might be running at half speed, and your motherboard manual knows why](https://daily.dev/posts/your-flagship-ssd-might-be-running-at-half-speed-and-your-motherboard-manual-knows-why-piqtytc1l) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/your-bios-is-probably-throttling-your-ssd-and-a-single-toggle-can-fix-it-w6b8siamy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Your BIOS is probably throttling your SSD, and a single toggle can fix it","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-bios-is-probably-throttling-your-ssd-and-a-single-toggle-can-fix-it-w6b8siamy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-bios-is-probably-throttling-your-ssd-and-a-single-toggle-can-fix-it-w6b8siamy"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T11:02:27.970Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T11:03:00.345Z","description":"BIOS-level Active State Power Management (ASPM) can throttle PCIe lanes feeding an NVMe SSD or GPU during idle periods to save power, but the transition back...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/df6435901cf749fa9abff673d132d007?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/df6435901cf749fa9abff673d132d007?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-bios-is-probably-throttling-your-ssd-and-a-single-toggle-can-fix-it-w6b8siamy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Your BIOS is probably throttling your SSD, and a single toggle can fix it"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-bios-is-probably-throttling-your-ssd-and-a-single-toggle-can-fix-it-w6b8siamy#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is ASPM and why would disabling it help reduce SSD microstutters in games?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"ASPM (Active State Power Management) is a BIOS power setting that throttles or sleeps PCIe lanes feeding an NVMe SSD or GPU when idle to save energy. When the link has to wake back to full power during gameplay, app launches, or file transfers, that transition adds a small delay, causing microstutters. Disabling ASPM in the motherboard UEFI keeps the PCIe link at full strength so the SSD stays immediately responsive, which many users report improves frame times and system responsiveness, particularly on desktops where battery savings don't matter. Anyone chasing consistent frame times can find more BIOS and SSD tuning breakdowns like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Will disabling ASPM in the BIOS completely stop my SSD from entering a low-power sleep state?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No, disabling ASPM only controls the PCIe link between the motherboard and the SSD, not the drive's internal power management. SSDs have their own power-saving mechanism called Autonomous Power State Transition (APST), which lets the drive controller independently switch between active and low-power states regardless of the BIOS ASPM setting. Developers troubleshooting storage latency issues can keep discovering hardware tuning nuances like this via daily.dev."}}]} ```