Abstract: An operating system's input/output control (IOCTL) interface can communicate with one or more device drivers, which may be implemented as Message Passing Technology (MPT) based drivers. At start-up and at user-defined intervals, Message Passing Interface (MPI) pass-through messages can be sent utilizing the IOCTL interface. Such messages can be formatted as Configuration Page Request messages, and can then return data that includes the current negotiated rates and widths for all devices connected via the bus. Whenever a drop in rate occurs for any device connected to the bus, the event will be logged, and the user informed. Utilizing such technology, device transfer rates can be automatically tracked performance degradation thereof reported.