850 EVO 500GB dead?

[nathanddrews]

My computer locked up playing a game the other day - the cursor still moved, but everything else was frozen.
Rebooted, "no boot disk detected".
Rebooted, frozen W10 boot screen.
Rebooted, started up normally, then locked up minutes later.
Let it sit for a day, started it up and it was usable for about 15 minutes. I opened Samsung Magician and ran a couple tests and everything checked out OK. I bought it in July, after the new firmware was issued. It's been running the latest firmware, etc. since then. I have ~30% spare area set up. My guess is it's just a lemon. My wife's machine is identical and hers has had no issues, but I use mine a lot more.

I ordered a replacement on Prime Now, but haven't gotten around to installing it yet or running tests on the old drive on a different machine. All signs point to the SSD being toast. Good thing it's got a 5yr warranty - anyone have experience with their warranty? This is my first SSD to die - ever - and that includes the old 64GB JMicron drive I still have.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The symptoms you are describing could also be a corrupted Windows installation. In that case, a secure erase and OS reinstall would be the solution.

For starters, power the computer up and enter the BIOS. Is the drive detected? Does it take an abnormally long time for the drives to be detected?

 

[PliotronX]

It could be a corrupted system file as a result of a defect, that sounds like some SSDs that were of different brands I've worked on that would not allow windows to boot. Those drives shared in common using bitlocker though. I had to wipe out and install windows fresh as Dave suggested and there were reallocated sectors reported in the SMART status. Those drives are still functioning okay without bitlocker but I would take advantage of the lengthy warranty Samsung offers if its defective.

 

[FFFF]

Make sure your PSU is still working properly. I had one malfunctioning and even though regular hard disks showed no visible problems, I ended up bricking 2 SSDs because of it.

 

[Puffnstuff]

When my 840pro let go I had no advanced warning that it was going to happen. Magician reported all was well before it went down on me and getting through to Samsung to get them to issue an RMA was the worst experience I've had returning a defective drive to any manufacturer. If you can still see the drive in bios and you still have issues you might need to secure erase it and start over.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Make sure your PSU is still working properly. I had one malfunctioning and even though regular hard disks showed no visible problems, I ended up bricking 2 SSDs because of it.

Yes, this. SSDs can be very sensitive to power issues, moreso than HDDs.

 

[aviator79]

What does SMART say?
Post a Screenshot from Crystal Disk Info please! Expand the window so all RAW Values are visible!
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

 

[nathanddrews]

I resolved the issue using by cloning to a new SSD.