Potential SSD Issue.... Please help

[DesiPower]

Just finished building a new PC, all I did was boot from Windows 10 USB installer, delete all existing partitions, create new partitions, quick format and install OS. SSD is not brand spanking new but barely used before as you will see in the pics below.

Started noticing some occasional freezing of application, for example, on a browser, I would right click on a link to open in a new tab and that new tab would stop responding, all other application and even other tabs withing the browser would keep running normally. I would open the mouse or user setting and the setting window would appear but content would not load of about a good 15 - 20 seconds or so. Again, that setting window would not respond however everything else would keep functioning normally. Initially I though that it was because of the new load, maybe still finishing up installations... but it didn't stop.

Then I started looking around in the system and noticed that the C drive in my computer showed a little res X at the bottom corner. So I opened Crystal DiskInfo and it showed everything to be okay. Next, as the issue still kept happening (by this time I had installed Plex server and whenever I would try to launch it, nothing would happen for a good 30 seconds, then it would launch and everything would function normally.) I installed Hard Disk Sentinel and that showed an issue with the SSD.

Any chance its not the SSD, any suggestion, anything else I can try to diagnose or fix the problem? Any other software I could try?

 

[VirtualLarry]

What SSD? And how old is it? How filled was it before you re-partitioned and re-formatted?

You may have wanted to:
1) Delete all partitions.
2) Create partitions
3) Manually format all partitions that were created. (Important to manually do this.)
4) Delete all partitions again.
5) Create new partition, allow Windows to auto-create additional partitions.
6) Choose "Next / Install Windows" on the main partition that it created.
and
5a) Maybe let the computer sit idle, but powered-on, between 5 and 6, for like an hour or two, to allow for internal SSD garbage collection to take place.

This ensures that there is a full TRIM pass done on the entire user-space of the SSD. This is perhaps not nearly as good as a full Secure Erase pass (which I recommend doing with a bootable USB Linux Live distro, and "hdparm"), but it's probably 90% there.

Note that not all SSDs process TRIM immediately, they just flag that sector for later GC passes.

So, with all of the writes to the SSD, if it hadn't gotten to GC the TRIM'ed sectors / pages, then it could be working with what it perceives as a "full" SSD (all user sectors written to), and then writing, forced GC to free up space, writing, repeat.

Thus, attempting to actually use it, may make things a bit slow at times.

Also, Windows 10 can be a bit slow at times, when first installed, it's doing God-knows-what in the background, chewing up CPU, disk, and network bandwidth.

* OR *

It could just be a bad SSD. Try a real Secure Erase as a last-ditch effort to save it, it might knock some sense into it.

OR

Maybe you need a new SATA cable.

--

I had a similar problem with some older, slightly-used SSDs, that I popped into my test rig, and Secure Erased, then installed Windows 10. They installed fine, but then when I went to actually use them for a bit, stuff started "pausing", and eventually, I was getting BSODs and Windows non-boot problems.

But it happened to two SSDs, that weren't suspect at all, they were pulled from working systems, and had just sat un-powered for a while (months).

So I'm now questioning my test system, and its SATA cables and ports, or maybe PSU (it's somewhat old, an Antec EarthWatts).

Not sure what the problem is. I guess I could try taking a brand-new sealed-in-box SSD, and installing it into my test rig, and see if it gives me problems. It could kill the SSD that way, I suppose, though. But it would tell me if my test rig is bad juju for SSD testing.

 

[RLGL]

But it happened to two SSDs, that weren't suspect at all, they were pulled from working systems, and had just sat un-powered for a while (months).

Interesting, a local computer repair guy on local radio said some strange things are happening with the SSD. His reply to the caller was to call the manufacturer. My take on this : do a secure wipe on the drive when switching mother boards

 

[DesiPower]

Thanks for all the detailed option and experience @VirtualLarry, really helpful.

This SSD in question was a pull from a Dell laptop, its a SK Hynix SC311 512 GB M.2 SSD, so no cables involved.

As far as system freezing/slowness in concerned, its not because of the SSD. I reinstalled OS on an old Crucial 2.5 inch SATA SSD with exactly the same setting and the exact same slowness/freezing issues occurred. Then I reinstalled it on another Samsung M.2 128 GB SSD, again same slowness issues. HD sentinel did not show error on any of those drives.

I will try the partitioning and formatting options. TRIM I am not sure how to do that but iirc its related to speed/performance? Since that is not the issue I guess it wont be useful. Secure erase might be another option I can try if formatting/reformatting does not work. Thank again

 

[UsandThem]

Is the SSD plugged into an Intel SATA port, or into a third party one like Asmedia?

Did you install the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website (inf, chipset)?

 

[DesiPower]

Well, as I mentioned, its M.2 SSD so its plugged into the only available port. It uses the 1st (0) SATA port so I am guessing its mobo's native controller, not the extra 3rd party ports... Its a GIGABYTE GA-Z170XP-SLI (rev. 1.0) mobo btw.

I have not installed any GIGABYTE driver of software, just whatever Windows 10 did... will try that as well. Maybe do that first

 

[UsandThem]

Well, as I mentioned, its M.2 SSD so its plugged into the only available port. It uses the 1st (0) SATA port so I am guessing its mobo's native controller, not the extra 3rd party ports... Its a GIGABYTE GA-Z170XP-SLI (rev. 1.0) mobo btw.

I have not installed any GIGABYTE driver of software, just whatever Windows 10 did... will try that as well. Maybe do that first

Sorry, I was on my phone and missed it was a M.2 drive. What BIOS version are you running on the board?

 

[DesiPower]

Sorry, I was on my phone and missed it was a M.2 drive. What BIOS version are you running on the board?

F21... newer is available, does that matter though? will update soon...

 

[UsandThem]

F21... newer is available, does that matter though? will update soon...

The newer ones just update security issues, so I don't think it will help with the SSD issue. I'd install the .inf file from their website, and then after rebooting do a Windows update again and see if it install more specific drivers for your board. If all of those SSDs are having the same issue, it is likely a motherboard setting/driver issue, or maybe the board has issues.

I know my old Gigabyte Z170 board became really flaky after I went from the F5 to the F21 BIOS. I finally got so annoyed with it, I bought the Asrock Taichi. The Gigabyte board was rock solid before I upgraded to the newer BIOS so I could have fan control in my BIOS.

 

[DesiPower]

The newer ones just update security issues, so I don't think it will help with the SSD issue. I'd install the .inf file from their website, and then after rebooting do a Windows update again and see if it install more specific drivers for your board. If all of those SSDs are having the same issue, it is likely a motherboard setting/driver issue, or maybe the board has issues.

I know my old Gigabyte Z170 board became really flaky after I went from the F5 to the F21 BIOS. I finally got so annoyed with it, I bought the Asrock Taichi. The Gigabyte board was rock solid before I upgraded to the newer BIOS so I could have fan control in my BIOS.

The slowness/freezing is not related to SSDs, as you are right, its happening with all 3 SSDs. I am past that. at this point I am just wondering if the issue that HD Sentinel is showing is really a hardware issue or something related to being a Dell's SSD, maybe they have some setting that HD Sentinel does not like.

 

[UsandThem]

The slowness/freezing is not related to SSDs, as you are right, its happening with all 3 SSDs. I am past that. at this point I am just wondering if the issue that HD Sentinel is showing is really a hardware issue or something related to being a Dell's SSD, maybe they have some setting that HD Sentinel does not like.

That I'm not sure of since I have never used HD Sentinel. Generally the drives that ship in pre-built computers are usually pretty standard from my experience, so I'd be surprised if an OEM drive had settings that caused issues. Personally I'd think it was just a drive that maybe SD Sentinel just has an issue properly reading/detecting since it's not a common drive (as compared to users who would report incompatibility issues with their retail drives).

 

[DesiPower]

Besides Crystaldiskinfo have you used any other software to check/test hard drive?

 

[UsandThem]

Besides Crystaldiskinfo have you used any other software to check/test hard drive?

Since I mostly use Samsung drives, I use Samsung Magician and CrystalDiskInfo. I think I used Atto a few times over the years for benchmarking as well.