Windows 10 keeps freezing with new SSD

[essential]

A friend of the family had their HDD die on an old Dell (H67 chipset, i7-2600). I replaced it with a Samsung 860 EVO 500gb and installed Windows 10 Spring Creators Update clean (they had a digital license linked to the machine).

I can't pinpoint why, but the computer keeps freezing randomly and needs to be hard reset to get it back. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason when it freezes. It's froze while idling with the screen saver on, while browsing in Chrome, and while running a Prime95 test. I doubt it's a CPU or RAM issue as this computer ran fine for years, the HDD switch is the only thing new (and the HDD that died was running Windows 10). During one of my tests, after I thought I fixed it, it idled for over 5 hours with no issues, so it's all over the place.

Things I've tried so far:
1) Installed Intel chipset drivers.
2) Verified AHCI mode is on in BIOS, latest BIOS loaded.
3) Installed proper AHCI driver in device manager from Intel's H67 support page (might have been generic MS driver prior, didn't check).
4) Installed the Intel RST software package for the H67 chipset.
5) Installed a registry patch so that there are additional options in Power Management and "AHCI Link Power Management" is "Active" and "AHCI Link Power Management - Adaptive" is set to 0 milliseconds.

I'm just looking for any other ideas to try prior to trying new hardware. I supposed the EVO could be bad but Samsung Magician and HDD Sentinel report it's 100%. I have to think this is software but I don't know what else could cause this.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't know that I would have installed RST on a rig that old, nor messed with Link Power Management. I would personally set all of that stuff to "Disabled", and then, set the Power Profile in Win10 to "High Performance". Bonus if you can disable C-States in BIOS.

I have a feeling, that over time (5+ years), stuff starts to degrade slightly, either the chip or the board's VRMs, and it needs more voltage to be stable. One of the side-effects, can be that it will freeze up in idle states, due to lowered voltage, that because of the degradation, isn't enough any more.

If this were a custom rig, I would say, just add a vcore positive offset, until it's stable, but since this appears to be an OEM board, I doubt that there's any meaningful voltage controls in BIOS, so you'll have to stick with disabling power-management features.

Edit: I will say, this all might have something to do with the Link Power Management as well. Generally, that stuff is DISABLED for desktop PCs, it's only used by laptop OEMs that have full control over the hardware and drivers and registry settings used on their PCs. IMHO, more trouble than it's worth, to try to enable that stuff for desktop PCs. You're saving what, fractions of a watt per hour?

 

[essential]

Thanks for the reply Larry. The initial install was just clean Windows 10, the only thing I installed were the Intel Chipset drivers, everything else I let Windows 10 updates take care of. When the freezing started, I tried those other steps after doing research one at a time to try and eliminate the problem.

As for the Link Power Management stuff, that registry file was just a way so you could get the settings in your Power Options menu as opposed to make changes directly in the registry. I didn't actually change anything, the Link Power Management was set to "Active" already. The system is set to High Performance, and according to the page I was reading about the Link Power Management stuff, when it's set to "Active" that means "Link power management is not used" so I assume that means it's disabled.

SevenForums:
"Active" means you do not have HIPM or DIPM enabled.
"Adaptive" ... if you have Active set above, then this will have no effect.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-enable-hipm-dipm.html

Unless you, or anyone has any other software ideas I should try, I'll likely toss an HDD back in and install Windows, see what happens, and maybe even another SSD, I have a 850 EVO laying around I could test. If there is no freezing with an HDD, but freezing with both SSDs, that might tell me something. Or if there's only freezing with the 860 EVO maybe then I try and replace that.

Thanks again.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Unless you, or anyone has any other software ideas I should try, I'll likely toss an HDD back in and install Windows, see what happens, and maybe even another SSD, I have a 850 EVO laying around I could test. If there is no freezing with an HDD, but freezing with both SSDs, that might tell me something. Or if there's only freezing with the 860 EVO maybe then I try and replace that.

Those are good ideas.

 

[essential]

So I've just re-done the machine. Just curious, would I be better off going with the "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" that installs automatically with Windows 10 or download the Intel AHCI driver for the H67 chipset even though it's dated from 2012?

 

[VirtualLarry]

As a general rule, don't install 3rd-party drivers into a newer OS with newer driver dates.

I would just leave it with the in-box driver.

 

[Burpo]

Take a good look at the sata cable/connections, possibly swap it out if you have an extra..

 

[UsandThem]

So I've just re-done the machine. Just curious, would I be better off going with the "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" that installs automatically with Windows 10 or download the Intel AHCI driver for the H67 chipset even though it's dated from 2012?

As a general rule, don't install 3rd-party drivers into a newer OS with newer driver dates.

I would just leave it with the in-box driver.

VLarry's advice is spot on. The Intel driver is actually slower than the default Microsoft one. I couldn't figure out for a long time why all of my Samsung 850 EVOs were not getting anywhere near their claimed speed, or for that matter why they were performing way slower than all the various reviews showed. It turns out it was the Intel driver.

 

[PliotronX]

Try disabling superfetch and if that doesn't help normally I never roll with IDE mode but some users around have reported smoother operation as opposed to AHCI. The power options patch should take care of that part but you might also try disabling LPM on the ports.

 

[Shmee]

Just as a general recommendation, though not really related, you should probably use a new installer with 1803. If you can get any diagnostics information from freezes, good tools to try are Bluescreenview and memtest. In fact, I would definitely run memtest if you have not already. Use the latest UEFI passmark v7.5 if your system board supports UEFI.

 

[zebrax2]

My personal experience regarding similar cases is that it is usually the RAM starting to fail. I would run memtest as Shmee suggested.