# WD 640GB Black - Performance Issues.....Is it dying?



## LifeOnMars (Jul 30, 2011)

I first purchased the drive back in November 2010 and I have had problems with stuttering in a select few games since that time. Unreal engine games, most open world games and generally the games that actually have to access the HDD a reasonable amount whilst in the game. Games that load the data into memory at the start of levels or between levels have always been pretty much flawless save for a bit of stuttering in the first 5 seconds.

Obviously I had suspicions it was the drive, however, everytime I have ran ChkDisk and HD Tune Pro for any error testing it has always passed without showing any errors.

HD Tune does show one error however on the drive health info page, Ultra DMA CRC Error Count -







I was informed that at one time the cable must have been bad, switched it over and never thought about it again. Recently however it has started making a solid click everytime I'm accessing or writing data to it and it's quite a consistently spaced click as if there is a bad sector it can't access.

Should I just RMA it back to WD?

 Is there anything I can do to check the drive more thoroughly or even fix it?


*Important to note *- I have also changed my rig 2 times since then but have kept the same drive. Those same games have always had performance issues. Even with an i5 2500K and an HD 5870, exactly the same issues. I would say therefore it could be ATI drivers but so many other owners of the same ATI cards have no issues with the same games.

I also have a Corsair FORCE 3 SSD being delivered Monday so hopefully that should sort things out 

Cheers for any help.


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## scaminatrix (Jul 30, 2011)

I've had a fair few WD's die on me over the last 2-3 years. Unfortunately, I never used a program to check them (just did the standard full format when I first got it). The only symptopms that I had was a quiet clicking at first, to a louder clicking. A couple of the drives just "spun down" (if that's the correct terminology), and then started spinning up again. Mixed symptoms, basically.

My Samsungs, Maxtors and Seagates are all still fine though so it's not PSU (which is what I'd usually look at if so many HDD's die in my rig)

I would RMA it and say "keeps spinning down after random amounts of time, sometimes 6 hours, sometimes 2 days". This makes it hard for them to replicate the problem, so you should be sorted out quicker. Ebuyer are good with RMA's so they should help you out.
Personally, I'd recommend you migrate to HD103SJ's for a while - the reports of dead WD's are dwindling now so I won't say stop using them forever but I think you should switch HDD brands for a while.

But yea, what i'm saying is; I recommend RMA'ing it and ask if they can send you a HD103SJ instead


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## de.das.dude (Jul 30, 2011)

LifeOnMars said:


> I first purchased the drive back in November 2010 and I have had problems with stuttering in a select few games since that time. Unreal engine games, most open world games and generally the games that actually have to access the HDD a reasonable amount whilst in the game. Games that load the data into memory at the start of levels or between levels have always been pretty much flawless save for a bit of stuttering in the first 5 seconds.
> 
> Obviously I had suspicions it was the drive, however, everytime I have ran ChkDisk and HD Tune Pro for any error testing it has always passed without showing any errors.
> 
> ...




i have the same thing! i have a couple of bad sectors. my hdd is only 6 months old. i used to have stutters now an then, but recently they seem to have subsided.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 30, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> i have the same thing! i have a couple of bad sectors. my hdd is only 6 months old. i used to have stutters now an then, but recently they seem to have subsided.



I'll try a full format tonight I think and then see what happens. If it's still displaying the same symptoms I'll just get it replaced and use the replacement as a storage drive alongside the new SSD.

Ideally I want to keep the same drive as they are quick and Sata III which means I can then grab another, RAID them together and have an even quicker storage solution. Sounds like a plan.


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## jsfitz54 (Jul 30, 2011)

*Try using Western Digital's own software first:* http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=613&sid=3&lang=en

*On a side note:  All the Major HD makers have their own diagnostic programs...these should be used first over a third party application.

I am perplexed why this question comes up so often.*

Sometimes a complete reformat cleans up any errors.


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## scaminatrix (Jul 30, 2011)

LifeOnMars said:


> I'll try a full format tonight I think and then see what happens. If it's still displaying the same symptoms I'll just get it replaced and use the replacement as a storage drive alongside the new SSD.
> 
> Ideally I want to keep the same drive as they are quick and Sata III which means I can then grab another, RAID them together and have an even quicker storage solution. Sounds like a plan.



Try and sit with the rig for the whole format. Listen for any clicks or strange noises. Sometimes you won't even hear it spin down, but you'll hear it spin back up (and will make the HDD LED on your case turn off then on, etc.)

And SATA3 is no faster than SATA2 on HDD's  HDD's don't even max out SATA 2 bandwidth. It's better not to waste your money on SATA 3 HDD's IMO.


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## LifeOnMars (Jul 30, 2011)

scaminatrix said:


> Try and sit with the rig for the whole format. Listen for any clicks or strange noises. Sometimes you won't even hear it spin down, but you'll hear it spin back up (and will make the HDD LED on your case turn off then on, etc.)
> 
> *And SATA3 is no faster than SATA2 on HDD's  HDD's don't even max out SATA 2 bandwidth. *It's better not to waste your money on SATA 3 HDD's IMO.



Yeh I noes but my epeen god damn you  If i was to raid four of the bad boys though, surely I'm getting near the bandwidth then maybe  

@jsfitz54 : I get distracted by drooling over graphics cards,cases and processors. I have never really read up on hard drives and such. I've been looking at info on them more recently though, now I need to read up on SSD configuration seeing as I'm getting it Monday.


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## scaminatrix (Jul 30, 2011)

LifeOnMars said:


> Yeh I noes but my epeen god damn you  If i was to raid four of the bad boys though, surely I'm getting near the bandwidth then maybe  .



Nope, the SATA 2 bandwidth is on each port, not the controller as a whole  You would max it out if you were RAID'ing four of them through only one SATA port (if that's possible).
I used to be the same mate, I spent £80 on a 1TB WDCBlk just because it was SATA 3. I seriously regret it, as I could have got 2 1TB HD103SJ's for that and RAID'ed them 
And WDCBlk's are apparently unsuitable for RAID due to the TLER limit being set and locked at 7ms; RAID spec. requires an 8ms TLER IIRC.


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## jsfitz54 (Jul 30, 2011)

Re: TLER : Many ways to change that: http://www.google.com/search?q=wd+t...&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=

http://www.google.com/search?q=wd+t...&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=


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## scaminatrix (Jul 30, 2011)

jsfitz54 said:


> Re: TLER : Many ways to change that: http://www.google.com/search?q=wd+t...&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=
> 
> http://www.google.com/search?q=wd+t...&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=



It's apparently locked in the newer drives (like the SATA 3 one's). Probably WD's way of forcing you to buy their RAID Edition drives.

Yup, it is.



> Western Digital now claims that using the WDTLER.EXE tool on newer drives can damage the firmware and make the disk unusable. The WDTLER.EXE tool is no longer available from Western Digital, and *new disks will not be able to have the TLER setting changed.* RE disks are only suitable for RAID arrays and *Caviar are only suitable for non-RAID use.* The utility still works for older disks.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-Limited_Error_Recovery

They are deliberately making the newer Caviars unsuitable for RAID.

I've been following this issue for a while, and it's just been getting worse


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## de.das.dude (Jul 30, 2011)

i dont know if its possible but i just did a full scan using hd tune. it shows i dont have any bad sectors :O
im sure i saw atleast 3 190MB sections in red the last time!


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 30, 2011)

Have you tried another sata port?


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## robn (Jul 30, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> i dont know if its possible but i just did a full scan using hd tune. it shows i dont have any bad sectors :O
> im sure i saw atleast 3 190MB sections in red the last time!



Drive firmware has routines to auto hide bad sections, and swap out their space with some of the spare that exists on all drives. Has its benefits, but can also hide the fact that a disk's surface is going majorly bad.

Also bear in mind that SMART readings are vague, inaccurate and full of lies! I've come across too many near-dead disks (seems I'm everyone's friend from IT) that have a good level in SMART.


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## LifeOnMars (Aug 9, 2011)

Update - I ran a full format on the WD 640GB when I received my SSD. It seems to have done the trick and the drive is back to it's former glory and no clicking  I'm now using it as my games drive with the very sweet Corsair Force 3 SSD running my OS.

Here's an HD tune benchie on the WD 640GB now -


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## jsfitz54 (Aug 10, 2011)

I'm glad all is well!


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## twicksisted (Aug 10, 2011)

LifeOnMars said:


> Update - I ran a full format on the WD 640GB when I received my SSD. It seems to have done the trick and the drive is back to it's former glory and no clicking  I'm now using it as my games drive with the very sweet Corsair Force 3 SSD running my OS.
> 
> Here's an HD tune benchie on the WD 640GB now -
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110809/HD Tune WD 640GB Black.jpg



nice to hear you got the corsair force 3 drive... i bought the GT.
They just released a firmware update for them (check their forums for firmware 1.3)... as the force 3 & GT drives were causing random freezes and BSOD's. If you have any of these issues you should update as it seems to have fixed my problems

The firmware update is pretty easy on the corsair SSD and you dont lose any data when doing it


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## LifeOnMars (Aug 10, 2011)

twicksisted said:


> nice to hear you got the corsair force 3 drive... i bought the GT.
> They just released a firmware update for them (check their forums for firmware 1.3)... as the force 3 & GT drives were causing random freezes and BSOD's. If you have any of these issues you should update as it seems to have fixed my problems
> 
> The firmware update is pretty easy on the corsair SSD and you dont lose any data when doing it



Thanks for that mate, funnily enough I just noticed they had released a firmware update last night but I've been pondering or not whether to update. I haven't had any BSOD's or crashes but I've definitely lost performance. SSDLife states that Trim is enabled and I have also checked using the CMD prompt however performance has definitely gone down alot.

Currently the drive has got 35.8GB free on it and I don't really need anything else on it. When does TRIM actually do it's stuff?


EDIT - Just flashed to firmware 1.3, no issues but same speed results so I'm thinking of doing a secure erase with a fresh install of the OS. Doesn't take me long at all to be honest so it should be well worth doing, I'll update with results when I'm all done


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## Widjaja (Aug 10, 2011)

The CRC Error count is most commonly caused by a faulty SATA cable.
Not so common is the controller on the Hard drive itself.


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