5 months old SSD hot at 63º average and only 78% health

[newtekie1]

Uploading doesn't use the SSD, that would be reads not writes. Only the writes wear the drive.

What laptop is this exactly? Perhaps there is space for a second SSD that you can install that you can dedicate to your downloads to save wear and space on your main system SSD. Or just put in a bigger SSD if it doesn't have space for a second drive. HPs usually have pretty good service manuals that make it really easy to open them up.

 

[Regeneration]

Yeah, but setting offset isn't a real modification. That screenshot you just posted reveals the real problem.



"Media and Data Integrity Errors" is too damn high. Something is defective with that SSD and it needs to be replaced.

 

[newtekie1]

Yeah, but setting offset isn't a real modification. That screenshot you just posted reveals the real problem.

"Media and Data Integrity Errors" is too damn high. Something is defective with that SSD and it needs to be replaced.

HD Sentinel is interpreting that value wrong. The other programs that show the smart data show that the raw value for that field is 0, I'm not sure why HD Sentinel is showing a crazy high value. That's not even a realistic number...

 

[Ahhzz]

HD Sentinel is interpreting that value wrong. The other programs that show the smart data show that the raw value for that field is 0, I'm not sure why HD Sentinel is showing a crazy high value. That's not even a realistic number...

I have seen HD Sentinel show some odd values on SSD drives. I recommend using the manufacturer's software for SSD/NVMe drives.

 

[qwak]

HD Sentinel is interpreting that value wrong. The other programs that show the smart data show that the raw value for that field is 0, I'm not sure why HD Sentinel is showing a crazy high value. That's not even a realistic number...

This is AIDA64 SMART test

It's probably the SSD defective anyway, it's acting weird from the beginning and the fan running fast for no reason in the Task Manager, is there any way to check if it is the SSD or the motherboard? As long as it was to replace the SSD I would assume it happily as I have the oher one EVO 860 and Amazon still offers repair and refund but just to know.

What laptop is this exactly?

The laptop is a HP 15-db0045ns. I really don't need more space, I just have lots of videos that I dont need to keep at all.

 

[thesmokingman]

It's probably the SSD defective anyway, it's acting weird from the beginning and the fan running fast for no reason in the Task Manager, is there any way to check if it is the SSD or the motherboard?

There is no fan on the SSD.

 

[qwak]

There is no fan on the SSD.

So what is this terrible noise that happens all the time sounding like a fan? Even the CPU temperature goes high while the noise...

 

[Regeneration]

I looked at all the screenshots you posted. It is normal for that SSD to operate up to 70c.

Don't see any technical problem. Maybe, you just download alot and generate a lot of writes.

 

[qwak]

I looked at all the screenshots you posted. It is normal for that SSD to operate up to 70c.

Don't see any technical problem. Maybe, you just download alot and generate a lot of writes.

I have sent an email to the maker (I didnt know that brand SK) if they reply I will inform here in case it might be of help for future users. THANKS!!!!

 

[Aquinus]

Look folks, even in a laptop, an NVMe SSD isn't going to usually get that toasty unless the SSD is actively being written to. I have an NVMe in my HP Spectre and when it's just idling, the NVMe temps aren't even above 30 degrees. It sounds like something on the OP's machine is just doing a ton of writing. This doesn't sound like an issue with the drive, but rather something with the software running on the OP's laptop. For example, my NVMe's temp on my laptop is only 25.9*C on sensor 1 and 26.9*C on sensor two. Then if I got to my tower (which has been turned on all day,) the NVMe drive there is 32.9*C on sensor 1 and 39.9*C on sensor two (with no heatsink or active cooling.)

I wouldn't be surprised if the OP has some malicious software that's using his disk for who knows what. I'd suggest looking at what's actively doing any I/O while the machine is on and start from there.

 

[R0H1T]

Just for clarity, that's like writing about 60GB every single day for 5 months.

Not really, I'm doing a TB write every 2-3 weeks on a recent TLC drive, if it was MLC I'd be less conservative & probably do 2x of that. As for the OP's usage, it's likely due to the downloads which exaggerates a lot of writes e.g. with a download manager. They download at a separate location, in parts, & then combine these to save them generally in the downloads directory. Just speculating here but I do know, from experience, that constant downloads will keep a drive hot for an extended period of time!

I wouldn't be surprised if the OP has some malicious software that's using his disk for who knows what. I'd suggest looking at what's actively doing any I/O while the machine is on and start from there.

Yes could be, but I'm betting it's something to do with the downloads maybe he can reveal what & where he's downloading from ~ if he wants to? There's also process hacker or any other utility he can use to check what program is doing the most writes.

 

[newtekie1]

So what is this terrible noise that happens all the time sounding like a fan? Even the CPU temperature goes high while the noise...

The CPU fan...

Not really, I'm doing a TB write every 2-3 weeks on a recent TLC drive, if it was MLC I'd be less conservative & probably do 2x of that. As for the OP's usage, it's likely due to the downloads which exaggerates a lot of writes e.g. with a download manager. They download at a separate location, in parts, & then combine these to save them generally in the downloads directory. Just speculating here but I do know, from experience, that constant downloads will keep a drive hot for an extended period of time!

Plus considering the computer has been powered down, put to sleep, or hibernated 564 times. Every time the hiberfile.sys file is written with the entire contents of the system RAM and video RAM, that could easily be 4-5TB written right there. Plus he said he's done clean installs of Windows multiple times over the last 5 months, thats probably another 1TB or more when you consider all the updates and crap that gets re-installed every time.

I think the 10TB written isn't unrealistic given what we know about the OP's use of the drive over the past 5 months.

 

[qwak]

Look folks, even in a laptop, an NVMe SSD isn't going to usually get that toasty unless the SSD is actively being written to. I have an NVMe in my HP Spectre and when it's just idling, the NVMe temps aren't even above 30 degrees. It sounds like something on the OP's machine is just doing a ton of writing. This doesn't sound like an issue with the drive, but rather something with the software running on the OP's laptop. For example, my NVMe's temp on my laptop is only 25.9*C on sensor 1 and 26.9*C on sensor two. Then if I got to my tower (which has been turned on all day,) the NVMe drive there is 32.9*C on sensor 1 and 39.9*C on sensor two (with no heatsink or active cooling.)

I wouldn't be surprised if the OP has some malicious software that's using his disk for who knows what. I'd suggest looking at what's actively doing any I/O while the machine is on and start from there.

This you mean?

I don't do much special about the downloads. As I said, I get videos, music, software or games, by uTorrent or eMule, but the day by day is movies from download sites such as the ones below, very popular ones (in Spain). Movies now a days can be very big sized.

MANY THANKS.

* Concerning possible malicious software I always install FormatFactory for editing audio, video, etc, and not long ago I had a very bad experience as it installed a form of fake Chromium that was impossible to uninstall and had to reset Windows to get rid of it. I'll be taking a look. It's very good free software but dangerous for the malware.

 

[Aquinus]

Plus considering the computer has been powered down, put to sleep, or hibernated 564 times. Every time the hiberfile.sys file is written with the entire contents of the system RAM and video RAM, that could easily be 4-5TB written right there.

The screenshot the OP provided makes me think that you might be right about this one, but I'm still a little skeptical. Normally a machine doesn't suspend to disk unless the battery is practically dead, otherwise modern laptops typically go to sleep. Even my HP Spectre right now has its lid closed, is asleep, but it's not suspended to disk, and it can be this way for a week and only lose maybe 10% charge. Even if the OP is letting the battery die every day, that's only 12-16GB to write to disk, assuming it's not compressed. That's still a lot less than the 60GB a day that would be required to go from practically nothing to 10TB of writes in a 5 month timespan.

What you're saying makes total sense, but the numbers seem to indicate that a whole lot more is going on if that's actually the case.

 

[newtekie1]

Normally a machine doesn't suspend to disk unless the battery is practically dead, otherwise modern laptops typically go to sleep.

The default power plan for most laptops has Hybrid Sleep enabled. This means when it goes to sleep it still writes the hiberfile.sys file. It does this so that if the battery goes completely dead when it is asleep, it can still wake up from hibernation and pick up right where the user left off. So, effectively, every time you are putting it to sleep you are writing to the disk like you are hibernating it too.

As to how much data can be written to a drive in a short amount of time, I bought a 1TB XPG 8200 Pro back in late November, a little less than 6 months ago. It is used as my download drive for..."things"...and it currently has 53TB total writes. So, yeah, doing those things can definitely rack up the writes.

 

[qwak]

Is it normal to have an average of 35 GB writes and 243 GB reads per day?? I sware I just downloaded some videos not so big at all, 2-5 GB average.

Oh and the maker SK Hynix replied my email saying they only give technical support if you buy the disks, not a laptop with their disks.

Thank you for reaching out to SK Hynix support team.

Please be kindly advised that this support page will only provide a solution for a retail customer who purchased SK Hynix SSD drive.
According to the product details of your PC, it has been developed by the use of PC manufacturing company.
We recommend you contact the PC manufacturers’ customer service to get detailed information.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you.

Best regards,
SK Hynix support team.

 

[Vya Domus]

Sounds faulty, I had an ADATA drive that behaved similarly.

 

[qwak]

Sounds faulty, I had an ADATA drive that behaved similarly.

Yes, but can I claim for a replacement when the range of normal temperature is up to 70º and it's usually stable at 63º?

 

[gojinii]

If you haven't yet claim for replacement or were not able to claim for it, you can at least try setting your power option to balanced or lower down your minimum processor state to 5%?. That's what I did to get my Kingston 2.5 inch SSD to idle at sub 40C from above 50C.

Although, I did update my BIOS, install intel rapid storage, intel inf and intel management engine before that. But I didn't see any major improvement only until I change the power settings.

 

[newtekie1]

Is it normal to have an average of 35 GB writes and 243 GB reads per day?? I sware I just downloaded some videos not so big at all, 2-5 GB average.

Yep, totally normal bittorrent behavior. I assume you're seeding those movies too.

 

[qwak]

So I emptied the disk quite much and the temperature remains stable around 63º and the health has lost one more point being now only 77%.

Emptying it didn't help.

Is it easy to switch the hard disks so I could use the quite new EVO 860 from my older laptop instead (which I don't use anymore)?

Do you know any tutorial to do so? I would need to switch them and I guess I need to extract them and install a fresh Windows but have no clue how to do it.

Many thanks.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Yep, totally normal bittorrent behavior. I assume you're seeding those movies too.

Reading data doesn't put any strain on the flash.

 

[newtekie1]

So I emptied the disk quite much and the temperature remains stable around 63º and the health has lost one more point being now only 77%.

Emptying it didn't help.

Emptying the drive will not bring back health, the damage is done. Emptying the drive will only slow the wear moving forward.

Reading data doesn't put any strain on the flash.

Every read results in a write to the drive. So, yes, it does.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Every read results in a write to the drive. So, yes, it does.

Sorry, what? That's not how flash memory works, but ok...
Only P/E cycles would cause degradation of the physical flash.
Sure, read operation can, in a worst case scenario, cause data degradation or in extreme cases loss of data retention, but it doesn't affect the cells in the flash in a negative way until they're erased again.

 

[Aquinus]

Sorry, what? That's not how flash memory works, but ok...
Only P/E cycles would cause degradation of the physical flash.
Sure, read operation can, in a worst case scenario, cause data degradation or in extreme cases loss of data retention, but it doesn't affect the cells in the flash in a negative way until they're erased again.

On Linux, access times are stored in the file system, but I would like to emphasize that this is a very small amount of data, even at scale, so I wouldn't even consider that a substantial source of disk writes.