Examining a potentially malfunctioning NVMe SSD
Examining a potentially malfunctioning NVMe SSD
Hello everyone Last month I faced some strange problems that made me suspect my SSD was failing. My system runs a Gigabyte B365M DS3H with an i5 9600K (non-overclocked), 16GB DDR4 2666Mhz, a PNY GTX 1660 SUPER, a traditional mechanical drive, and a Kingston KC2000 250GB. It's powered by a 500W Corsair PSU. The issue started one evening when the computer froze, followed by a BSOD after about 20 seconds. After restarting, my NVMe SSD disappeared from the UEFI. I had to shut down and restart the PC to access my operating system. Data loss occurred, some programs became corrupted, and Windows couldn't delete them because they were unreadable. This happened multiple times that evening, so I decided to wipe everything clean. The next day I did a full format and reinstalled Windows. It worked well for almost two weeks until it began crashing again—this time without data loss or noticeable issues. Since then, it crashes especially when cold, about five minutes after powering on. I experience a crash, shut it down, restart, and it recovers until I finish using it. CrystalDiskInfo shows the SSD health at 95%, but the "Media and Data integrity errors" metric keeps rising (currently 73732). I considered replacing it, but wanted to rule out other causes first. For reference, my activity LED flashes steadily for about three-quarters of the freezing periods, then stays on until a BSOD appears. Is there a high chance the SSD is bad, or could another part like the PSU be responsible? Thanks!
If I were running those tests, I’d think the SSD is likely the culprit. The other possibilities would be the Mobo or CPU, both of which are trickier to fix and cost more. With a 1TB drive available for around $50 right now, it seems like a solid next step.
I once had a computer struggling with its hard drive connection, which turned out to be caused by a failing motherboard chipset. This made me reflect on my motherboard, but so far everything seems managed by the NVMe interface. I’m not sure if this is useful since both PCI-e lanes are present, and my graphics card works fine. Still, it might be the SSD issue—this kind of faulty behavior is similar to what you get with SSDs. I plan to try replacing one to see if it resolves the problem, hoping it’s the right fix. Thanks!