SSD Puzzle

[Ed P]

SSD played up causing WHEA_Uncorrectable_Errors on file writes (normally hardware or partition or file cross links are cause). Not possible to correct with chkdsk/r. Errors were still present after a completely fresh reinstall (SSD  partitions removed and Win10 reinstalled from USB).

Drive swapped with same size 120Gb  cheap spare and system now gives zero issues.

Before chucking drive (SK Hynix – a good brand name) , I ran their toolbox drive manager, this showed no real write error issues, a good SMART, and no over-provisioning issues. The drive manager software seems to be a good generic tester (https://ssd.skhynix.com/download) but now I wonder!

Any suggestions on alternate tests or should I just bin the drive?

[keith with the teef]

Not to sure but doesn’t crystal disc check for error.

[Dave Rice]

Every SSD I’ve had fail (not many and none for a good while) is an obvious bin job so I’ve not had to do this. I do use HDD Scan for generic testing of HDDs and it supports SSDs too, but to what extent I don’t know. Free and worth a go.

[Ed P]

It still looks good, I am now wondering if it was heat and dust build up in the case, (out of habit I air can any electronics I dissemble). Maybe I need to add a bit of auxiliary cooling to the Vivomini to cater for its fairly demanding duty of running four security cameras.

[Dave Rice]

I’ve just been building a couple of PN50’s (I love them) and one had a dodgy HDMI port so had to go back. I wasn’t sure if it was the cable or the port, so once I’d got a stable picture I did install W10 and all the software.

Once I realised it was the port, I immediately disassembled it to put the M2 drive into the other and boy was that hot! I also get regular warnings from Syspectr on clients PCs about SSDs getting toasty, and that’s in normal sized cases. Might be worth installing it as you can have a remote peek at the temps when it’s fully loaded.

You should be able to set the fan profile to a more aggressive setting in the BIOS, but if it’s regularly 100% probably not much point.

[JayCeeDee]

The MSI B560M board that I’ve been looking at has something called “M.2 Shield FROZR” which it says provides “Cooling your NVMe SSD delays throttling which results in higher overall performance. Part of the motherboards heatsink design which helps avoid SSD throttling by offering the best thermal protection.”

It seems that NVMe performance comes with a side dish of heat, but at least they are dealing with it.

[Ed P]

Thanks guys – if you take a look at the Vivomini hardware you will see that it is a ‘compromise’ between size, processing power and noise (it would have been better with a Ryzen cpu!). I suspect that heat came off second best and it really was not the best choice for its primary security camera duty. However I also had to comprehend SWMBO’s views!

[Ed P]

I’ve now ordered a TECKNET Laptop and Notebook Cooling Pad to sit under the Vivomini. Time will tell if this cures the problem, but with winter on its way I probably will not be able to tell for 8 months or so!

 

 

[JayCeeDee]

Having done a bit of follow up research, it appears that they do a variety of heatsinks for M2.NVMe’s, passive active and exotic!!! HERE and HERE and HERE.

[Ed P]

Thanks, I’ll certainly book mark your NVMe cooler suggestions for my main rig. I’ll confess that I never thought of cooling them!

[JayCeeDee]

Ed P wrote:

Thanks, I’ll certainly book mark your NVMe cooler suggestions for my main rig. I’ll confess that I never thought of cooling them!

Me either!! It was only when Dave said how hot they got that I even considered them as needing it.

[Boris]

Found this interesting – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVvFoX45bOw (13 minutes)

Where he says that you need to cool the controller, but not the NAND ?

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[Dave Rice]

MSI games orientated motherboards, like the Mortar, include a heatsink. As do some of the faster M2’s, but I forget which ones!

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Thats a Windows Hardware Error Architecture bug check and it normally relates to core hardware like memory or CPU.

One popular cause is an over heating CPU having its thermal warning triggered and sending a message to Windows, which then shuts down the system to protect data.

So you may well be right about the heat.

One other thing. The thermal warning feature came in with 6th Gen Core i CPU’s

[Ed P]

I fingered the SSD because the error always took place during a file write operation, but I guess the CPU may also have been involved. It is all a bit moot now however, as since blowing out accumulated dust and adding the external cooling everything has run just the way it should.

Its perhaps a warning that Mini PC boxes do not have a lot of leeway when it comes to dust and heat.

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