Question 100% disk usage causing system to freeze ?

[Biocc]

Hello everyone!

Recently I've been having a weird issue where my disk would go to 100% usage for seemingly no reason and cause the entire system to be extremely slow or outright freeze. At this point, I've done everything I could think of short of reinstalling Windows. Specs below:

OS: Windows 10 Pro
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X
RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z5 Black RGB 32GB(2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000 @6000Mhz
MB: ASROCK B650 PG LIGHTNING
GPU: Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC
PSU: MSI MPG Gold A850GF
Storage:
Samsung 980 500GB NVMe (PCIe 3.0)
Kingston Fury Renegade NVMe 2TB (PCIe 4.0)
Kingston A400 Sata SSD 240GB
WD Blue 7200RPM 1TB HDD

The issue here is with the Samsung NVMe which has been working flawlessly for a few years now, this is a rather new build and I moved the drive over from my old PC. I recently purchased the Samsung NVMe and moved around the SSD slots a bit. Initially, the Samsung disk was in the motherboard's PCIe 5.0 slot, but when installing the new one, I moved it to the PCIe 3.0 slot, the new SSD in the PCIe 4.0 slot, with the idea to leave the PCIe 5.0 slot empty for a potential future upgrade. The issue started somewhere around this time though I'm not certain if that was the case right after installing the new SSD.

Anyway, at first I thought it could be the PCIe 3.0 slot, so I moved the Samsung drive back to the PCIe 5.0 slot which it was using initially and was working without issues, but this didn't resolve anything. The issue will be mostly present when botting up the PC. Right after boot, the disk will stay at 100% usage without any valid reason. Checking the resource monitor, I'm seeing some processes reading/writing up to ~200MB/s, however, this SSD should support up to 3.5GB/s.

What I've tried so far:

Updated Windows.
Triple-checked that the SSD is seated properly.
Changed from PCIe 3.0 to 5.0 slot.
Used Windows 10 SFC and DISM.
Scanned entire PC for malware.
Disabled Link state power management.
Enabled performance mode and overprovisioning for the SSD..
Enabled TRIM.
Optimized disk via Windows.
Used CHKDSK.
Checked drive health via CrystalDiskInfo and Samsung Magician, both report good.
Tried to update Firmware, already at latest version.
Ran SMART test which reports no issues.
Chipset drivers are up to date.
Bios is updated.

Yesterday, I went to create an archive containing some Nvidia drivers that I had at ~800MB each with the idea of then copying it on the same disk to look at the transfer rate. This resulted in a ridiculously long amount of time and I ended up stopping the archive. Though even after I stopped the process, the disk would remain at 100% and my system would eventually freeze, requiring several manual reboots before it could boot normally.

The only thing I'm seeing that I'm not really familiar with is that the Samsung drive is using Host memory buffer, I'm not sure if this was the case before, first time I'm seeing this via Samsung Magician.

When performing a performance benchmark via Samsung Magician, I am seeing ridiculously low write speeds for the drive:

For comparison, these are the benchmarks for my new Kingston NVME, as well as the Kingston Sata SSD that I've had for a while:

Here are some more screenshots of all drives from CrystalDiskInfo:

So basically, I'm stumped. Any help on the issue is greatly appreciated!

 

[Biocc]

Update:

Just did another test and somehow the write speed is even worse than before:

If the SSD was dying, wouldn't that be reported in the health status, and wouldn't the SMART test indicate issues as well?

Edit: Providing export from SMART data as well:

Model Name, Samsung SSD 980 500GB Serial Number, S64DNF0R532805X Drive Type, NVMe Result,Byte End,Byte Start,Description,Raw Data,Status ,0,0,Critical Warning,0,OK ,2,1,Temperature (K),310,OK ,3,3,Available Spare,100,OK ,4,4,Available Spare Threshold,10,OK ,5,5,Percentage Used,4,OK ,47,32,Data Units Read,34298125,OK ,63,48,Data Units Written,36032964,OK ,79,64,Host Read Commands,322552101,OK ,95,80,Host Write Commands,384896232,OK ,111,96,Controller Busy Time,1031,OK ,127,112,Power Cycles,883,OK ,143,128,Power On Hours,5601,OK ,159,144,Unsafe Shutdowns,45,OK ,175,160,Media Errors,14,OK ,191,176,Number of Error Information Log Entries,14,OK ,195,192,Warning Composite Temperature Time,0,OK ,199,196,Critical Composite Temperature Time,0,OK ,201,200,Temperature Sensor 1,310,OK ,203,202,Temperature Sensor 2,315,OK ,205,204,Temperature Sensor 3,0,OK ,207,206,Temperature Sensor 4,0,OK ,209,208,Temperature Sensor 5,0,OK ,211,210,Temperature Sensor 6,0,OK ,213,212,Temperature Sensor 7,0,OK ,215,214,Temperature Sensor 8,0,OK

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?
and Performance Monitor - disk section (disk activity part ordered by column Total).

 

[Biocc]

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?
and Performance Monitor - disk section (disk activity part ordered by column Total).

Hi there! Sure thing, screenshot of disk management below:

As for the Resource Monitor, there was nothing going on with that disk at the moment, so I started another benchmark via Samsung Magician. Providing screenshots of Resource Monitor sorted by Total during both read and write tests, as well as benchmark results showing 52MB/s sequential write:

Edit: Just rebooted the system and disabled performance mode, providing another screenshot. There's not much going on at the time of the screenshot, yet the disk is at 34%. This should support 3GB/s read and 3.5GB/s write so what I'm seeing here doesn't match with those speeds at all:

Edit 2: And here's some more while downloading a Windows update:

 

[Biocc]

Ok so, strangely enough, I downloaded a Windows update which was quite painful considering the last reported write speeds and after reboot, I ran another benchmark and write speed is now up to 2GB:

Not sure what the deal was. Based on the review here:

Samsung 980 M.2 NVMe SSD Review: Going DRAMless with V6 V-NAND (Updated)

Samsung’s 980 is an inexpensive M.2 SSD that lacks DRAM, but it packs the company’s fastest flash yet.

www.tomshardware.com

I believe I'm somewhat in the correct range. Will continue monitoring and report back if any issues come, but so far so good.

On another note, would someone be kind enough to let me know how many NVMe SSDs I can use on my motherboard?

https://pg.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B650%20PG%20Lightning/index.asp

This is listed under Storage specs:

Storage
CPU:
- 1 x Blazing M.2 Socket (M2_1, Key M), supports type 2280 PCIe Gen5x4 (128 Gb/s) mode*
- 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_2, Key M), supports type 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) mode*
Chipset:
- 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_3, Key M), supports type 2280 PCIe Gen4x2 (32 Gb/s) mode*
- 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors

To my understanding, I can have up to 3 NVMe SSDs, with the slowest being up to 32GB/s?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Ok so, strangely enough, I downloaded a Windows update which was quite painful considering the last reported write speeds and after reboot, I ran another benchmark and write speed is now up to 2GB:

Windows update was downloading/installing updates, system restrore point was being created.
Any benchmarks during that time will have significantly lowered scores.

Those drive activity screenshots during benchmark are useless.
I wanted to see disk activity screenshots during 100% utilization, when you didn't know, what's causing high disk activity.
If you're doing a disk benchmark, then benchmark is causing the activity. Obviously.

In one screenshot you had chrome/chrome extentions doing a lot of disk activity. May want to uninstall some extensions.

BTW - you may also want to move pagefile to a different drive than OS drive.

 

[Biocc]

Yes, but Windows downloading an update and creating a restore point should not render the entire system barely responsive. I wasn't able to recreate the issue on boot this time, which is why I posted screenshots during operations. Point being, the speeds that max out the SSD and render the system completely useless were far below the specs of the SSD.

For example, after the download, during the Windows update install, I barely opened Chrome. So I'm not sure what caused this and how the Windows update resolved it.

Also, thanks for pointing out the page file, I'll look into moving it on another drive. Cheers!

 

[Biocc]

Ok, it seems like I spoke too soon. Issue is back, the PC had just been standing idle the entire time. Now write speed tops at 215MB/s.

I did move the page file to the new NVMe as suggested.

Tried to take a screenshot of resource monitor after rebooting. Although the PC did boot fast and I did not experience any freezing, the resource monitor screen I was able to capture still shows 16% usage, while the top read/write processes aren't even reaching 50MB:

If the proper write speed is 2GB/s, then the processes seen in the screenshot above should not even come close to that percentage.

Any suggestions?

 

[Biocc]

So today, I can't seem to even start the PC properly. Booting to Windows took about 10 minutes, another 10 to open task manager and resource monitor, but I couldn't take a screenshot, had to take photos with my phone. (Sorry for the poor quality)

The system is currently reading/writing kilobytes of data and the disk is at 100% active time all of the time, making simple tasks such as opening the start menu nearly impossible.

Any ideas?

 

[SkyNetRising]

System Restore point is being created.
Microsoft Edge Update running.

That screenshot is very blurry. My eyes hurt, trying to read it.

 

[Biocc]

I know, it's all I could do at the time. I can see the processes, but the top process is running 180,000 bytes which is nothing for an SSD. When I booted up the PC the disk was stuck at 100% active time for 30 minutes, during which I couldn't do anything.

I waited 5-10 minutes before I could open the task manager and resource monitor.

Anyway, I ended up using System reset and everything appears to be working properly for the moment. I created a restore point right after the reset as well in case any issues arise.

I will update here in case I happen to figure out what caused the issue or if it comes back again.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I ended up using System reset and everything appears to be working properly for the moment. I created a restore point right after the reset as well in case any issues arise.

Expect windows updates to launch again and cause high drive activity.

 

[Biocc]

I may try to apply the updates again and see if this will cause any issues with the drive's write speed. Will provide more info here when available.

 

[Biocc]

An update some days later. I ended up reinstalling Windows 10 completely and formatted the Samsung 980 NVME, worked without any issues for 2-3 days. This morning, starting up took about 5 minutes, then the PC was almost unresponsive for about 30 minutes while disk usage subsided.

I'm now at a complete loss. Benchmark for this disk again shows 215MB/s sequential write speed. I tried reinstalling the NVME Express Controllers, can confirm disk is 4k aligned. Uninstalled Windows updates, even though I did install all of them right after the Windows reinstall. Ran more SMART tests and stuff and they aren't reporting any issues.

Basically, I'm not aware of anything being changed on the system in terms of drivers and such as everything necessary was installed right after the Windows reinstall and it continued working properly for a couple of days after.

There is a BIOS update available and I plan on doing that, even though update notes have no mention of anything related.

What could be the cause of this? If the SSD was bad, why would it even work properly after reinstalling Windows?

 

[Biocc]

Just updated the BIOS to latest version. Still getting 215MB/s write speed like something's stopping it from going up.

Set PCIe M.2.2 and M.2.1 to PCIe5 and PCIe4 just to test, still nothing.

Ran more tests and none of them are showing any issues.

Double-checked all drives for malware using Malwarebytes, everything's clean.

What I've also found is that despite the initial slowness, Windows will continue to run normally and will also reboot quickly. When I shut down the PC for the night and boot it up again in the morning is when the issue happens. Could it be something related to different power states?

 

[Biocc]

As a test, I created a 6GB archive and started copying it around different drives. When copying it to/from the affected drive, the speed starts off at 2-3GB/s and then instantly drops to 100-200/s. Half of the archive is already copied at this point and I have to wait for the remaining data.

This is regardless of whether I'm copying data to/from the system partition or not.

Testing this with the new NVME, everything is lightning fast at almost 5GB/s without any drops.

I'm not just looking at the numbers here, if that were the case I wouldn't have noticed in the first place. It's that my system is unresponsive for 30 minutes at a time which led me to investigating this. I don't think having a few apps such as Steam, Discord, and Spotify launch on startup can cause the system to be half-frozen for half an hour under normal circumstances. Even with Windows update and other system processes running this is not normal behavior.

 

[Biocc]

Just a thought, could I be maxing out my PCIe bandwidth? As I'm fairly certain that the issue started around the time I installed the new NVMe. Though I don't understand enough to know if that's the case or not.

 

[Spare-rib]

@Biocc, I'm sorry to read about your problems, that sucks bigtime.
Unfortunately I have the exact same problem, being it that in my case I did not make any changes on the HW side lately that could contribute to the problem. So in that sense, it might very well be that your HW shuffling did not cause this problem at all!

I am running two M2 drives, a Samsung 980Pro as boot disk and a Kingston SNV2S2000G as data disk. About 3-4 days ago I suddenly experienced problems with booting up and often needed 2 or 3 power cycles before I could boot windows (10). Further investigating showed that my data disk was constantly at 100% usage, but still only able to push a few kilobytes of data through...

It all sounds very similar to your problem and unfortunately I have not figured out the problem yet. Since I barely use the PC other than running a single (already installed) game, there is very little that is changing on my PC that could cause this problem. Right now the only thing I have left to suspect is Windows update...

I hope this information may help you narrow down your own problems and in case you happen to have figured out the rootcause I'm more than happy to hear about it! Meanwhile I'll continue to debug this issue as well

 

[Spare-rib]

I think I found the solution to my problems! In my case the issue seems to be caused by some windows update package gone wrong... Why this is causing this massive performance impact is still something I cannot understand, however the solution for me was found in this page:

Dism and SFC

An open-source wiki for r/TechSupport

rtech.support

So basically, I have run some windows diagnostics by first running DISM and then SFC to repair itself and that fixes the problem for me (at least until now ;-) ).

 

[Biocc]

@Spare-rib

Hey! Thanks for letting me know. My issue did get sorted after some time though I'm still not sure what caused it or what exactly solved it.

I did perform several windows reinstalls, with the disk working properly for a day or two after each reinstall. Eventually, I wiped the SSD completely via BIOS. I think the option was sanitization but this nay vary depending on the MB manufacturer.

Seems like the combination of wipes and reinstalls resolved it, but I'm not sure what it was that did, unfortunately.

Still, I'm glad to know that your issue was solved as well!