Question 100% SSD Usage, tried tons of stuff, can't figure it out

[StevesSlowSSD]

Hi, I've got a patriot p200 that is about 3 years old. I'm running into a lot of issues with it going to 100% under load as light as installing a Steam game or playing League of Legends, no matter the settings, and randomly it freezes my computer entirely, causes it to run slow, etc I've tried so many online solutions, including reformatting which I just did to no avail. Attached are some images of my setup.

Should I just uninstall the SSD for now and try using the HDD and see if the issue persists?

Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Imgur: The magic of the Internet

I need new thermal paste as well as my CPU is idling at around 50c and it's dried, but I don't think that's causing this.

Thanks for any answers.

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

PSU: make, model, wattage, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Freezes: Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, or informational events just before or at the time of the experienced freezes.

 

[StevesSlowSSD]

Hi, I've got a patriot p200 that is about 3 years old. I'm running into a lot of issues with it going to 100% under load as light as installing a Steam game, and randomly it freezes my computer entirely, causes it to run slow, etc I've tried so many online solutions, including reformatting which I just did to no avail. Attached are some images of my setup.

Should I just uninstall the SSD for now and try using the HDD and see if the issue persists?

Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Imgur: The magic of the Internet

I need new thermal paste as well as my CPU is idling at around 50c and it's dried, but I don't think that's causing this.

Thanks for any answers.

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

PSU: make, model, wattage, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Freezes: Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, or informational events just before or at the time of the experienced freezes.

You can see my full system information in the second image
It's an EVGA 1000w Gold Certified PSU, came with the build
Patriot p200 1tb, I've formatted so it's got nothing on it
Imgur: The magic of the Internet - Error codes and warnings

 

[Ralston18]

Errors and Warnings:

Widen the Source column so that all can be seen.

 

[MWink64]

How full is the drive? When did the issue start? Was it abrupt or did it get progressively slower? How did you reformat it? Did you just have Windows (or its installer) format it or did you use a utility that performed a secure erase/sanitize/TRIM? I've encountered similar issues with a Crucial BX500 and the only solution was to periodically wipe it with a secure erase/sanitize/TRIM and then restore the data. It's possible this will help with your issue.

Just so you know, installing or updating Steam games can actually be an extremely heavy load. When installing a game, it pre-allocates all the space that will be used by the game. If a game will use 100GB, Steam will write 100GB to the drive before it starts downloading. Updates can also require re-writing large swaths of data. I've seen 10MB or so updates result in several GBs of drive writes. On the other hand, playing games should be mostly reads.

 

[StevesSlowSSD]

How full is the drive? When did the issue start? Was it abrupt or did it get progressively slower? How did you reformat it? Did you just have Windows (or its installer) format it or did you use a utility that performed a secure erase/sanitize/TRIM? I've encountered similar issues with a Crucial BX500 and the only solution was to periodically wipe it with a secure erase/sanitize/TRIM and then restore the data. It's possible this will help with your issue.

Just so you know, installing or updating Steam games can actually be an extremely heavy load. When installing a game, it pre-allocates all the space that will be used by the game. If a game will use 100GB, Steam will write 100GB to the drive before it starts downloading. Updates can also require re-writing large swaths of data. I've seen 10MB or so updates result in several GBs of drive writes. On the other hand, playing games should be mostly reads.

It's almost entirely empty minus the 2 games I'm benchmarking with, League of Legends and New World. It must have been progressive as I only noticed it a couple months ago in Valorant and maybe other games, but now its prevalent in almost any game I play except some very low load games. I had Windows format it without keeping any files. I do have a usb stick with a windows 10 install on it that I could use. I've trimmed the drive as well

 

[StevesSlowSSD]

Errors and Warnings:

Widen the Source column so that all can be seen.

Sorry, I installed the 2 games to my HDD to test them on that drive and had no issues, and now I don't see any of those specific errors in event viewer anymore.

 

[MWink64]

It's almost entirely empty minus the 2 games I'm benchmarking with, League of Legends and New World. It must have been progressive as I only noticed it a couple months ago in Valorant and maybe other games, but now its prevalent in almost any game I play except some very low load games. I had Windows format it without keeping any files. I do have a usb stick with a windows 10 install on it that I could use. I've trimmed the drive as well

With my drive, trimming the drive in Windows did not help at all. It was only when the entire drive was wiped that performance was restored. I don't know how savvy you are so I'm only going to recommend this option if you fully understand how to do it. Here are the steps I would take:

1. Make sure you have a working backup (on an external media) of ALL important data contained on all internal drives.
2. Download and install Macrium Reflect Free.
3. Use Macrium Reflect to make a bootable flash drive.
4. Boot to the flash drive.
5. Make a backup image of this drive (the whole drive. Make sure all partitions on it are selected.) to another drive (internal or external).
6. Restore the image back to this drive (make sure you select the correct target), making sure that the option to TRIM the entire drive is checked. (I forget exactly where it's located but I know Macrium Reflect has it.)
7. Reboot and see if performance has improved. Actually, it might be a good idea to leave the drive idle for a while, after completing the restore, so it has time to perform background tasks.

I can't guarantee this will work for you but it helps greatly with my Crucial BX500. The downside is that it has to be repeated when the performance inevitably degrades again.

If you are at all unsure how to perform this process, don't do it. A mistake could lead to significant data loss. If you do, and have questions or get stuck, just ask for help.

Come to think of it, before you go to all this trouble, why don't you run CrystalDiskInfo and post a screenshot of the SMART attributes for the drive. Just make sure to go to Function > Advanced Feature > Raw Values and set it to "10 [DEC]" so that we can actually read it.